Recent African American Women's Fiction: Teaching and Finding Voices

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Recent African American Women's Fiction: Teaching and Finding Voices

How does a group of people assembled by a university schedule grid, a registrar's computer, and a checklist of institutional degree requirements transform itself into a community? 1 This dilemma endures in university study, and was particularly vital to a group of people enrolled in a discussion-driven course devoted to issues in "Recent African American Women's Fiction." (See Appendix A.) An old protocol preceded us, warning us that conversationalists do well to avoid subjects such as politics, religion, sex, and race. Still, that remained our charge as a community constituting itself and learning to speak. In …