This course serves as an introduction for both English majors and non-majors to African American literature with a focus on Black Joy.
Over this 4.5-week course, we will examine a variety of genres including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and film created by and focusing on Black expressions of happiness, comfort, humor, and pleasure from the late 1700s to the present. Subgenres that we will examine include Afrofuturism, religion and spirituality, humor writing, and nature writing, among other topics.
By highlighting the ways in which Black people and communities laugh, play, and enjoy one another’s company, the works in this course offer depictions of Black life that are not rooted in trauma and oppression but instead celebrate the everyday moments in which these writers (and many of their audiences) find time to relax and revel in life’s quotidian desires.
Summer Session II, online asynchronous
For questions, contact Dr. Jessica Cory, 472 Belk Library, coryjs@appstate.edu
ENG 2120 African American Literature
ENG 2120 African American Literature