Syllabus | Spring 2023
Jump to: Full Schedule
Course Logistics
REQUIRED TEXTS:
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Poems, Protest, and a Dream: Selected Writings, trans. Margaret Sayers Peden (New York: Penguin Books, 1997).
- W.E.B. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). Note: This book is in the public domain and can be accessed through Project Gutenberg here.
- Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (New York: Vintage International, 1995).
- Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (New York: Harper Perennial, 2006).
- David Levering Lewis, ed., The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader (New York: Penguin, 1995).
- Alain Locke, ed., Survey Graphic; Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro (Baltimore: Black Classic Books, 1980).
The following book includes required readings for some days and recommended readings for others. You may purchase it at the bookstore or access it for free as an e-book via the library website:
- Davíd Carrasco, The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) [E-book].
Additional readings are available on e-reserves and through online galleries, accessible via links embedded in the syllabus below. You will need your Reed username and password to access these texts. Please bring a copy of the day’s reading assignment to class each day. The library has on reserve a limited number of each required text.
CONFERENCE ASSIGNMENTS
Humanities 110 is a yearlong course, and students are expected to remain in the same conference throughout the year. In cases of absolutely unresolvable schedule conflicts, students may petition for a change of conference time. Petitions (in the form of an email) should be addressed to the course Chair, Paul Hovda, including an explanation of the conflict and why it cannot be resolved. Students granted a change of conference time will be assigned to new sections based on available slots and the student’s schedule; requests to move into a particular conference generally cannot be honored.
PAPERS AND WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Three course-wide papers will be assigned in the spring semester, due at the times designated on the syllabus. Individual conference leaders may assign additional writing. If the due date for an assignment conflicts with a religious holiday or obligation that you wish to observe, please consult with your conference leader.
DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS
If you have a documented disability requiring accommodations, please contact Disability Support Services. Notifications of accommodations on exams, papers, other writing assignments, or conferences should be directed to your conference leader. Notifications of accommodations regarding lectures can be directed to the chair of the course, Paul Hovda. You are advised to consult with your conference leader about how your accommodations might apply to specific assignments or circumstances in this course.
RESOURCES FOR SUPPORT
Your conference leader is your first line of support for any questions you have about the course. Please also be sure to explore the Hum 110 website for additional information. The Introduction and Resources entries on the lecture schedule provides brief introductions to upcoming readings and suggestions for how to approach them. The Writing in Hum 110 page provides tips on the writing process.
The Writing Center is a particularly valuable resource for Hum 110 students working on papers. You can get help with all stages of the writing process from peer tutors at the Writing Center. In Fall 2020, the Writing Center will be virtual, and offer drop-in help online from 7:00-10:00p.m. Pacific time; you can find links to the Writing Center session posted on the Drop-in Tutoring Schedule website. Extra tutoring help will be available in the weeks leading up to paper due dates.
For additional information about support resources available to you on the Reed campus, please see Student Life’s Key Support Resources for Students.
If you have questions that aren’t answered here, please consult your conference leader or email Hum110@reed.edu.
General questions for the semester
- How do forced encounters of colonial Mexico and the African diaspora produce new, hybrid identities and cultures?
- How do colonized and formerly enslaved peoples retain their cultural heritage and communal identities when under pressure to assimilate or to adopt a dominant culture? What new cultural forms are created from these contacts and adaptations?
- What kinds of questions and conflicts arise from forced encounters between hybrid cultures? How have various thinkers and practitioners across time responded to these questions?
Schedule
Week 1 - Origins and Foundations
- How do different actors make use of the past to understand or interpret their own contemporary society, worldview, or culture?
Mon 23 Jan
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Diego Rivera, National Palace mural (c. 1929-1935)
- Marcos, Subcomandante, Our word is our weapon, Seven Stories Press, 2002
- “Mexico City: We Have Arrived. We Are Here: The EZLN.” (2001), 155-162.
- “The Story of the Questions” (1994), 413-416.
