| Module Identifier |
EN34320 |
| Module Title |
POST-COLONIAL AFRICAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH |
| Academic Year |
2003/2004 |
| Co-ordinator |
Professor Timothy S Woods |
| Semester |
Semester 1 |
| Course delivery |
Seminars / Tutorials | 20 Hours Seminar. 10 x 2 hrs |
| Assessment |
| Assessment Type | Assessment Length/Details | Proportion |
|---|
| Semester Assessment | Continuous Assessment: 2 essays (2,500 words each) | 100% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. | |
|
Learning outcomes
On completion of this module, student should typically be able to:
- critically review and appraise the main issue in debates about African Literature
- relate the principal theories and practices of African postcolonial theory to the set texts
- describe and analyse the broad stylistic concerns of African literary forms
- demonstrate an understanding of the development of South African literature in its historical and political contexts
- exercise critical judgement on the range of literary material chosen for study
- engage in coherent oral discussion of the texts and background material
- 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"
1. Africa and Colonialism. Introduction: Africa and its (post)colonial history
2-3. Theorising Colonialism: Language and National Identity. Text: Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Petals of Blood (Heinemann)
4. Chinua Achebe - "Man of Two Worlds". Text: Chinua Achebe, No Longer at Ease (Picador)
5. African Women Writing. Text: Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (The Women's Press)
Section B - SOUTH AFRICA: "AFRIKA MAYIBUYE"
6. Sophiatown and "District Six": Township Renaissance and Resistance. Text: Alex La Guma, The Time of the Butcherbird (Heinemann)
7. Post-Sharpeville Protest. Text: Mbulelo Mzamane, ed, Hungry Flames and Other Black South African Short Stories (Longman)
8. 1970s: Black Consciousness and the Soweto Era. Text: Adam Schwartzman (ed.), The South African Poets (Carcanet)
9. Where Do Whites Fit In? Text: Nadine Gordimer, Burger's Daughter (Penguin)
10. Post-Apartheid Narratives? Text: Mandla Langa, The Memory of Stones (Lynne Rienner Publishers)
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6