WEEK I
Monday	Introduction/assignments Video: I REMEMBER HARLEM: The early Years 1600-1930 (58 mins.)
Tuesday	Reading and Research (no class meeting)

 

Wednesday Discussions of women during Harlem Renaissance (before and during) based on your research topics.
Washington, Invented Lives selections:
--“Introduction, ’The Darkened Eye Restored’: Notes Toward a Literary History of Black Women” pp. xv-xxxi
--Part One, “Mediations on History: The Slave Woman’s Voice;” Harriet Jacobs, “The Perils of a Slave Woman’s Life” from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1860) pp. 3-70
--Part Two, “Uplifting the Women and the Race: The Forerunners—Harper and Hopkins;” Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “Iola” from Iola Leroy, pp. 73-108

Thursday continue discussions from Wednesday;
Wall, Women of the Harlem Renaissance, “Forward;” “Prologue;” “On being Young—A Woman—and Colored;” begin discussion Toni Morrison’s Jazz (the Plume edition).

Friday continue discussions of Jazz and research assignments from Thursday [Carby article (Emily)].
Video: Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues (1989/58 mins.)

WEEK TWO

Monday [Revisit Washington’s “Introduction, ‘The Darkened Eye
Restored’: Notes Toward a Literary History of Black Women” pp. xv-xxxi
and “Uplifting the Women and the Race: The Forerunners—Harper and
Hopkins” and Wall’s Women of the Harlem Renaissance, “Forward;”
“Prologue;” “On being Young—A Woman—and Colored” pp. 73-86]
Washington, “The Mulatta Trap: Nella Larsen’s Women of the 1920s”
Larsen, Quicksand and Passing
1:00 Video screening: Imitation of Life (1934/84 mins.)
Tuesday finish Passing
Wall, “Passing for What?” (handout)
Wednesday Reading/research day
Thursday Hurston, Mules and Men; Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” (handout); begin Their Eyes Were Watching God
Friday Group research/discussion topic: “Representations of Masculinity in Black Culture and Literature;” Washington, “’I Love the Way Janie Cawford Left Her Husbands’: Zora Neale Hurston’s Emergent Female Hero;” finish Eyes
Week Three
Monday Walker, “Advancing Luna and Ida B. Wells” [find out as much as you can about Ida B.Wells and the Anti-Lynching Movement]
Group research/discussion topic: “The 1960s and Black Women Writers”
Tuesday Verdelle, The Good Negress
Wednesday Reading/research day
Thursday Group research/discussion topic: “Black Exodusters and the Development of All-Black Towns and Settlements;” begin Morrison, Paradise
Friday finish Paradise
Morrison, “Recitatif”
WEEK FOUR
Monday Final examination

Tuesday finish research papers/bibliographies
Wednesday Research papers and bibliographies due at noonTEXTS
Washington, Invented Lives
Morrison, Paradise
_______, Jazz
_______, “Recitatif”
Verdelle, The Good Negress
Larsen, Quicksand and Passing
Hurston, Mules and Men
______, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Walker, “Advancing Luna and Ida B. Wells”
Handouts [in addition to the ones mentioned on the syllabus]
Audio and video resources [in addition to the ones mentioned on the syllabus]

ASSIGNMENTS
The Research Paper (10-15 typewritten doubled-spaced pages) This paper cover a decade of Black women’s writing. You should develop a topic on a particular social, cultural, or literary theme or a theme that focuses on a particular writer within a particular decade. The research component contextualizes the topic with relevant historical and social material. In addition to the paper, you should provide a separate bibliography (that is, in addition to the one you present for your actual paper) of the decade containing a complete list of resources by and about Black women writers and their works (including poetry, plays and autobiographies) published in that decade. I would like a conference with each student to approve your paper topic. (40%)

Group Research Presentations for Discussion Each member of the class will present research to the class on the topics listed in the syllabus. A brief description of the topic and an annotated bibliography for class distribution should accompany the presentation. The presentation should be thoroughly researched and related to specific texts we have discussed. I will provide guidelines for group presentations and will meet with each group as soon as possible in order to offer direction on the critical questions and research, etc. (25%)

Final Examination A comprehensive essay-style exam and short answer questions. (25%)
Quizzes Several unannounced quizzes on the readings. (10%)
Attendance and class participation: Class attendance is a crucial component of class discussion. If you suffer an emergency and cannot attend class, find a way to let me know before class (phone, e-mail, send a friend with the message). There is no (passing) excuse for missing class on a day when you are to make a presentation alone or with your group, or when you are the audience-respondent for another group’s presentation. Come to class on time and prepared for discussion. [Poor attendance and lack of participation in class discussion will negatively affect your final grade.]