- Image gallery: Frida Kahlo
Lecture: "Broad Perspectives on Mexico City / Tenochtitlan"
Christian Kroll, Laura Leibman, Simone Waller
Watch lectures in this order:
Christian Kroll:
Laura Leibman:
- Lecture recording
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
Simone Waller:
Wed 25 Jan
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- David Carrasco, “Aztec Foundations: Aztlan, Cities, People,” The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction, chapter 2. (E-book)
- Gallery: Tira de la peregrinación / Boturini Codex (c. 1530).
- Codex Mendoz (c. 1541). Focus on pages 14, 36, 102, 124, and 132.
Lecture: “We walked a long time to get here; We have been here forever”
Nathalia King
- Lecture recording
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture slides
Fri 27 Jan
Assignment
- León Portilla, Miguel, Teotlatolli, Teocuilcatl: divine words, divine songs, Native Mesoamerican spirituality: ancient myths, discourses, stories, doctrines, hymns, poems from the Aztec, Yucatec, Quiche-Maya and other sacred traditions, pp. 135-144, Paulist Press, 1980
- Maffie, James, excerpt from "In Huehue Tlamanitiliztli and la Verdad: Nahua and European philosophies in Fray Bernardino de Sahagún’s Colloquios y doctrina cristiana", Inter-American Journal of Philosophy, pp. 1-4, 15-16, Texas A&M University, 2012
- “Beginning of the Songs” and “Another to the Same Tone, a Plain One” in Cantares Mexicanos: Songs of the Aztecs, trans. John Bierhorst (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1985), 134-139.
- Recommended: Carrasco, “Cosmovision and Human Sacrifice,” The Aztecs, chapter 4. (E-book)
Lecture: "Mexica (Aztec) Philosophy at the Time of the Conquest"
James Maffie
Week 2 - Translations and Survivals
- What aspects of precolonial society survive in these documents? To what extent can we recognize and understand those survivals in retrospect?
- To what extent are precolonial survivals translated or effaced by the colonial context of their creation?
- What aspects of precolonial society resist translation, effacement, or erasure?
Mon 30 Jan
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Barbara E. Mundy, “Mapping the Aztec Capital: The 1524 Nuremberg Map of Tenochtitlan, Its Sources and Meanings,” Imago Mundi 50.1 (1998), 11-33.
- “The Birth of Huitzilopochtli, Patron God of the Aztecs,” Native Mesoamerican Spirituality, ed. Miguel León-Portilla, (New York: Paulist Press, 1982), 220-225.
- Gallery: Templo Mayor and city of Tenochtitlan
Lecture: "Mapping the Cosmos at the Templo Mayor"
Margot Minardi
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture slides
- Lecture recording
Wed 1 Feb
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Translations of folios 1-18r, Codex Mendoza, ed. Frances F. Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), Vol. IV, 7-41 (blank pages omitted). [suitable for printing]
- Facsimiles of folios 1-18r (color images), Codex Mendoza, Vol. III, 9-43 (blank pages omitted). [large file; best viewed on computer screen]
- Facsimiles of folios 18v-19r, 37v-38r, 45v-46r, Codex Mendoza, Vol. III, 44-45, 82-83, 98-99.
- Translations of folios 18v-19r, 37v-38r, 45v-46r, Codex Mendoza, Vol. IV, 42-43, 80-81, 96-97.
Lecture: "Reading Mexica Imperialism through the Codex Mendoza"
David Garrett
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture slides
- Lecture recording
Fri 3 Feb
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Florentine Codex book 12, in We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, ed. and trans. James Lockhart (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1992, 108-172.
- Bernal Díaz, The Conquest of New Spain, trans. J. M. Cohen (London: Penguin, 1963), 284-307.
- Recommended: Carrasco, “Fall of the Aztec Empire,” The Aztecs, chapter 7. (E-book)
Lecture: "From Invasion to Colonialism"
David Garrett
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture slides
- Lecture recording
Week 3 - Hybridity and Resistance
- What is cultural hybridity?
