Topics in American Literature: New York and the Black Literary Scene

New York has long been a hub for Black creatives. From the community of Black writers living in Brooklyn in the 1850s to the artists who gravitated to Harlem in the 1920s to the collectives of Black women authors who gathered in the 1980s, New York is a key territory in Black literary culture. This course examines how New York emerges in the Black literary and cultural imaginary. As we think about New York as a place that is as imagined as it is real, we will consider the interplay between race, space, aesthetics, & politics, and literary movements, focusing on what the city makes possible & what it forecloses.