ENGL 3220 - Mapping Gullah-Geechee Culture in American Literature

Credits: 3

This course is designed to explore a ‘Gullahist’ presence in American literature in general, especially in the region of the Global South, the trans-Atlantic south, and low-country Africana. Students will read, interpret, and analyze the ways in which American authors, black and white, have drawn from the language, landscape, folklore, worship traditions, foodways, and cultural values of the Gullah-Geechee. How have authors drawn from this culture and represented it in novels, poetry, and cinema? Course readings reflect a diverse representation of authors in terms of race, gender, genres, and historical periods. Texts may include Abigail Christensen, Charlotte Forten Grimke, Lorenzo Dow Turner, Dubose Heyward, Julia Peterkin, Edgar Alan Poe, Zora Neale Hurston, Gloria Naylor, Toni Morrison, and Wilbur Cross, and others.

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 2140 and ENGL 2220 and ENGL 2105 or ENGL 3010 with a grade of “C” or better, or Permission of Instructor