ARABIC LITERATURE AND CINEMA

AFRICAN 406

Provides a conceptual focus for the study of various forms of literature from around the African world. Literary forms studied may include novels, drama, poetry, short stories, cinema, and more. Depending on the conceptual focus, texts from a particular region, period, or language may be stressed, or they will coalesce around certain themes, such as modernity, cultural identity, nation building, ideology, globalization, and more.

AFRICAN 231

Overview on Arabic cultural production. Develops a historic and critical understanding of Arabic literary traditions, as well as related musical and visual arts, up to the twenty-first century.

AFRICAN 605

Introduces foundational texts in the study of modern Africa and the social, political, and economic contexts of the continent's cultural production and productivity. Conceptual explorations of interesting issues such as the African encounter with Europe, anticolonialism, race, racialism, and subjectivity, African and European languages and epistemology, transformations in gendered structures, and the environment, and the circulation and consumption of cultural forms and practices. Examines the long histories and theories of cultural production and practices in Africa, the local/global provenance of forms and styles, and the contexts of their local, national, and global circulation and consumption. Promotes critical thinking by putting like and unlike texts together and considering rhetoric and implied meanings, all in the context of Africa's interactive history with the world in the modern era.

AFRICAN 303

An introduction to literature and visual culture of Africa in various periods and places; specific topics will vary.

AFRICAN 342

Emphasis on proficiency through speaking, listening, reading, and writing, and on communication in cultural context.