ENG568: The Harlem Renaissance

Harlem, New York. 1920s. A constellation of African American writers, artists, performers and thinkers are changing American and world culture, pollinating African American art and literature. Between WWI and the Great Depression, Harlem was distinctly in vogue. The Harlem Renaissance became a landmark of American literary, artistic and intellectual history: the emergence of a distinctive modern black literature, a clustering of black artists who sought to give expression to the ambiguous and complex African American experience. The course centers on the distinctive voices and styles of Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Nellie Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes and others. We will honor African American achievements in music and visual arts during that period and examine the Harlem Renaissance's legacy within the evolution of African American literature and American, Afro-Caribbean and global art and literature.