A Novel Way to Learn: Black Educational Fiction from Reconstruction to the Harlem Renaissance
A NOVEL WAY TO LEARN: BLACK EDUCATIONAL FICTION FROM RECONSTRUCTION TO THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE BY ARJA KAROLIINA ENGSTROM DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Dale M. Bauer, Chair Associate Professor Stephanie Foote Assistant Professor Nancy Castro Associate Professor Peter Mortensen ii Abstract A Novel Way to Learn examines the development of black fiction in tandem with black educational advancement from Reconstruction to the Harlem Renaissance. By reading education in the novels of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Sutton Griggs, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Jessie Redmon Fauset, I reveal an underexplored genealogy of black educational thought from initial calls for educational access to more independent, ideological, and pragmatic modes embodied in the texts of black fiction writers. Ultimately, I argue that black educational fiction constitutes a key strand of African American writing before the Harlem Renaissance. iii Acknowledgements It is only thanks to the wisdom, generosity, and guidance of many people in academia that I can write these pages of appreciation. I want to thank my doctoral committee: my director Dale Bauer, Stephanie Foote, Nancy Castro, and Peter Mortensen. I will always be grateful for Dale’s guidance, intellect, and vision as well as her kindness and patience. She is truly phenomenal, and I could not have completed this project had she not been my advisor. Stephanie Foote is second to none when it comes to seeing the potential for greatness in a draft, and I am very lucky to have had her read my work.
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