Literary Genres of Black History
AFAM 218
Spring 2026
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01
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This class proposes that literature has long been integral to the historical record of African American life. Black people have been denied the ability and means to create institutions for archiving, preserving, and memorializing their pasts -- from the days of chattel slavery when literacy was illegal, to the Dunning School of history that undergirded Jim Crow, up to the recent attacks on the teaching of African American history in primary education. Despite this deeply entrenched suppression, Black writers have found ways to ensure their lives were part of the written record. How do we write history when doing so is prohibited? What creative forms arise to tell the stories of Black life when the written word is so heavily policed? Through poetry, fiction, and drama, Black writers have done the deep archeological work to recover their own history and create counternarratives. Our class will develop a vocabulary for the written works of this counter-narrative tradition. We will read texts by Martin Delany, Harriet Jacobs, William Wells Brown, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Melvin Tolson, Robert Hayden, Toni Morrison, Claudia Rankine, M. NourbeSe Philip, and Tyehimba Jess. We will trace the aesthetic practices of writing history at various moments of its making, from the antebellum era to the present day. Along the way, we will read occasional examples of Black history writing that share methods with Black literature, such as works by Harriet Jacobs, Ida B. Wells, C.L.R. James, and Saidiya Hartman. Throughout, we will ask what these literary experiments with history allow us to envision for a more just future. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AFAM |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (African American Studies Minor)(African American Studies) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
: CLOTEL: OR, THE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER: A NARRATIVE OF SLAVE LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES by William Wells Brown; INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL by Harriet Jacobs; BELOVED by Toni Morrison; and CITIZEN: AN AMERICAN LYRIC by Claudia Rankine; other texts available on Moodle
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Examinations and Assignments:
: Short close reading paper; primary document annotation; historiography exercise; final research/creative project |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Modi,Jessica Marion Times: .M.W... 02:50PM-04:10PM; Location: JUDD113; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: 4 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: 14 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 5 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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