- How do the religious forms of New Spain demonstrate hybridity?
- How do these religious forms resist hybridity?
Mon 6 Feb
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Introduction to the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, Mesolore. This site also includes an interactive recreation of the whole Lienzo de Tlaxacala. The numbers on the image correspond to annotations; click on them to see the description. To hide these numbers, click on “Hide Highlights” in the lower left hand corner.
- Gallery: Lienzo de Tlaxcala
- Bernal Díaz, The Conquest of New Spain (London: Penguin, 1963), 85-88.
- Recommended: Carrasco, “Women and Children: Weavers of Life and Precious Necklaces,” The Aztecs, chapter 5. (E-book)
Lecture: "LIENZO DE TLAXCALA"
CARMEN RIPOLLÉS (PSU)
- Lecture slides
- Lecture recording
- Gallery: Lienzo de Tlaxcala (Complete)
- Digitized version of the Lienzo de Tlaxcala housed at UNAM's website. (webpage is in Spanish)
Wed 8 Feb
Assignment
- Lasso de la Vega, Luis, excerpt from "The Huei tlamahuiçoltica", The story of Guadalupe: Luis Laso de la Vega's Huei tlamahuiçoltica of 1649 , pp. 54-93, Stanford University Press, 1998
- Gallery: Tonāntzin, Virgin Mary, Basilica of Guadalupe
Lecture: “ ’She is Ours, All Ours': The Virgin of Guadalupe as a Political Symbol”
Jenny Sakai
- Lecture recording
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture slides
Fri 10 Feb
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, “Loa to Narcissus,” in Poems, Protest, and a Dream, 195-239.
- Diana Taylor, "Performance and/as History." The Drama Review 50.1 (2006): 67-86.
- Selection from "The Relacion" in Tepoztlan: A Mexican Village. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press: 1973. 227-234. [Note, this text provides a translation of the speech delivered by the actor representing El Tepozteco as part of Tepoztlan's annual fiesta. For a description of the full performance, see Taylor's article and the lecture.]
Lecture: "Dramas of Conversion: Sor Juana's Loa to the Divine Narcissus and the Reto of Tepoztlán""
Simone Waller
Sat 11 Feb
Week 4 - Colonial Society: Hierarchies and Communities
- How was New Spanish colonial society organized?
- How did gender and racial hierarchies and identities organize colonial society?
- How did individuals navigate and adapt to these organizations?
- What did contemporaries think about colonial society as they imagined new social formations?
Mon 13 Feb
Assignment
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Poems, Protest, and a Dream
- Decimas 130, 132 (p. 165)
- Sonnet 161 (p. 179)
- Redondilla 92: A Philosophical Satire,” 148-151.
- “Reply to Sor Filotea,” 1-75.
Lecture: "Sex & Passion in the Poetry of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz"
Laura Leibman
- Lecture handout - Word and PDF
- Lecture recording
Mon 13 Feb
Sor Juana Poetry Reading (optional event)
Laura Leibman and Conference 17
7:30 PM, Eliot chapel
Wed 15 Feb
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Magali M. Carrera, “Locating Race in Late Colonial Mexico,” Art Journal 57.3 (1998): 36-45.
- Gallery: casta paintings
Lecture: "Casta Paintings"
Laura Leibman
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture recording
Fri 17 Feb
Assignment
Note: The lecturer recommends watching the lecture before beginning the reading.- Introduction and resources
- Selections from The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics, ed. Gilbert M. Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2002).
- José Maria Morelos, “Sentiments of the Nation” (1813), 189-191.
- Agustín de Iturbide, “Plan of Iguala” (1821), 192-195.
- Editors of El Tiempo, “A Conservative Profession of Faith” (1846), 220-225.
- Mariano Otero, “Considerations Relating to the Political and Social Situation of the Mexican Republic in the Year 1847” (1847), 226-238.
