Conseula Francis
Assistant Professor
Department of English
65 coming #208

francisc@cofc.edu

843-953-7738

Office Hours:
MW 9-10
TTH 1-2
ENGL 395:
Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement




Course Documents

Course Syllabus

Course Schedule

Useful Links
Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance

Perceptions of Black: African American Visual Art and the Black Arts Movement

Zadie Smith on Their Eyes Were Watching God

Amiri Baraka's "Revolutionary Theater"

Univeristy of Michigan's excellent BAM site

Malcolm X's "The Ballot or the Bullet"




Course Description

This course looks at the two major periods of African American literary history: the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement. In addition to studying major writers and works from each movement, we will consider the following questions:

  • What were the goals of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement?
  • What was the social/historical/political context of each movement?
  • What were the prominent aesthetic and ideological debates of each movement?
  • What do the movements have in common ideologically/aesthetically? How do they differ?
  • What is the legacy of each movement?