http://crab.rutgers.edu/~glasker

HONORS SEMINAR: ERA OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
525:122:SECTION 02
DR. WAYNE GLASKER
OFFICE: 355 ARMITAGE HALL
IN THE HISTORY DEPARTMENT
OFFICE HOURS: M, W 3:00-4:30 PM
PHONE: (856) 225-6220
EMAIL: Glasker@camden.rutgers.edu
Wglasker@aol.com

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This interdisciplinary course will explore the era of the Harlem Renaissance, which is also known as the New Negro movement. A renaissance is a "rebirth." We will examine the history, politics and culture of the period, from roughly 1916 to 1935. World War I and the First Great Migration of African Americans from the south to the north were the background for a flowering of African American culture. Under the sign of culture we will explore literature, film, music and visual arts.

Exams will be given as needed, along with writing assignments. And there will be papers responding to guided questions about some of the works of literature that we will read. A typical paper should be in the range of 5-7 pages. This is a reading intensive course. If you do not like to read you should take some other course.

STANDARDS OF CONDUCT

In the past, some students have not understood that being in school is a serious responsibility. It is like a job. Being here is ninety percent of the job. Attendance will be taken. You are here in this class to pay attention to the lectures and to take notes. If you conspicuously chat and converse during the lecture you will be asked to take your conversation to the lobby. No more than FIVE absences are expected (that is an average of almost one every two weeks). Regular attendance is crucial if you expect to do well. If you do not attend regularly you should not expect a grade above a C in this course. If you have been absent for days at a time without prior explanation, or an advisory letter from the Student Advising Office, you will not be re-admitted to class or permitted to take exams. If you have some sort of mishap or illness or emergency that will require you to be absent for an extended period of time, please contact one of the Assistant Deans in the Student Advising Office at (856) 225-6043. The office is located on the second floor of Armitage Hall, past the elevators. That office will require documentation of your situation. If you are enrolled I expect you to be here. If you are not going to be here, or cannot be here, then you should not be enrolled. Rutgers-Camden does not offer correspondence courses. This is not a remedial class.

If you are absent it is your responsibility to get notes from a classmate. The failure to get notes when absent is an even greater offense than the absence itself.

If you are absent MORE THAN FIVE TIMES, your grade for the course will automatically be reduced by one letter grade (the equivalent of ten points). If it had been an A, it will become a B; if it had been a B, it will become a C; and so forth.

Ordinarily, no late exams will be given. Missed exams will automatically count as an “F” unless there is a credible doctor’s note, auto repair receipt (“my car broke down’), funeral card (“my grandmother died again”), or obituary.

CLASS DISCUSSION MUST BE CIVIL (POLITE, RESPECTFUL)

The approach that I take in this course is that there is not necessarily one universal truth with which all people would agree. Rather, there may be multiple truths; and truth is in the eye of the beholder; and there are multiple points of view competing in the marketplace of ideas. However class discussion must be civil: that means no shouting, no name-calling, no "shouting people down" or "talking over" people and interrupting; and no personal attacks. We can disagree without being disagreeable; and sometimes we just have to agree to disagree.

ELECTRONIC RESERVE

For this course there will be a large number of small readings on electronic reserve at the library. This means that you access IRIS (the library's computerized system). Go to the Rutgers home page (www.rutgers.edu) and go to the Camden campus. When the page comes up, click on Paul Robeson Library (not Law Library). A page will come up that says Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Click on Accessing Electronic Reserves. Click the box where it says RESERVE DESK. You can search by instructor, course number or course name. Use instructor name. If you type in glasker, my courses should come up. Be sure to click on Era of the Harlem Renaissance. An alphabetized list of articles will appear. Please note that remote access from your home computer will only work if you use Internet Explorer or Netscape. For most people, the best thing to do is to print the articles from a computer in the library. If you use the computers at the very front of the library, at the entrance, printing is FREE. If you print from other computers in the library you will need a photocopy card (the card costs $1, from the machine next to the Circulation Desk), and the cost for printing is 12 cents per page.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADES

There will be two in-class exams. There will be a paper on each of the works of literature (there are five of them: Locke, Hughes, Toomer, Larsen, and Wallace). There will be a Final paper (10 pages) responding to a question about the achievements of the Renaissance and its success or failures). Each exam will count for ten percent of the grade. Each paper will count as ten percent of the grade (five review papers plus the Final Paper equals sixty percent). Class attendance and participation will count as twenty percent of the course grade).

REQUIRED READINGS

David Levering Lewis               When Harlem Was In Vogue
David Levering Lewis               The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader
Alain Locke                              The New Negro
Jean Toomer                            Cane
Langston Hughes                      The Ways of White Folks
Nella Larsen                             Quicksand and Passing
Wallace Thurman                      The Blacker the Berry

W Jan 21                     On electronic reserve, read David Levering Lewis,
                                  Du Bois: The Biography of a Race, Chap. 19,
                                entitled"The Wounded World" and William Tuttle: Race Riot:
                                Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919, Chaps. 1 and 2 (to p. 66)

M Jan 26 David Levering Lewis, When Harlem Was In Vogue, Preface and

Chaps. 1-2, and David Levering Lewis, The Portable Harlem

Renaissance Reader, Introduction and articles by Du Bois,

Woodson, Domingo, Marcus Garvey and Mary White Ovington

W Jan 28 David Levering Lewis, When Harlem Was In Vogue, Chaps. 3-4

Start Alain Locke, The New Negro

There will be an exam dealing with WWI, the First Great Migration, Du Bois and Garvey soon.

From this point forward we will progress through the books and literature at a pace that the class can handle; it is impossible to say in advance, in a micro-managed way, exactly what that will be. Your job will be to keep up with me. If you are here you will know what is due, and when. If you are not here, you will bear responsibility for the consequences. All rights and privileges of the faculty are reserved. This is a preliminary syllabus only, and I reserve the right to make adjustments to the syllabus as I see fit.