Intercultural Literature Studies: Literature and Politics in Contemporary Africa

On completion of the course, students shall be able to:

• discuss, from a theoretical and critically based perspective, political, cultural and ethical questions of relevance for contemporary African societies, reflected through literature from parts of Africa where Arabic is spoken and parts where European languages are spoken
• argue in a clear and well-founded manner for their own analysis of literary depictions of African societies
• describe and evaluate the analyses of others of literary depictions of African societies
• critically reflect on key themes in literary depictions of African societies.

The course examines key literary themes relating to politics in contemporary Africa, where politics is understood to be the assumptions and principles concerning power and status within a society. These themes are studied through a selection of fictional works written in English or translated into English. The course gives students the skills to analyse the ideological content of these texts and to evaluate their relevance for an understanding of modern African societies.

Student performance is assessed based on their active participation in seminars, oral presentations and written assignments.

The course consists of lectures and obligatory seminars. The language of instruction is English.

The Swedish grades A–F.