| Course Description |
During the journey of this course, we will individually and collectively utilize myriad
materials to examine the intricacies, nuances, and trajectories of freedom,
primarily in literary texts grounded in the United States. However, a couple
of required books are centered beyond the geographical and imaginary
boundaries of the United States. Even though one of the texts for this course
is a “traditional” slave narrative of a previously enslaved woman of African
descent in the Caribbean (The History of Mary Prince), we will examine
different narratives of Black women from the colonial period to the
contemporary era that engage and reckon with the processes of freedom-
imagining, freedom-creating, and freedom-making. We will approach the
subject matter utilizing a variety of genres (e.g., slave narratives, oral
histories, speeches, essays, poems, as well as novels (epistolary and science
fiction). For this course, students will submit 2 short essays and a final
paper/project. Small groups of 2-3 students will also co-lead some sections
of class discussions on selected reading assignments.
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