Course Description, Rationale, Goals and Objectives:

Africana-Melanated Womanism is an Undergraduate (4420) and Graduate (7000 Level) Course specifically designed to broaden one's scope from a family-centered perspective in the area of issues, recurring themes and/or trends in modern Africana-Melanated women fiction, highlighting its applicability to our everyday lives worldwide.  A study of the lives and selected works by 4 leading Africana-Melanated women writers—Pre-Africana-Melanated Womanist, Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God); Nobel Prize-Winning author, Toni Morrison (Beloved); Popular Cultural Novelist, Terry McMillan (Disappearing Acts); and Former Rap Artist, Sister Souljah (No Disrespect)--will be enhanced by careful readings of two (2) theory books from the Africana Womanism Trilogy—Africana Womanism:  Reclaiming Ourselves, 5th Edition and Africana Womanist Literary Theory--as well as readings of scholarly selections by and about the various authors.  We will be highlighting the prioritization of Race, Class & Gender, a major cornerstone of this paradigm, committed to the empowerment and equality of all.

For Part I of the course, students will be introduced to an authentic Africana theoretical concept, Africana Womanism, and for Part II, they will be applying it to the 4 Africana-Melanated womanist novels as they reflect our daily lives throughout the world.  Together, the primary and secondary reading materials, and other media materials, will enhance students’ understanding of critical current issues, particularly as they relate to Africana-Melanated women and their families and communities.

The ultimate objective of the course, then, is to enhance one's knowledge and appreciation of Africana-Melanated women and their interconnection with their families (men and children) in particular and Africana life and culture (historically and currently) in general.  Its purpose is to introduce students to a relatable theoretical construct, as a possible antidote to some of the other female-based theories, such as feminisms.  Africana-Melanated Womanism is an authentic Africana paradigm designed specifically for all women of African descent, and by extension, for all men & women in general, as it demonstrates twe are In It Together!