The Writer as Witness: Mourning and Memory in the African Novel

3 units

This course introduces students to the histories and traditions of the African novel. While paying attention to the anticolonial legacies of the African novel, this course explores questions of memory and mourning in African writing. Through analyses of works by writers such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nuruddin Farah, Nadine Gordimer, Zakes Mda, J.M Coetzee, and others, we will trace how African writers have used their novels to imagine creative ways of bearing witness to their pasts and imagining their futures. In addition to novels, we will also read secondary critical writing on African literature.