Anglo-African Literature

Week 1 - 21 Feb


Introduction to the course

Course requirements: active attendance (2 absences allowed) and in-class discussions; reading the texts and answering the study questions in written; an essay


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Course objectives

The course is aimed at reading and interpretation of trailblazing texts by

authors who helped define the field of African literature in English, such

as those written by Amos Tutuola or Buchi Emecheta. Individual texts

will be discussed in the context of the writers' lives, inextricably linked to

wider social, political and cultural structures of colonial and postcolonial

times in Africa and the UK. The course will introduce a variety of genres:

essays, poems, short stories, novels, plays. This approach will enable the

students to appreciate the wealth and diversity of African literature in

English, including its shift towards a more emancipated position among

other literatures in English.

 

LITERATURE

Ashcroft, B. et al. (2001). The Empire Writes Back, London: Routledge.

Said, E. (1993). Culture and Imperialism, London: Ghatto and Windus.

Wisker, G. (2007). Key Concepts in Postcolonial Literature, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

 

1. Introduction 21 2

2. Joseph Conrad 28 2

3. Chinua Achebe 6 3

4. Derek Walcott 13 3

5. Wole Soyinka 20 3

6. Tanure Ojaide 27 3

7. Buchi Emecheta 3 4

8 Ngugi wa Thiong’o 10 4

9. Tsitsi Dangarembga 17 4

10. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 24 4

11. Amos Tutuola (self-study) 1 5

12. 8 5

13 Nadine Gordimer 15 5