My English Literature course

Hello everybody!

I want to present you the English Literature course I attended this year at the University because it was really well structured and especially it was about an interesting topic. I had never studied this aspect of English Literature before and I really appreciated it! The course, called "Contemporary English Literature", was indeed about African Literature in English, that is post-colonial thinking and varius kinds of Literature in English. In the first part of the course we were supposed to read three books: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1958), Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (1988), Caryl Phillips, Crossing the River (1994). I suggest to read these three books to who is interested in this topic because it is really interesting read something from African authors and about colonization.

The second part of the course, called " Culture and Cinema in the Black Atlantic", was different from the normal Italian structure of University courses: we developed this topic through the watching of five films. Moreover, some professors from foreign Universities came to introduce and than comment these films so it was really interesting.

This was the programm:

- Prof. Patrick Williams (Univ. of Nottingham Trent - lesson (on questions of cultural memory & authenticity) + film “Yeelen” di Souleymane Cisse.

- Prof. Patrick Williams (Univ. of Nottingham Trent) - lesson (on diaspora) + film “Soleil O” di Med Hondo.

- Prof. Ashley Dawson (CUNY) lesson + film “Young Soul Rebels”di Isaac Julien (UK 1991).

- Prof. Anna Scacchi lesson + film “Daughters of the Dust” di Julie Dash (USA 1991).

- Prof. Annalisa Oboe, lesson + lesson “Come Back, Africa” di Lionel Rogosin (USA/South Africa 1959).

I advice students to follow this course next year if it will be possible because it has been a great opportunity for me to discover a new kind of English Literature!!