My Experience

African American literature deprived from the oral tradition of storytelling and spirituals. In this course, I was able to review the struggles and impact on the literary production of African American authors during this time period to now. Along with considering the content of literary works, I was able to examine the cultural, historical, and political contexts of the literature, as well as how the issues of gender, race, and class affect the production and meaning of these works. In this course, we discussed development of African American literature in seven units: Oral Traditions; The Literature of Slavery; Reconstruction to the New Negro Renaissance Movement; Harlem Renaissance; Realism, Naturalism, and Modernism; Black Arts and so much more. This course taught me the African American literature’s inception through oral tradition. Upon completion of this course I am now able to identify the cultural influences and the development of African American literature, analyze the creation of this literature, describe the true inceptions during slavery, and identified many authors and literary works in the various movements taught. I can honestly say that I truly enjoyed this course; It taught me things that I wasn't aware of. As an African American, I feel that it is my duty to be of knowledge of my culture as a whole; this class helped me further accomplish my goal . I will definitely recommend this course to other students.