First-Year Seminar (101-6-20)

Topic

Black Women's Fiction

Instructors

Nicole Adeyinka Spigner

Meeting Info

University Hall 312: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

Thanks to the 1980s and 90s, Black women writers have become well known in popular US culture. Specifically, Toni Morrison's historical Nobel Prize in Literature (1993), the adaptations of novels by Alice Walker, Toni Cade Bambara, and Zora Neale Hurston into film, and the advent of Oprah Winfrey's book club mark moments where Black women's fiction moved out of the margins of popular reading culture. Moreover, while these works became best known at the end of the twentieth century, there is a much longer literary history attributed to Black women writing very layered, intriguing, and beautifully-written fiction, both short and long.

In January 2020, Time said this of Zora Neale Hurston's short fiction, most of which was written in the 1940s: "Hurston's short fiction is ripe with imagery and narratives that blend the real and the idyllic, the whimsical and the serious, the natural and the cultural." Known best for her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston also produced several short stories. This course will explore the long tradition of Black women's fiction, beginning in the nineteenth century and ending in the present moment, primarily through the short story genre.

In this class, we will survey a wide range of Anglophone Black Diaspora women authors and primarily concentrate on those from the US. We will interrogate themes, symbols, and forms in short fiction works that extend across the Black Femme/Feminine Literary tradition. We will ask how these authors similarly and differently explore Black feminine identity as it intersects at the juncture of unique social, economic, and sexual contexts. What are the unique issues of Black womanhood that they explore? Of what do they attend, outside of Black womanhood? Our authors will include at least Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, and Edwidge Danticat. Assignments will include, at least: regular online discussions, in-class discussion leading, and an individual final project.

Students will be evaluated on their performance in these assignments as well as class attendance and participation. This seminar depends on discussion and participation of every member of the class. Come to class ready to enthusiastically address issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality.

Class Attributes

WCAS First-Year Seminar

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Reserved for First Year & Sophomore only