AS 060.376 - The Imprisonment of the African Writer from Mandela to Present

Institution:

Johns Hopkins University

Subject:

Description:

An international newspaper report in 1965 on writers from an African nation reads thus: “A year ago, one playwright was acquitted of holding up a radio station. A month ago, one poet was principal actor in a gun-running melodrama.” This course examines the phenomenon of writers in politics. It explores the concept of engagement or commitment in literature as developed by Jean-Paul Sartre, particularly in postcolonial African literature. We will discuss the traditional notions of art and activism, imagination and ideology. The questions that are crucial to our concerns in this course include: why is writing in Africa a very hazardous career? How do writers respond to the threat and actual experience of metaphoric, physical, and spiritual confinement and harm? What does the precarious situation of the African writer reveal about the nature of postcolonial societies? Texts include selections from theoretical essays and autobiographical narratives such as: Nelson Mandela, "No Easy Walk to Freedom"; Wole Soyinka, "The Man Died"; Ngugi wa Thiong'o, "Detained: A Writer's Prison Diary"; Jack Mapanje, "The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison"; Denis Brutus, "Letters to Martha and Other Poems from a South African Prison"; Ken Saro-Wiwa, "A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary"; and Michel Foucault, "Discipline and Punish".

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.jhu.edu

Phone Number:

(410) 516-8000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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