“The stories we tell ourselves and others materialize in our world in our actions, reactions and inactions. I love that by teaching literature, I can help others to understand this principle about world-making and self-fashioning.”
– Dr. Tolulope Akinwole, Assistant Professor
Are you a graduate student looking for an engaging seminar to round out your semester and deepen your understanding of postcolonial cultural and storytelling? Scroll down to learn all about ENGL 546C: Studies in Commonwealth / Postcolonial Literature with Dr. Tolulope Akinwole.
ENGL 546C-003 – Studies in Commonwealth / Postcolonial Literature
- Topic: Postcolonial Auto/Mobility
- Instructor: Dr. Tolulope Akinwole
- Term 2
- Schedule: Tuesdays, 1 pm to 4 pm
Course Description: This seminar explores the interplay between postcolonial automobility and African literatures and cultures. We will take as our starting point of investigation the emergence of the motor vehicle in Africa, around the beginning of the twentieth century, and the cogent questions that arise from (post)colonial Africa’s encounter with vehicular technology.
Through novels, plays, poetry, and films, we will consider Africa’s automobile network of road, spatiality, coloniality, infrastructure, motor vehicle, and oil and the corollary effects of all this on the artistic imaginations of African cultural producers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In short, this course considers the keyword “automobility” as an entry point to unpacking the range of ideas that have shaped African literary production since the twentieth century.
Primary readings will include works from authors and artists such as:
- Peter Abrahams
- Wole Soyinka
- Nawal El-Saadawi
- Ousmane Sembene
- Ama Ata Aidoo
- Karen King-Aribisala
- Ben Okri
- Imbolo Mbue
We will ground our examinations in criticism from scholars such as:
- Marti Kheel
- Harry Garuba
- AbdouMaliq Simone
- Kenda Mutongi
- Cajetan Iheka
