Comparative Studies In Fiction

1. Explain the concept of conflict in literature and its relation to modern African prose fiction.
2. Discuss the influences of western encounters on modern African prose fiction.
3. Distinguish among African-American, African, and Caribbean prose fiction.
4. Analyze the impact of cultural encounters on African-American and Caribbean Prose fiction.
5. Compare and contrast the sensibilities underlying Migrant Prose fiction in African and in Diaspora.

13 weeks, about 45 hours in total. Yours will differ.

1. Week 1Module 1: Conflict

   • Unit 1: Conceptual Clarifications: Conflict As A Device Of Plot Development, Types Of Conflict, Determinism · 3 hours

     Define conflict as a literary device and as a theme.. Identify the five types of conflict in literature with examples from the texts.. Explain the concept of determinism and its relationship to conflict..

2. Week 2Module 1: Conflict

   • Unit 2: Precursors to Empire Re-Narration: Humanity as a Prerequisite to Discourse on Conflict in Literature · 3 hours

     Compare and contrast Eurocentric and Afrocentric representations of the African identity.. Analyze the historical context and the precursors to empire re-narration.. Discuss the relationship between conflict and humanity in literature..

3. Week 3Module 1: Conflict

   • Unit 3: Aesthetics of Conflict and the Beginnings of Modern African Prose Fiction: the Empire Writes Back · 3 hours

     Discuss the impetus behind texts regarded as Empire writings.. Compare and contrast Eurocentric and Afrocentric texts on African identity.. Examine the aesthetics of conflict in the beginnings of modern African prose fiction..

4. Week 4Module 1: Conflict

   • Unit 4: Cultural Conflict: Assimilation Versus Association And Modern African Prose Fiction · 3 hours

     Compare the British policy of association and the French policy of assimilation in West Africa.. Articulate the tragedy which was borne of cultural conflict in Africa.. Analyze cultural conflict as experienced by West Africans under colonial policies..

5. Week 5Module 1: Conflict

   • Unit 5: Conjectures And Prescriptions On Neocolonial Ruptures: Comparing El Nathan's *Born On A Tuesday* And Chigozie Obioma's *The Fishermen* · 3 hours

     Analyze the chain reaction triggered off by the colonial intrusion into Africa.. Explain neo-colonial conflicts in postcolonial Nigerian texts.. Compare El Nathan's Born on a Tuesday and Chigozie Obioma's The Fishermen..

6. Week 6Module 2: Encounters

   • Unit 1: Literature of Discovery: Encounter as Motif in Daniel Defoe's *Robinson Crusoe* and Joseph Conrad's *Lord Jim* · 3 hours

     Explain the place of European travelogue in the discourse between the coloniser and colonised.. Elaborate on the racism inherent in the portrait of the benign white ruler in European travelogue.. Compare Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim..

7. Week 7Module 2: Encounters

   • Unit 2: Post-colonialism: Theorising Encounters and Its Aftermath in Literature of Encounter · 3 hours

     Discuss the origin and tenets of the postcolonial literary theory.. Apply the postcolonial literary theory to narratives representing colonialist and anti-colonialist ideologies.. Compare E.M Forster's A Passage to India and Ferdinand Oyono's Old Man and the Medal..

8. Week 8Module 2: Encounters

   • Unit 3: Modern African Prose Fiction and Tell-Tale Signs of Encounters · 3 hours

     Identify traces of the imprints of the encounter with the West in the plot and style of Modern African Prose fiction.. Discuss the characteristics of Modern African prose fiction, with consciousness of its double heritage.. Compare Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God..

9. Week 9Module 2: Encounters

   • Unit 4: Prose Fiction and The Black Diaspora: Cultural Survivals and Double Consciousness · 3 hours

     Discuss the impact of cultural encounters on African-American and Caribbean Prose fiction.. Compare the impact of the encounter with the West on the psyche of the African-American and Caribbean subject.. Articulate the significance of cultural survivals in analysing African-American and Caribbean prose fiction..

10. Week 10Module 2: Encounters

    • Unit 5: Migrant Prose Fiction And Encounters · 3 hours

      Compare and contrast the sensibilities underlying Migrant Prose fiction in African and in Diaspora.. Appreciate perspectives of women writings from African and the Caribbean, their similarities and differences.. Compare Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John and Sefi Atta's A Bit of Difference..

11. Week 11Module 3: Exile and Alienation

    • Unit 1: Societal Context: Migration as Catalyst of Alienation & Crisis of Identity · 3 hours

      Understand how the themes of alienation and exile re-enact the socio-cultural experience of Migrant Literature and Literature of the Diaspora.. Understand the themes of Crises of Identity in migrant literature of Africa and Caribbean Literature.. Understand the psychological and socio-political under-pinning that informs migration and exile..

    • Unit 2: Narrative Point of View as Tool: Themes of Race, Immigration & Alienation in *Americanah* & *The Lonely Londoners* · 3 hours

      Understand how the writers deploy the Narrative Point of View to depict the concepts of the quest for self-identity and validation.. Identify the differences and similarities in thematic intent and narrative approach.. Analyze the themes of race, immigration, and alienation in Americanah & The Lonely Londoners..

12. Week 12Module 3: Exile and Alienation

    • Unit 3: Psychological Alienation: Comparison of Characterization & Plot in *The Lonely Londoners* & *Americanah* · 3 hours

      Effect an in-depth analysis of how character evolves and is deployed in each text to reflect the complexities of alienation and disillusionment.. Study and understand the role of plot and structure in unveiling thematic preoccupation in each narrative.. Carry out a comparative analysis of the similarities and points of divergence in the deployment of characterization and plot by the two writers..

    • Unit 4: Creolization and Engli-Igbo: Language as Identity in Exile, a Comparison of *Americanah* & *The Lonely Londoners* · 3 hours

      Understand each writer's re-crafting of English in order to depict the peculiarity of the collective experience of the immigrant in his search for cultural identity in exile.. Understand how the deployment of this form of language impacts on the themes of disillusionment and the quest for self-identity.. Compare creolization and Engli-Igbo in Americanah and The Lonely Londoners..

13. Week 13Module 3: Exile and Alienation

    • Unit 5: Critical Evaluation and Comparison of Cross-Cultural and Inter-racial Relationships · 3 hours

      Enable a comprehensive understanding of how each writer reflects the psychological challenges of cross-cultural and inter-racial relationships.. Recognize the similarities and differences between each writers' depiction and exploration of the theme of inter-racial relationships.. Deploy feminist theory in the analysis of inter-racial and cross-cultural relationships..