LIT-3370: Harlem Renaissance in the Jazz Age: 1920-1938

This course critically examines the Harlem Renaissance as a by-product of the first Great Migration of African Americans from the south to the north at the turn of the century. The Harlem Renaissance, like the Great Migration, came to symbolize a people reborn as they moved from plantation to urban settings. This course focuses on artists, social activists, intellectuals and political operatives of the Harlem Renaissance that include such luminaries as W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neal Hurston, Duke Ellington, Marcus Garvey, Langston Hughes, Billie Holiday, and Alain Locke. This course introduces students to the history of the United States from the age of exploration to the end of the Civil War. The course explores several questions: What is American history? From whose vantage point is it typically told? What does it mean to write a people’s history? Can history be radical? Although much of history consists of names, dates, places, and people we were once told to memorize by our elementary- and high-school teachers, this course focuses instead on how we make sense of that past and why history is written in the way that is. Among the major themes this course addresses is the question of America and American as identities, places, ideologies and social positions. Though we use these terms often what exactly do we mean by them? What does it mean, for example, to call oneself an American? How does that concept change according to positions of class, race, gender, or sexuality? Can someone from Bolivia call herself an American? Does it mean the same thing to North Americans? If someone tells you while you are travelling abroad that he or she appreciates American culture, is he or she referring to a Jackson Pollack painting, Yosemite National Park, Donald Trump, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, or a hamburger? In this course we will grapple with some of these issues. We will draw upon our own personal experiences to each come up with our own unique definition of American culture. For some this may be as simple as identifying with the neighborhood one grew up in. For others, however, the idea of being American or of American culture may not be bounded by space or time.
Min. Credits: 3.0 Max Credits: 4.0
Credit Basis: Quarter credit
Location(s): Antioch Univ Los Angeles
Method(s): Classroom
Faculty Consent Required: N
Program Approval Required: N
Course Type Liberal Arts, Science & Social Science

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LIT-3370: Harlem Renaissance in the Jazz Age: 1920-1938