ENGL 268
American Law, Race, and Narrative
Spring 2017
Division I
Writing Skills Exploring Diversity Initiative
Cross-listed
AMST 268 / AFR 268
This is not the current course catalog
Class Details
This course examines how American and African American writers engaged with legal definitions of race, personhood, and citizenship in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The key junctures in the formation of these narratives were the Declaration of Independence, the Fugitive Slave Act, Dred Scott v. Sandford in the ante-bellum period, Ferguson v Plessy in the late nineteenth century and Brown v Board of Education in the mid-twentieth century. Authors we will read include: Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, Martin Delany, Mark Twain, Charles Chesnutt, Jean Toomer, Bebe Moore Campbell, Ntozake Shange, and Natasha Trethaway. As a course that focuses on the legal and literary constructions of race in the US, this course fulfills the EDI requirement.
The Class:
Format: seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 19
Class#: 3979
Grading: no pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Limit: 19
Expected: 19
Class#: 3979
Grading: no pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation:
3 short response papers (approx. 4 pages each) and one final 7-8-page paper; in-class presentations and participation in class discussions
Extra Info:
may not be taken on a pass/fail basis
Prerequisites:
a 100-level ENGL course, or a score of 5 on the AP English Literature exam, or a score of 6 or 7 on the Higher Level IB English exam
Enrollment Preferences:
sophomores and first-year students who have not yet taken an ENGL Gateway course
Distributions:
Division I
Writing Skills Exploring Diversity Initiative
Notes:
Distribution Notes: meets Division 1 requirement if registration is under ENGL; meets Division 2 requirement if registration is under AFR or AMST
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
AMST 268 Division II AFR 268 Division II ENGL 268 Division I
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
AMST 268 Division II AFR 268 Division II ENGL 268 Division I
Attributes:
ENGL 200-level Gateway Courses
ENGL Literary Histories B
ENGL Literary Histories B
Class Grid
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ENGL 268 - 01 (S) SEM American Law, Race
ENGL 268 - 01 (S) SEM American Law, RaceDivision I Writing Skills Exploring Diversity InitiativeMarina BilbijaTR 8:30 am - 9:45 am
Greylock A3979
Megamenu Social