MA Reading List

African American Literature Reading List

Required Readings

• Baldwin, James. Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), selected essays
• Baraka, Amiri (LeRoi Jones). Dutchman & the Slave (1964), selected poems, selected essays
• Brooks, Gwendolyn. Maud Martha (1953), selected poems
• Brown, Sterling. Selected poems
• Chesnutt, Charles W. The Conjure Woman (1899), The Marrow of Tradition (1901)
• Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1845), The Heroic Slave (1853)
• Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
• Dunbar, Paul Laurence. Selected poems
• Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man (1952), selected essays
• Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa (1789)
• Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun (1959)
• Harper, Frances E. W. Iola Leroy; Or, Shadows Uplifted (1892), selected poems
• Hayden, Robert. Selected poems
• Hughes, Langston. The Big Sea (1940), selected poems
• Hurston, Zora Neale. Mules and Men (1935), Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
• Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
• Johnson, James Weldon. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912),
  • God's Trombones (1927)
• Larsen, Nella. Quicksand (1928), Passing (1929)
• Lorde, Audre. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982)
• Marshall, Paule. Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959)
• Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye (1970), Beloved (1987)
• Murray, Albert. Trainwhistle Guitar (1974)
• Petry, Ann. The Street (1946)
• Reed, Ishmael. Flight to Canada (1976), selected poems
• Shange, Ntozake. For colored girls who have considered suicide /when the rainbow is enuf (1977)
• Toomer, Jean. Cane (1923)
• Walker, Alice. Meridian (1976)
• Washington, Booker T. Up from Slavery (1901)
• Wheatley, Phillis. Selected poems
• Wright, Richard. Native Son (1940), Black Boy (1945)
  

For Further Reading Fiction 

• Baldwin, James. Another Country (1962)
• Bambara, Toni Cade. Gorilla, My Love (1972)
• Baraka, Amiri (LeRoi Jones). The System of Dante's Hell (1965)
• Bradley, David. The Chaneysville Incident (1981)
• Brown, William Wells. Clotel; Or The President's Daughter (1853)
• Butler, Octavia. Kindred (1979)
• Delany, Martin R. Blake; Or the Huts of America (1859-61)
• Demby, William. The Catacombs (1965)
• Du Bois, W. E. B. The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911)
• Dunbar, Paul Laurence. The Sport of the Gods (1902)
• Fauset, Jessie R. There Is Confusion (1924) or Plum Bun (1929)
• Gaines, Ernest J. Of Love and Dust (1967), Bloodline (1968)
• Griggs, Sutton E. Imperium in Imperio (1899)
• Haley, Alex. Roots (1976)
• Himes, Chester. If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945)
• Hopkins, Pauline E. Contending Forces (1900)
• Hughes, Langston. The Best of Simple (1931) Hurston, Zora Neale. Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934)
• Johnson, Charles. Oxherding Tale (1982), The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Tales and Conjurations (1986)
• Jones, Gayl. Corregidora (1975)
• Kelley, William Melvin. dem (1967), A Different Drummer (1937)
• Lee, Andrea. Sarah Phillips (1984)
• Marshall, Paule. Praisesong for the Widow (1983)
• McKay, Claude. Home to Harlem (1928)
• McPherson, James Alan. Hue and Cry (1969)
• Morrison, Toni. Sula (1973) and any other novel
• Mosley, Walter. Any novel
• Naylor, Gloria. The Women of Brewster Place (1982)
• Polite, Carlene H. The Flagellants (1967)
• Reed, Ishmael. Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down (1969)
• Schuyler, George. Black No More (1931)
• Shange, Ntozake. Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo (1982)
• Thurman, Wallace. The Blacker the Berry (1929), Infants of the Spring (1932)
• Walker, Alice. The Color Purple (1982)
• Walker, Margaret. Jubilee (1966)
• Williams, John A. The Man Who Cried I Am (1967)
• Williams, Sherley Anne. Dessa Rose (1986)
• Wilson, Harriet E. Our Nig; Or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859)
• Wright, Richard. Uncle Tom's Children (1938)

