This course is a survey of 20th century plays by African American women. The vibrancy and perspicuousness of the little-known playwrights present us with compelling legal, social, and psychological issues. The realistic and naturalistic representation of characters who stand for not only themselves but also something larger than themselves suggests that the canon of literature needs expansion. In the direction of our playwrights. As the literary canon grows, African American women writers are increasingly gaining their fair share of the territory.
Many novelists are well-known and widely revered.
The voices of the playwrights we study in this course have significant things to tell us, raise demanding questions for us to think about. We will read authors such as Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Childress, ntozake shange, Anna Deavere Smith, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Shirley Graham, P J Gibson, May Miller, and Mary P. Burrill. As we analyze their works, we will expect to gain a wider understanding of the centrality of African American experiences in American literature and American culture.