Exam Essay
Essay Prompt:
What do you see as the two or three major recurrent thematic concerns in African American literature? How do these concerns evolve over time, and to what extent do other works of American literature share them? Based on your reading list, in what directions would you expect future American writers to take their literature?
Specifically this paper needs to discuss the following recurrent thematic concerns:
The Dehumanizing Effects of Slavery
Memory and the Past
Christianity vs. The Evils of Slavery
Source material will be provided via PDF. These are the ONLY sources to be used.
-Beloved by Toni Morrison
-Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
-Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
-Animate Literacies: Literature, Affect, and the Politics of Humanism
-Race,” Writing, and Difference by Henry Louis Gates