FPF:FPFVA031 Introduction to African Writin - Course Information

FPFVA031 Introduction to African Writing in English

Extent and Intensity

0/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).

Teacher(s)

RNDr. Martin Blaschke, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)

Guaranteed by

RNDr. Martin Blaschke, Ph.D.
Faculty of Philosophy and Science in Opava

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

there are 22 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display

Course objectives

The aim of the course is to close-read and interpret path-breaking texts of those African writers who have helped define the field of African literature in English. The writers whose texts will be analyzed include Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, and others. Each chapter outlines the life and work of a particular writer, focusing on the predominant motives and themes of their oeuvre. All texts will be discussed in the context of the writers' personal histories, always closely entwined with larger social, political and cultural structures of both colonial and post-colonial times. The course introduces writings representing various literary genres, including essays, poems, short stories, novels and plays. This approach will help the students to appreciate the complexity, variety and richness of African writing in English, as well as its evolution towards its now emancipated position within the vast filed of literature written in English.

Syllabus

• 1. Introduction: Conrad and the Colonial Representation of Africa
  2. Aimé Césaire; or Colonialism Exposed
  3. Frantz Fanon; or Blackness as a Curse
  4. Wole Soyinka; or Colonialism as Dramatic Incident
  5. Chinua Achebe; or the Image Inverted
  6. Amos Tutuola; or Interlanguage
  7. Tanure Ojaide; or Political Consciousness
  8. Buchi Emecheta; or African Motherhood
  9. Tsitsi Dangarembga; or Nervous Condition
  10. Ngugi wa Thiong'o; or the Struggle Betrayed
  11. Derek Walcott; or Poisoned Blood
  12. Nadine Gordimer; or Apartheid and its Aftermath

Literature

recommended literature
• N. A. Obers. Black Holes in Higher-Dimensional Gravity. In E. Pa. Physics of Black Holes, volume 769 of Lecture Notes in Physics, Berlin Springer Verlag. doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-88460-6_6, 2009. info
• O. Gron and S. Hervik. Einstein's General Theory of Relativity with Modern Applications in Cosmology. Springer Science+Business Media, 2007. info
• P. S. Wesson. Five-dimensional physics : classical and quantum consequences of Kaluza-Klein cosmology. 2006. info
• F. Ravndal. Scalar Gravitation and Extra Dimensions. In C. Crons. Gunnar Nordström Symposium on Theoretical Physics. page 151, 2004. info
• P. Halpern. The great beyond : higher dimensions, parallel universes, and the extraordinary search for a theory of everything. 2004. info
• M Blagojevic. Gravitation and Gauge Symmetries (Series in High Energy Physics, Cosmology and Gravitation). CRC Press, 2001. ISBN 9780750307673. info
• R. Maartens. Geometry and Dynamics of the Brane-World. In J. F. Reference Frames and Gravitomagnetism. doi: 10.1142/9789812810021_0008, 2001. info
• G. Dvali, G. Gabadadze, and G. Senjanovic. Constraints on Extra Time Dimensions. World Scientific Publishing Co, 2000. info
• F. Larsen. Kaluza-Klein Black Holes in String Theory. In K. Cheu. Particles, Strings and Cosmology. 2000. info
• M. J. Duff. Kaluza-Klein theory in perspective. 1995. info
• J. D. Norton. Einstein and Nordström: Some Lesser-Known Thought Experiments in Gravitation. 1993. info
• A. Pais. Subtle is the Lord. The science and the life of Albert Einstein. 1982. info
• Ch. H. Hinton. Scientific romances: first and second series. 1976. info
• C. W. Misner, K. S. Thorne, and J. A. Wheeler. Gravitation. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Co., 1973. info
• H. Carrington and H. Houdini. The physical phenomena of spiritualism, fraudulent and genuine : being a brief account of the most important historical phenomena, a criticism of genuine : being a brief account of the most important historical phenomena, a criticism of their evidential value, and a complete exposition of the methods employed in fraudulently reproducing the same. 1907. info

Language of instruction

English

Further comments (probably available only in Czech)

The course can also be completed outside the examination period.

Teacher's information

- 70% attendance in classes
- active participation in discussions
- critical essay of 2-3 pages debating a chosen text

• Enrolment Statistics (Winter 2018, recent)
  
• Permalink: https://is.slu.cz/course/fpf/winter2018/FPFVA031