36
LINGUE E LETTERATURE DELL'AFRICA
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI "L'ORIENTALE"
Dati Generali
Periodo di attività
Syllabus
Obiettivi Formativi
By the end of the course, students will have acquired an understanding of the main theoretical and methodological issues in the study of modern African literatures. They will be able to critically situate literary works within their historical, cultural, and artistic contexts, analysing their philosophical, poetic, and aesthetic dimensions. The course also aims to develop students' comparative reading skills and critical interpretative abilities, with particular attention to the relationships between orality and writing, tradition and modernity, music, performance, and African verbal arts. Applying knowledge and understanding The course provides students with the methodological, philological, and critical tools necessary for the analysis of African verbal arts, with particular attention to the Swahili tradition. The competences acquired will enable students to apply theoretical and methodological approaches to the interpretation of works from different linguistic and cultural contexts, fostering independent analytical skills, critical argumentation, and autonomous judgement.
Prerequisiti
none
Metodi didattici
The course combines lectures and seminar-style discussions focusing on the main philosophical, theoretical, critical, and methodological issues in African literatures and verbal arts. The theoretical component will provide the conceptual framework necessary for the analysis of the works and for the discussion of the principal issues addressed throughout the course.
The guided analysis of the selected works will constitute the main opportunity to apply the theoretical and methodological approaches introduced during the lectures. Through seminar discussions, students will be encouraged to compare different critical and interpretative perspectives, reflecting on the relationships between African philosophy, orality and writing, philology, poetics, aesthetics, music, popular arts, and performance.
Seminar activities will promote active participation, critical discussion, and collective engagement with the works, with the aim of fostering independent judgement, argumentative skills, and methodological competences in the analysis of African verbal arts..
Verifica Apprendimento
Assessment criteria: knowledge of the course contents; ability to analyse and interpret the works; ability to relate theoretical issues to the case studies discussed during the course; coherence of argumentation; capacity for synthesis; completeness of information; and appropriate use of the terminology and methodologies specific to the discipline. Particular emphasis will be placed on students' ability to engage in critical analysis and to relate the works to the theoretical issues addressed during the course, rather than providing a merely descriptive account of their contents.
Testi
Gaudioso, R. 2026. Sing with Blood! An analogical study of Euphrase Kezilahabi’s poetics of uchokozi. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota (only the first two chapters)
Masolo, D.A. 1994. African Philosophy in Search of Identity. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers.
p'Bitek, O. 1972. Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers.
Salter, T. 2011. “‘Being modern does not mean being western:’ Congolese Popular Music, 1945 to 2000”. Critical African Studies 4(5): 1-50.
Soyinka, Wole. 1975. Death and the King’s Horseman. London: Methuen Drama.
Contenuti
Course topics
African philosophy and the construction of identity.
Orality, writing, and African poetics.
Theory and method: literary criticism in African literary studies.
Philology, poetics, aesthetics, and the comparative study of African verbal arts.
Tradition and modernity, prescriptivism, and experimentation.
Literature, music, popular arts, and performance.
Lingua Insegnamento
English