SRJC Course Outlines

11/9/2026 8:02:19 AM	ENGL 31 Course Outline as of Fall 2025	Changed Course
CATALOG INFORMATION
Discipline and Nbr:  ENGL 31	Title:  AFRICAN AMER LIT
Full Title:  African American Literature
Last Reviewed:3/28/2022

Units		Course Hours per Week			Nbr of Weeks	Course Hours Total
Maximum	3.00	Lecture Scheduled	3.00		17.5 max.	Lecture Scheduled	52.50
Minimum	3.00	Lab Scheduled	0		14 min.	Lab Scheduled	0
		Contact DHR	0			Contact DHR	0
		Contact Total	3.00			Contact Total	52.50
		Non-contact DHR	0			Non-contact DHR Total	0

Total Out of Class Hours:  105.00

Total Student Learning Hours: 157.50

Title 5 Category:  AA Degree Applicable
Grading:  Grade or P/NP
Repeatability:  00 - Two Repeats if Grade was D, F, NC, or NP
Also Listed As: 
Formerly: 

Catalog Description:

In this course, students will explore the African American and Black voices that identify, express, describe, resist, defy, or break imperialism, exploitation, and oppression. Students will study a range of genres, such as fiction, poetry, drama, autobiography, nonfiction, and comics from the earliest published work by African Americans through to the present day, emphasizing the public sociality of black lives and the responses to it. Students will also examine a diverse body of ideas that focus on the preoccupations of identity, freedom, mobility, sovereignty, and security as they relate to the African American experience. The content of this course will address how the artistic expressions of African Americans reflect these concerns and demonstrate how slavery and its abolition shape American history.

Prerequisites/Corequisites:
Completion of ENGL C1000 (or higher) or EMLS 10 (formerly ESL 10) or equivalent

Recommended Preparation:

Limits on Enrollment:

Schedule of Classes Information
Description:

In this course, students will explore the African American and Black voices that identify, express, describe, resist, defy, or break imperialism, exploitation, and oppression. Students will study a range of genres, such as fiction, poetry, drama, autobiography, nonfiction, and comics from the earliest published work by African Americans through to the present day, emphasizing the public sociality of black lives and the responses to it. Students will also examine a diverse body of ideas that focus on the preoccupations of identity, freedom, mobility, sovereignty, and security as they relate to the African American experience. The content of this course will address how the artistic expressions of African Americans reflect these concerns and demonstrate how slavery and its abolition shape American history.

(Grade or P/NP)
Prerequisites:Completion of ENGL C1000 (or higher) or EMLS 10 (formerly ESL 10) or equivalent
Recommended:
Limits on Enrollment:
Transfer Credit:CSU;UC.
Repeatability:00 - Two Repeats if Grade was D, F, NC, or NP

ARTICULATION, MAJOR, and CERTIFICATION INFORMATION

Associate Degree:		Effective:	Fall 2025	Inactive:
Area:	E G L3	Humanities American Cultures/Ethnic Studies Arts and Humanities
CSU GE:	Transfer Area			Effective:	Inactive:
	C2	Humanities		Fall 1991
IGETC:	Transfer Area			Effective:	Inactive:
	3B	Humanities		Fall 1993
CSU Transfer:	Transferable	Effective:	Spring 1991	Inactive:
UC Transfer:	Transferable	Effective:	Spring 1991	Inactive:
C-ID:

Certificate/Major Applicable: Major Applicable Course

Approval and Dates

Version:	09	Course Created/Approved:	3/7/1991
Version Created:	10/25/2024	Course Last Modified:	11/27/2024
Submitter:	Curriculum Office	Course Last Full Review:	3/28/2022
Version Status:	Approved Changed Course	Prereq Created/Approved:	3/28/2022
Version Status Date:	10/28/2024	Semester Last Taught:
Version Term Effective:	Fall 2025	Term Inactive:

COURSE CONTENT

Student Learning Outcomes:
At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Describe and apply principles of literary analysis in relation to African American literature.

2. Engage in counter-narrative analysis and critique of African American literary works.

3. Assess historical, social, political, religious, regional, and/or aesthetic trends and theoretical positions taken on African American literary works, illustrating internal cultural needs and responses to external social conditions.

