The Urban Space in African American Literature - Einzelansicht

The urban space is one of the most persistent and prominent motifs in African American Literature; Amiri Baraka even asserts that African American writing is at its core urban. The city therefore represents a productive vantage point on African American history as well as on the changes of literary production. In this course we will trace the representations of the city in texts from the slave narrative to contemporary African American artists and critics. We will explore the changing perspectives and images of the city from a ”Promised Land” to ”A Dream Deferred,” which were created within these spaces, as well as about them, and try to understand the differences to the respective white American literary representations.

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All participants will have to write and submit a thesis statement and a final 5 page paper.