Recent Critical Works in Black Literary

In recent years scholars of Black Literary and Cultural Studies have created an excited and innovative body of work that challenges traditional methods and forms of critical writing.  Students in this graduate seminar will read a selection of these works in an effort to identify major methodological, theoretical, and critical concerns and trends in the field. We will also read two creative works, one an edition of a recently discovered novel that was found and edited by one of our scholars and the other a critically acclaimed novel written by another and the work of a third author that blurs the boundaries between creative, critical and theoretical.  These have been chosen to demonstrate the scholarly practice theorized in the critical work, and the ways that the critic/creative writer engages similar concerns in different forms.  Finally, one class will be devoted to the critical work of a recent Pulitzer Prize winner, whose academic training and practice have greatly informed her writing for a broader audience.  Readings will be supplemented by visits from some of the authors as well as our own visit to archives at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.