 

Objectives:

At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Identify themes and concerns in texts of African American writers and, when significant, recognize parallel directions in film, music, and the arts.

2. Define common literary terms and apply them to the analysis of specific texts of African American literature.

3. Demonstrate an understanding of literary works central to African American literature within their historical, social, political, religious, regional, and/or aesthetic contexts.

4. Critically analyze the roles and patterns that create and maintain stereotypes or race, gender, and class as revealed in African American literature.

5. Identify the diversity of experience represented in texts within the African American and diasporic traditions.

Topics and Scope

I. The Oral Tradition

   A. Folktales from the Diaspora

    B. Spirituals

   C. Gospel

   D. Work Songs

   E. Sermons

II. 1619 until Enslavement

   A. Structuring Racism and Racial Propaganda

   B. Race as a Hierarchical Concept

   C. American Independence and the Constitution

   D. Three-Fifths Compromise

III. Literature of Enslavement (until Civil War)

   A. Romanticism

   B. The Entrenchment of Systematic Racism

   C. Abolition Movement

   D. Minstrelsy and Jim Crow Shows

IV. Literature of Reconstruction (until the end of WWI)

   A. Realism

   B. Black Suffragettes

   C. Plessy vs. Ferguson

   D. Separate but Equal

    E. Double Consciousness

V. Harlem Renaissance

   A. Modernism

   B. Jazz

   C. African American Arts as Legitimizing the Human

   D. African American Political Publications and Cartoons

VI. Civil Rights and Black Nationalist Movement

    A. Voices of Social Protest

    B. Rhythm

    C. Spoken Word

    D. Rock N Roll

    E. African American Art and the Academy

VII. Blacks Arts Movement

    A. Post-structuralism

    B. Blackness as Art

    C. Hip-Hop

    D. Graphic Novel

VIII. Post-Black Movement

    A. Speculative Fiction

    B. Trauma Narratives

    C. Black Acceptance

IX. Contemporary Voices

    A. Black Lives Matter

    B. Afrofuturism

    C. Rep and Rev

Assignments:

1. Reading and examination of major works of African American literature (40 to 60 pages per week)

2. A close reading of historical and foundational documents to examine African American art in context

3. Writing assignments, such as reading-response journals, collaborative writing projects, short critical response papers of 500 to 1,000 words

4. Term paper(s) of up to 2500 words including extensive library research with complete and correct MLA documentation

5. Essay exam(s)

6. Objective exam(s) and quizzes

7. Optional field trips to see plays, poetry readings, music or dance performances

8. Participation in class discussions

9. Oral presentation

10. Group work to prepare for oral presentation

11. Research assignments, eg. Annotated Bibliography

Methods of Evaluation/Basis of Grade.

Writing: Assessment tools that demonstrate writing skill and/or require students to select, organize and explain ideas in writing.		Writing 60 - 75%
Term paper(s) and writing assignments
Problem solving: Assessment tools, other than exams, that demonstrate competence in computational or non-computational problem solving skills.		Problem Solving 5 - 10%
Library research assignments
Skill Demonstrations: All skill-based and physical demonstrations used for assessment purposes including skill performance exams.		Skill Demonstrations 0 - 0%
None
Exams: All forms of formal testing, other than skill performance exams.		Exams 10 - 15%
Exam(s) and quizzes
Other: Includes any assessment tools that do not logically fit into the above categories.		Other Category 10 - 20%
Participation; Oral presentation and/or research assignments.

Representative Textbooks and Materials:

Nat Turner. Baker, Kyle. Abrams ComicArts. 2008 (classic)

The Fire Next Time. Baldwin, James. Vintage. 1992 (classic)

Giovanni's Room. Baldwin, James. Vintage. 2013 (classic)

"Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse." Bhabha, Homi. Discipleship: A Special Issue on Psychoanalysis, The MIT Press, 28 (1984): 125-33 (classic)

Black Thunder: Gabriel's Revolt: Virginia, 1800. Bontemps, Arna. Beacon Press. 2010 (classic)

Parable of the Sower. Butler, Octavia E. Seven Stories Press. 2017

Bloodchild and other Stories. Butler, Octavia E. Seven Stories Press. 2005 (classic)

Kindred. Butler, Octavia E. Beacon Press. 2003 (classic)