- Gallery: Diego Rivera, National Palace mural (c. 1929-1935)
Lecture: "Turning Points: Mexico in the Nineteenth Century"
Margot Minardi
- Lecture recording
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture slides
- National Palace Mural animation
- Grito de Dolores video
Week 5 - Envisioning the Modern Nation
- What is modernity? What is the nation?
- How do different agents represent the modern nation?
- How, structurally and ideologically, do this week’s works relate modern Mexico to its past?
Mon 20 Feb
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Gallery: Diego Rivera, National Palace mural (c. 1929-1935)
- Branch, H.N., trans., The Mexican Constitution of 1917 compared with the Mexican Constitution of 1857, (American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1917), 1-3, 15-32, 94-113,
- “The Plan de Ayala” (1911), in John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1970), 400-404.
- Zapata and Villa in Mexico City, 1914, 120 seconds (video)
Lecture: "Modernity and the Mexican Revolution"
David Garrett
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture slides
- Lecture recording
Mon 20 Feb
Q&A Session (optional event)
Margot Minardi and David Garrett
5:40 PM, Vollum 116
Tue 21 Feb
Los Olvidados screening (optional event)
John Sanders
6:30 PM, Vollum lecture hall
Wed 22 Feb
Assignment
Note: The lecturer recommends watching parts 1 and 2 of the lecture, before watching Los Olvidados.- Introduction and resources
- Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned), directed by Luis Buñuel (1950).
- Cesare Zavattini, “Some Ideas on the Cinema,” Sight and Sound 23.2 (1953): 64-69.
- Luis Buñuel, “The Cinematic Shot,” “Découpage, or Cinematic Segmentation,” and “Cinema as an Instrument of Poetry,” in An Unspeakable Betrayal: Selected Writings of Luis Buñuel, trans. Garrett White (Oakland: University of California Press, 1995), 125-141.
Lecture: "Dreams and Nightmares: Form and Context in Los Olvidados"
John Sanders
- Lecture recording
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
Fri 24 Feb
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Gallery: Diego Rivera, Secretaría de Educación Pública (Ministry of Public Education) murals (1923-28)
- Gallery: José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, Fernando Leal, and Jean Charlot, Colegio de San Ildefonso (College of San Ildefonso) murals (c. 1922-1927)
- Gallery: David Alfaro Siqueiros, Electricians’ Union mural (1939-1940)
- “Manifesto of the Syndicate of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors” (1923-1924), in Mexican Muralism: A Critical History, ed. Alejandra Anreus, Leonard Folgarait, and Robin Adèle Greeley (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 319-321.
Lecture: "State-Sponsored Art"
Nigel Nicholson
- Lecture recording
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture slides
Week 6 - Negotiating National Culture
- Who speaks for the modern nation, and how?
- Who is the national audience, and how can it be addressed?
Mon 27 Feb
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Nancy Deffebach, “Introduction,” María Izquierdo and Frida Kahlo: Challenging Visions in Modern Mexican Art (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015), 1-34.
- Gallery: María Izquierdo
- Gallery: Frida Kahlo
Lecture: “Frida Kahlo and Maria Izquierdo: Visualizing Post-Revolutionary Femininities”
Alberto McKelligan-Hernandez (PSU)
Wed 1 Mar
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Elena Poniatowska, Massacre in Mexico (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991), vii-xvii, 3-23, 173-231.
- Pages vii-xvii, 3-23, 171-172, 199-231 (Text only)
- Pages 173-198 (Images only)
- Elena Poniatowska, La Noche de Tlatelolco (Biblioteca Era, Mexico, D.F. 1971), (Images only)
Lecture: "Testimonio and the Politics of Genre"
Ann Delehanty
- Lecture recording
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
Fri 3 Mar
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Selections from Subcomandante Marcos, Our Word Is Our Weapon: Selected Writings, ed. Juana Ponce de León (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2001).
- “Fourth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle” (1996), 78-81.
