Universität Wien

140058 VO African Literature: Past and Present (2019W)

4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 14 - Orientalistik, Afrikanistik, Indologie und Tibetologie

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Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Monday 07.10. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 14.10. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 21.10. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 28.10. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 04.11. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 11.11. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 18.11. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 25.11. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 02.12. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 09.12. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 16.12. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 13.01. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 20.01. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

AIMS:
• Identify, analyse and understand key political, aesthetic and philosophical issues in modern African literature
• apply theory to a variety of literary texts and reflect critically on the relations between primary texts and relevant secondary texts
• discriminate between ideas, define personal positions and justify them intellectually

CONTENT: This introductory lecture series will trace the birth and development of modern African literature (fiction, non-fiction, and poetry), exploring a wide range of political, aesthetic and philosophical issues. The political issues include for example:
• language choice
• literature as an instrument of anti-colonial resistance and decolonization
• the construction of ethnic and national identities in literature
• the clash between tradition and modernity
• the representation of women and feminism
• the criticism of African literature
• the process of canonization and the material aspects of publishing
The aesthetic issues include topics such as:
• the influence of African orality and Western genres on postcolonial African literary aesthetics (appropriation vs. abrogation)
• social realism versus modernism
• writing back
• the Black writing model
• the influence of African orality and Western forms on the African novel
• the representation of trauma
• the style and function of popular literature
The philosophical issues to be explored include:
• African identity and the postcolonial self
• the position of African literature in world literature
• the “Afropolitan” and diasporic identities versus Afrocentric and local ones
• the influence of liberal humanist, feminist, Marxist, post-structuralist, postcolonialist and postmodernist discourses on African identities and literatures

METHOD: Lecture

Assessment and permitted materials

Exam or final essay (3500 words).

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Exam (at least 50% correct answers) or final essay (3500 words). 3 correction attempts are possible.

Examination topics

• literature as an instrument of anti-colonial resistance and decolonization
• the construction of ethnic and national identities in literature
• language choice
• the clash between tradition and modernity
• the representation of women and feminism
• the criticism of African literature
• the process of canonization and the material aspects of publishing
• the influence of African orality and Western genres on postcolonial African literary aesthetics (appropriation vs. abrogation)
• social realism versus modernism
• writing back
• the Black writing model
• the influence of African orality and Western forms on the African novel
• the representation of trauma
• the style and function of popular literature
• African identity and the postcolonial self
• the position of African literature in world literature
• the “Afropolitan” and diasporic identities versus Afrocentric and local ones
• the influence of liberal humanist, feminist, Marxist, post-structuralist, postcolonialist and postmodernist discourses on African identities and literatures

Reading list

Primary:
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1958)
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, The River Between (1965)
Buchi Emecheta, Joys of Motherhood (1979)
Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (1989)
Yvonne Vera, Without a Name (1994)

Secondary:
Tejumola Olaniyan and Ato Quayson, eds., African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory (Blackwell, 2007)
Gikandi, Simon and Abiola Irele, eds. The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature (2004)
Tanure Ojaide and Joseph Obi, Culture, Society and Politics in Modern African Literature: Texts and Contexts (2002)

Association in the course directory

ÜAL1, ÜAL1/2, ÜAL2/1, ÜAL2/2, EC-148, EC-647, SAL.VO.1, SAL.VO.2

Last modified: Fr 12.05.2023 00:16