Focusing on the genre of the African American slave narrative, in its original form before the end of the Civil War as well as its modern configurations, this course will explore the themes of writing and self- representation, particularly as they are informed by issues of race and gender; these intersectional critical lenses will be used throughout the semester. The earliest authors we will study wrote autobiography during a time in which laws not only forbade slave literacy but also denied enslaved people fully human status: we will investigate the significance of these literary acts of resistance given the social, legal, political, and material contexts in which they wrote. Taking up contemporary “neo-slave narratives,” we will then explore how recent Black-authored renditions of slavery transform the genre to meet the needs of their moment. Through this work, students will think critically about how slavery has been defined, debated, represented, resisted, and remembered in American culture—and about how its legacy continues to shape our present.