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Poetry and Memoirs by 19th-Century British and American Writers of African Descent

Fall 2000

Syllabus

useful addresses: Florence Boos, 319 EPB, florence-boos@uiowa.edu; office hours, after class and Tuesdays 4-5.

texts: Peter Fryer, Black Britain; Norton Anthology of African-American Literature; life accounts by Wedderburn, Prince, Seacole, Douglass, and Jacobs. For the others I will give you handouts (Alfred Campbell, Rachel Jackson, Elizabeth, Mattie Jackson).

August 21st introduction
August 23rd historical background; readings in Black Britain, chapter 8 (pages 191-236); begin Robert Wedderburn, pp. 1-61.
British Writers of African Descent
August 28th Robert Wedderburn to end; Black Britain, chapter 7, "Pseudo-scientific racism," pp. 165-90; chapter 9, pp. 237-46
August 30th Mary Prince, 1 student report
September 4th Labor Day
September 6th Mary Prince
first internet journal due
September 11th Mary Seacole, 1 student report
September 13th Mary Seacole
African-American Poets and Memoirists
September 18th poetry by Phillis Wheatley, George Horton, 1 student report
September 20th poetry by Ada Forten Grimke, James Whitfield, Alfred Campbell
second internet journal due
September 25th Frederick Douglass, 2 student reports
September 27th Douglass
October 2nd Harriet Jacobs, 2 student reports
October 4th Jacobs
third internet journal due
October 9th material from periodicals, 1 or 2 student reports
October 11th spirituals and work songs, 1 or 2 student reports
tentative one-page proposal for final 15 page paper due
October 16th -----
October 18th Memoirs of Rachel Cox Jackson, Elizabeth, Mattie Jackson
fourth internet journal due
October 23rd William Wells Brown, 1 student report
October 25th Frances Harper, poems, 1 student report bibliography for final 15 page paper due
November 1st Frances Harper, essays
Post Civil War, "Reconstruction," Jim Crow and Resistance
November 3rd historical background
Fifth internet journal due
November 6th Harriet Wilson, Our Nig, 1 student report
November 8th Anna Julia Cooper
November 13th Booker T. Washington, 1 student report
November 15th ----
Sixth internet journal due
November 27th Ida B. Wells, 1 student report
November 29th James Weldon Johnson, essay and poems
rough draft paper due
December 4th Du Bois, essays, 1 student report
December 6th Du Bois, poems
final meeting, final paper due. Students will give a brief (3-5 min.) account of their projects.

Summary of assignments:

  • attendance and discussion; if you are absent for some health-related reason, please hand me a note to this effect.
  • 1 class report or presentation (5-10 mins.) OR annotated bibliography on a research topic (4 pages, 10-15 items).
  • Six 1-2 pp. internet journals. At least 3 should respond to some aspect of others' postings. After posting, please print out, convert to double-spaced format, correct and revise as needed, and hand to me at the next class.
  • 1 15 page paper (with proposal and bibliography in advance). You must use a considerable number of non-Web materials in your research (books, articles, encyclopedias, periodicals). For internet materials, cite the author and date as well as the web address.

 

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