ENGL 331 - The African American Vernacular Tradition

3 Credits

(Periodically)
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 102. This course is a study of the African American Vernacular Tradition from the period of enslavement to the present. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to, the following: spirituals, ballads, tales, speeches, sermons, work songs, blues, jazz, spoken word and rap songs. This course will also examine the ways in which the vernacular tradition informs the African American literary canon, including writing by Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Etheridge Knight, Amiri Baraka, and Paule Marshall.