EWL 365 Reading Contemporary Africa
This course will introduce you to a variety of 21st Century Francophone and Anglophone African narratives as expressed in poetry, prose, art, films, and new media by contemporary Africa-based and Diasporic authors. Our discussions of the texts themselves will focus on a series of key themes connected to questions of identity as voiced, (re)negotiated, and (re)configured in local and global contexts. The importance of elements including but not limited to languages, migrations, histories, politics, economies, religions, aesthetics, genres, philosophies, genders, sexualities, (sub)cultures, and contemporary social issues will be considered in our analyses. In following with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s warnings of “Danger of the Single Story,” this course will examine the specificities of the realities and imaginaries communicated by writers and artists working under the homogenizing and oversimplifying label “African.” All texts for this course will be available in English. Students wishing to read Francophone texts in French have the option to do so. Written assignments may be completed in French or in English.
Cross Listed Courses
Same as
FREN 365