Hum/En 46 - Race and Labor in Modern American Literature

Mass immigration and the abolition of slavery transformed the nature of the American workforce in the 19th century. Since then, American labor has been a key arena in which racial division and solidarity have been experienced and negotiated. How did racial hierarchies structure the everyday encounters and struggles of American workers? How did literary writers make sense of these tensions while imagining political alternatives? This class will provide a historical overview of how the interplay between race and labor was contested in 20th-century American literature. Authors covered may include Claude McKay, H. T. Tsiang, Muriel Rukeyser, Carlos Bulosan, and Gwendolyn Brooks.