AFR 140
Revolutionary African Literatures
Last Offered Spring 2009
Division II
Cross-listed COMP 218 / ENGL 250
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

This course will serve as an introduction to postcolonial African literatures, and it organizes a set of African novels, essays, and poetry around the concept of revolution. In this course, we will attend to fiction that address pre-revolutionary, revolutionary, and post-revolutionary moments in various African societies. In addition to representations of social/political revolutions (decolonization, civil war, feminism, etc.), this course will also consider literary ones (realism, postmodernism, etc.). In doing so, we will consider a variety of questions: What is “revolutionary” literature? To what extent can a literary form be political/revolutionary? What is the relationship between politics and aesthetics? Readings will likely include selections from among Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Njabulo Ndebele, Ama Ata Aidoo, Bessie Head, Nuruddin Farah, Ayi Kwei Armah, Dambudzo Marechera, and Tsitsi Dangarembga.
The Class: Format: lecture/discussion
Limit: 25
Expected: 15
Class#: 3001
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: evaluation will be based upon attendance and participation, reading responses, class presentations, one midterm essay, and one final research paper
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: first- and second-year students
Distributions: Division II
Notes: meets Division 2 requirement if registration is under AFR; meets Division 1 requirement if registration is under COMP or ENGL
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
COMP 218 Division II AFR 140 Division II ENGL 250 Division II
Attributes: AFR Interdepartmental Electives
INST African Studies Electives

Class Grid

Updated 5:21 pm

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