Undergraduate - UnitAZA1294 - Reading Africa: An introduction

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	South Africa School of Social Sciences
Offered	South Africa Second semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Joseph Minga

Synopsis

The unit introduces students to the study of a variety literary and cultural texts from Africa and the genres to which they belong (e.g., poetry, prose fiction, drama and film). Students will also be asked to engage with the different ideas that critics have used to interpret African literature and culture.

Outcomes

On successfully completing this unit students should be able to:

Develop a sense of the variety of what is possible in literary and cultural studies, and a general understanding of the diversity of modern African literature and culture
handle the critical concepts and language appropriate to the discussion of different narrative genres, devices and techniques
recognise some of the theoretical perspectives that inform contemporary literary and cultural studies
demonstrate the basic skill of analytic and critical discussion, including the technical conventions proper to English
appreciate the historical perspectives and conventions within which literature and other cultural texts are produced.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 50%
Exam: 50%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Joseph Minga

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Literary and cultural studies
African studies

Prohibitions

ATS1294