Black Women Writers (379-0-20)

Instructors

Tracy Vaughn
8474913725
1860 Campus Dr Crowe 5-103

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 215: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

From Lucy Terry's poem "Bars Fight" (1746) -the first known African American literary product--to the present, black women have directly and indirectly influenced African American literary production. Virtually every major literary prize has gone to an African American woman writer at least once. Others have published bestsellers that did not obtain prizes but did make them rich and (at least briefly) famous. Regardless, each of the writers we will read this quarter are fiercely individual, unique, complex and from a broad range of backgrounds and cultures. Yet, as black women writers, they possess the distinct ability to, according to Claudia Tate, "make us profoundly conscious of what harms, degrades, denies development, destroys; of how much is unrealized, unlived; instead of ‘oppressed victims,' the ways of resistance [and] resilience."

This seminar will be an intensive, multi-genred examination of the ways in which writers such as Toni Morrison and Tara Stringfellow; Lynn Nottage and Suzan-Lori Parks; Toni Cade Bambara and Z.Z Packer; and poets from Phyllis Wheatley to Lucille Clifton and Natasha Trethewey have directed the trajectories of African American women's literature. Additionally, we will consider the factors and figures influential in the reception of their works.

Learning Objectives

Students will learn how to read closely and critically; how to develop a distinctive voice in their writing; and how to become confident in asking questions and framing persuasive answers. Some of the main questions with which we will grapple are: how does being both black and female situate a particular vantage point in their work; who is their audience; what are the characteristics of a black heroine; and how does she differ from her fictionalized Western Euro-centric counterparts?

Class Materials (Required)

Toni Cade Bambara's Gorilla, My Love

Lucille Clifton's Good Women…

Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

ZZ Packer's Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Natasha Trethewey's Domestic Work

Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel

Tara Stringfellow's Memphis

Class Attributes

Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area