LIT 3124 Spring 2025 - Okonkwo

LIT 3124 II aims to survey literature from the 19th through the late 20th century. Although we will try, in this course, to fulfill that grand goal by spotlighting the significant literary developments, authors, and texts of the period across the English-speaking world, our focus will be on modern African literature. Erroneously, to many in English studies, particularly English majors educated in Western history and literary tradition, or to whom African literature begins and ends with Chinua Achebe, African literature does not have a “literary history.” But because of the profound historical, experiential, and cultural intertwining of Africa, Europe, and the Americas, perhaps “literary history” cannot be deemed thorough outside of a recognition of nineteenth through twentieth African literary history, specifically, as well as the social and historical forces that shaped the modern African culture workers’ productions of oral literature (including epics, myths, songs, folktales, proverbs), poetry, essays, drama, and fiction. We will sample and closely read works in these genres, with everybody’s favorite, Things Fall Apart, serving as the subject of our main paper for the class.