In this section of ENG 4580, we will focus on African American Literature and Film. We will read six books from a variety of genres and view film adaptations of each respective book, as well as watch Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, the first feature film written, directed, and produced by an African American woman. The reading list includes a slave narrative (Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave); two autobiographies (Richard Wright’s Black Boy and Malcolm X’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley); two novels (Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Toni Morrison’s Beloved); and a play (August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson). In addition to Dash’s Daughters, films we will watch after reading each respective text include Twelve Years a Slave (D: Steve McQueen); Black Boy (D: Madison Davis Lacy, Jr.), Malcolm X (D: Spike Lee), The Color Purple (D: Steven Spielberg), Beloved (D: Johnathan Demme), and The Piano Lesson (D: Lloyd Richards). We will also view film excerpts from Birth of a Nation, Passing, and Their Eyes Were Watching God, among others. Course requirements include reaction papers on each book/film adaptation and an end-of-the-semester paper on a required book/film adaptation of choice.
For questions, contact Bruce Dick, 238 Sanford, dickba@appstate.edu.
Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:00-3:15, Hybrid
Dr. Bruce Dick
ENG 4580-101: Studies in African American Literature - Dick (Spring 2023) flyer
