African Freedoms and The Novel

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.
• familiarity with a body of African novels in English, the critical debates around them, and the conceptual vocabularies these debates entail; and
• 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;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Having successfully completed the module, you will be able to demonstrate: improved analytical essay writing skills;
• improved critical thinking skills.
• improved attentive reading skills; and

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)

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.

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Amos Tutuola (1952). The Palm Wine Drinkard. London: Faber.

Akwaeke Emezi (2018). Freshwater. 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 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.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

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.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External