ICS 290D/ENG 345R Dr. Kathleen Ward

Winter 2005 MFB 206

Welcome to our study of Black America. This is a course devoted to the study of African American literary and cultural texts. Such a study will be both challenging and rewarding as it invites us to consider (and reconsider) the many ways African Americans perceive themselves, their history, and their culture. We will also learn of the ongoing dynamics of race relations in the United States and of the considerable influence of Black America on the broad sweep of American life.

Course Requirements

Responsible attendance and punctuality
High levels of preparation and participation
Notebook: one entry each week, 300-400 words per entry Occasionally entries will be assigned. Most will be up to you. Your writing should include critical analysis as well as personal responses to the reading and discussions. Some writing possibilities (meant to stir not limit your thinking): 1) Critique a reading by isolating one or two points or ideas you find particularly illuminating, either for what they convey, or seem to convey, about African American culture, or for their relationship to the critical/theoretical ideas discussed (or not discussed), or for how they relate (or do not relate) to your own experience. 2) Critique a class discussion, responding to either its content or the dynamics of the discussion. 3) Comment on a writer’s craft, the way she or he writes and how effective you find it. 4) Discuss media representations you have observed of African American culture and consider the reasons for and effects of those representations. Consider also: who is doing the representing and for whom? 5) Grapple with the complexities of race relations. 6) Discuss related matters of your own choosing.	100pts.
Three narrative essays	100
Culture Presentation/Group Collaboration	50 pts.
Annotated Bibliography	20 pts.
Internet searches	ungraded
Readings: Activities/Quizzes	100 pts.(approx)
Midterm	100 pts.
Final Exam	150 pts.(approx)

Texts:

African American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology (AAL)

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston

Sula, Toni Morrision

The Gathering of Old Men, Ernest Gaines

Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America, Nathan McCall

Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, bell hooks

Online Readings:

Bell, Derrick. Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism. New York: Basic, 1992. (“The Space Traders”)

---. “Racism Remains the Primary Obstacle Facing African Americans.” African Americans: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1997. 269-78.

“Black Women Attack the Lynching System.” Black Women in White America. Ed. Gerda Lerner. New York: Vintage, 1972.

Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 1991. (Mothers/Othermothers)

Cose, Ellis. “Rethinking Black Leadership.” Newsweek 28 Jan. 2002, 42-43.

---. “12 Things You Must Know to Survive and Thrive in America.” Newsweek 28 Jan. 2002, 52-55.

Dace, Karen Lynette, and Mark Lawrence McPhail. “Crossing the Color Line: From Empathy to Implicature in Intercultural Communication.” Readings in Cultural Contexts. Ed. Judith N. Martin, Thomas K. Nakayama, and Lisa A. Flores. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1998. 434-41.

Dubois, W.E.B. “Blacks Should Strive for Political Equality.” African Americans: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1997. 142-50.

---. “The Higher Education of a Leadership Elite Should Be Emphasized.” African Americans: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1997. 160-70.

McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack.” Women: Images and Realities. Ed. Amy Kesselman, Lily D. McNair, and Nancy Schniedewind. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1995.

Morrison, Toni. Lecture and Speech of Acceptance upon the Award of the Nobel Prize for Literature. New York: Knopf, 1994.

---. “Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature.” Michigan Quarterly Review 4 (1988): 1-34.

Sherard, Tracy. “Sonny’s Bebop: Baldwin’s ‘Blues Text’ as Intracultural Critique.” African American Review 32 (1998): 691-70.

Steele, Shelby. A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black America. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. (“Liberal Bias and the Zone of Decency”)

Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6^th ed. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Giolia. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. 90-97.

Washington, Booker T. “Blacks Should Not Agitate for Political Equality.” African Americans: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1997, 136-41.

---. “The Industrialized Training of the Masses Should Be Emphasized.” African Americans: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1997. 151-59.

West, Cornel. Race Matters. New York: Vintage, 1994. (“Nihilism in Black America”)