- “Mexico City: We Have Arrived. We Are Here: The EZLN.” (2001), 155-162.
- “The Story of the Questions” (1994), 413-416.
- Zapatista Army of National Liberation, “6th Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle” (June 2005).
- Zapatista Women’s Revolutionary Law
Lecture: "THE INCONVENIENCE OF REVOLUTION: ZAPATISMO, CYNICISM, DIGNITY AND MEMORY"
Christian Kroll
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture recording
Week 7 - Modern Social Analysis: Double Consciousness and the Color Line
- What are double consciousness and the color line? How can these concepts be used to understand early twentieth-century America?
- According to Du Bois, how do blackness and whiteness construct one another?
- What problems did black intellectuals identify in early twentieth-century America? How did new scientific approaches to social analysis inform their attempts to write about and address these problems?
Mon 6 Mar
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Ida B. Wells, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, in Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900, 2nd ed., ed. Jacqueline Jones Royster (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016), 46-68.
- Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, Chapter 2
Lecture: "Strange Fruit"
Pancho Savery
- Lecture recording
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
Wed 8 Mar
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, Chapter 1
- W.E.B. Du Bois, “Credo” and “Souls of White Folk,” in Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, (New York, Schocken Books, 1969), vii-viii, 3-4, 29-52.
Lecture: See below
Nathalia King, Jin Chang, Pancho Savery
"The Veil, Second Sight and Double Consciousness" - Nathalia King
"Whiteness is the ownership of the earth forever and ever, Amen!" - Jin Chang
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture recording
"Double Consciousness" - Pancho Savery
Fri 10 Mar
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, Chapter 13.
Lecture: "The Pain, Pleasures, and Possibilities of Learning"
Margot Minardi, Dustin Simpson, and Meg Scharle & Sonia Sabnis
- Lecture slides: Margot Minardi
- Lecture slides: Dustin Simpson
- Lecture recording
Fri 10 Mar
Sat 11 Mar
Spring Break
March 11 – March 19
Week 8 - Modern Media: The Black Press
- How did black activists, authors, and artists use mass printed media to address social problems and advance social agendas?
- What complications or conflicts arose when black activists, authors, and artists sought to mobilize new movements through the press?
Mon 20 Mar
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- W.E.B Du Bois, “The Talented Tenth” (Appendix II from the Oxford World Classics edition of The Souls of Black Folk.)
- Charles Chesnutt, “The Disenfranchisement of the Negro.” (Google books PDF, which might be easier to print)
- Booker T. Washington, “Industrial Education for the Negro.” (Google books PDF, which might be easier to print)
Lecture: "Racial Uplift, Print Culture, and the Audience Problem"
David Garrett
- Lecture slides
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture recording
Wed 22 Mar
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- James Weldon Johnson, “The Making of Harlem,” in Survey Graphic, 635-639.
- Survey Graphic
- Cover;
- Table of contents and "The Gist of It" (p. 627);
- Locke, "Harlem" pp. 629-30;
- Locke, "Enter the New Negro pp. 631-34;
- Reiss, "Harlem Types" pp. 651-54
- Locke, "The Art of the Ancestors" p. 673.
- In The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, ed. Lewis: Du Bois, "Criteria of Negro Art" p. 100-105
Lecture: "ALAIN LOCKE, HARLEM, RENAISSANCE"
Paul Hovda
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture slides
- Lecture recording
Fri 24 Mar
Assignment
- FIRE!!: Devoted to the Young Negro Artist (1926) in Negro Periodicals in the United States (Westport, CT: Negro Universities Press, 1970)
- Focus on the following sections: Richard Bruce Nugent, “Smoke, Lilies And Jade A Novel, Part I” p.33-39, Zora Neale Hurston, “Sweat” p.40-45
- Focus on the following sections: Richard Bruce Nugent, “Smoke, Lilies And Jade A Novel, Part I” p.33-39, Zora Neale Hurston, “Sweat” p.40-45
Lecture: "Flaming Youth"
Jay Dickson
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture slides
- Lecture recording
Week 9 - Modern Society: Creating Community, Contesting Public Space
- How did urban space and migration create the opportunity for new social and political groups to emerge?
