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In this course, I will be using slave narratives as a foundation for the study of AfricanAmerican literature. Even though this class has been designed with a regular junior AmericanLiterature class in mind, it can be modified to be taught in order to fit the curriculum of any junior or high school grade levels. A course like this is needed because with the growing diversity of our society all students have a chance to learn about other cultures. The best way to learn aboutanother culture is to read its literature. Today because of Henry Louis Gates, Houston A. Baker, Nellie Y. McKay, and others, a wealth of material is available for students. In studying thisliterature, high school students not only experience a richness of African American literature inthis country, but gain a valuable tool to use in future studies in the whole range of Americanliterature. This course will fill what now is essentially a void in the average curriculum.I believe a unique approach is needed for teaching this course. The best way to teach manyliterature courses is to teach a survey of main literature in a chronological order showingdevelopment. But for African American literature the approach needs to be somewhat different because of the circumstances of slavery in America. The African American was cut off from his or her native language and culture and denied the right to acquire the language and culture of thiscountry. In fact, it became illegal for slave masters to allow their slaves to learn to read or write.Therefore, the root of African American literature is oral. Henry Louis Gates, who also places ahigh value on the contribution of the oral tradition in African American literature, supplies a gooddefinition of the “vernacular” in The Norton Anthology African American literature.In African American literature, the vernacular refers to the church songs, blues, ballads,sermons, stories, and, in our own era, rap songs that are part of the oral, not primarily theliterature (or written down) tradition of black expression . . . The vernacular encompassesvigorous, dynamic processes of expression, past and present. It makes up a rich1

storehouse of materials wherein the values, styles, and character types of black Americanlife are reflected in language that is highly energized and often marvelously eloquent.Ralph Ellison argued that vernacular art accounts, to a large degree, for the black American’s legacy of self-awareness and endurance (Gates 1-2).Gates gives the oral tradition a prominent place in African American literature. The oraltradition is still a very important part of today’s African American literature. Toni Morrison’s Songof Solomon supports this theory because the structure of the novel uses the oral tradition.Someone is telling the reader the story rather than imagining that he or she is reading about it.Morrison uses the oral tradition to uncover the mystery in the book. Milkman, the main character,finds himself at the end of the novel when his journey allows him to figure out what the words of the reoccurring song throughout the story means. In this course I will teach the oral as well as thewritten tradition of African American literature in order to give a prominent role to the oral whichhas a special influence on African American literature.Slave Narratives play a major role in African American literature. These are the worksslaves wrote during and after slavery. In recent decades these works have been found and editedand made accessible by scholars like Henry Louis Gates. Even in the time these works werewritten, they received attention because they gave much insight to was actually going on withinthe institution of slavery. These Pre-Civil war accounts were published on their own merits. Slavenarratives became part of the main stream of American literature through works such as HarrietBeecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Even though slave narratives are important to Americanliterature and are now available, most students are totally unaware of their existence. In thiscourse, I will lay the foundation by discussing with my students how slave narratives and the oraltradition influenced African American literature in history. This course will end with the Harlem2

Renaissance and the work of Zora Neale Hurston. This curriculum can be followed by a secondcourse in modern and contemporary literature again stressing influence of the oral tradition. Whatwill follow are ten units that I have developed for this course along with a list of suggestedreadings. In the appendix, I am including, by units, the supplemental materials I used when Itaught this class as a pilot version for the Elkhart Community School corporation in the Summer of 1997. There is a vast amount of valuable materials for teachers interested in teaching thiscourse. I will include them in the bibliography.Work CitedGates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Nellie Y. Mckay, eds. The Norton Anthology African AmericanLiterature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.

Acknowledgments

I would like to give thanks to the following people: Dr. E Lyons who came up with theidea for this curriculum; Alma Powell who hired me to teach Summer Schoo, in the ElkhartCommunity School Corporation, l which gave me an opportunity to teach this course; Patricia3