“Basic
concepts and representative texts for the study of colonial, post-colonial,
and/or commonwealth literatures from regions such as Africa, India, the
Pacific, and the Caribbean.”
Rather than attempt to
survey all the areas of the world that have been colonized, this course
will focus
on a specific area—Western Nigeria—for an in-depth consideration of the
actual complexities of the “basic
concepts” of postcolonial literature. We will consider the influence of
indigenous
cultural and linguistic traditions, the impact of colonization, the
pressures
of Independence and nationhood, ethnic strife and civil war as an
outcome of
colonial boundaries that ingored ancient territorial formations,
neocolonial manipulation of governments and economies by corporations
(here, the oil industry), and widespread immigration and globalization.
We will also look at the world’s second-largest film industry,
Nollywood, whose role in popular culture has, to some degree, grown out
of and overtaken that of national literatures. Our main
focus will be on two of the major ethnic groups of Nigeria: The Yoruba
of
western Nigeria, an ancient, highly centralized urban culture that
produced
Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, and the Igbo of southwestern Nigeria, an
equally
ancient but decentralized culture of semi-related, autonomous clans and
villages that produced the “Father of African literature,” Chinua
Achebe.
This will primarily be a
reading and lecture course. We will be reading a number of literary
texts, including novels, plays, poetry, essays, and
examples from oral traditions. The contexts for these readings will be
provided by lectures and by supplemental readings such as essays and
articles.
Major Assignments
Daily Reading Quizzes
Mid-term
Final
Major Texts
D. O. Fagunwa, Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmale
(Forest of 1000 Daemons: A
Hunter’s Saga) (1938)
Amos Tutola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard and his Dead Tapster
in the Dead’s Town (1952)
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1958)
Flora Nwapa, Efuru (1966)
Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horsemen (1975)
Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood (1979)
Ben Okri, The Famished Road (1991)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah (2013)
Teju Cole, Everyday is for the Thief (2014)
An extensive amount of
supplemental readings will also be required, including, short stories, poetry,
essays, and examples from oral traditions.