ENGL 11
Black Arts Multiculturalism Winter 2020

This is not the current course catalog

The Black Arts “neo-hoodoo” wordsmith Ishmael Reed is credited (especially by himself) as having coined the term “multiculturalism.” This WSP course will examine how writers of the Black Arts Movement explicitly used and explored “multiculturalism” in their work, not just as a concept of ethnicity but also as a deliberate incorporation of various aesthetic traditions and forms into their own work. A poem may contain or enact jazz. A theatrical scene may morph into a cartoon or a blues performance. We will examine how writers used this process and what they said about it. The class will read works by writers such as Reed, Amiri Baraka, and Ntozake Shange. We will also consider works and artists in other media who inspired these writers. Students will write 12-page final papers that compare two or more notable examples of “multiculturalism” in works by different artists or in contrasting works by the same writers.