Welcome to the African/African American Literature Minor! Our program offers students a unique opportunity to explore African diasporic literatures—the literature produced by people of African descent in places all over the world, including Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. Our students develop critical understanding not only of black literature and literary theory but also of local, national, and global issues of racial identity, institutionalized racism, and anti-racist resistance.

Why Minor in African/African American Literature?

• Read and Interpret Black Texts.

The AAAL Minor gives you the opportunity to read and discuss a diverse group of black writers and culture-makers whose brilliant artistry and keen critical insights will reshape the way you see yourself and the world around you. You'll develop your skills at interpreting black texts and understanding how they reveal, resist, and redefine racial categories.

• Understand Race in a "Post-Racial" Era.

We live in a moment when the concept of being "post-racial" is often invoked to argue that racism is a thing of the past. But we also live in a time of mass racialized incarceration, racial profiling, and ever-widening racial inequality. The critical and historical perspectives that the AAAL Minor gives you can help you understand these crises and figure out ways of intervening in them.

• Develop Color Consciousness.

The AAAL Minor teaches students that paying attention to race and its historical meanings—rather than pretending that "color blindness" is always the solution to racial problems—is the best way to confront racial inequality. By learning to be conscious of color and how it operates in our world, you'll become more aware of white privilege and learn to appreciate the lives, experiences, and literary traditions often marginalized by color-blind discourse.

• Enrich Your Major.

The AAAL Minor can be combined with any undergraduate major at WCU. Whether you're majoring in English or fields such as History, Criminal Justice, Social Work, Communications, or Women's & Gender Studies, you'll find that the critical study of African and African American literature can enrich and inform your major in profound ways.

• Enhance Your Career Prospects.

In today's diverse and globalized workplace, employers are always looking for graduates with the multicultural skills and perspectives that our minor provides. By declaring the AAAL Minor, you'll ensure that prospective employers see your interests in diversity and multiculturalism and recognize your credentials in the field.

Learning Outcomes

Students in the African/African American Literature Minor will:

• Broaden and deepen their understanding of the full range of African and African American literary expression.
• Engage in acts of critical reading, analytical writing, and theoretical inquiry that will enable them to refine their critical abilities and develop their political and social awareness.
• Enhance their appreciation for the multiplicity of experiences and voices within African and African American literatures and cultures.
• Develop a broad-based understanding of the history of black global experience and its impact on racial issues today.
• Learn to "see" race in a way that makes them more attuned to the workings of structural oppression and more capable of empathizing with the lives and experiences of people of color.

Advising Sheet

Like most minors at WCU, the AAAL Minor requires students to take six courses, or 18 credits, in order to complete the program. Our students start with a required core of two survey classes—CLS 351 and either LIT 202 or LIT 203—before moving into more specialized courses in the field. View our updated AAAL Minor advising sheet .

Courses

Students in the AAAL Minor may choose from a wide range of courses in order to complete the program. Please check the online Schedule of Classes to learn about course availability for a given semester, keeping in mind that at least three to four AAAL Minor courses are offered each semester. If you're a student in the minor and unable to find a course that you need to finish the program, please contact the Minor Coordinator (or the instructor of record) about the possibility of individualized instruction.

• LIT 202: Afro-American Literature I

Survey of African American authors from the antebellum era through the first quarter of the 20th century. Writing Emphasis.

• LIT 203: Afro-American Literature II

Continuation of LIT 202. Second quarter of the 20th century to the present. Writing Emphasis.

• CLS 203: African Studies

This course studies African culture through literature, anthropology, and history. It focuses on the socio-cultural and historical contexts of African writing through the colonial and postcolonial periods. Diverse Communities course.

• CLS 351: African Literature

A study of the representation of Africa through the perspectives of African and non-African writers.

• LIT 204: Black Women Writers in America

Survey of black women writers of America. Examines themes and influences on American and African American literary contexts. Writing Emphasis.

• LIT 205: Harlem Renaissance

This course examines the historical and cultural movement of the 1920s known as the Harlem Renaissance.

• LIT 206: African American Literature and Literary Theory

This course will examine the relationship between African American literature and the theories serving to explain it. Also part of the English Major Core course sequence.

• LIT 207: Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

This course examines the courageous life and times of an American reformer and his influence on slavery, abolitionism, suffrage, and temperance movements in the development of America.

• LIT 309: Martin Luther King

Examines and analyzes the writings of Dr. King and their relationship to the themes he pursued and the leadership role he achieved. Interdisciplinary course.

• LIT 310: African American Novel I

A study of the African American novel from the genre's beginnings in the 1850s through to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s. Authors include William Wells Brown, Harriet Wilson, Frances Harper, Charles Chesnutt, and Nella Larsen, examined in the context of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and other historical experiences of African Americans.

• LIT 311: African American Novel II

A study of the African American novel from Richard Wright's Native Son (1940) to the present. Works including Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man (1952) and Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987) are examined in the context of changing cultural and political experiences of African Americans in the twentieth and twenty-first century.

• LIT 372: African American Urban Literature

Focuses on representation of twentieth-century urban life in a variety of African American texts including poetry, film, graphic novels, and short stories.

• WRH 333: African American Autobiography

This course introduces students to the rhetorical tradition of African American Autobiography from Frederick Douglass's 1845 Narrative to Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father.

• CLS 365: African American Film

This course will study the history, form, and content of African American film. The films chosen are from various genres and cover older and contemporary films.

• ENG/CLS/FLM 400: Research Seminar

This course is a variable-topics research seminar. Students will do advanced work in many topics in English studies, including literature, rhetoric, film, and comparative literature. Topics related to African/African American Literature count toward the AAAL Minor. Writing Emphasis.