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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Social contexting in the teaching of African literature |
Authors: | Mnthali, Felix Ugundipe-Leslie, Omolara |
Year: | 1982 |
Periodical: | Okike: an African Journal of New Writing |
Issue: | 20 |
Pages: | 82-90 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Subsaharan Africa |
Subjects: | higher education literature |
Abstract: | Certain experiences which indicate that literature syllabuses in African universities could benefit from possibilities of depth, immediacy and context are discussed. The authors present a specimen syllabus for a three-year literature programme, based on four fundamental objectives: cultivating the students' understanding of the oral and written literature of Africa; cultivating an understanding of the oral and written literature of the peoples of African descent in the Americas and the west Indies; creating awareness of other people who have suffered or undergone in more recent times the traumas experienced by Africans in the past; and developing a knowledge of other great writers provided their message and form lead to a clearer understanding of both African literature and the concrete African historical moment of the pre sent. The authors also stress the importance of knowing the historical and social context of a work in order to be able to understand it. |