ETHN 012 - African American Literature

    Recent Professors
    Lenore Harris
    Recent Semesters
    Summer 2026
    Class Size
    38 students
    Credits
    3
    Prerequisite
    None
    Summer 2026 Sections
    View Summer 2026 sections of ETHN 012
    Transfers To
    UC and CSUCal-GETC Area 3B · Cal-GETC Area 6 · IGETC Area 3B · IGETC Area 7 · CSU GE Area C2 · CSU GE Area F
    Description
    This course examines African American Literature from the 1700s to the present. Emphasis is given to the development of a body of literature that attests to the mastery and enhancement by Black writers of the prevailing literary forms in each era in America's cultural, social, and political history. Students in the course have the opportunity to examine how literature reflects the experiences of Africans adapting to life in new world America, their struggle against and resistance to institutional racism, their efforts to create racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation while carving out a new identity and developing new literary styles and conventions. The literature is examined through lenses of conventional critical theory and elements of literature.