Major African Diaspora Women Writers

English 4480/7480
Section 01
Semester
Fall
Year
2025
Sarah Buckner
Tuesday
Thursday
12:30-1:45pm
Course Description

Cross listed with BL_STU 4480, WGST 4480

Black feminism has long made clear that not only is the political personal, but it's also material. The fabric of our political lives is strewn together by our experiences, our feelings, and our fleshly encounters of and with the world. From narratives of enslaved women advocating for abolition to Black feminist poetics to contemporary memoirs which blur the line between the fictional and autobiographical, this class focuses on major authors in Black women’s literature who explore, depict, and theorize the world through the lens of the self. Readings for the course  will include narrative, autobiography, autotheory, and personal essays from the 19th century into the contemporary era and assignments will be both creative and critical.

Authors may include: Alice Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Saidiya Hartman, and Harriet Jacobs