Since this course deals with multi-genres (essays, short stories, novels, films, etc.) it will offer students the opportunity to examine the nuances of African American Gothic literature. The course will study not only Black writers, but also white abolitionists and perpetuators of Black inferiority. This will allow students the opportunity to discover the multi-faceted approach to understanding Black literature and analyzing texts through theoretical lens and how the horrifying, Gothic concept of Black inferiority plays a role in Black writer’s texts.
In addition, this course will explore the extent to which African American texts can be read within Gothic motifs. The Gothic genre, since (and perhaps even before) the slave trade, has not only influenced Africana literature, but Africana literature has also rewritten the Gothic due to its very real depiction of horror within the African American experience. In sum, this course seeks to answer Toni Morrison’s question: "Why should a...country repelled by Europe's moral and social disorder, swooning in a fit of desire and rejection, devote its talents to reproducing in its own literature the typology of diabolism it wanted to leave behind?" (36).
Since many of the texts that will be examined are specifically African American texts which are primarily understood as highly-regarded, it will thus be necessary to question the Western canon. This course will also address how and if the genre “African American Gothic” stands within the Western canon and more specifically, the Black studies canon as well as the American literature canon.
In particular, Black studies seems to be more open to accepting texts to the canon, while dutifully questioning the canon. While the English or American literature canon has almost always been resistant to the introduction of Black authors or Black studies to the traditional canon, this course will question that standing. Of course, in more recent years, the latter canon has been opened considerably to Black authors (particularly that of Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, and WEB Du Bois). Still, the resistance to Black authors and Black texts is perplexing to say the least, since Black literature (or as Morrison puts it, “Africanism”) is ultimately the origin of literature, science, and civilization. With the emergence of interest in African American literature, how will the canon respond to Black authors/texts in the Gothic genre – a historically white genre?
This particular question could potentially be asked amongst any literary minority/ethnic genre, in regards to Chican@ literature, female/feminist discourse, Asian American literature, African literature, etc. Put in another way, this course will explore to what extent any non-Anglo literature be read within typical or historical Anglo-literature conventions.
