Week 3: Raceless Literature, Raceless Society?

In June 1959, in response to Lorraine Hansberry winning the prestigious New York Drama Critics Award, award winning critic wrote that Hansberry was given the award because the expectations for Black literature are lower. He argued, to be really great, literature should be more universal. Weals wrote, "The playwright who is Negro is faced with a special problem. A [Black] playwright with serious intentions has to avoid both pitfalls, has to write not a Negro play but a play in which the characters are Negro." What if we apply that to all literature? Should Black writers avoid writing racial literature? I have three questions for you. The first two ask you to think about what the definition of African American literature. The last one asks whether we live in a raceless society.

Make sure that your response boo has two parts in the same recording: First, respectfully comment on another student's post by which you found to be incomplete, inaccurate, or otherwise noteworthy. Name the student, paraphrase or quote the comment, and then add your reaction. Simply saying that you agree or you liked it is not sufficient. Then, in the main part of the response, answer the questions that I asked. You get 2 pts for your comments to another student and up to 8 pts for your answers to my question. Both parts should be in a single boo.