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©All the material in this website is copyrighted to Kathleen L. Fowler unless explicitly indicated otherwise.  Permission is granted to use and distribute this material freely so long as you attribute properly by retaining the full header information.  11/16/99

Class hours: Mon. 6-9:0  Classroom:  E-214

Office: Professor Davis: School of Social and Human Services, G-222; Professor Fowler: Division of Basic Studies, E-222
Office Phone: Davis: 684-7798; Fowler: 684-7565

email: hdavis@ramapo.edu; kfowler@ramapo.edu

Office hours:  Fowler Mon. and Thu. 5-6

Required Texts:

This class is a 400 level interdisciplinary Senior Seminar drawing on African American Studies, womenís studies, history, literature, and cultural studies. We will be examining African American autobiographies from 1890-1960 through the lenses of history and of literary analysis and cultural studies. There will be a common set of texts (autobiographies and historical texts). Each student, in addition, will take responsibility for leading the class discussion around an autobiographical text.  Assigned texts will be given out the first night.  The date of your presentation will depend on the text assigned (see calendar) but you must be present and prepared on the night that your presentation is due! This will allow us as a class to become familiar with a wider range of writers, texts, and approaches than would otherwise be possible in the space of a semester. You will be reading the entire autobiographical texts (not just the selections that the class as a whole is reading!) plus relevant background material (including biographies, criticism, and historical material) around the text on which you are presenting.  You will also be responsible for developing a small packet (no more than 25 pages) of additional readings for the class to read before the class presentation. The presentation itself is worth 25% of your semester grade. You will further develop the class presentation into a substantial analytical research paper (15-20 pages in length) which will be submitted no later than May 15 (by May 1 if you wish the revision option).  The paper is worth 40% of your couse grade.

The class is a senior seminar and will be conducted in that format. The reading is heavy -- this is after all a 4-credit, 400 level course -- but it should be enjoyable and rewarding reading. The results will be worth both the effort and the cost of the texts. There will be no exams. Therefore it is essential that you be prepared to fully engage in the class and this will be a significant factor in your final grade (35%).  We will handout separately guidelines for "emergency cancellations" in case hurricanes, blizzards, or other disasters interrupt our efforts.

William L. Andrews argues for the centrality of the African American autobiographical tradition:

Autobiography holds a position of priority, if not preeminence, among the narrative traditions of black America. From its origins in narratives of enslavement and accounts of religious conversion, African American autobiography has testified since the late eighteenth century to the commitment of people of color to realize the promise of their American birthright and to articulate their achievements as individuals and as persons of African descent. Perhaps more than any other form of literary discourse, autobiography has been chosen by African Americans to articulate ideals of selfhood integral to an African American sense of identity, both individual and communal. At the same time that autobiography has helped African Americans bear witness to an evolving tradition of liberated and empowered individuality, autobiography has also provided a forum for addressing the sociopolitical as well as cultural obstacles that impede the liberation and empowerment of African Americans in the United States. (The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, ed. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris, NY: Oxford, 1997, 34).

The senior seminar, Telling Lives, will require that students analyze the autobiographies within the historical context of the period. The turn of the century saw the defining of the New Negro, an African American consciousness that flew into the face of the definition of blacks a segregationist society had thrust upon them since reconstruction. The New Negro evolved out of the migration of blacks from many parts of the world -- but chiefly the American South -- to the North in search of a better life. These blacks came together in a manner that allowed them to consider the state of the race in a way never before possible. The mixture of educated, well off blacks with ex-sharecroppers just up from the South away from the immediate oversight of whites, allowed blacks to define themselves openly for the first time. The new definition of blacks evolved out of the day to day realities of the struggle to be black in America and the debate between the proponents of the four major race uplift philosophies of the period. Adherents of integrationism, socialism, Black Nationalism, and accomodationism generated dialogue that indundated the environment of the day. The results were a rash of literarture, theatre, and music that celebrated the essence of the New Negro in a way specifically designed to put the old Negro to bed. The students' study of African American autobiographies will be greatly informed by an understanding of this phenomenon.

African American autobiographies take many forms and we will be reading and interrogating a variety of these forms: the memoir form incorporating a history of the community as well as a number of key documents; the retrospective autobiographical format with a particular central thematic focus; diaries; the mediated autobiography collected orally, structured by a reportorial voice posing questions, recording responses, organizing the final presentation; the evolving autobiography published over a period of years in expanding and revisionary forms; the literary autobiography focused on language and storytelling and aesthetic truth; the autobiographical fiction using fictional characters and events through which to incorporate autobiographical experiences and insights, etc. Each of these forms poses different challenges and questions for the scholar of history and for the scholar of literature and we will be exploring those challenges and questions -- as well as a number of others throughout the semester. For example we will be considering how autobiographies are useful to historical research and analysis (and what specific challenges they offer to historians) and how historical contexts shape our analysis and deepen our understanding of autobiographies. We will not be approaching these questions systematically, but as they emerge from the texts we are reading and the discussions in class. The background critical and theoretical works are not meant to define or to limit our thinking, but to help set a framework to be questioned, rejected, modified, etc.

Prerequisite: Senior Status. Completion of the college linguistic requirements (College English II). Desirable but not required: Advanced coursework in African American studies, history, and/or literature.

On the night of your assigned presentation, you will be required to lead the class for approximately one hour on your assigned texts (see assignment calendar)and the African American autobiographies booklist.  You will be reading the text itself as well as background material relevant to the text (biographies, critical studies, historical background, internet materials, etc.) and -- if you are working on a supplemental text -- preparing a packet of additional class readings of about 25-30 pages to help the class get a sense of the material you have explored. The class presentation is worth 25% of your seminar grade. Your seminar project will also entail a 15-20 page research paper on this topic. These presentations will enrich and complexify the material the class will be reading in common.  You will be assigned a text and a date at the January 31 class.  Presentations will begin on March 13 and will continue throughout the rest of the semester. We will try to assist you in locating bibliographic and other resource material on your topic. The presentation will be due   according to the class schedule for topics.   Your seminar project will also entail a 15-20 page research paper on the topic you have chosen.  The paper itself will be due by May 1 if you wish the option to revise the paper after receiving feedback. All papers (including revised ones must be submitted by May 15). Feel free to consult with us as you go along in creating your paper. The critical paper is worth 40% of your seminar grade.   Your continued attendance and active and engaged participation throughout the semester is essential and is worth the remaining 35% of your overall semester grade.

Options for Class Presentations/African American Autobiography Booklist:

Background Resources/Bibliography:

We are a community of readers approaching these works together to understand, to celebrate and to share. It is important that you attend regularly (especially since we meet only once a week) and be fully prepared for the class discussion. If you are absent more than twice you must meet with us to determine if you can continue with the course. Participation is essential and will count as 40% of your grade.

Class decorum is also a must. Be respectful of the opinions and contributions of your classmates. I will not hesitate to ask anyone to leave who chooses not to behave in a responsible and respectful manner. Your conduct will enter into your participation grade.

Leaving early, coming late, or leaving class and returning, damage your learning and cause distractions to other students who are trying to learn. You will be marked 1/2 absence for tardiness over ten minutes or leaving before the class is over. If you are late even by a few minutes please take your seat quietly near the door in order to minimize disruption.

Don't!  Plagiarism and cheating are the theft of another's words or ideas and can result in penalties as serious as expulsion from the college.Don't!  See the Student Handbook for guidelines on plagiarism and cheating. If you have any doubts about how to present material from other sources, please come see me for help. If I find a paper which I believe has been plagiarized I will forward it to the Vice President's Office for action.

Assignment Calendar: