Class Presentation and accompanying critical analysis (25%) [Learning Outcomes 1, 3, 4]
Coursework (Essay 1,500 words) [Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3]
The text discussed in the presentation may not be written about in the essay.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr (ed.), Black Literature and Literary Theory, (New York & London: Routledge, 1990)
Claudia Tate, Psychoanalysis and Black Novels: Desire and the Protocols of Race (Oxford & New York. O.U.P. 1998).
Adam Lively, Masks: Blackness, Race and the Imagination (London: Vintage, 1999).

OHP, Video/DVD, Library, Internet.

Contact teaching will be a mix of lecture, workshop and small-group discussion. Students will be expected to work both independently (on preparation for classes and assessments) and as part of a team (on some class exercises and presentation work).

This module surveys post 1950 African American literature concentrating on fiction but also exploring poetry, drama, non-fiction and film. The literary works will be considered in the context of African American history and literary tradition but students will be encouraged to employ a range of theoretical approaches (such as psychoanalytic, Marxist, feminist, etc.). During the module the students will also be introduced to a survey of relevant critical reading (provided in a course pack) and the course will focus on themes such as: the relationship between race and sexuality; the constructs of race and racism; race and postmodernism and race and politics. During the module students will pay close attention to literary style but there will be a strong emphasis on the socio-cultural climates that produced these texts and the political implications of black American writing.

Indicative primary texts (which may vary)

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
Amiri Baraka, Dutchman (1964)
James Baldwin, Going to Meet the Man (1965)
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1968)
Gayle Jones, Corregidora (1975)
Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress (1990)