Poetry

• Baraka, Amiri (LeRoi Jones). The Amiri Baraka / LeRoi Jones Reader (1991)
• Brooks, Gwendolyn. Blacks (1987)
• Cullen, Countee. On These I Stand (1947) Dove, Rita. Thomas and Beulah (1986) Dumas, Henry. Play Ebony, Play Ivory (1974)
• Evans, Mari. I Am the Black Woman (1970)
• Giovanni, Nikki. Black Feeling, Black Talk/Black Judgement (1970)
• Harper, Frances E. W. Complete Poems (1988)
• Harper, Michael. Images of Kin: New and Selected Poems (1977)
• Henderson, ed., Stephen E. Understanding the New Black Poetry (1973)
• Honey, ed., Maureen. Shadowed Dreams: Women's Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance (1989)
• Hughes, Langston. Selected Poems (1959)
• Knight, Etheridge. The Essential Etheridge Knight (1986)
• Johnson, ed., James Weldon. The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922)
• Jordan, June. Things That I Do in the Dark: Selected Poetry (1977)
• Lorde, Audre. Chosen Poems, Old and New (1982)
• Madhubuti, Haki [Don L. Lee]. Directionscore: Selected and New Poems (1971) McKay, Claude. Selected Poems (1953)
• Rodgers, Carolyn. How I Got Ovah: New and Selected Poems (1975)
• Sanchez, Sonia. I've Been a Woman: New and Selected Poems (1978)
• Tolson, Melvin. Harlem Gallery (1965)
• Walker, Margaret. For My People (1942)
• Wheatley, Phillis. Complete Works (1988)
• Williams, Sherley Anne. Some One Sweet Angel Chile (1982)
• Wright, Jay. Selected Poems (1987)

Autobiography

• Andrews, ed., William. Sisters of the Spirit (1986)
• Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)
• Grimke, Charlotte Forten. The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimke (1988)
• Hurston, Zora Neale. Dust Tracks on a Road (1942)
• Malcolm X and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)
• Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave (1853)
• Wideman, John Edgar. Brothers and Keepers (1984) Drama
• Childress, Alice. Trouble in Mind (1955)
• Elder, Lonne. Ceremonies in Dark Old Men (1969)
• Fuller, Charles. A Soldier's Play (1982)
• Gordone, Charles. No Place to be Somebody (1969)
• Grimke, Angelina. Rachel (1920)
• Hughes, Langston. Mulatto (1935)
• Kennedy, Adrienne. Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964)
• Wilson, August. Fences (1986), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988) Oral Literature, Essays, Etc.
• Baker, Jr., Houston A. The Journey Back: Issues in Black Literature and Criticism (1980), "Generational Shifts and the Recent Criticism of Afro-American Literature." Black American Literature Forum 15 (Spring 1981): 3-21
• Baldwin, James. Notes of a Native Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961)
• Baraka, Amiri (LeRoi Jones). The Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones Reader (1991)
• Bell, Roseann P., Bettye J. Parker, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, eds. Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature (1979) 
• Brown, Sterling. The Negro in American Fiction / Negro Poetry and Drama (1937)
• Carby, Hazel. "On the Threshold of Woman's Era: Lynching, Empire, and Sexuality in Black Feminist Theory." In "Race," Writing, and Difference, ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (1986) 
• Christian, Barbara. "The Race for Theory." Cultural Critique 6 (1987): 51-63. (Also in The Nature and Context of Minority Discourse, ed. Abdul JanMohamed and David Lloyd, 1990)
• Cooper, Anna Julia. A Voice from the South (1892) Cruse, Harold. The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (1967) Douglass, Frederick. Selected Speeches
• Ellison, Ralph. Shadow and Act (1964)
• Fisher, Dexter and Robert B. Stepto, eds. Afro-American Literature: The Reconstruction of Instruction (1979)
• Gates, Jr., Henry Louis. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (1988)
• Gayle, Jr., ed., Addison.The Black Aesthetic (1971)
• Goss, Linda and Marian E. Barnes, eds. Talk That Talk: An Anthology of African-American Storytelling (1989)
• Hughes, Langston. "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." Nation 23 (June 1926): 692-94
• Hull, Gloria T., Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith, eds. But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies (1982)
• Hurston, Zora Neale. "Characteristics of Negro Expression." In Negro: An Anthology, ed. Nancy Cunard (1934)
• King, Jr., Martin Luther. Selected Speeches
• Levine, Lawrence. Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom (1977)
• Locke, ed., Alain. The New Negro (1925)
• Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider (1984)
• Schuyler, George S. "The Negro Art-Hokum." Nation 16 (June 1926): 662-63
• Spiller, Hortense J. "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book" Diacritics (Summer 1987): 65-81
• Stepto, Robert. From Behind the Veil: A Study of Afro-American Narrative (1979)
• Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983)
• Walker, David. David Walker's Appeal, in Four Articles (1829)
• Wall, ed., Cheryl A. Changing Our Own Words: Essays on Criticism, Theory, and Writing by Black Women (1989)
• Wright, Richard. "Blueprint for Negro Writing." New Challenge 2 (Fall 1937): 53-65 (Also in Richard Wright Reader, ed. Ellen Wright and Michel Fabre, 1978) August, 1998