FREN 420 - Francophone Africa and Its Literature

Credits: (3)
This course introduces students to the literatures and cultures of Subsaharan francophone Africa. Students explore notions of orality and orature through traditional texts as they examine in tandem through formal literary analysis representative works of written literature by authors from the Wolof, Mande, Fon and Ewe-speaking peoples in Sénégal, Mali, Guinée, Togo, and Bénin. While gaining an understanding of the distinctness of these cultures, students also consider ways in which the language of the colonizer has been appropriated and transformed to reflect a francophone African literary culture. Prerequisite(s): FREN 301 or equivalent.