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SoSe 21: PS-Surveying English Literatures: Visions of Africa - Africa and/in British Fiction

Lukas Lammers

Comments

“Visions of Africa” focuses on the relation between Great Britain and Africa. The title is meant to gesture to two perspectives: the significance of ‘Africa’ (as an often rather abstract, racist idea) in the British imaginary and the influence of British colonialism on numerous African cultures and literatures.

By looking at some key events, or ‘phases’, in the relation between Great Britain and parts of Africa this course seeks to introduce students to literature from and about parts of Africa as well as to the history of British colonialism in Africa more generally. This will include exploring some central concepts of Postcolonial Studies – such as negritude, afropolitanism, and postcolonial melancholia – which center on Africa and the ‘black experience’ in the UK. Rather than focusing on writing from and about one particular part of Africa, the seminar seeks to offer a glimpse of the diversity of African writing in English and the impact of writings about Africa on British society. We will touch on issues such as blackness and British identity, intersectionality (primarily race, class, and gender), and the politics of publication. In order to accomplish this, students will need to be willing to handle a rather significant amount of reading. In addition to the theoretical texts, we will read three novels (see below), a selection of excerpts from novels, as well as a few short stories and poems.

The seminar will consist of a series of live sessions via WebEx, interspersed with blocks of guided self-study and smaller group projects with short presentations, as well as the usual final essay.

The longer texts must be obtained individually by all students. The shorter texts will be made available through Blackboard. Recommended editions (for Equiano this precise edition is required):

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. 1959. London: Penguin, 2001.
Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative. 1789. Oxford World’s Classics. Ed. Carey, Brycchan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Mohamed, Nadifa. Black Mamba Boy. London: Harper Collins, 2010.