ENG 293 - Special Topics in African American Literature

SPECIAL TOPIC FALL 2018:   THE AFRICAN AMERICAN GOTHIC

What is the African American Gothic? Scholars agree that African Americans have utilized the Gothic to highlight the horrors of the African American experience beginning with slave narratives up to the present day with films like Jordan Peele’s Get Out. In this course, we will examine and discuss the evolution of the use of the Gothic within African American literature beginning with slavery. This course will begin with the connection of the white fear of slave rebellion and how it connects to the concept of black monstrosity. It is through the basis of race creation, and the fear of the other, that we will follow the evolution along a historical timeline that will end with a focus on Jim Crow segregation. This course will investigate the African American Gothic utilizing philosophical, psychoanalytic, sociological, and historical approaches.

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered annually