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SYLLABUS

Naziv kolegija: American Literature: The Black Experience in America, 1900-present

Course title: American Literature: The Black Experience in America, 1900-present

Instructor: Fulbright Scholar, Mark Metzler Sawin

ECTS credits: 6

Semester: 8th

Status: elective

Student's work-load: regular attendance and active participation in the seminar (10%); 10-12 page thesis essay (40%); mid-term & final exam (25% each).

Course description: This course will be a cultural study of the African American experience from 1900 to the present.  We will examine a wide range of cultural documents, ranging from literature and film to music and theater, all within the historical, political, social and cultural themes of the times.  Classes will include both lecture and discussion components and students must expect to also dedicate time to watching several films outside of class. 

Reading:

Primary texts:

- James Weldon Johnson, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912)

- Langston Hughes, selections from The Big Sea (1940)

- Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye (1970)

- Anne Moody: selections from Coming of Age in Mississippi (1969)

- Paul Beatty: The White Boy Shuffle (1996)

- Compilation of exerpts, poetry, essays, and short fiction from a variety of authors.

- A series of films including: Birth of a Nation (1915), Imitation of Life (1934), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967);  Malcolm X (1992), Shaft (1971), Hoop Dreams (1994), Do the Right Thing (1989), Boyz in the Hood (1991), Bamboozled (2000), Crash (2005)

Secondary readings:

- Series of handouts