Universität Wien

143201 VO Race, Gender and Sexuality in African Literature (2020S)

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

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Details

max. 50 participants
Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Monday 09.03. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 16.03. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 23.03. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 30.03. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 20.04. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 27.04. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 04.05. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 11.05. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 18.05. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 25.05. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 08.06. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 15.06. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03
  • Monday 22.06. 13:00 - 14:30 Inst. f. Afrikawissenschaften, Seminarraum 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2M-O1-03

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This course will explore the many ways in which "race", "gender" and "sexuality" have come into being through each other and governed political identities and relationships in colonial and postcolonial Africa, as reflected in African anglophone literature of the last 100 years. "Race", "gender" and "sexuality" will be seen as interchangeable terms in the patriarchal enterprise of colonialism and the resistance against it, and as over-loaded concepts that continue to impact upon the understanding of what it means to be "African". Topics to be discussed include the gendered imagination of imperial adventure novels; the marginalization of femininity by both colonial and African nationalist discourses; feminist rewritings of African nationalism; the sexualized perception of mixed-raced identities in southern Africa; the sexualization and commodification of the African female body in the West; gay, lesbian and transgender African writing as expressions of resistance against heteronormative patriarchal discourses. Through the trope of dissident desire, the creolisation and hybridity of culture and identity in Africa will be analyzed in all of its meanings, both positive and negative. Desire will be explored as both a destructive force and a boundary-breaking energy that can redefine both the body and the nation through an imaginary encounter with otherness.

Assessment and permitted materials

Written exam
OR
Argumentative essay, 3500 words

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

- identify, analyse and understand key theoretical and historical issues in the field of postcolonialism
- understand the operations of race and gender categories in African literature, history and philosophy
- analyse key African literary works in terms of their social and historical context
- apply close reading skills to a variety of literary texts
- reflect critically on the relations between primary texts and relevant secondary texts
- discriminate between ideas and define personal positions and justify them intellectually
- produce well-structured, relevant arguments with an appropriate intellectual framework

Examination topics

Exam questions will be given in advance. Exam questions include Yes/NO, multiple choice, open question and short text analysis.

Essay topics will be given mid-semester. All essay topics reflect lecture topics.

Reading list

Primary texts:
H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines (1885)
Sarah Gertrude Millin, God's Step-Children (1924)
Olive Schreiner, From Man to Man (1926)
Doris Lessing, The Grass is Singing (1950)
Dambudzo Marechera, The House of Hunger (1978)
K. Sello Duiker, Thirteen Cents (2000)
K. Sello Duiker, The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001)
J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace (1998)
Kopano Matlwa, Coconut (2007)
J. M. Coetzee, Boyhood (2007)
Elleke Boehmer, “Off-white” (2010)
Alexandra Fuller, “Fancy Dress” (2003)
Doris Lessing, “The Great Chief Mshlanga” (1951)
Akwaeke Emezi, Freshwater (2018)
Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko, Waafrika 123 (2016)
Stanley Kenani, “Love on Trial” (2012)
Monica Arac de Nyeko, “Jambula Tree” (2006)

Association in the course directory

ÜAL 1, ÜAL 2, SAL-A, SAL-B
EC-148, EC-647
MA: SAL.VO.1, SAL.VO.2
SPL12: M-07 für MA 844

Last modified: Fr 12.05.2023 00:17