ENGL 384 - Slave Narrative and the Novel

4 HU, CD, WR
First Semester. This course focuses on one of the first genres African American writers used to represent their perspectives – the slave narrative – and examines how it can serve as a foundation for narrative and authorship into the twentieth century. We will consider the narratives’ use of realism, rhetorical methods by which authors position themselves as witnesses to history and claim moral authority, the phenomena of memory and self-reflexivity, and relations among literacy, oral culture, and freedom. And we will examine how modern writers re-visit social and philosophical problems left in tension in the literature of slavery. American, Diversity, 1700-1900 OR Post-1900 (not both).

Prerequisites & Notes
Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25.
Ms. Johns

Credits: 4 hours