COMP 268
The Contemporary African American and Latin American Novella Spring 2025
Division I Writing Skills
Cross-listed ENGL 243

This tutorial examines how the novella has been deployed in the African American and Latin American contexts in our present century. Throughout the term, we will grow a vocabulary to understand how, from the perspective of craft, an elongated brevity can often lend itself, perhaps counterintuitively, to such an immersive reading experience. We will also contemplate why so many of the texts appear focused on countering established historical narratives. What unique possibilities does the form of the novella offer in this regard? In these explorations, we will encounter novellas from, among others, César Aira, Yuri Herrera, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, Gayl Jones, John Keene, Bruna Dantas Lobato, Toni Morrison, and Alejandro Zambra. These readings will be paired with brief critical texts that will frame the essays to be written each week.