Twentieth-Century and Contemporary African-American Poetry

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course will examine the broader sweep of twentieth and twenty-first century African American poetics through the study of approximately eleven particularly influential poets. With the Harlem Renaissance, the Indignant Generation, Black Arts, and Post-Black Arts eras as historical backdrop, we will explore the evolving poetics these poets pursue, as well as their attending politics. We will also address essential questions at the core of our critical enterprise: What constitutes African American poetry? Why do blacks write poetry in the first place, and to what end? What are the critical issues animating critical discourse on black poetry? How and where might African American poetry develop into the twenty-first century? Poets for the course will include Langston Hughes, Anne Spencer, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Hayden, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Lucille Clifton, Michael S. Harper, Rita Dove, Natasha Trethewey, and Jericho Brown.