LIT 3200- SPRING 2000
University Park
This course examines the literary works of prominent male and female mulatto writers from different continents within the African diaspora. It is a discovery tour, following the pathway of the slave trade, from the early days of the Harlem Renaissance with writers such as Langston Hughes and Nella Larsen, to today's America with Danzy Senna. The students also travel to the French Caribbean island of Martinique with Mayotte Capecia. The tour stops in St. Lucia, English-speaking Caribbean island, with Nobel Prize laureate, Derek Walcott, and in Jamaica with world-renowned Michelle Cliff. The final destination is Africa with Bessie Head, South Africa, and Marie N'Diaye from Senegal. All of these writers introduce the students to the different ways mulatto people look at the world and show how the world looks at them.
The class examines the dilemmas faced by characters light enough to "pass" as white as well as the economic, social and emotional distinctions that mulatto characters experience in various environments from either white or black people. The characters discover how their lineage as both white and black determines a new self, making them constantly searching for their identity.
The required readings are:
* Langston Hughes: The Ways of White Folks
* Mayotte Capecia: I Am A Martinican Woman