Syllabus
African Literature Syllabus Q4 2008-2009
Carol Gates
The literature of Africa is based of cultural myths, legendsand icons that are unfamiliar
to us in the West. We will explore the themes inherent in the literature of this continent,as well as compare the differences that exist between the countries’ literatureacross the continent. We will readshort stories, books and plays, as well as listen to music from around thecontinent. These will be analyzedthrough in-class essays and research papers.
Goals:
Students should be able to
Keep in mind where the author is from, and how that mightinfluence their writing.
Discuss major themes in African literature.
Relate differing themes to a particular place or people.
Analyze what you have read by discussing the character’spoint of view, the plot, the place, as well as the themes.
Know where most countries in Africa actually are.
Focus Skills;
Appreciate and understand different perspectives.
Communicate effectively.
Grading ;
Participation 20 %
Meeting reading assignmentdeadlines 10 %
Quality of contributions to classdiscussions 10 %
Papers 20%
Writing assignments 30 %
Tests and quizzes 10 %
Wild Bird assignment. (two) 10%
Final Project 10 %
Participationincludes finishing the readings on time and your subsequent contributions tothe class discussions. There willbe a lot of reading, so you should plan accordingly. Expect to spend 45 minutes to an hour each night reading,longer on the weekends.
Papers There will be two paper assignments for this class,each three pages long.
Format papers in MLA, 1 inch borders on all sides, Timessize 12 font, double space (no quadruple space).
Each paper has a single-spaced abstract at the top (6-9sentence summary of the paper), then double space and begin the paper. Theannotated bibliography goes at the end of the paper, on a separate page, anddoes not count toward the number of pages in the paper.
The bibliography should be followed by at least a paragraphdescribing what information you got from it, and an assessment of the qualityof the work for your purposes.
Writing assignments
There will be frequent in-class writing assignments, andoccasional homework writing assignments. These will be graded under this category. For all assignments, if typing them, use MLA format (see: http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c08_o.html). You will be graded on spellingand punctuation as well as the quality of your ideas and the quality of yourwriting.
Portfolio Item
Any of the written essays or papers can be portfolio items,as can both of the papers.
Tests and quizzeswill be written tests, short essays with several questions or five paragraph ona single question.
Wild Bird assignments
These two assignments incorporatethe use of media other than writing to express the ideas in the variousliterary pieces we will read. Thismay be a musical composition or a visual expression of the piece.
Final Project
This is the exit project that takesthe place of an exhibition. It ison a topic of your choosing. Itmay be a talk, given to the class, a teach-in, where you spend a day of classteaching about a topic in African lit., a paper, a creative writing piece, apoem, etc. Like an exhibition, itis a sort of final exam that proves you have attained mastery of the subjectmatter of this class.
Due Dates:
Monday, April 27 - Paper # 1
Monday, May 4 – First Wild Birdassignment
Monday, May 11 – Paper # 2
Tuesday, May 18 – Second Wild Birdassignment
Tuesday, May 26 – Final Project
Readings will be from the following books. Others may be added.
The titles in bold will be read in their entirety.
Abouet, Marguerite and Oubrerie, Clement. Aya. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2008
Cote d’Ivoire. First English edition in 2007, earlier in French. This husband and wifeteam currently live outside of Paris, France.
Achebe, Chinua. Chike and the River. CapeTown: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Nigeria. First published in 1966. Achebe is a member of the Igbo people, and grew up insoutheastern Nigeria
Eberhardt, Isabelle. The Oblivion Seekers. San Francisco: City Lights, 1991.
Algeria and Tunisia. First published in French in 1920 under the title Dans l’Ombre Chaude del’Islam (but much altered in our version, to make it contain more of heroriginal writing). Translated intoEnglish by Paul Bowls. Edited byLawrence Ferlinghetti. Eberhardtis a Swiss expatriate, who lived in Africa, and died there in 1904.
Tutuola, Amos. The Palm Wine Drinkard. NewYork: Grove Press,
Nigeria. Firstpublished in 1952, the author writes in English. Tutuola is a member of the Yoruba people, from a city insouthwestern Nigeria.
Mrabet, Mohammed. M’Hashish San Francisco: City LightsBooks, 1984.
Morocdo. Firstpublished in the US in 1969. Translated from the Moghrebi by Paul Bowls. Edited by LawrenceFerlinghetti. Mrabet is member ofthe Berber people, from the Beni Ouraaghil tribe in the Rifian Mountains. He is also an artist.
Salih, Tayeb. The Wedding of Zein and Other Stories. Boulder: Lynne Reinner,1999.
Sudan, first published in Arabic. Salih died this pastFebruary. He came from northernSudan, in an area of farming, where religious education was very important. Thestory Urs al’Zein was made into afilm by the Kuwaiti director Khalid Al Siddiq, who won an award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Niane, Djibril Tamsir (D.T.) Sundiata, An Epic of Old Mali. Harlow: Longman, 1992.
Mali. Actually,I hardly know what to tell you. The story of this African king is more that 700 years old. The author, Niane, is from Senegal, andwrote this work in the Malinke language. He says he got this story from a griot, or story teller (or musician), from the villiage of Djjeliba Koro, inthe northeast part of Guinea (which is bordered by both Mali and Senegal).
