The Politics of African American Literature from the 19th through mid-20th Centuries (October 24)
A vigorous debate occurred among and between African American writers on whether the literature they
produce should be a propaganda tool that resists oppression and educates and advances the condition of
the black masses; or whether it should primarily be an individual expression of self that reflects an
author’s personal perception of the reality – “ugly and beautiful” in the words of Langston Hughes – of
life and living as a black American? This team will report on “Criteria for Negro Art” and “Two Novels”
by W.E.B. DuBois; “The Negro-Art Hokum” by George Samuel Schuyler; “Characteristics of Negro
Expression” by Zora Neale Hurston; “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” by Langston Hughes;
African American Literature/Topics in Black Literature Fall 2015 Syllabus page 4
“Preface” to The Book of American Negro Poetry by James Weldon Johnson; “Blueprint for Negro
Writing” by Richard Wright; and/or other approved selections written in the 18th, 19th and early 20th
centuries.
Last Completed Projects
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