| CODE | ENG2052 | ||||||||
| TITLE | The Postcolonial Novel 1: African | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 2 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | English | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit examines the literary treatment of social and economic exploitation in African novels from the "Caliban" point of view with particular reference to events and inter-relationships in colonial and postcolonial communities. The following novels are for detailed study: Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart; Ngugi wa Thiong'o - Petals of Blood; Tsitsi Dangarembga - Nervous Conditions. Further Reading: Ayi Kwei Armah, Fragments (Heinemann: 1995); Bessie, Head Maru (Heinemann: 1972); Nadine Gordimer, My Son’s Story (Penguin:1991); Yvonne Vera Butterfly Burning; Ken Saro-wiwa - Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English. Study-unit Aims: - Present three major novelists from sub-saharan Africa; - To teach the most important thematic concerns of Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa thiong'o and Tsitsi Dangarembga; - To demonstrate convergences and divergences between the set texts; - To examine the narrative techniques used by the three writers and to show these these as responses to the literary representation of Africa in colonial English literature; - To teach the critical terms required for the literary analysis of the postcolonial novel. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Understand the development of the novel form in Africa; - Appreciate Things Fall Apart; Petals of Blood; Nervous Conditions; - Discern the literary treatment of political and social concerns in sub-saharan African writing; - Identify the influences between the texts studied, or how they converge or diverge in their literary construction of Africa. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Understand how social and political concerns shape the novel in Africa and other postcolonial places; - Discern the literary techniques employed by writers in the developing a literature that can stand against representations from Britain and the west; - Produce advanced textual / critical commentary upon selected texts from the literature studied. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart - Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Petals of Blood - Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions. Supplementary readings: - Ashcroft Bill, G. Griffiths & H. Tiffin Postcolonial Studies: The Key Concepts (Routledge Key Guides). - Ashcroft Bill, G. Griffiths & H. Tiffin The Empire Writes Back (Routledge:1989). - Frantz Fanon The Wretched of the Earth (Penguin: 1961). - Black Skin, White Masks (Pluto Classics: 1967). - James Booth Writers and Politics in Nigeria (Hodder & Stoughton: 1981). - David Carroll Chinua Achebe (Macmillan:1990). - Eldred D. Jones African Literature Today (Series) (Heinemann). - G.D.Killam African Writers on African Writing (Studies in African Literature) (Heinemann: 1973). - The Writings of Chinua Achebe (Heinemann: 1977). - Critical Perspectives on Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Three Continents Press: 1984). - Daniel Massa Individual and Community in Commonwealth Literature (Malta UP:1979). - E. Palmer An Introduction to the African Novel (1972). - Ann Elizabeth Willey (ed.) Emerging Perspectives on Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions. - Simon Gikandi Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Cambridge Studies in African and Caribbean Literature) (Cambridge UP: 2001). - Charles Cantalup (ed) Ngugi wa Thiong’o: texts and contexts (Africa World Press: 1995). |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Stella Borg Barthet |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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