AJ25050 Harlem renaissance

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2013
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 2 credit(s) (plus 3 credits for an exam). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. et Mgr. Jan Beneš, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 10 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/10, only registered: 0/10, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/10
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This course focuses on introducing the period and the phenomenon of the Harlem Renaissance, a period spanning from the mid-1920s until 1938/1939. The Harlem Renaissance is considered a watershed era; in particular, it is viewed as the heyday of African American and American art as it brought together various themes, authors, genres from the fields of literature, music, visual arts, and philosophy. The course traces the development of the period from pioneering works in the early 1920s, through its most active period between 1925 and 1933, until its end marked by the publication of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. ;
Also, in keeping with the latest research in African American studies, it presents the Harlem Renaissance as a nationwide phenomenon with authors from the American West, Southwest and the South, rather than a movement limited solely to the Harlem borough. In addition to providing an overview of the literature of the period, the course also highlights the interconnection and cooperation among various arts, artists, and races. For this purpose, it features sessions concerning the Harlem Renaissance magazines and newspapers, novels, short fiction, poetry, films, theatre, and music. ;
The objective of the course is to acquaint students with the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance and contextualize these artists and their works within the contemporary discussion on modernism, sexuality, the New Negro movement, representation of African Americans in art, and other crucial issues and themes pertinent to the Harlem Renaissance. In this way, the course offers an interdisciplinary mosaic presenting the Harlem Renaissance as a complex phenomenon in American literary and cultural history.
Syllabus
  • Session 1 Magazines and Newspapers: selections from The New Negro: An Anthology Secondary readings: selections from Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Penguin, 1997. Print.
  • Session 2 Magazines and Newspapers: selections from Fire, The Crisis, The Messenger, Pittsburgh Courier, Century Magazine, The Opportunity, The Brownies’ Book Secondary readings: selections from Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Penguin, 1997. Print. RP in class
  • Session 3 Passing: Nella Larsen’s Passing and Quicksand Secondary readings: from Sherrard-Johnson, Cherene. Portraits of the New Negro Woman: Visual and Literary Culture in the Harlem Renaissance. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2007. Print.
  • Session 4 Passing: from Jessie Fauset’s Plum Bun, Wallace Thurman’s The Blacker the Berry Secondary readings: from Sherrard-Johnson, Cherene. Portraits of the New Negro Woman: Visual and Literary Culture in the Harlem Renaissance. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2007. Print. RP in class
  • Session 5 Film: Oscar Micheaux
  • Session 6 Film and Music: Race movies RP in class
  • Session 7 Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God Secondary readings: from Gates, Henry Louis. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. New York: OUP, 1989. Print.
  • Session 8 Langston Hughes: selection of poetry, essays, and short fiction Secondary readings: RP in class Key Word Definition due
  • Session 9: Outside of Harlem: Anita Scott Coleman’s short fiction Secondary readings:
  • Session 10: Outside of Harlem: Wallace Thurman’s Infants of the Spring Secondary readings: from Wintz, Cary D., Bruce A. Glasrud. The Harlem Renaissance in the American West: The New Negro’s Western Experience. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print. RP in class
Literature
    required literature
  • Western echoes of the Harlem Renaissance : the life and writings of Anita Scott Coleman. Edited by Cynthia J. Davis - Verner D. Mitchell. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008, xxiv, 300. ISBN 9780806139562. info
  • LARSEN, Nella. Quicksand and passing. Edited by Deborah E. McDowell. 15th paperback print. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005, xxxviii, 2. ISBN 0813511690. info
  • The collected works of Langston Hughes. Edited by Langston Hughes - Arnold Rampersad. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003, xvi, 267 p. ISBN 0826214355. info
  • The messenger reader : stories, poetry, and essays from The messenger magazine. Edited by Sondra Kathryn Wilson. New York: The Modern Library, 2000, xxv, 418. ISBN 037575539X. info
  • THURMAN, Wallace. Infants of the spring. Edited by Amritjit Singh. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992, xxix, 284. ISBN 9781555531287. info
  • HURSTON, Zora Neale. Their eyes were watching God : a novel. Edited by Mary Helen Washington. 1st Perennial library ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1990, xiv, 207. ISBN 0060916508. info
Teaching methods
Intensive course: two 90-minute sessions per day, 5 days
Assessment methods
For partial credit: attendance, in-class response papers
For full credit: attendance, in-class response papers key word definition, paper proposal, final research paper
Other requirements: No absences allowed
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is taught: every other week.
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