140488 VO New Writing from Africa (2011W)

What are African writers thinking and writing about in the first decade of the 21st century? This Special Lecture series on recent African Anglophone writing (2000-2010) will explore current trends in African writing and criticism. We will analyze African writing as part of world literature, rather than simply part of "postcolonial literature", and analyze its thematic, aesthetic, political and material aspects. The course will include a variety of genres, such as the novel, the short story, the autobiography, bildungsroman, and the detective thriller. Topics to be discussed include writing about trauma experiences; realism versus postmodernist approaches; the question of political engagement; diasporic identities; the impact of globalization on Africa; the ethical issues around autobiographical writing and fictionalized autobiography; the issues of publishing, marketing, and audience; and the exoticization and commodification of Africa in the West. Our analyses will be informed by contemporary cultural theories, especially globalization theories, paying close attention to the way African writing re-interprets the world around us.