Fall 2019  |  AFRO 5625 Section 001: Women Writers of Africa and the African Diaspora (32973)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Discussion
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
09/03/2019 - 12/11/2019
Tue 02:45PM - 05:30PM
UMTC, East Bank
Blegen Hall 225
Enrollment Status:
Open (3 of 15 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
In Coming to America, a 1988 film which blends humor and romance with some fairly pertinent observations, an African prince travels to Queens, NY, in search of a bride who will be both an equal and valued partner in life's great adventure. In the thirty years since, the African immigrant story has become an intrinsic component of the booming canon of contemporary American immigrant literature, which includes such names as Edwidge Danticat, Jhumpa Lahiri, Junot Diaz, Chang-rae Lee, Gary Shteyngart, and others. This literary phenomenon mirrors trends identified in surveys and other similar data gathering activities. According to a 2009 study of the Migration Policy Institute, for instance, more than 75% of the foreign born African population in the United States has arrived since 1990. For these newcomers, Africa is not an imagined ancestral "motherland" impressed in collective memory. Nor is it a faraway continent of parental origin whose negative media portrayal at times foments a problematic identification. Africa is a lived space, a home left behind, the anchor of childhood memories and - all too frequently - a horizon that perpetually beckons. As for America, it is the idealized land of freedom, prosperity, and opportunity that sometimes gives more than it promised, but oftentimes disenchants. This course situates gender squarely within the interlocking contexts of dynamic, complex and ever-changing African and American landscapes. Over the course of the semester, we will read short stories, novellas, personal narratives and essays, interspersed with visual excerpts from selected films and other representations of immigration, migration and border crossing in contemporary African and American cultural landscapes.
Class Description:
Welcome to AFRO 5625W! The second half of the 20th century witnessed, in the literary arena, an explosion of writing by black women in Africa and its diasporas. But although there has been an increasing interest in these women�s writings, it can hardly be said that they occupy a central place in literary and critical theory. This course seeks to explore black female literary voices from Africa and its diasporas. Topics of particular interest will include, though not limited to, colonial patriarchy and the erosion of traditional values, the dynamics of gender in postcolonial contexts, the intersections between the public and private spheres in women�s narratives, the struggle to negotiate gender, racial, class boundaries, national memory and national identity in women�s writings on displacement, as well as women�s agency through spatial/social mobility.
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/32973/1199
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
25 September 2015

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