Overview
I was given the privilege of piloting a new course for an inner-city high school: African American Literature. Students can take it as their senior English class or they may take it as an elective. It is designed to dovetail with the district's African American History course, and therefore follows a chronological pathway. The depth and variety of literary selections have been chosen to celebrate the creativity, the passion, and the resilience of African American writers. Since the literature and history courses are closely aligned, they offer a natural opportunity for teachers to work on an interdisciplinary project with their students. The sonnet cycles presented in this unit are historically grounded in three important points in African American history: the Civil War, World War II, and the Jim Crow era.
There are several sonnets featured in the course, and I propose to include a sonnet sequence by Natasha Trethewey that voices the experiences and thoughts of African American soldiers fighting for the North during the Civil War. Teaching sonnets in an African American literature class raises an issue that presents itself rather early in the course with the works of Lucy Terry and Phillis Wheatley, namely, "How are we to read formalist African American poetry?" Other, related, questions include: Is it imitative? Is it "selling out"? Does it undermine or ignore the rich vernacular so many other African American writers use? For whom is it written?
A highly recommended work to include in either the African American Literature class or the African American History class is Marilyn Nelson's book of sonnets, A Wreath for Emmet Till. Nelson's choice to create a "crown" of sonnets to capture the depth and complexity of a seminal historical moment exemplifies the best use of a traditional form by an African American poet.
This unit will address the pedagogical problems that arise when students encounter black writers expressing themselves in what is perceived as a "European" form. It will provide some perspectives for teachers to consider when introducing this material, as well as some strategies students may use to uncover the layers of meaning so cleverly hidden by the quintessential African muse: the trickster.
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