Discussion of Harlem Renaissance Literature
8-weeks | Available (Membership Required)
This course explores the literature of the Harlem Renaissance Era and the results of the Great Northern Movement. The play and poetry we will be reading force us to question the impact of institutional racism, present in the very fabric of our society, on the goals and aspirations of “people of color”, both at the time they were written, as well as in the present day. They address most of the issues and ideas presented in literature of “the Other”, such as masking, veiling, double consciousness, the role of religion, the?search for El Dorado, the?Sisyphean experience, and assimilation.
- Suggested Readings: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and Selected Poems by Langston Hughes
Jacqueline Goffe-McNish
Dr. Jacqueline Goffe-McNish,PhD, was a professor of English and Humanities at Dutchess Community College for thirty-two years. She graduated from St. John Fisher University in Rochester and SUNY Brockport. Her master’s thesis was “The Teaching of African American Literature in High Schools”. She completed a Doctorate in Education at St. John Fisher University. Her dissertation research topic was “The Retention of Faculty of Color at Community Colleges”. She has written two textbooks. She is the superintendent of Sunday school at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church. She is actively involved with Poughkeepsie AAUW and served as its president in 2012 and 2013.