Course Aims: The course aims to introduce students to the literature of Francophone Africa from the Independence period and its aftermath to contemporary postcolonial society, including the African Diaspora. Like all Level-3 French options courses, FR3085 has the following generic learning outcomes: students will apply critical reading skills to various forms of literary and non-literary French; they will select, evaluate and organize primary and secondary material, they will articulate their views in speech and writing using the appropriate discourse for the subject; they will acquire the habits of autonomous learning. In addition, the course has the following subject-specific learning outcomes : students will interpret key texts in Francophone literature with respect to their social, historical and political context. They will demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the postcolonial experience in Africa and the African Diaspora; they will discuss and analyse texts by drawing on appropriate postcolonial theory. Content: This course will introduce students to the literature of Francophone Africa from the Independence period and its aftermath, to contemporary postcolonial society, including the African Diaspora. After some general historical and social background, texts by individual authors will be studied, and there will be discussion of the general issues arising out of the texts taken separately, as well as the interrelation between them. The main themes will be: literature as historical documents; colonialism/post-colonialism/neo-colonialism; the diaspora; the language question; humour and political satire; gender.
