BLKST 340Contemporary African Literature and Film

Drawing on a wide range of genres that includes prose fiction, plays, popular fiction, and films/videos, this course will examine the development and growth of modern African literature and film (in English or in translation to English) from the late 1950s to the present and from different regions of the continent. Students will develop introductory knowledge of the varied historical and cultural contexts that shaped the rise and global circulation of contemporary African literature and film since the mid-20th century. Students will build their knowledge of the unique stylistic techniques that major writers and film-makers from Africa have used since the 1950s, and will increase their capacity for critical assessment of themes relating to colonization in Africa, cultural nationalism, politics and mis-governance, gender and identity politics, and globalization.