Module overview
In Africa, the ideal of freedom has the capacity to evoke multiple layers of struggle and aspiration: from state decolonisation and the end of official racial segregation, to gendered, national, economic and spiritual freedoms. Historically, the novel has been a key cultural mechanism via which African freedoms were imagined and fought for. This module scrutinises ways in which canonical African novels in English have helped to engender the continent's imaginaries of freedom. The module asks you to pay particular attention to the political and social implications of novelistic form: classroom discussions will focus on how (i) character construction and character systems; (ii) genre; (iii) style; and (iv) the interface between narration and focalisation have participated in forging new and emancipatory understandings of what 'freedom' might entail.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- an appreciation of the formal make-up of a group of canonical African novels in English; and
- An apprehension of the emancipatory implications of a group of African novels in English;
- an understanding of the relationship between form and meaning in a group of canonical African novels in English.
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- the ability to discuss the links between African freedoms and the novel form.
- Having successfully completed the module, you will be able to demonstrate: knowledge and understanding of how to discuss Africa and African cultural products without othering them unintentionally;
- familiarity with a body of African novels in English, the critical debates around them, and the conceptual vocabularies these debates entail; and
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- improved critical thinking skills.
- Having successfully completed the module, you will be able to demonstrate: improved analytical essay writing skills;
- improved attentive reading skills; and
Syllabus
The module will begin by contrasting how character construction in Amos Tutuola and Chinua Achebe is capable of being read in the light of their texts' relationship to African nationalism in the era of decolonisation. We will then move to the political implications of genre form (possibly via discussions of worldliness in the Bildungsromane by Alain Mabanckou and Chris Abani), the intersection between focalisation and gendered freedoms (possibly in novels by Buchi Emecheta and Akwaeke Emezi), and the emancipatory implications of stylistic experimentation (possibly in novels by Ayi Kwei Armah and Yvonne Vera). Indicative texts: Amos Tutuola, The Palm Wine Drinkard (1952), Alain Mabanckou, Tomorrow I'll be Twenty (2010)
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods will include lectures, seminars, and workshops on research, using theory, working across disciplines, and writing process and practice.
Learning methods will include debating, working in small groups, formulating questions as well as answers, writing in class as well as independently.
This module includes a Learning Support Hour. This is a flexible contact hour, 5 in total, designed to support and respond to the particular cohort taking the module from year to year. This hour will include (but not be limited to) activities such as language, theory and research skills classes; group work supervisions; assignment preparation and essay writing guidance; assignment consultations; feedback and feed-forward sessions.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Seminar | 11 |
| Independent Study | 125 |
| Lecture | 11 |
| Teaching | 5 |
| Total study time | 152 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Akwaeke Emezi (2018). Freshwater. London: Faber.
Amos Tutuola (1952). The Palm Wine Drinkard. London: Faber.
Phyllis Taoua. (2018). African Freedom: How Africa Responded to Independence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Buchi Emecheta (1979). The Joys of Motherhood. London: Penguin.
Assessment
Assessment strategy
The module will be assessed via two analytical essays.Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Analytical essay | 50% |
| Analytical essay | 50% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Analytical essay | 50% |
| Analytical essay | 50% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Analytical essay | 50% |
| Analytical essay | 50% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External