Course Description
This course explores African American literature as a distinct
tradition that originates in African cultural heritages and in
the experience of enslavement in the United States, and kept alive beyond slavery
through song, sermon, and other spoken and written forms.
We'll follow the evolution of African American
literary and musical traditions beginning with the African expressive culture
traditions slaves brought to America and on which African American
literature and music are based. These retentions/survivals (traditions) include the griot
(storyteller/historian), folk tales and proverbs, polyrhythms, and musical/oral
styles such as call and response, theme and variation, circumlocution and improvisation. We will
analyze how literary and musical styles develop over time with a focus on the themes of
political and spiritual liberation. Black writers, orators, artists, and musicians have
continually issued a call for America to live up to its promise of liberty and
justice for all. Our textbook emphasizes three motifs: the African and African
American antiphonal pattern of call and response which fosters a dynamic and
powerful relationship between the individual and the group--with literature
answering the call of the folk culture; the theme of the journey of African
American people toward freedom, justice and social equality; and the idea of the
crossroads--crucial turning points when African Americans had to make decisions
on their journey toward equality. We will look at this impulse for liberation through the lens of
three musical frames:
1) African expressive traditions, spirituals and gospel
2) blues, rhythm and blues and jazz
3) soul, rap and hip hop
After exploring the survivals of African folk culture in the U.S., the first section of the course is framed by the spiritual and gospel tradition as the calls for political and physical liberation sound notes of belief and hope in democratic ideals. The second part of the course is framed within the blues, r & b and jazz idioms, the musical styles suggesting the awareness of the pain of existence and the ability to transcend that pain, just as the literature calls for political freedom and the realization of the dream. The final part of the course is framed in the soul and rap idioms, extending the urbanized voice calling for liberation. In its social commentary the voice of rap encompasses the despair, the rawness of life, but incorporates a source of power and hope for both the individual and the community.
Course Objectives
1. Identify the major periods in the fight for African American
political liberation as reflected in the contemporaneous African American literature
and music.
2. Identify the various ways political liberation has been
defined throughout the various periods of African American literature and music.
3. Deepen our understanding of the complexity and richness of African
American expressive culture and its contribution to American culture.
4. Connect course content to learning through service that meets a
community need and to connect learning through service to course content: infuse
African American aesthetics and music/jazz education in schools.
5. Meet the UI's strategic goal #1 of engaging students in a
transformational experience of discovery, understanding , and global
citizenship.
6. Develop and strengthen critical thinking and writing skills.