Literature of African Peoples

8G:14  Literature of the African Peoples (Foreign Civ. and Culture or Humanities)

How important is the “African” in “African American”?  What connection, if any, unites black writers in the United States with authors living in Jamaica or Nigeria?  How useful are categories like “black” and “white” in discussing literature?  In this course, we will read work by writers of African descent—a dynamic group that includes Toni Morrison, Jamaica Kincaid, Derek Walcott, Chinua Achebe, Alice Walker, and Langston Hughes—and we will question the very same categories that organize the course, re-evaluating assumptions about race, culture, and identity that shape the way all readers encounter not only literature, but also the world at large.

Specific Course Description and texts used in recent versions of this course

• Section One
• Section Two

Texts that have been used in recent years for this course.  (This is a comprehensive list.  During any particular semester, only a few of these texts or similar ones will be used for each specific section of 8G:14)

Fall 2006 Book Choices for 8G:14
Literatures of the African Peoples

Anthologies

• African American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology, ed. Young (Addison Wesley Longman)
  
• African Short Stories, ed. Achebe (Heinemann)
  
• The Black Poets, ed. D. Randall (Bantam)
  
• Caribbean Short Stories, ed. E.A. Markham (Penguin)
  
• Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction From the African Diaspora, ed. Thomas (Warner Books)
  
• The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature, eds. Donnell and Welsh (Routledge)
  
• Under African Skies: Modern African Stories, ed. Larson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
  
• Vintage Book of African-American Poetry, ed. Harper and Walton (Random House)

African Literature

• Achebe, Arrow of God (Doubleday)
  
• Aidoo, Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa (Addison Wesley Longman)
  
• Bowles, The Sheltering Sky (Ecco/Harper Collins)
  
• Coetzee, Age of Iron (Penguin)
  
• Coetzee, Disgrace (Penguin)
  
• Dow, Far and Beyon' (Aunt Lute Pr.)
  
• Dow, Juggling Truths (Spinifex Books/Independent Publishers Group)
  
• Emecheta, Joys of Motherhood (George Braziller/Norton)
  
• Farah, Secrets (Penguin)
  
• Head, Maru (Heinemann)
  
• La Guma, A Walk in the Night (Northwestern Univ. Pr.)
  
• Mahfouz, Midaq Alley (Doubleday)
  
• Mahfouz, Sugar Street (Doubleday)
  
• Mpe, Welcome to Our Hillbrow (Univ. of Natal Pr.)
  
• Nkosi, Mating Birds (St. Martin's Pr.)
  
• Paton, Cry the Beloved Country (Simon and Schuster)
  
• Salih, Season of Migration to the North (Heinemann)
  
• Soyinka, The Lion and the Jewel (Oxford Univ. Pr.)
  
• Thiong'o, Devil on the Cross (Heinemann)
  
• Thiong'o, The River Between (Heinemann)
  
• Tutuola, Palm-Wine Drinkard (Grove Pr.)
  
• Wicomb, David's Story (Feminist Pr.)
  
• Wicomb, You Can't Get Lost in Capetown (Feminist Pr.)

Caribbean Literature

• Ansa, Ugly Ways (Harcourt Brace)
  
• Cliff, Abeng (NAL Plume)
  
• Craig, Mint Tea (Heinemann)
  
• Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory (Random House)
  
• Gilroy, Frangipani House (Heinemann)
  
• Hopkinson, Brown Girl in the Ring (Warner Books)
  
• James, Minty Alley (Univ. Pr. of Mississippi)
  
• Kincaid, A Small Place (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
  
• Lovelace, The Dragon Can't Dance (Persea Books/Norton)
  
• Marshall, Brown Girl, Brownstones (Feminist Pr.)
  
• McKay, Banana Bottom (Harcourt Brace)
  
• Philp, Benjamin, My Son (Peepal Tree Pr./Independent Publishers Group)
  
• Powell, A Small Gathering of Bones (Beacon Pr./Houghton Mifflin)
  
• Walcott, Dream on Monkey Mountain (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

African American Literature

• Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain (Dell)
  
• Butler, Parable of the Talents (Warner Books)
  
• Butler, Kindred (Beacon Pr./Houghton Mifflin)
  
• Ellison, Invisible Man (Random House)
  
• Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying (Random House)
  
• Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun (Random House)
  
• Hughes, Not Without Laughter (Simon and Schuster)
  
• Hurston, Jonah's Gourd Vine (Harper Collins)
  
• Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (Harper Collins)
  
• Johnson, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (Hill and Wang)
  
• Johnson, Middle Passage (Simon and Schuster)
  
• Jones (Baraka), Dutchman and the Slave (Harper Collins)
  
• Jones and Newman, Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago (Simon and Schuster)
• McKay, Home to Harlem (Northeastern Univ. Pr.)
  
• Morrison, Beloved (Random House)
  
• Naylor, Linden Hills Penguin)
  
• Parks, The America Play and Other Works (Theatre Communications Group)
  
• Petry, The Street (Houghton Mifflin)
  
• Reed, Mumbo Jumbo (Simon and Schuster)
  
• Senna, Caucasia (Penguin)
  
• Schockley, Loving Her (Northeastern Univ. Pr.)
  
• Thurman, The Blacker the Berry (Simon and Schuster)
  
• Walker, The Color Purple (Harcourt Brace)
  
• Walker, Meridian (Harcourt Brace)
  
• West, Before It Hits Home (Dramatists Play Service) (Publisher will NOT provide desk copies.)
  
• Wilson, Fences (NAL Plume)
  
• Wright, Native Son (Harper Collins)
  
• Wright, Uncle Tom's Children (Harper Collins)

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