Summer 2004
ENG 6230.40: African American Literature: The Souls of Black
Folk
Curtis
This course will be an exploration of black folk culture as explored, expressed, and theorized in the works of the 'New Negro Renaissance' of the 1920s and '30s. We'll engage several of the debates surrounding artistic production during this period while focusing on writers particularly interested in developing a black folk aesthetic (or at least aestheticizing black folk experience): Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, and Claude McKay. In preparation for the beginning of the course (i.e., during May!) you need to read W.E.B. DuBois' The Souls of Black Folk and Jean Toomer's Cane, books that sparked and then fueled discussions about the relationships between folk traditions and black art. This course will meet entirely online, using WebCT. Contact Dr. Curtis at curtisd@mail.belmont.eduwhen you sign up for this course for a more detailed reading list/course schedule.
ENG 6440.40: Writing and Social Issues: Literacy, Power, and
Everyday Life
Smith
Scholarship in recent decades has shown how literacy cannot exist apart from ideology, politics, and power. In Writing & Social Issues, we will explore ways 'ordinary' literacy practices connect with history, economics, politics, and more. Crucial questions include:
*Who decides what gets read? Who decides what can be written? Which literacies are valorized? Which are overlooked?
*What are some transition moments in the history of literacy?
*What differentiates between the 'spoken' word and the 'written' word, and how are new technologies affecting the spoken and the written?
*What are some real-live ways people use literacy in their everyday lives? How do such 'real-live' literacy practices connect to history, politics, economics and power?
Readings include:
*Selections from
Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook
*Brandt, Deborah.
Literacy in American Lives
*Daniell, Beth.
A Communion of Friendship
*Freire, Paolo.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
*Hirsch, E.D. Cultural
Literacy
*Heath, Shirley Brice.
Ways With Words
*Royster, Jacqueline Jones.
Traces of a Stream
Major assignments include regular reading responses and various informal oral and written assignments. Students will compose one major seminar paper related to major course themes and questions. If you'd like to talk more or have questions, please contact Bonnie Smith at smithbk@mail.belmont.edu 460.6092 (office)/ 383.9130 (home), or stop by Wheeler 200-G.