- How did urban space reproduce or create new hierarchies and systems of exploitation?
- How did urban space and migration occasion new articulations and visualizations of a national or Pan-African identity?
Mon 27 Mar
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Saidiya Hartman, “A Note on Method,” “Mistah Beauty: the Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Woman, Select Scenes from a Film Never Cast by Oscar Micheaux, Harlem, 1920s,” “Revolution in a Minor Key,” “Wayward: A Short Entry on the Possible,” and “The Anarchy of Colored Girls Assembled in a Riotous Manner,” in Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval (New York: Norton, 2019), xiii-xvi, 192-202, 216-256.
Lecture: "Harlem, New York: City within a City"
Margot Minardi
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture recording
Wed 29 Mar
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Universal Negro Improvement Association, “Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World” (1920).
- Amy Ashwood Garvey, “The Birth of the Universal Negro Improvement Association,” in The Pan-African Connection: From Slavery to Garvey and Beyond, ed. Tony Martin (Dover, Mass.: Majority Press, 1983), 219-226.
- Marcus Garvey, “Africa for the Africans” and “Liberty Hall Emancipation Day Speech,” in The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, ed. Lewis, 17-28.
Lecture: "The World in Harlem, Harlem in the World"
Radhika Natarajan
Fri 31 Mar
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Jacob Lawrence, Migration Series (1940-1941), Phillips Collection.
- Browse the thumbnails, including the titles (titles are visible if you hover the mouse over an image). Then, explore the full series (60 panels) panel-by-panel, starting with panel 1. You can advance to the next panel by clicking the down arrow below “panel 1” on the upper right of the screen.
- Gallery: W.E.B. Du Bois data portraits.
Lecture: "MOVING THE COLOR LINE: JACOB LAWRENCE'S "MIGRATION SERIES"
Nathalia King
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture slides
- Lecture recording
Week 10 - Coming of Age in the Novel Part I: Maturation of a Movement
- How do novels written at mid-century look back on earlier literary and social movements, problems, or ideas?
- What is the motif of “coming of age,” and how can it be applied to black literary, social, and political traditions embodied in this novel?
Mon 3 Apr
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Chapters 1-3, p. 1-25.
- Zora Neale Hurston, “What White Publishers Won’t Print,” in I Love Myself When I Am Laughing...And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader, ed. Alice Walker (Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press, 1979), 169-173.
- In The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, ed. Lewis:
- Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” 91–95.
- George S. Schuyler, “The Negro-Art Hokum,” 96–99.
Lecture: "The Schuyler-Hughes Debate"
Jin Chang
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture recording
Wed 5 Apr
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Chapters 4-13, p. 26-128.
Lecture: “Hungry Listening”
Elizabeth Drumm
- Audio files of Their Eyes Were Watching God, read by Ruby Dee
- Lecture recording
Fri 7 Apr
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Chapters 14-20, p. 129-193.
Lecture: "From Mules to Men, Animals in Their Eyes Were Watching God"
Kritish Rajbhandari
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture recording
Week 11 - Music and Poetry: Modern Forms of the Black Diaspora
- What aspects of modern American musical traditions originate in the West African diaspora?
- How was this diasporic musical tradition employed in twentieth- century America?
- What is literary modernism?
- How did writers reconcile the general features of modernism with their particular identities as black writers in twentieth-century America?
- How does musical form relate to cultural or political content? How does poetic form relation to cultural or political content?
- How does music or poetry’s ability to create community and disseminate movements differ from that of the essay or short story? What other functions may music or poetry serve?
Mon 10 Apr
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, chapter 14.
- Zora Neale Hurston, “Spirituals and Neo-Spirituals,” in The Sanctified Church (Berkeley, Calif.: Turtle Island, 1983), 79-84.
