Download African Literature - Furrukh Khan

Lahore University of Management Sciences
ENGL 3812 – African Literature
Spring 2015
Instructor
Room No.
Office Hours
Email
Telephone
Secretary/TA
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Hours
Course URL (if
any)
COURSE BASICS
Credit Hours
Lecture(s)
Furrukh Khan
130 – SS Wing (Ground Floor)
TBA
[email protected]
4
2 lectures per
week
Duration 1hr 50mins
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The encounters of African people with Europeans and the historical as well as contemporary consequences of
this collective subjugation, including colonialism and slavery, have been central to the experiences of the
Africans.
This class is an exploration of ethical, methodological and philosophical issues in the literatures of Africa. It
will examine and critique the different ways of approaching and appreciating the various literatures produced
in the African continent. We hope to focus particularly on the features in the content and form of these
literatures which help set them aside as forming together, despite their differences, a distinct sensibility from
other world literatures
Seminars will cover a range of topics that include theories of post-coloniality, with a particular focus on the
notions of personal and national identities as well as gender and feminist discourses. It is expected that this
course will provide students with an opportunity to explore a rich selection of texts from different cultural and
national contexts, and to engage critically with related issues, such as writing and reading a post-imperial
language, ‘the writing back’ and the uses of history.
As most of the students will have but a fairly limited exposure to African literature, it is hoped that this course
will act as a critical introduction to this rich and diverse field. The topics under discussion will focus on issues
and themes with the aim of augmenting the students’ understanding of commonalties and differences faced by
individuals and nations attempting to articulate their complex identities in an era of postcolonial modernity.
COURSE PRE-REQUISITE
ENGL1000 – Introduction to Literature in English or Permission of the Instructor
GOALS
During this course, efforts will undertaken to problematise the issues of personal and national identity, the
effects of violence, nationalism, nations and patriarchal modes of gender construction. It is expected that such
deliberation exercises would not only improve students’ abilities to examine acutely controversial
propositions, but also to provide them with enough theoretical framework to take part in a constructive
discourse on such issues.
Lahore University of Management Sciences
The written work would encourage the students to utilize their research methodologies. It would also allow
them to engage much more critically with a theme or a text of their own choosing. Such exercises would not
only enhance their writing abilities for this course, they would also provide them with the research, analysis
and writing tools which can be used in any discipline they might choose to pursue.
GRADING
1. Presentation 15%
2. Midterm 30%
3. Class Participation 10%
4. Written Response Paper 10%
5. Final Exam 35%
6. More than 3 abstentions will result in a lower letter grade.
TEXTBOOKS
Reading packages have been put together for the course
LECTURES, TUTORIALS AND ATTENDANCE POLICY
1. There will be four 75-minute seminars per week. (A total of 20 sessions)
2. Each student will do a 10-15 minutes presentation.
3. Attendance is Mandatory.
TENATATIVE READING LIST
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. New York: Oxford
University Press. 1992.
Beier, Ulli (ed.). Introduction to African Literature: An Anthology of Critical Writing. Essex: Longman. 1979.
Booker, Keith M. The African Novel in English: An Introduction. Portsmouth: Heinemann. 1998.
Firchow, Peter Edgerly. Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’.
Kentucky: The University of Kentucky Press. 2000.
Jones, Eldred Durosimi, Eustace Palmer and Marjorie Jones. Critical Theory & African Literature Today.
New Jersey: African World Press. 1994.
Kenneh, Kadiatu. African Identities: Race, Nation and Culture in Ethnography, Pan-Africanism and Black
Literatures. London: Routledge. 1998.
Ogude, James. Ngugi’s Novels and African History: Narrating the Nation. London: Pluto Press.1999.
Werbner, Richard (ed.). Memory and the Postcolony: African Anthropology and the Critique of Power.
London: Zed Books. 1998.
Werbner, Richard and Terence Ranger (ed.). Postcolonial Identities in Africa. London: Zed Books. 1996.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Sr#
Topics
1
Introduction
Sessions
1
Readings
Lahore University of Management Sciences
2
Defining “Africannes”
2
Appiah, Anthony. The
Invention of Africa
Senghor, Leopold.
Negritude: A Humanism
of the Twentieth Century
3
Colonization of Africa
3-5
Clash of indigenous Africans and Eurpoean
Imperialism
4
The Post-Colonial Dilemma
Jeyifo, Biodun. ‘Okonkwo
and His Mother: Things
Fall Apart and Issues of
Gender in the
Constitution of African
Postcolonial Discourse.’
6-9
Nation and the Failure of Modern State
5
6
7
8
The Post-Colonial Dilemma
Nation and the Failure of Modern State
Living in-between. Aparthied and An
Individual’s Position in it.
The Doubly Marginalize Women and PostColonial Modernity
Fanon, Frantz. On
National Culture
Achebe, Chinua. Things
Fall Apart
10-12
13-15
16-18
19-21
22-23
24-25
Irele, Abiola. ‘The Tragic
Conflict in Achebe’s
Novels.’
Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Petals
of Blood.
Ogude, James. ‘Allegory,
Romance and the Nation:
Women as Allegorical
Figures in Ngugi’s
Novels.’
Armah, Ayi Kwei. The
Beautyful Ones Are Not
Yet Born
Coetzee, J.M. Life and
Times of Michael K.
Sitsi Dangermbga.
Nervous Conditions
Wole Soyinka: The Lion
and the Jewel
Sembene Ousmane: Xala