A13. Out of Africa -- Women's Writing (Corti) (Thursday)

 NOTE SPECIAL START TIME OF CLASS SESSIONS

Although burdened by a double yoke – that of traditional patriarchal domination plus the history of European colonial exploitation – women of Africa and the African diaspora have produced a remarkable body of literary fiction.  In this course, we will read works by women from Nigeria, Guadeloupe, and Botswana.  Topics include male privilege, economic exploitation, slavery, polygamy, domestic abuse, post-colonial corruption, pseudospeciation, poverty, female complicity in patriarchal abuse, and solidarity among women.

GROUP LEADER:  Lillian Corti, PhD. Dr. Corti obtained a PhD in Comparative Literature from the City University of New York in 1984, taught French and Comparative Literature at the University of Tulsa from 1984 until 1989 and worked at Marien Ngouabi University in Brazzaville, Congo in 1990 as a Fulbright scholar.  She has presented a number of papers and published articles on African literature in addition to translating the Congolese novel. Le Feu des origins by Emmanuel Dongala.

REQUIRED BOOKS:  Chinus Achebe, Things Fall Apart; 

Buchi Emecheta, The Slave Girl (George Braziller, ISBN 0-8076-0952-8); 

Maryse Conde, Heremakhonon (Lynn Rienner Publications, ISBN 13-978-894-108860); 

Bessie Head, Maru (Waveland Press, ISBN 13-978-1478607618).  

Read first five or six chapters of The Slave Girl before first class.