ENGL 573: Black Southern Fiction (Special Topics in African American Literature)
Professor: Dr. Kenneth Johnson II
Location: College of Charleston
Dates & Time: Summer II–July 8-Aug 6
Tuesday and Thursday, 5:30-8:15pm
Room and Modality:Hi-Flex Synchronous–course can be accessed either online or in person at the designated course time. Please contact instructor for questions about modality. Room TBA
Black Southern Fiction is a broad overview of long and short prose produced by, situated in, and about the South. Embedded in our interrogation of the region, we will work toward definition of “The South”—those definitions contextualized by laws, sounds, foods, language, and myriad ways of being. Some questions to ponder:
- How do these different ways of defining the South impact literary and cultural production?
- How is Blackness (re)defined by the work of Black Southern writers?
- In what ways to Black Southern writers redraw the boundaries of the region and of literary genres?
- How do these texts reinforce and/or resist geographic stereotypes of Blackness, the South, and Blackness in the South?
While standing on the literary shoulders of Southern giants like Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker, and Zora Neale Hurston, we will embrace a newer generation of Black southern writers who unapologetically advocate for a new reading and understanding of the South, including but not limited to Daniel Black, Jesmyn Ward, Tayari Jones, Ravi Howard, and Regina Bradley.
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