Examining the Harlem Renaissance

Andrews, William L. Classic Fiction of the Harlem Renaissance Recommended Texts:

Larsen, Nella. Passing Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem was in Vogue

Thurman, Wallace. The Blacker the Berry Hacker, Diane. A Writers Reference

Course Packet
Course Overview: This course will study the literature, politics, music, and art of the Harlem Renaissance--roughly a period from 1915-1940. This was a time when African American writers, artists, philosophers, activists, and musicians, congregating in New York City’s Harlem, sought to define African American culture on their own terms. The era has most frequently been thought of as a 1920s-only phenomenon, and many have suggested that it was less a “renaissance” than a first flowering of a collective artistic spirit. We will energetically take on this debate, examining the roots of the movement and critically reading Alain Locke, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Nella Larsen, and others.
Assignment & Reading Schedule

(Subject to change)

Thursday 9/4 “The New Negro”/ “Double Task of Negro Womanhood”/ “On Being

Young, a Woman and Colored”, CP
Tuesday 9/9 “I Too Sing America”, “Mother to Son” and “Negro Speaks of Rivers”, CP

Thursday 9/11 Quicksand, Chapters 1 -9

Thursday 9/18 Quicksand, Chapters 19 -end

Thursday 9/25 The Blacker the Berry, Part 3

Thursday 10/2 “The White House”, “Yet Do I Marvel”, and “Weary Blues”

Thursday 10/9 Music of the Harlem Renaissance

Thursday 10/16 Home to Harlem, Chapters I - VI Essay proposal due

Thursday 10/23 Home to Harlem, Chapters XII - XV

Thursday 10/30 “Sweat”/ “Rejuvenation Through Joy”, CP

Thursday 11/13 Passing, Part I

Thursday 11/20 Passing

Thursday 12/4 “The Fall of the Manor”, When Harlem was in Vogue, CP