Module manager: Professor Kate Dossett
Email: k.m.dossett@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2026/27
This module is not approved as a discovery module
The Harlem Renaissance saw a flowering of cultural production and political activity among African Americans. This unprecedented explosion of activity in music, theatre, visual art, film, poetry and fiction, as well as in more formal political arenas, found its focus in Harlem, New York City. After examining the development of Black cultural traditions through Africa, the middle passage, slavery and migration to the urban North, this module focuses on the search for an 'authentic' Black art in the 1920s and 1930s. Who defines what is authentic? How do class, age, gender and sexuality complicate and transform notions of ‘authentic Blackness?’ We will explore these questions by studying political essays, novels, poems, plays and literature, alongside artwork, blues music and theatre. We will consider the freedom dreams of writers who came to the United States from the Caribbean, as well as those who left for France, and explore the ideas of activists who believed only a radical transformation of capitalism could bring about freedom for peoples of African descent across the globe. Please note this is an optional module and runs subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose this module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.
The module aims to empower students to develop a detailed understanding of African American cultural and intellectual production in the first part of the twentieth century. Primary source analysis of a wide variety of texts -from novels, to plays, films, poems, political essays and personal correspondence- will be central to this. Students will work in small groups in seminars and on non-assessed group projects that are developed over several weeks, to develop their understanding of how texts are produced, reinterpreted and communicated in the past and the present. The module aims to support students to develop a sophisticated awareness of the means of historical production, and in particular be able to reflect on the process by which the past becomes history. Students will be encouraged to reflect on how contemporary understandings of key themes informs our understanding of the past, both by critically analysing historians’ work from different moments in the twentieth and twenty first centuries but also by reflecting on how Harlem Renaissance writers and artists are taught, studied and presented today.
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. . Evaluate the significance and compare different methods of Black cultural production during the Harlem Renaissance
2. Assess critically how changing ideas about race and gender in the twentieth and twentieth centuries have shaped historiographical debates about the Harlem Renaissance
3. Select and analyse primary sources and secondary literature in order to develop independent arguments.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module you will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
4. Analyse key concepts that frame changing understandings of race, gender, class and sexuality.
5. Identify and analyse different types of sources
6. Communicate ideas effectively and persuasively in a variety of different formats.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workshop | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Supervision | 2 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Seminar | 20 | 2 | 40 |
| Private study hours | 355.6 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 44.4 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 400 | ||
Essay:
Students are invited to attend a one-to-one meeting with the module tutor during Semester 1 to discuss their essay plans and receive feedback on their ideas for the essay. Students can choose between offering a short oral presentation or submitting a short piece of written work in advance of the meeting, instead of a presentation. As formative work that does not contribute towards the module mark this does not need to be submitted via Turnitin. Students will also prepare example essay plans in groups for feedback in class.
Portfolio:
Students will complete a portfolio plan which they will be offered feedback on through a 1-2-1 meeting with the module tutor in Semester 2.
Students will be assigned to a small peer group to support ideas development through discussion at seminars in Semester 2.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Essay | 50 |
| Coursework | Portfolio | 50 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 30/04/2026
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team