Poetry of the African Diaspora

This course will focus on twentieth century poetry written by authors of African descent in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. The readings will allow us to cover some of the most significant poetry written during the major black literary movements of the century, including the Harlem Renaissance, Negritude, and the Black Arts movement. In particular, the course will be designed around a selection of books of poetry by black writers, such as Langston Hughes’s Fine Clothes to the Jew, Aimé Césaire’s Notebook of a Return to My Native Land, Audre Lorde’s The Black Unicorn, Rita Dove’s Thomas and Beulah, and Claudia Rankine’s Citizen. We will thus spend a substantial amount of time reading each poet in depth, as well as discussing various strategies for constructing a book of poetry: thematic or chronological arrangements, extended formal structures (suites, series, or montages), historical poetry, attempts to imitate another medium (particularly black music) in writing, etc. We will use the readings to consider approaches to the theorization of a diasporic poetics, as well as to discuss the key issues at stake in the tradition including innovation, the vernacular, and political critique. Other authors covered may include Gwendolyn Brooks, Nicolás Guillén, Christopher Okigbo, Amiri Baraka, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Nathaniel Mackey, and Harryette Mullen. Requirements: weekly response papers, a 5-7 pg. midterm paper and a 9-12 pg. final paper.