ENGL 260 - Black Humor and Irony: Modern Literary Experiments

FC ARHU CD WINT

4 credits
African American humor has traditionally not received consistent, substantive academic study. But the many anthologies of folk humor and the visibility of stand-up comedy invite us to examine the presence and rhetorical role of humor, comedy, and irony in African American literature. This course centers on a representative group of modern black humorists and explores various approaches (functional, structural, and cultural) for interpreting their works. Authors will include Chesnutt, Hurston, Hughes, Ellison, and Reed.

Prerequisites: one course with the WINT attribute.