Babel-17. Delany, Samuel R. Vintage Books. 2001 (classic)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895. Bedford/St. Martin's. 2003 (classic)

The Souls of Black Folk. DuBois, W.E.B. Barnes & Noble Classic. 2005 (classic)

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Equiano, Olaudah. Edited by Robert J. Allison. Bedford Books. 1995 (classic)

The Handbook of African American Literature. Ervin, Hazel Arnett. University Press of Florida. 2004 (classic)

Black Skin, White Masks. Fanon, Franz. Translated by Richard Philcox. Grove Press. 2008 (classic)

The Wretched of the Earth. Fanon, Franz. Translated by Richard Philcox. Grove Press. 2004 (classic)

The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 3rd ed. Gates, Henry Louis, ed. W. W. Norton. 2014 (classic)

The Spook who sat by the Door. Greenlee, Sam. Wayne State University Press. 1990 (classic)

Black Looks: Race and Representation. 2nd ed. hooks, bell. Routledge. 2014 (classic)

Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston, Zora Neale. Harper Perennial. 2006 (classic)

Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery. Johnson, Mat. Berger Books. 2018

The Known World. Jones, Edward P. Amistad. 2006  (classic)

Passing. Larsen, Nella. Dover Publications. 2004 (classic)

The Women That I Am: The Literature and Culture of Contemporary Women of Color. Madison, D. Soyini, ed.  St. Martins/Griffins. 1996 (classic)

The Bluest Eye. Morrison, Toni. Vintage. 2007 (classic)

Beloved. Morrison, Toni. Vintage. 2004 (classic)

Monster. Myers, Walter Dean. Harper Teen. 1999  (classic)

"Passing for White, Passing for Black." Piper, Adrian. Transition, Indiana University Press, 58 (1992): 4-32 (classic)

Mumbo Jumbo. Reed, Ishmael. Scribner. 1996 (classic)

Black No More. Schuyler, George S. Penguin Classics. 2018

Talkin' and Testifyin': The Language of Black America. Smitherman, Geneva. Wayne State University Press. 1986 (classic)

The Friendship. Taylor. Mildred D. Puffin Books. 1998 (classic)

The Autobiography of an Ex-colored Man. Weldon Johnson, James. Norton & Company. 2015 (classic)

 

Instructor-prepared materials

OTHER REQUIRED ELEMENTS

Student Preparation
Matric Assessment Required:	E	Requires English Assessment
Prerequisites-generate description:	U	User Generated Text
Advisories-generate description:	NA	No Advisory
Prereq-provisional:	N	NO
Prereq/coreq-registration check:	Y	Prerequisite Rules Exist
Requires instructor signature:	N	Instructor's Signature Not Required
BASIC INFORMATION, HOURS/UNITS & REPEATABILITY
Method of instruction:	02	Lecture
	71	Internet-Based, Simultaneous Interaction
	72	Internet-Based, Delayed Interaction
Area department:	ENGL	English
Division:	71	Language Arts & Academic Foundations
Special topic course:	N	Not a Special Topic Course
Program Status:	1	Major Applicable Course
Repeatability:	00	Two Repeats if Grade was D, F, NC, or NP
Repeat group id:
SCHEDULING
Audit allowed:	N	Not Auditable
Open entry/exit:	N	Not Open Entry/Open Exit
Credit by Exam:	N	Credit by examination not allowed
Budget code: Program:	0000	Unrestricted
Budget code: Activity:	1501	English-General
OTHER CODES
Disciplines:	English
Basic Skills:	N	Not a Basic Skills Course
Level below transfer:	Y	Not Applicable
CVU/CVC status:	Y	Distance Ed, Not CVU/CVC Developed
Distance Ed Approved:	Y	Exclusively online or other technology based instruction
Emergency Distance Ed Approved:	Y	Fully Online Partially Online Online with flexible in-person activities
Credit for Prior Learning:	N	Agency Exam
	N	CBE
	N	Industry Credentials
	N	Portfolio
Non-credit category:	Y	Not Applicable, Credit Course
Classification:	Y	Liberal Arts and Sciences Courses
SAM classification:	E	Non-Occupational
TOP code:	1501.00	English
Work-based learning:	N	Does Not Include Work-Based Learning
DSPS course:	N	NO
In-service:	N	Not an In-Service Course

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