Nov 25, 2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2019-20

AAS 3110 - Harlem Renaissance: African American Literature of the Early 20th Century


Focuses on the extraordinary yield of interwar period (c. 1915-1940) African American authors, placing the literary study in the context of political and cultural history. The course will explore such questions as how the renaissance may be seen in terms of modernist aesthetics and transnational culture. Also of interest will be the question of the renaissance and radical politics. The class will consider the Harlem Renaissance, what’s more, vis-à-vis the sexual and gender revolution of 1920s. Typically readings will include works like Langston Hughes’s The Weary Blues, Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Claude McKay’s Home to Harlem, Alain Locke’s The New Negro, Nella Larsen’s Passing, and Jean Toomer’s Cane, along with criticism on the Harlem Renaissance. Students will write a critically researched paper and be administered essay exams. The aim of the course is to equip the student with a strong academic knowledge of Harlem Renaissance literature in its historical context.

Requisites: Soph or Jr or Sr
Credit Hours: 3
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:
  • Exposing the student to a wide range of significant black postmodern literary texts.
  • Helping the student mature as a critical reader of challenging texts.
  • Increasing the student’s capabilities with respect to research and study methods in literary criticism and African American studies.
  • Providing student with strong academic knowledge of Harlem Renaissance writings.
  • Recognizing importance of alternative black transnational Modernism in literary texts.
  • Recognizing importance of political and cultural historical in literary texts of the Modernist period.


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