Exploring the Moral Imaginary in Black Women's Fictional Literature

HDS 3194 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

This course will bring a womanist theological lens to black women’s fictional literature. Black women’s fictional literary tradition is a source for understanding black women’s social and religious experience as it creatively tells the story of how black women have navigated the multi-layered and multi-nefarious dynamics that have shaped their living.  As such, this literature provides keen insight into black women’s moral, spiritual and theological imagination. Black women’s literary tradition is, therefore, a primary source for womanist theological and ethical reflections. This course explores black women’s literary tradition as a resource for expanding the moral imaginary regarding the meaning of freedom and justice. It will utilize selected works from 18th-21st century writers such as Phyllis Wheatly, Frances Harper, Pauline Hopkins, Ann Petry, Octavia Butler and Toni Morrison.