WGS 223 - African American Women Writers (4 Cr.)

(LIT 223) (GCR RPP)

Topic Spring 2020: African American Women Writers: Toni Morrison and Her Contemporaries
This course focuses on the novels of Toni Morrison and reads them in the context of her contemporaries in order to explore the realities that African American women writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries present, along with the language they create. We’ll read four of Morrison’s novels-The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved, and Home-and contextualize her work by also reading additional writers such as Alice Walker, ntozake shange, Gloria Naylor, June Jordon, Gwendolyn Brooks, Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler. We’ll explore the ways that these writers confront the violence of power and oppression as complex forces in society and human lives while at the same time giving us beauty-and love. 
Prerequisite: WRT 181  or instructor’s permission.