ALM 7203: AFRICAN PROSE FICTION

The course is an advanced study of the short story and novel, as well as related works, such as belles-lettres, biography and autobiography. Close attention will be paid to both the content and form of selected representative samples of texts in this genre, with a view to identify and accounting for their specifically African characteristics, if any, and establishing their status in the corpus of African and world literature.

DETAILED COURSE OUTLINE

  1. INTRODUCTION

(i)Historical development of prose in specified African Languages: Socio economic factors; ideological concerns.

(ii)Major trends: content/form

(iii)Elements of fiction

  1. Theory of the novel in African languages
  2. Theory of the short story in African languages
  3. Their historical development
  4. Practical criticism of specific texts:

- Appreciation/ explanation/ analysis

Expected Outcomes

By the end of the course,

(i)Students should have a clear view of the diverse factors that have

influenced prose fiction in African languages.

(ii)Students would have also acquired the capacity to analyse,
categorise, and group the works of African novelists and short story
writers from the five sub-regions of the Africa continent.

Mode of Delivery

Lectures, seminar presentations and practicals and discussions.

Mode of Assessment

Coursework will constitute 40% and the examination 60%.

References

Bertoncini, Elena (1989): Outline of Swahili Literature Leiden: E.J. Brill

Ohly, Raymund (1981): AggressiveProse: A case study of Kiswahili Prose of the seventies. Dar-es-Salaam : TUKI

------(1990): The Zanzibarian Challenge: Swahili Prose in the years 1975-1981.Windhoek: Academy

------(1982): Swahili: the diagram of crisis. Wien & Dar-es- Salaam: Afro

Publishers

Boulton, Marjorie (1975): The Anatomy of the Novel, London: Routledge &

Kegan Paul

Sterick, Philip (ed.) (1967) The Theory of the Novel. New York: The Free Press

Mlacha, S.A.K (1991): A Structural Study of the Novel. Dar-es- Salaam :

Education Services Centre.

Bukenya, A. et.al (1992): Oral Literature Theory. Nairobi: University of Nairobi

Press

Bukenya, A.et.al. (eds) (1994) : Understanding Oral LiteratureNairobi:

University of Nairobi Press