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Southern Utah University
Southern Utah University
Spring Semester 2026

Folk & Oral Traditions (Face-to-Face)

ENGL 2210-01

Course: ENGL 2210-01
Credits: 3
Term: Spring Semester 2026
Department: ENGL
CRN: 12112

Course Description

This course focuses on African American oral traditions, storytelling, and other modes of community expression. Our trajectory begins in the late 19th century and moves into the 20th century and the contemporary moment, ending with an eye to Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism modes of storytelling. We will examine the nature and genre elements of oral tradition, and we will consider how the oral tradition has influenced and informed other storytelling traditions (including literature, film, and music). Additionally, we will think about the role that oral storytelling and community expression has played in African American identity formation, political expression, and resistance against social injustice.

Required Texts

All readings will be posted to Canvas.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Students will be able to understand different African American literary texts in class discussions and academic writing.

    SUU ELO: Communication: Students develop and express ideas and will be able to do so in a variety of ways, namely in writing, by speaking, visually, kinesthetically, through design or aurally.

  2. Students will be able to identify and articulate key concepts and approaches to literary study that fall under the category of folk and oral traditions.

    SUU ELO: Critical Thinking: Students demonstrate disciplined processes of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.

  3. Students will apply a range of literary studies approaches to “texts” in the folk and oral tradition through close reading, listening, writing and analysis.

    SUU ELO: Inquiry & Analysis: Inquiry: Students systematically explore issues, objects or works through the collection and analysis of evidence that results in informed conclusions or judgments. Analysis: Students break complex topics or issues into parts to gain a better understanding of them.

  4. Students will evaluate how perspective and background inform reading and interpretive experience.

    SUU ELO: Intercultural Knowledge and Competence: Students demonstrate that they possess a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.

Course Requirements

Assignments and Grade Breakdown
  • Participation and Attendance: 10%
  • Group Presentation: 20%
  • Quizzes: 10%
  • Midterm Exam: 20%
  • Exploration Paper/Creative Assignment: 15%
  • Conferences for Research Paper: 5%
  • Final Research Paper: 20%
Participation and Attendance: 10%

This grade will be determined by your regular attendance, participation, and lack of distracted behavior in our class meetings. Please be sure to come to our meetings prepared and having done the readings. Readings are due the day they are listed; for example, you will come to our meeting on 1/9 having read “The Politics of ‘Negro Folklore’” by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Group Presentation: 20%

Once per semester starting in week 3, groups of two to three students will prepare a presentation on their chosen day’s reading/material. These presentations will occur on Wednesdays. The presentations should be twenty to thirty minutes long (though they may take the entire class), and every member of the group needs to speak for an equal amount of time. We will discuss the requirements for these presentations; they are meant to help you learn the material at hand by teaching it to the class. Your presentation slides will be posted to Canvas after the presentation.

Quizzes: 10%

Over the course of the semester we will have six, in-class surprise quizzes; your lowest score will be dropped, so each quiz will be worth 2% of your grade. These quizzes are not meant to trick you, but are designed to encourage you to keep up with the readings and to come to class regularly.

Midterm Exam: 20%

The in-class midterm exam will ask you to briefly define key terms, identify the significance of selected passages, and answer short response questions.

Exploration Paper/Creative Assignment: 20%

As an alternative to a traditional essay assignment, one of our assignments will be a creative response to a text we have looked at in class. There will be several options for this assignment (prompts will be posted to Canvas and discussed in class), and you will be free to come up with your own creative assignment as well (provided you meet with me to discuss your plans).

Conferences for Research Paper: 5%

Toward the end of the semester, we will set up one-on-one meetings to conference about your final research paper, and to make sure you are ready to tackle this longer essay.

Final Research Paper: 20%

The second paper is a longer, 5-6 page essay in which you will complement and complicate your literary analysis by successfully bringing in outside research in the form of secondary criticism and/or further historical evidence. We will have a workshop in class to ensure that everyone is confident about the ins and outs of incorporating outside research into literary analysis papers. I will provide prompts for students who want more guidance, but you will be free to pursue your own topic once you’ve run it by me.

