HUM 364 The Harlem Renaissance

General

• Demonstrate awareness of the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities.
• Know the outlines of the political and cultural history of the Harlem Renaissance in America -- at a level consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctly characteristic of upper-division courses at comprehensive universities.
• Know characteristic institutions and achievements of artist and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance -- at a level consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctly characteristic of upper-division courses at comprehensive universities.
• Distinguish among important Harlem Renaissance artistic, musical, and literary genres and know Harlem's artists and creative works at a level consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctly characteristic of upper-division courses at comprehensive universities.
• Distinguish important themes, aesthetic characteristics, innovations, and accomplishments of Harlem Renaissance literature, art, and music at a level consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctly characteristic of upper-division courses at comprehensive universities.
• Apply Harlem Renaissance philosophies to an analysis of American cultural history (such as so-called ¿racial uplift,¿ the Talented Tenth, PanAfricanism, racialized violence against black Americans, exoticism, primitivism, patronage, etc., as responses to racism, Jim Crow law, and white supremacism) at a level consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctly characteristic of upper-division courses at comprehensive universities.
• Analyze the influence of the Harlem Renaissance on contemporary Western culture, such as how Harlem gave the world Jazz, solidified a black intelligentsia, and created a distinctive visual culture in its paintings, murals, sculpture, film, and graphic arts ¿ at a level consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctly characteristic of upper-division courses at comprehensive universities.
• Recognize, appreciate, and explain allusions to Harlem Renaissance attitudes and conventions at a level consistent with the analytical and expressive complexity and sophistication that are distinctly characteristic of upper-division courses at comprehensive universities.
• Understand those works as expressions of individual and human values within the historical and social context of the Harlem Renaissance, a period when black artists faced active racism, discrimination, and legal segregation.
• Respond critically to works in the arts and humanities with an understanding of how race and racism shape artistic creation.
• Articulate an informed personal reaction to works in the arts and humanities during the Harlem Renaissance.
• Understand the development of and changing meanings of group identities in the United States¿ history and culture, especially the largely self-defining Harlem Renaissance created by black intellectuals and artists as they combatted racism in the early twentieth century.
• Demonstrate an awareness of the individual and institutional dynamics of unequal power relations between groups in contemporary society -- particularly the conditions of racism and white supremacism during the Harlem Renaissance.
• Analyze their own attitudes, behaviors, concepts and beliefs regarding diversity, racism, and bigotry.
• Describe and discuss the experience and contributions (cultural, artistic, political, social, economic, etc.) of the many groups that shape American society and culture, in particular those groups that have suffered discrimination and exclusion.
• Demonstrate communication skills necessary for living and working effectively in a society with great population diversity and history of overt racism.