Course Description
The study of selected representative African plays of the colonial and post-independence periods, with special emphasis on the relevance of these texts to contemporary society around the world, including the United States.
Athena Title
Intro to Modern African Drama
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
-to provide students with an understanding and appreciation of African dramatic literature from the colonial period to the present time, with special emphasis on the relevance of these texts to contemporary society around the world, including the United States; - to help students situate those works within larger historical and cultural contexts; - to provide students with an understanding of the conventions of literary composition and reception that inform their creation, such as conventions of genre, metrics, style, etc.; - to improve students' communication skills through oral presentations in class and expository writing assignments, including in-class and out-of-class essays. Students will be required to write a term paper on a given topic and to write an essay on broad topics on the course as their final examination. The term paper and the final examination will comprise 50% of the final grade. Additionally, students will take two objective tests in the course, which will also comprise 50% of the final grade.
Topical Outline
The course will explore the influence of Western dramatic literature in African plays of the colonial and early post-independence periods, most of which were written by students and former students of French and British colleges and universities; the search for a theater more suited for African audiences and reflecting their social aspirations in the plays of independent Africa; and the emerging trends in which ideology and nationalist preoccupations are often secondary to the individual experiences and artistic preferences of the playwrights. Special emphasis will be placed on the relevance of the texts under discussion to contemporary society around the world, including the United States. Works studied vary with the individual instructor. The following is a sample "syllabus" of readings for a single semester: /The Lion and the Jewel/ by Wole Soyinka (Nigeria; winner of 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature), first produced in 1958 by the student Dramatic Society of Ibadan, then a college of the University of London. /Three Suitors: One Husband/ by Guillaume Oyono-Mbia (Cameroon), translated from French, an African comedy à la Molière. /I Will May When I Want/ by Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Ngugi wa Mirii (Kenya), translated from Kikuyu, a Brechtian didactic play in which songs complement dialogue like in an African folktale, first produced in a Kenyan village with Kikuyu peasants as actors. /Death and the King’s Horseman/ by Wole Soyinka, written to be staged like a “Yoruba popular opera.” /We Shall Sing for the Fatherland/ by Zakes Mda (Lesotho/South Africa), the voice of African struggle in apartheid South Africa. /She No Longer Weeps/ by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe), the voice of a female author and film director in contemporary Africa. /King Baabu/ by Wole Soyinka, the art of the veteran African playwright and theater director in the twenty-first century. /African Drama and Performance/, edited by J. Conteh-Morgan and T. Olaniyan: for general reading.
Syllabus