Module Identifier EN34320  
Module Title POST-COLONIAL AFRICAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH  
Academic Year 2006/2007  
Co-ordinator Professor Timothy S Woods  
Semester Intended for use in future years  
Next year offered N/A  
Next semester offered N/A  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   20 Hours. Seminar. 10 x 2 hrs  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment Continuous Assessment: 2 essays (2,500 words each)100%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. Where this involves re-submission of work, a new topic must be selected. 

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module, student should typically be able to:

1. critically review and appraise the main issue in debates about African Literature;

2. relate the principal theories and practices of African postcolonial theory to the set texts;

3. describe and analyse the broad stylistic concerns of African literary forms;

4. demonstrate an understanding of the development of South African literature in its historical and political contexts;

5. exercise critical judgement on the range of literary material chosen for study;

6. engage in coherent oral discussion of the texts and background material;

7. discuss and illustrate the subject in a well-structured and argued manner.

Brief description

This option will introduce students to African literatures written in English, in the context of recent debates in postcolonial theory. It will focus upon writing and national identity, colonialism and memory and the representations of racism in African writing. Section A will concentrate on East and West African writing, and Section B will scrutinise South African writing, and the politics of apartheid and its aftermath.

Content

Section A - EAST AND WEST AFRICA: "LEARNING ME YOUR LANGUAGE"

Seminar 1: Africa and Colonialism

Seminars 2 & 3: Theorising Colonialism: Language and National Identity

Seminar 4: Chinua Achebe - "Man of Two Worlds"

Seminar 5: African Women Writing

Section B - SOUTH AFRICA: "AFRIKA MAYIBUYE"

Seminar 6: Sophiatown and "District Six": Township Renaissance and Resistance

Seminar 7: Post-Sharpeville Protest

Seminar 8: 1970s: Black Consciousness and the Soweto Era

Seminar 9. Where Do Whites Fit In?

Seminar 10: Post-Apartheid Narratives?

Reading Lists

Books
** Should Be Purchased
Adam Schwartzman (ed.) (1999) Ten South African Poets Carcanet
Alex La Guma (1986) The Time of the Butcherbird Heinemann
Chinua Achebe (1990) No Longer at Ease Heinemann
Mandla Langa (2000) The Memory of Stones David Philip Publishers
Mbulelo Mzamane (ed.) (1986) Hungry Flames and Other Black South African Short Stories Longman
Nadine Gordimer (2000) Burger's Daughter Bloomsbury
Ngugi wa Thiong'o (2002) Petals of Blood Penguin
Tsitsi Dangarembga (1988) Nervous Conditions The Women's Press

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6