Mar 28, 2024  
Academic Catalog 2014-2015 
    
Academic Catalog 2014-2015 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

LALW207 Intro to African Literature 3 cr.


This course intends to give an overview of African Literature from the pre-colonial period to its future perspectives. It covers material dealing with oral literature, its transition to written works, its main themes and evolution through time. It develops the main ideas covering African literature in English, French, and Portuguese and connects them to African Arabic Literature. It thus offers a full coverage of Africa including the West, the East, the Center, the South and partially the North. The course is divided in two main parts. The first concentrates on oral traditions and their important genres. It depicts the production environments, oral usages in community organizations and historical conservations throughout time. The second part deals with literary challenges and productions and will give a survey of the main trends in West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa and South Africa. Amos Tutuola, Cyprian Ekwensi, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Ayi Kwei Armah, Peter Abrahams, Nadine Gordimer are among the writers whose texts offer the African survey.

Prerequisites: LALW200

Lecture/Seminar
Culturally Diverse Content
All College Elective