Beginning with Alain Locke's "The New Negro," this course is intended to introduce students to some of the overarching issues and themes of African American literary criticism in the Twentieth Century. Moving through four historical periods-the Harlem Renaissance, the Protest Era, the Black Arts Movement and Postmodernism-we will investigate the critical methods and strategies through which an African American literature and collectivity has been, and continues to be, formed. We will move through these periods by reading the critical work of W.E.B. DuBois, Jessie Fauset, Zora Neale Hurston, Sterling Brown, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Stephen Henderson, Barbara Smith, Barbara Johnson, Toni Morrison, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Sherley Anne Williams, Stuart Hall and Paul Gilroy. In doing so, we will be asking a set of practical questions: What is the relationship between sociopolitical criticism and literary history? Should Afrocentric ideology govern the theoretical and critical examination of African American literature? What role does literature play in shaping contemporary debates about the social construction or political realities of race and gender? What is the nature of the relationship between American and African American literary history? How has the formation of African American literature challenged or affirmed other literary and national paradigms? Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: four short essays and one oral presentation as well as participation in class discussion. Prerequisites: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 25 (expected: 25). Preference given to English majors, African-American concentrations, and qualified non-majors. This course is part of the Critical Reasoning and Analytical Skills initiative. (Criticism or Post-1900)