Learning outcomes

The course aims at offering a general introduction to the main concerns and theoretical issues of the discipline through the critical reading and analysis of representative African, Australian, and Caribbean texts.

Program

“Colonial Heritage, Cultural Clash and Stolen Identities”
By reading and elaborating on the texts students will be presented with the dynamics of cultural clash, generational conflict, loss and retrieval of identity that shaped the process of British colonization in some settler and settled colonies (Australia, Nigeria, the Caribbean). The structural and discursive features of three literary genres – short story, novel and autobiography – will be explored with emphasis on the specific aspects related to the literatures of Australia, Nigeria, and the Caribbean, and in particular on the interaction between literacy and orality.
Non-attending students are required to follow the primary text and reference lists recommended to attending students and to complement it with the supplementary reference list.

BIBLIOGRAFIA
Testi primari
- S. Selvon, Ways of Sunlight (1957)
- C. Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1958)
- S. Morgan, My Place (1987)
Testi secondari
- A. Brewster, “Aboriginality and Sally Morgan’s My Place” in ID, Reading Aboriginal Women’s Autobiography, Sydney University Press, 1996, pp. 14-29
- D. Carroll, “Things Fall Apart” in ID, Chinua Achebe, The Macmillan Press, 1980, pp. 32-61
- M. Looker, Atlantic Passages. History, community, and language in the fiction of Sam Selvon, Peter Lang, 1996
Manuali
Il manuale di riferimento è:
- J. McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism, Manchester University Press, 2000 (i seguenti capitoli: Cap. 1 “From ̔Commonwealth̕ to ̔postcolonial̕”, pp. 6-36; Cap. 3 “Nationalist representations”, pp. 67-101; Cap. 6 “Postcolonialism and Feminism”, pp. 172-204; Cap. 7 “Diaspora Identities”, pp. 205-238)
Altri sussidi bibliografici di riferimento generale (facoltativi per i frequentanti, fortemente raccomandati per i non frequentanti):
- B. Ashcroft, G. Griffiths, H. Tiffin (eds.), Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies, Routledge, 1998
- E. Benson, L.W. Connolly (eds.), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-colonial Literatures in English, 2005

Bibliografia integrativa obbligatoria per studenti non frequentanti
- D. Bird, D. Haskell, Whose Place? A Study of Sally Morgan’s My Place, Angus and Robertson, 1992
- A. Shoemaker, Black Words White Page, University of Queensland Press, 1992 (in particolare il cap. “World War II and the assimilation era: a self destructive doctrine”, pp. 63-78)
- K. Ogbaa, Understanding Things Fall Apart, Greenwood Press, 1999
- G. Tomiotti, Crossroads in Creole. Tradurre i racconti di Sam Selvon, Aracne, 2009 (in particolare i cap. I, II, III, VI)

Le informazioni relative al materiale bibliografico e al suo reperimento saranno fornite all’inizio del corso.

Examination Methods

Oral examination