Engl. 555/755
African Literatures
Spring Semester 2008
MWF 12:00-12:50, Grubbs 312
Instructor: Dr. K. Nichols
Reading Schedule
WEEK ONE
- 01/18--Introduction
Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa
WEEK TWO
- 01/21--Martin Luther King Holiday (no class)
- 01/23--Background: The Culture of West Africa (online). Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (Mali)--read 42 pages.
- 01/25--Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali --read 42 pages.
WEEK THREE
- 01/28--Chinua Achebe (Nigeria), Things Fall Apart--read 56 pages.
- 01/30--Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart--read 56 pages.
- 02/01--Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart--read 56 pages.
WEEK FOUR
- 02/04--Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart--read 56 pages.
- 02/06--Wole Soyinka (Nigeria), The Lion and the Jewel, "Morning" [Act I]--read pages 1-31.
- 02/08--Wole Soyinka, The Lion and the Jewel, "Evening" [Act II]--read pages 32-64.
WEEK FIVE
- 02/11--Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana), "Everything
Counts" 1-7 and "In the Cutting of a Drink" 30-37 and "Certain Winds from the South" 47-55 and "No
Sweetness Here" 56-74 in
No Sweetness Here and Other Stories.
PAPER ASSIGNED--due 2/18. See Writing Assignments (online). - 02/13--Ama Ata Aidoo, "Two Sisters" 87-102 and "Something to Talk about on the Way to the Funeral" 114-126 in No Sweetness Here and Other Stories.
- 02/15--Ama Ata Aidoo, "Other Versions" 127-134 in No Sweetness Here and Other Stories.
WEEK SIX
- 02/18--PAPER DUE.
Senegalese Poetry (online): Léopold Sédar Senghor; David Diop; Birago Diop; Annette M'Baye d'Erneville.
TAKE-HOME EXAM ASSIGNED--due 2/25. - 02/20--Mariama Ba (Senegal), So Long a Letter-- read 48 pages.
- 02/22--Mariama Ba, So Long a Letter-- read 48 pages.
WEEK SEVEN
- 02/25--TAKE-HOME EXAM DUE (no class).
The Middle Passage and the Land of In-between
- 02/27--Background:The Slave Trade (online) and Caribbean Interlude (online). VIDEO: Cinque.
- 02/29--Derek Walcott (St. Lucia), Ti-Jean and His Brothers, Prologue and Scene 1, in Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays.
WEEK EIGHT
- 03/03--Derek Walcott,
Ti-Jean and His Brothers, Scene 2, in Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays.
Begin reading Michelle Cliff (Jamaica), No Telephone to Heaven--read 15-20 pages. - 03/05--Derek Walcott,
Ti-Jean and His Brothers, Scene 3, in Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays.
Continue reading Michelle Cliff (Jamaica), No Telephone to Heaven--read 15-20 pages. - 03/07--Michelle Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven--read 40 pages.
WEEK NINE
- 03/10--VIDEO: Sugar Cane Alley
(107 min.) [based on Joseph Zobel (Martinique), Black Shack Alley].
Continue reading Michelle Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven--read 40 pages. - 03/12--VIDEO:
Sugar Cane Alley.
Continue reading Michelle Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven--read 40 pages. - 03/14--VIDEO:
Sugar Cane Alley.
Continue reading Michelle Cliff, No Telephone to Heaven--read 40 pages.
PAPER ASSIGNED--due 3/28. See Writing Assignments (online).
WEEK TEN
- 03/17--SPRING BREAK (no class)
- 03/19--SPRING BREAK (no class)
- 03/21--SPRING BREAK (no class)
WEEK ELEVEN
- 03/24--Bob Marley (Jamaica), Life of Bob Marley (online) and The Development of Rastafari (online) and World's Rastafarians gather in Ethiopia, jammin' to celebrate Bob (online). Five Lyrics (online)-- "Africa Unite"; "No Woman No Cry"; "Exodus"; "Redemption Song"; "I Shot the Sheriff." See also Slave Driver (lyrics) (online). Sound samples: Africa Unite (online); No Woman No Cry (online); Exodus (online); I Shot the Sheriff (online).
- 03/26--Background:Trinidad Carnival: Afri-Caribbean Resistance
(online).
The Mighty Sparrow [Slinger Francisco] (Trinidad), The Yankees Back (c. 1960) (online). Sound samples: Mighty Sparrow home page (online)-- click on "Music" and scroll down to "Don Touch Meh President" from Don Stop the Carnival and to "Congo Man." Sound Sample: Congo Man (online).
Michael Anthony (Trinidad/Tobago), "They Better Don't Stop the Carnival" (hand-out). - 03/28--PAPER DUE.
Michael Anthony, "The Chieftain's Carnival" (hand-out).
TAKE-HOME EXAM ASSIGNED--due 4/04.
WEEK TWELVE
- 03/31--Derek Walcott,
A Far Cry from Africa
(online).
Olive Senior (Jamaica), "Meditation on Yellow" (online).
Grace Nichols (Guyana), Of Course When They Ask for Poems About the 'Realities' of Black Women (online).
Lorna Goodison (Jamaica), Guinea Woman (online) and Nanny (online) and My Late Friend (online) and On Becoming a Tiger (online). - 04/02--Edwidge Danticat (Haiti), Nineteen Thirty-Seven (online).
- 04/04--TAKE-HOME EXAM DUE (no class).
The Afro-American Experience
WEEK THIRTEEN
- 04/07--Background:
Songs of the Soul: The Harlem Renaissance, 1920-1935
(online) and Red Summer (1919) (online).
Online Poetry: Claude McKay's If We Must Die and America and and Tropics in New York and Home Thoughts and Africa and Outcast and Harlem Shadows and Harlem Dancer.
Countee Cullen's "Incident" and "Heritage" (hand-outs).
PAPER ASSIGNED--due 4/14. See Writing Assignments (online). - 04/09-- Harlem Renaissance: After Midnight (online). Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues (online--11 poems) and The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (online).
- 04/11--Jazz Poetry [Brown, Bennett, Johnson, Hughes, Sandburg, Davis, Hurston] (online).
WEEK FOURTEEN
- 04/14--PAPER DUE.
VIDEO (selection): Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun. - 04/16--Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun. (Note the Hughes poem at the beginning.)
- 04/18--Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun.
WEEK FIFTEEN
- 04/21--Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun. VIDEO selection.
- 04/23--Ralph Ellison, "Flying Home" (hand-out).
- 04/25--Charles Johnson, Middle Passage--read 51 pages.
WEEK SIXTEEN
- 04/28--Charles Johnson, Middle Passage--read 51 pages.
- 04/30--Charles Johnson, Middle Passage--read 51 pages.
- 05/02--Charles Johnson, Middle Passage--read 51 pages.
WEEK SEVENTEEN
- 05/05--Suzann-Lori Parks, Venus.
(Recommended: Read this short online biography of the 'Hottentot Venus' before reading Parks' play.) - 05/07--Suzann-Lori Parks, Venus.
- 05/09--Suzann-Lori Parks, Venus.
TAKE-HOME EXAM #3 ASSIGNED--due 05/16.
FINAL EXAM: Fri., May 16. No class. E-mail me your exam, or bring a hard-copy to my office (Grubbs 450).
