Engl. 571-01 International Literature
Theme: Back-to-Africa
Reading Schedule
African Homeland: Pre-Colonial to Post-Colonial
Week One
- 8/23 - Introduction. See Map of Africa.
- 8/25 - Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (Mali) 84 p--read 42 pages.
- 8/27 - Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (Mali)--finish.
Week Two
- 8/30 -
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Nigeria) 209 p--read 41 pages.
Background: History of Nigeria. See also William Butler Yeats' The Second Coming.
- 9/01 - Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Nigeria)--read 41 pages.
- 9/03 - Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Nigeria)--read 41 pages.
Week Three
- 9/06 - LABOR DAY HOLIDAY (no class)
- 9/08 - Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Nigeria)--read 41 pages.
- 9/10 - Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Nigeria)--finish.
Week Four
- 9/13 - Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman (Nigeria) 65 p--read 30 pages.
- 9/15 - Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman (Nigeria)--finish.
- 9/17 - South African background:
The History of Apartheid in South Africa;
Nadine Gordimer;
Njabulo Simakahle Ndebele (online).
Nadine Gordimer's Once Upon a Time (online) and Njabulo Simakahle Ndebele's "Death of a Son" in Global Voices, eds. Arthur W. Biddle and others, pp. 391-99 (on Library Reserve)
PAPER ASSIGNED: Due Fri., 9/24. See Writing Assignments. (online)
Week Five
- 9/20 - VIDEO: Ousmane Sembene, writer/director, Moolaadé (Senegal) 124 minutes.
Background: Senegal Information.
- 9/22 - VIDEO: Ousmane Sembene, writer/director, Moolaadé (Senegal)
- 9/24 - VIDEO: Ousmane Sembene, writer/director, Moolaadé (Senegal)
PAPER DUE
TAKE-HOME EXAM #1 ASSIGNED: Due Fri., 10/01.
Week Six
- 9/27 - Ama Ata Aidoo, The Dilemma of a Ghost (Ghana) 54 p--read 25 pages.
Background: Exploring Ghana.
- 9/29 - Ama Ata Aidoo, The Dilemma of a Ghost (Ghana)--finish.
- 10/01 - TAKE-HOME EXAM #1 due (no class).
Negritude and Pan-Africanism
Week Seven
- 10/04 -
Background: Negritude Movement.
African Poetry (online):
Léopold Sedar Senghor, Black Woman and Prayer to Black Masks and To New York; (Senegal);
Birago Diop, Spirits (Senegal)--scroll down the page;
Kofi Awoonor, The Weaver Bird (Ghana);
Dennis Brutus, Sequence for South Africa (S. Africa);
Abioseh Nicol, The Meaning of Africa (Sierra Lione)-- (in the PDF print box, type in pages 184-186 and then click on "OK");
Noémia de Sousa If You Want to Know Me (Mozambique)--scroll down the page;
- 10/06 -
Background: A History of Pan-Africanism.
Afro-Caribbean Poetry (online):
Aimé Césaire, passage from Return to My Native Land --scroll down the page (highlight and print), or in Global Voices, eds. Arthur W. Biddle and others, pp. 88-89, lines 1-16 (on Library Reserve) (Martinique);
Nicolás Guillén, Ballad of the Two Grandfathers--scroll down the page (highlight and print), or in Global Voices, eds. Arthur W. Biddle and others, pp. 191-193 (on Library Reserve) (Cuba);
Nancy Morejon, I Love My Master (Cuba);
Derek Walcott, A Far Cry from Africa and Love after Love (St. Lucia);
Lorna Goodison, Nanny and 3 poems ("My Mothers's Sea Chanty"; "Guinea Woman"; "I Am Becoming my Mother") and About The Tamarind (Jamaica) .
- 10/08 - Background:
Bob Marley and Marcus Garvey and
The Development of Rastafari
(Jamaica)
Marcus Garvey, Africa For The Africans
Bob Marley: Africa Unite1 (lyrics) and Africa Unite2 (YouTube); Rastaman Chant (lyrics); Redemption Song (lyrics).