Jan	5	Course Introduction
	10	Review handout: what does it suggest about our study of African American literature, culture, and race relations? Narrative Essay #1 due class time. “What I know and don’t know about African Americans and their culture” (approximately two pages. Come prepared to discuss your essay in small groups.) Search for African American websites. Bring 2-3 website addresses.
	12	Begin Their Eyes Were Watching God (including introduction) “Recitatif,” Toni Morrison, 209-25, AAL. Internet searches: Toni Morrison Zora Neale Hurston Harlem Renaissance
	17	Human Rights/Martin Luther King Day
	19	Reading Quiz: Their Eyes Were Watching God Discussion Organize for small group discussion
	24	Poetry: Langston Hughes Their Eyes Were Watching God Small and large group discussion (bring typed notes)
	26	Discussion, Their Eyes: Language, Idiom, Imagery (come with several examples; review Henry Louis Gates’s Afterword) In class: Organize for Cultural Presentations Notebook Entry #3: Focus on some aspect of Hurston’s novel that excites/interests/intrigues you. Perhaps it is a single insight or idea, perhaps a meaningful image or sensation. Whatever it is, explore it. Delve into it. Place it in context. What does it convey to you about black culture, as seen by ZNH? Does it have relevance today? Why or why not? Notebook Check, 3 entries
	31	Meet with Cultural Group prior to class. Set up regular meeting time and prepare an oral proposal of a) narrowed topic, b) preliminary questions you will seek to answer in your presentation. Readings on Early Black Leadership/Intellectuals: Black Women/Lynching System (online) Brooker T. Washington (2 readings, online) Students A-O W.E.B. DuBois (2 readings, online) Students P-Z Internet Searches: Frederick Douglass (list continues on next page) Sojourner Truth 14^th Amendment Plessy vs. Ferguson Jim Crow In class: “Brooker T. and W.E.B.,” Dudley Randall (bring AAL text) Begin Sula
	2	Poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks “The Winding Sheet,” Ann Petry, 141-48 (AAL) “Violence in Intimate Relationships,” hooks (TB, Chapt. 12) “Feminist Focus on Men: A Comment,” hooks, optional (TB, Chapt. 18) Internet Search: bell hooks/Gloria Watkins
	7	Criticism: “Mothers/Othermothers,” Patricia Hill Collins reading (online) “The Lesson,” Toni Cade Bambara, 270-76 (AAL)
	9	Poetry: Lucille Clifton Reading Quiz, Sula In-class: Toni Morrison film, VT3011 (25 min.) Notebook Check, 5 entries
	16	Sula, discussion Draft, Narrative Essay #2, class time (no notebook entry this week)
	18	Poetry: Maya Angelou (VT 773) Sula, Discussion Criticism: “An African Based Reading of Sula” (online) Narrative Essay #2 due, class time Review for Mid-term In-class, group work, cultural presentation
	23	Presidents’ Day
		“Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin, 158-83 (AAL) Criticism: “Sonny’s Bebop: Baldwin”s ‘Blues Text’ as Intracultural Critique,” Tracy Sherard, optional (online) In-class: James Baldwin film (excerpt) VT3016 Internet Search: James Baldwin Ralph Ellison Ernest Gaines Begin A Gathering of Old Men
		Feb. 24-25 Mid-term, Testing Center
	28	Guest: Nathan Say, “Disability and the Black Community (Readings TBA) (Ho’okupu) Discussion of Annotated Bibliography Assignment
Feb.	2	Sixties Review: Five remarkable minutes of key information plus a visual. Plan to submit typed notes. Brown vs. Board of Education/Thurgood Marshall Rosa Parks/Montgomery Bus Boycott NAACP/Little Rock/Daisy Bates Malcolm X March on Washington SNCC/ Black Power Angela Davis/Stokley Carmichael The Moynihan Report Freedom Summer James Meredith/Medgar Evars Civil Rights Act of 1964/Voting Rights Act of 1965 Black Arts
	7	Poetry: Derek Walcott Black Intellectuals/Activists (online) Derrick Bell, “Racism Remains the Primary Obstacle Facing African Americans” Derrick Bell, “The Space Tracers (from Faces at the Bottom of the Well) Shelby Steele, “Liberal Bias and the Zone of Decency” (from A Dream Deferred) Notebook check: 7 entries
	9	Cultural Presentations #1 and #2
	14	Reading Quiz, A Gathering of Old Men Discussion
	16	A Gathering of Old Men, Discussion Narrative Essay #3 on A Gathering of Old Men (as a notebook entry) Class time: introduction to Nathan McCall and Makes Me Wanna Holler Assignments for African American Supper
	21	Cultural Presentation #3 Begin Makes Me Wanna Holler In class: Questions for Kristen African American Supper: Plan Ahead! 6:00-7:30 Culture Presentation #4 (Food)
	23	Guest: Kristen Demps (Ho’okupu) “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack,” McIntosh (online) Black Essayists/Columnists: Ellis Cose, “Rethinking Black Leadership,” and “12 Things You Must Know to Survive and Thrive in America” (online) Amy Alexander, any “Between the Lines” column found on africana.com Required notebook entry on today’s readings
	28	Cultural Presentations #5 and #6 Notebook check: 10 entries
	30	Reading Quiz and Discussion: Makes Me Wanna Holler, first half Bring half-page with two typed, well-worded, and discussable questions or comments (one on each side of the page)
April	4	Reading Quiz and Discussion: Makes Me Wanna Holler, second half Bring half-page with two well-worded and discussable questions or comments (one on each side of the page)
	6	Poetry: Nikki Giovanni (and Sweet Honey) Discussion, Makes Me Wanna Holler / “Crossing the Color Line,” Dace and McPhail (online) (Focus on MMWH in one of your last notebook entries) Annotated Bibliography due Review for Final
	11	Black Public Intellectuals Cornel West, Race Matters (“Nihilism in Black America”) online bell hooks, Chapters 11, 14, 16 (TB
	13	Last Class Wrap-Up: So How Did We Do? Notebooks Due, class time, 13 entries plus Course and Self Evaluation
		FINAL EXAM: Thursday, April 14, 3:00-6:00

Special Needs: Brigham Young University-Hawai'i is committed to providing a working and learning atmosphere, which reasonably accommodates qualified persons with disabilities. If you have any disability that may impair your ability to complete this course successfully, please contact the students with Special Need Coordinator, Leilani A'una at 293-3518. Reasonable academic accommodations are reviewed for all students who have qualified documented disabilities. If you need assistance or if you feel you have been unlawfully discriminated against on the basis of disability, you may seek resolution through established grievance policy and procedures. You should contact the Human Resource Services at 780-8875.

Preventing Sexual Harassment: Title IX of the education amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination against any participant in an educational program or activity that receives federal funds, including Federal loans and grants. Title IX also covers student-to-student sexual harassment. If you encounter unlawful sexual harassment or gender-based discrimination, please contact the Human Resource Services at 780-8875 (24 hours).

Final Examination: students should be aware of the BYUH policy that there are no early final exams. An exception to this policy is the case of a school sponsored activity which takes an individual or a team away from the University at the time an examination is scheduled to take place. Faculty and Administration who are responsible for scheduling official University activities attempt in every way to avoid scheduling activities in conflict with the scheduled examinations. Students must plan travel, family visits, etc., in a way that will not interfere with their final exams. Emergency situations should be presented in writing as soon as possible to the Dean of the college or school of the student’s major.