African American Folklore and the Folk? is a survey course that will focus on expressive culture of African Americans through U.S. history. We will examine the forces that produced folk culture and the very idea of the folk. Who are the folk and how are they constituted? When are they popular and why? What expressive materials (i.e. stories, art, songs, performances) did communities create? African American folklore is oral, aural, and visual as well as literary. These aspects of Black folk culture will be brought to bear on our close readings of folklore. Materials and subjects include Charles Chesnutt, Zora Neale Hurston, Leadbelly, Beloved.
