Course Details

From Civil War to Civil Rights: African American Literature, Activism and Sentimentality

Spring 2008 - English 98/198 - Units: 2

Shortcuts:     decal.org/594

How is the Civil Rights Movement rooted in Civil War literature? What do Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X have to do with Harriet Beecher Stowe? Why has Disney's film Song of the South been widely banned, and how does it illustrate the literary traditions of sentimentality? These are only a few questions we hope to delve into during the course of this semester. Through the lens of sentimentalism, this class will explore how the legacy of Civil War era writers (Stowe, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois) impacts the literature of the Harlem Renaissance (Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes), and of the Civil Rights Movement (Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed). After exploring what "sentimentality" means, we will focus on three main aspects of it: first, the idea that "right feelings" naturally lead to right actions; second, the importance of family reunification; and third, the implications of the use of dialect. From there, we will trace how this inheritance of sentimentality gets worked out in literature and film from just before the Harlem Renaissance all the way through the American Civil Rights Movement. We will examine how sentimentality and the critical reactions against it were manifested in the literature, films, and socio-political atmospheres of the different eras.

    

This course will be discussion-based. Although the facilitators will provide relevant background information, we will not be lecturing you on the material. Rather, our class time will consist of discussion, so come ready to talk and learn together!

Enrollment Info:

Please e-mail the facilitators if you would like to be put on the preliminary class list, and be sure to specify whether you are a lower or upper division student. Come to the first day of class, as Course Control Numbers will only be handed out after the first day to those who were in attendance. Priority will be given to those who e-mail the facilitators and show up. We have 10 lower division and 20 upper division spots.

Course Contact: allisonlahl AT berkeley.edu, codonnell AT berkeley.edu

Faculty Sponsor: Professor Bryan Wagner

 

Section	Facilitators	Size	Location	Time	Starts	Status	CCNs
17	Allison Lahl Caitlin O'Donnell	30	234 Dwinelle	T 6-8	2/05	started	—

 

Name	Date	Size	Type	Actions
There are no files uploaded.

Know someone who might like this course? Send them a link on Facebook!

Course info last modified December 5, 2007. This page has been viewed 1544 times.