PAPER #2 ASSIGNED: Edwidge Danticat, selections from Krik? Krack!. Due: 10/25. See Writing Assignments.
Background: History of Haiti.
Week Eight
- 10/11 - Edwidge Danticat, "Children of the Sea" in Krik? Krack! (Haiti) 1-29.
- 10/13 - Edwidge Danticat, "Between the Pool and the Gardenias" in Krik? Krack! (Haiti) 89-100.
- 10/15 - Edwidge Danticat, "New York Day Women" in Krik? Krack! (Haiti) 143-54.
Week Nine
- 10/18 - VIDEO: Black Orpheus, an adaptation of Orfeu da Conceição by
Vinicius de Moraes (Brazil)--100 minutes.
Background: Orpheus--Greek myth; Black Orpheus--movie.
- 10/20 - VIDEO: Black Orpheus, an adaptation of Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes (Brazil)
- 10/22 - FALL BREAK (no class)
Week Ten
- 10/25 - PAPER #2 due. In-class discussion of Black Orpheus.
- 10/27 - Maryse Condé, The Last of the African Kings (Guadeloupe) 216 p --41 pages.
- 10/29 - Maryse Condé, The Last of the African Kings (Guadeloupe) --41 pages.
Week Eleven
- 11/01 - Maryse Condé, The Last of the African Kings (Guadeloupe) --41 pages.
TAKE-HOME EXAM #2 ASSIGNED: Due Mon., 11/08.
- 11/03 - Maryse Condé, The Last of the African Kings (Guadeloupe) --41 pages.
- 11/05 - Maryse Condé, The Last of the African Kings (Guadeloupe) --finish.
Week Twelve
- 11/08 - TAKE-HOME EXAM #2 due (no class).
African-American Journeys
- 11/10 - Background:
Great Day in Harlem: Birth of the Harlem Renaissance;
Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers; Harlem[Dream Deferred]; Let America be America Again; Me and my Song--scroll down the page; Africa;
Read Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood; or, The Hidden Self 193 p--read 39 pages.
- 11/12 - Claude McKay,
Africa;
Outcast;
America;
If We Must Die;
Exhortation: Summer 1919;
Enslaved.
Continue reading Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood; or, The Hidden Self--read 39 pages.
Week Thirteen
- 11/15 - Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood; or, The Hidden Self--read 39 pages.
- 11/17 - Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood; or, The Hidden Self--read 39 pages.
- 11/19 - Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood; or, The Hidden Self--finish.
Week Fourteen
- 11/22 - Robert Hayden, Middle Passage;
O Daedalus, Fly Away Home;
Runagate Runagate.
Gwendolyn Brooks, The Near-Johannesburg Boy; To The Diaspora.
- 11/24 - THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY (no class)
- 11/26 - THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY (no class)
Week Fifteen
- 11/29 - VIDEO: Lorraine Hansberry, Raisin in the Sun--about 100 min.
Read Charles Johnson, Middle Passage 209 p--read 35 pages.
- 12/01 - VIDEO: Lorraine Hansberry, Raisin in the Sun
Continue reading Charles Johnson, Middle Passage--read 35 pages.
- 12/03 - VIDEO: Lorraine Hansberry, Raisin in the Sun
Continue reading Charles Johnson, Middle Passage--read 35 pages.
Week Sixteen
- 12/06 - Charles Johnson, Middle Passage--read 35 pages.
- 12/08 - Charles Johnson, Middle Passage--read 35 pages.
TAKE-HOME EXAM #3 ASSIGNED: Due Fri, 5/14.
- 12/10 - Charles Johnson, Middle Passage--finish.
FINAL EXAM: TAKE-HOME EXAM #3 DUE: Wed., 12/15 (no class)
Background graphics by Binta Designs