Course Outline

Week 1 – Introductions

W 1/7
Course Introduction and Welcome

F 1/9
Read: “The Politics of ‘Negro Folklore’” by Henry Louis Gates Jr

Week 2 – Past: Folk Tales and Folklore

M 1/12
Read: “Chronicles of Brer Rabbit,” and “Brer Rabbit Wins the Reward”

W 1/14
Read: “John Henry,” “The Titanic,” and “The Signifying Monkey”

F 1/26
Read: Excerpts from “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass

Week 3 – Past: Slave Narratives

(Note: Wednesday group presentations begin this week.)

M 1/19 – MLK Day - No Classes

W 1/21
Read: Excerpts from “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Ann Jacobs
Group 1 Presentation!

F 1/23
Read: “Black Spirituals as Poetry and Resistance” by Kaitlyn Greenidge

Week 4 – Past: Vernacular Communities

M 1/26
Read: “Foreword” and “Introduction” to Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston

W 1/28
Read: “Folk Tales: Chapter 1” and “Hoodoo: Chapter 1” from Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston
Group 2 Presentation!

F 1/30
Read: “Conflict and Resistance in Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men” by Susan Meisenhelder

Week 5 – Past: The Harlem Renaissance and Modern Modes of Storytelling

M 2/2
Read/view: “Art of the Harlem Renaissance” PowerPoint
Explore: The Green Book NYPL Collection

W 2/4
Read: “Let America Be America Again” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” by Langston Hughes, “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters” by Gwendolyn Brooks
Group 3 Presentation!

F 2/6
No Class Meeting

Week 6 – Present: That’s a Rap

M 2/9
Read: “Voices from the Margins: Rap Music and Contemporary Black Cultural Production” by Tricia Rose

W 2/11
Listen: To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
Group 4 Presentation!

F 2/13
Read: Introduction to The Hip Hop Wars by Tricia Rose

Exploration Paper/Creative Assignment Due on Canvas

Week 7

M 2/16 – Presidents’ Day – No Classes

W 2/18
No Class Meeting

F 2/20
No Class Meeting

Week 8 – Present: Muses and Music + Midterm

M 2/23
Listen: Selections from Tracy Chapman, John Coltrane, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott

W 2/25
In-class review for Midterm Exam

F 2/27
In-class Midterm Exam

Week 9 – Present: Performing Resistance

M 3/2
Read: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange, Introduction to page 12

W 3/4
Read: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange, page 13 to 41
Group 5 Presentation!

F 3/6
Read: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange, page 42-end
Read: “Black Women’s Lives Matter: Coming to Consciousness through Ntozake Shange’s Embodied Feminism” by Shirley Toland-Dix

Spring Break! ☼☺☼☺

Week 10 – Future: Wakanda Forever!

M 3/16
Read: “The Past is Never Past: The Call and Response between Marvel’s Black Panther and Early Black Speculative Fiction” by Valerie Babb

W 3/18
Read: Excerpts from Black Panther comics

F 3/20
No Class Meeting

Week 11 – Future: Wakanda Forever! Cntd.

M 3/23
Black Panther Screening (with in-class assignment)

W 3/25
Black Panther Screening (with in-class assignment)

F 3/27
Black Panther Discussion

Week 12 – Future: Inventions, Ideas, and Intrigue

M 3/30
Read: “Mother of Invention” by Nnedi Ookorafor

W 4/1
Read: “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler
Group 6 Presentation!

F 4/3
Read: “I Left My Heart in Skaftafell” by Victor LaValle

Week 13 – Conferences

M 4/6
Conferences

W 4/8
Conferences

F 4/10
Conferences

Week 14 – Wrapping Up

M 4/13
Conferences

W 4/15
In-class paper workshop

F 4/17 – Last Day of Class

Final Research Paper due 4/22 on Canvas

Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

I offer extensions without any grade penalty, but an extension request must be sent to me by email or Canvas message before the assignment is due. Work that is submitted late (with no extension request) will lose ten points per day that it is late, and will no longer be accepted after one week.

Please note: Zoom accommodations related to Covid restrictions for face-to-face classes have ended. There will be no live streaming or recording of class sessions.

Attendance Policy

Your success and the success of this course depend on your active participation; therefore, your regular attendance is required. A student whose absences are excessive may run the risk of receiving a lower grade or a failing grade, regardless of their performance in the class. You are allowed three unpenalized absences from class; every absence after that drops your class grade by 5 points. Missing more than six classes puts you at risk of failing the class. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to get the assignments, class notes, and course changes from a classmate.

Course Fees

None

ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.