MLU
Seminar: African American Novels (1900-1950s) - Details
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Veranstaltungsname Seminar: African American Novels (1900-1950s)
Untertitel Aufbaumodul: Amerikanische Literatur / Aufbaumodul Amerikanistik Literatur I / Aufbaumodul: Amerikanistik Literatur I
Semester WS 2017/18
Aktuelle Anzahl der Teilnehmenden 5
Heimat-Einrichtung Amerikanistik / Literaturwissenschaft
Veranstaltungstyp Seminar in der Kategorie Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen
Erster Termin Montag, 09.10.2017 18:15 - 19:45, Ort: (Adam-Kuckhoff-Str. 35, SR 3)
Voraussetzungen Students who have successfully passed their "Introduction to Literary Studies” (Basismodul Einführung in die englische und amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft) are welcome to this course on selected African American novels published between 1900 and the early 1950s.
Lernorganisation In order for students to pick up some skills necessary in academia, we will spend some time on how to do research and presentations as well as on how to write papers. The university library (OPAC, MLA-IB and other databases) will be a topic as will be the Internet as a research tool (JStor, Google Scholar etc.). In addition, there will be an introduction to CITAVI and how to use that bibliographical tool. The MLA style sheet (7th ed., 2009) is our model for all written work. (Please, do NOT use MLA 8th ed., 2016.) How to write essays the way American colleges expect them to be written will also be discussed.
Leistungsnachweis Requirements
Students will need to pass several quizzes if they want credit for this seminar. Quizzes are tests checking on whether students have read the novels. Please, do not miss more than three sessions. All students are expected to participate actively in discussions. Also, students must present in class (20 mins. plus discussion) on a topic to be arranged with the lecturer. It must be accompanied by a handout (Thesenpapier). Please, send your handout to the lecturer a week before your presentation is due. A copy of the reviewed handout must be available to all students on the day of presentation. Reading assignments (secondary literature) will be given on a weekly basis. Studying in groups is encouraged.

At the end of the semester BA students will have to write an essay/Hausarbeit (ca. 12-14 pages) whereas students planning to be teachers will have to take an oral exam of 30 mins. (probably in February ). The BA essays are due at the end of March.
Studiengänge (für) ANG.03202.02 [Aufbaumodul] Amerikanische Literatur
ANG.05280.03 Aufbaumodul: Amerikanische Literatur
ANG.04628.03 Aufbaumodul Amerikanistik Literatur I
ANG.06158.01 Aufbaumodul: Amerikanistik Literatur I
SWS 2
Sonstiges LITERATURE
Did you know that as a student at MLU you are entitled to a free version of Citavi? Citavi manages your sources and, among many other things, produces bibliographies in MLA style with a click of your mouse. Check details at <bibliothek.uni-halle.de/benutz/citavi/>.

1. PRIMARY LITERATURE [PLEASE, PURCHASE THESE EDITIONS SO WE ALL CAN USE THE SAME EDITION IN CLASS]
Chesnutt, Charles W. The Marrow of Tradition: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. Ed. Werner Sollors. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 2012. Print. A Norton Critical Edition. [EAN 978-0-393-93414-4]
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. London: Viking, 2014. Print. [EAN 978-0-241-97056-0]
Hurston, Zora N. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print. [EAN 978-0-060-83867-6] [Thalia.de]
Larsen, Nella. Passing: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. Ed. Carla Kaplan. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2007. Print. A Norton Critical Edition. [EAN 978-0-393-97916-9]

2. SECONDARY MATERIAL
Babb, Valerie M. A History of the African American Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2017. Print.
Bendixen, Alfred, ed. A Companion to the American Novel. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012; pb. 2015. Print. Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture 80.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Ralph Ellison. New York, NY: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2010. Print. Blooms's modern critical views.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House, 1999. Print. Bloom's notes.
Cassuto, Leonard, Clare V. Eby, and Benjamin Reiss, eds. The Cambridge History of the American Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011. Print.
Donaldson, Melvin. "African American Traditions and the American Novel." A Companion to the American Novel. Ed. Alfred Bendixen. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012; pb. 2015. 274-290. Print. Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture 80.
Elliott, Emory, gen. ed. Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia UP, 1988. Print.
Engler, Bernd, and Kurt Müller. Metzler Lexikon amerikanischer Autoren. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2000. Print.
Graham, Maryemma, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print.
Marcus, Greil, and Werner Sollors, eds. A New Literary History of America. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2009. Print. Harvard UP Reference Library. pb ed. 2012.
Morel, Lucas E. Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope: A Political Companion to Invisible Man. Lexington: The UP of Kentucky, 2015. Print.
Posnock, Ross, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Ralph Ellison. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print. Cambridge companions to literature.
Rankine, Patrice D. Ulysses in Black: Ralph Ellison, Classicism, and African American Literature. Madison, WI: U of Wisconsin P, 2006. Print.
Sundquist, Eric J. Cultural Contexts for Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1995. Print. A Bedford documentary companion.
Tawil, Ezra F., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Slavery in American Literature. New York, NY: Cambridge UP, 2016. Print. Cambridge companions to literature.
Wall, Cheryl A., ed. Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God: A casebook. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. Print. Casebooks in contemporary fiction.
Werlock, Abby H. P. The Facts on File Companion to the American Novel. New York: Facts on File, 2006. Print. Facts on File library of American literature.
Zapf, Hubert, and Helmbrecht Breinig, eds. Amerikanische Literaturgeschichte. 3rd ed. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2010. Print.
ECTS-Punkte 5

Räume und Zeiten

(Adam-Kuckhoff-Str. 35, SR 3)
Montag: 18:15 - 19:45, wöchentlich (15x)

Modulzuordnungen

Kommentar/Beschreibung

The great majority of African Americans had never learned to read or write before the end of the Civil War (1861-65) as teaching them these cultural skills was prohibited in many especially southern states. Nevertheless, a large number of slave narratives testifies to the perspective that slaves were commodities rather than human beings to many Americans. Among the best-known narratives are those by Frederick Douglass (ca. 1818–1895), Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897), and Solomon Northrup (ca. 1807-ca. 1857) whose Twelve Years a Slave (1853) made the headlines when it was turned into a movie in 2013.

By the beginning of the 20th century African American novels started to make their appearance. Among the early landmarks in this tradition is Charles W. Chesnutt's (1858-1932) The Marrow of Tradition (1901). It was inspired by the Wilmington Riots when white supremacists attacked African American leadership of that town in North Carolina in 1898. The novel "captures the shocking moment in American history when a violent coup d'etat resulted in the subversion of a democratic election" (NCE). The novel tells the story of two families, white and black, and their entanglement in political, social, and race issues. The next novel we will be reading is Nella Larsen's (1891-1964) Passing (1929), which takes us from Chesnutt's small town in the south to urban centers of the North. Two African American women who were friends in a black neighborhood in the past meet again many years later. One of them is married to an African American medical doctor in New York whereas the other one has married a white racist who does not know that she has black ancestors. The ending is open and readers are confronted with a mystery to solve. The third novel to be discussed is Zora Neale Hurston's (1891-1960) Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) whose setting is south and the history of African American suppression in the 19th century. We learn about the female protagonist's liberation and emancipation from people who try to dominate her. In the end she is faced with a particularly difficult decision. The final novel we are reading this semester is Raph Ellison's (1914-1994) Invisible Man (1952), for which he won the National Book Award. The first person narrator says on the novel's first page: "I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me." He moves from the south to New York full of hopes and optimism only to find that whoever is interested in him sees him as easy prey for political causes of which there are many at mid-century. His choice comes as no big surprise in the end.