Ron Strickland
English 395: Contemporary West African Literature
Fall 1997
Office: Stevenson 404
Phone: 438-7907
E-mail: rlstrick@ilstu.edu
Office Hours: 9:00-10:00 MTW
WWW URL: http://www.cas.ilstu.edu/English/Strickland/welcome.html
Required Texts:
Vincent Khapoya, The African Experience: An Introduction
Chikwenye Ogenyemi, Africa Wo/Man Palava
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Decolonizing the Mind
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o A Grain of Wheat
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God
Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman
Ayi Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born
Ama Ata Aidoo, No Sweetness Here
Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes
Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood
Buchi Emecheta, Bride Price
Reserve Texts:
V. Y. Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa
Writing African Women: Gender, Popular Culture and
Literature
Basil Davidson, The Search for Africa
Cheik Anta Diop, The African Origins of Civilization
Fanon, Frantz, Black Skins White Masks
Fanon, Frantz, The Wretched of the Earth
Appiah, Kwame, In My Father's House
Irele, Abiola, The African Experience in Literature
and Ideology
Mazrui, Ali, The African Condition
Molefi K. Asante, The Afrocentric Idea
Donna Harraway, Simians, Cyborgs and Women
Others, TBA
Course Description
This course is intended as an introduction to African
literature, but I have limited the readings for the
most part to West African Anglophone literature and
culture. All of the writers are Nigerian and
Ghanaian except for Ngugi, who is Kenyan, and the
sole East African author to be read. I have
included one of Ngugi's early English novels, and
selections from his collection of essays,
Decolonizing the Mind, along with the West African
writers because of Ngugi's importance as a
cultural activist and theorist. As a representative
sample of contemporary African literature,
therefore, the list is very incomplete-South African
and North African literatures, and the African
literatures in French and Portuguese (many of which
are available in English translation) are missing,
not to mention the vast body of literature in Arabic
and African languages. Further, even among the
texts of West African literature I have drawn a narrow
selection. I am assuming that it will be better
for students unfamiliar with African literature to
read two books by authors like Achebe and Aidoo
rather than to read a wider selection of authors.
I want the class to get a fuller sense of the range of
these authors than can be experienced by reading
only one novel.
These limitations on the range of literary texts
are partly due to my decision to include a considerable
amount of historical and theoretical material in
order to provide a richer context for our understanding
of the literary texts. In addition to our readings
from authors like Khapoya, Mudimbe, Ngugi and
Ogenyemi, we will spend considerable class time viewing
documentary and feature films from Africa
in order to develop a fuller cultural context for
the literary texts.
Assignments and Grading Formula:
First paper (6-8 pages) ................................……...............
35%
Final paper (6-8 pages) .....….............................................35%
Final Exam …………...........................................................10%
Class participation & e-mail micro-essay...............................20%
Reading and Discussion Schedule:
Introduction; Establishing E-mail Accounts
8/20
Khapoya, Chapter 1: "Africa: The Continent
and its People"
8/22
Video: Mazrui, The Africans, Vol. I
8/25
Khapoya, Chapter 2: "African Traditional Institutions"
8/27
Khapoya, Chapter 3: "Political Development
in Historic Africa"
8/29
Video: Mazrui, The Africans, Vol. 2
9/1
Labor Day Holiday
9/3
Khapoya, Chapter 4: "Colonialism and the African
Experience"
Frantz Fanon, from Black Skins, White Masks (reserve)
9/5
Video: Mazrui, The Africans, Vol 3
9/8
Khapoya, Chapter 5: "African Nationalism"
9/10
Khapoya, Chapter 6: "African Independence and
After"
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, from Decolonizing the Mind (reserve)
Reading West African Literature
9/15
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
9/17
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
9/19
Film: Keita, directed by Dani Kouyate
9/22
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
9/24
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God
9/26
Film: Yeelen, directed by Souleymane Cisse
9/29
Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God
10/1
Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God
10/3
No class
10//6
Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman
10/8
Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman
First Formal Essay Due
10/10
Film: Hyenas, directed by Djibril Diop Mambety
10/13
Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman
10/15
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, A Grain of Wheat
10/17
Film: Wend Kuni, directed by Gaston Kabore
10/20
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, A Grain of Wheat
10/22
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, A Grain of Wheat
10/24
Film: Afrique, Je Te Plumerai, directed by Jean-Marie
Teno
10/27
Ayi Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born
10/29
Ayi Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born
10/31
Film: Three Tales from Senegal, directed by Djibril
Diop Mambety and
Mansour Sora Wade
11/3
Chikwenye Ogenyemi, Africa Wo/man Palava, Introduction
and Part I
11/5
Buchi Emecheta, The Bride Price
11/7
Film: Monday's Girls, dirctected by Ngozi Onwurah
11/10
Buchi Emecheta, The Bride Price
Donna Harraway, "Reading Buchi Emecheta"
(reserve)
11/12
Buchi Emecheta, The Bride Price
11/17
Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood
Ogenyemi, Africa Wo/man Palava, Chapter 6: "The
Been-to Novel"
11/19
Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood
11/21
Ama Ata Aidoo, No Sweetness Here
11/24
Ama Ata Aidoo, No Sweetness Here
11/26
Thanksgiving Vacation
11/28
Thanksgiving Vacation
12/1
Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes
12/3
Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes
12/5
Final Exam
12/14
Final Paper Due
English 395: Contemporary West African Literature/4