Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Lahore University of Management Sciences ENGL 3812 – African Literature Spring 2015 Instructor Room No. Office Hours Email Telephone Secretary/TA TA Office 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