African WorldsModule Details

Background and Rationale

Africa has produced some of the world's outstanding literary texts, yet its literatures, cultures and people are often placed in opposition to the rest of the world. The module engages with the literary fictions by and about Africans, in order to ask: how
do these texts produce innovative and emancipatory literary worlds that may be called 'African'? Lectures and seminars will scrutinise how senses of national, regional and continental affiliation may relate themselves to transnational and global modes of belonging. We will read texts by Chinua Achebe, Bessie Head, Taiye Selasi and other stars of world literature, as well as their predecessors.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completing this module student should be able to:
 have gained an increased understanding of how to discuss Africa and its literature without unintentionally othering its cultures and peoples.
 gained an increased understanding of a group of formally innovative and politically emancipatory contemporary African fictions.
 have improved your attentive reading, critical thinking and essay-writing skills (especially with regard to argument construction), in keeping with the requirements of second-year level of university study.