How to Change the World: Black Literature and Politics

For centuries Black writers have engaged in an artistic and creative project dedicated to establishing a more just and equitable society. This class aims to explore how such writers as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs crafted texts deliberately aimed at changing the world. We then extend our study of this literary tradition to our contemporary moment to consider how twenty-first century Black authors like Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Jesmyn Ward have produced texts in order to bring attention to persistent inequalities, many derived from the legacy of slavery.