- Alain Locke, “The Negro Spirituals,” in The New Negro, ed. Locke (1925; rpt. New York: Touchstone, 1992), 199-213.
- James Weldon Johnson, “O Black and Unknown Bards,” in The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, ed. Lewis, 282-283.
Deacon A. Wilson and Congregation, "Certainly, Lord" (1926) - Marian Anderson, “Go Down, Moses” (1924)
- Paul Robeson, “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?” (1936)
- Hosea Williams and Selma Marchers, “Steal Away” and “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” (1965)
- Moses Hogan Chorale, “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?” (c. 2000)
Lecture: "WHO, HOW, AND WHY NOT?: QUESTIONING AFRICAN AMERICAN SPIRITUALS"
Mark Burford
- Lecture handout - PDF or Word
- Lecture recording
Wed 12 Apr
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- In The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, ed. Lewis:
- Langston Hughes, "The Weary Blues" and "Jazzonia" (pp. 260-261)
- Langston Hughes, "The Blues I'm Playing" (pp. 619-627)
- Listening guide
- Listening assignment. All recordings, in order, can be found here (Click on "Hovda Blues" to see the song list).
- W.C. Handy, “St. Louis Blues”
- Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, “St. Louis Blues”
- Ida Cox, “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues”
- Ida Cox, “Graveyard Dream Blues”
- Ma Rainey, “Runaway Blues”
- Blind Willie Johnson, “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground”
- Blind Willie Johnson, Willie B. Richardson, “The Soul of a Man”
- Skip James, “Devil Got My Woman”
- Count Basie, “Boogie Woogie Blues”
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “Strange Things Happening Every Day”
- Chuck Berry, “Roll Over Beethoven"
- Duke Ellington, "Happy Go Lucky Local"
Lecture: "THE MANY-SIDED BLUES"
Paul Hovda
Fri 14 Apr
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- In The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, ed. Lewis:
- Countee Cullen "Yet Do I Marvel," p. 244
- Helene Johnson "Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem," p.277
- Claude McKay "If We Must Die," p.290
- James Weldon Johnson "The Creation" (from his book God's Trombones), p. 286
- Langston Hughes, "Ruby Brown" and "Red Silk Stockings," p. 264
- Sterling Brown, "Ma Rainey," p. 232
- Gwendolyn Bennett, "Hatred," p. 223
Lecture: "Harlem Renaissance Poetry"
Dustin Simpson
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture recording
Sat 15 Apr
Week 12 - Coming of Age in the Novel Part II: Maturation of a Movement
- How do novels written at mid-century look back on earlier literary and social movements, problems, or ideas?
- What is the motif of “coming of age,” and how can it be applied to black literary, social, and political traditions embodied in this novel?
Mon 17 Apr
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Ellison, Invisible Man, Prologue-chapter 4, p. 1-108
Lecture: "Is You Got the Dog?"
Pancho Savery
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture recording
Wed 19 Apr
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Ellison, Invisible Man, Chapters 5-10, p. 109-230
Lecture: "Invisible Man: An Apprenticeship in Identity"
Jin Chang
- Lecture recording
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
Fri 21 Apr
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Ellison, Invisible Man, Chapters 11-16, p. 231-355
Lecture: "Boomerangs of History: Dispossession, Hibernation and Communism (a conversation)"
Christian Kroll and Kritish Rajbhandari
Week 13
Mon 24 Apr
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Ellison, Invisible Man, chapters 17-22, p. 356-478.
Lecture: "Running and Dodging the Forces of History"
Ann Delehanty
- Lecture handout - Word or PDF
- Lecture recording
Wed 26 Apr
Assignment
- Introduction and resources
- Ellison, Invisible Man, Chapters 23-epilogue, p. 479-581
Paul Hovda
Lecture: TBA
Pancho Savery, Paul Hovda
Fri 28 Apr
Assignment
- No reading assignment