Summer Session One 2008
May 19 -- June 30
English 636
Representations of Struggle in South African Literature and
Film
Professor Patricia Stephens
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:00 to 8:15 PM
In this course, our explorations of South African literature
and film will be framed by the historical, social, political,
and cultural contexts of the rise and fall of Apartheid--a
period of intense struggle for and against social change.
Working chronologically, we will explore texts (print and
film) written or set within three specific eras: 1940s-1950s
(the inception and institutionalization of formal Apartheid
policies); 1960s-1980s (the rise of Black Consciousness and
anti-Apartheid movements); and 1990s-present (the rise of
democracy and the post-Apartheid years). Our print texts for
the course will span several genres: novels, memoir and/or
autobiography, short stories, drama, poetry, creative non-fiction,
as well as excerpts from transcripts taken from the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission Hearings. In conjunction with
our readings, we will watch several films that document both
historical events and day-to-day lives in South Africa, past
and present. Throughout the course, we will examine how and
why writers and filmmakers depict struggle in the ways they
do and what kinds of "truths" readers take from
these representations. As outsiders reading about a country
still very much in transition, we will examine our own understandings
of the connections between history, politics, culture, and
the literature and film of South Africa. Written work for
the course will include short responses to the texts as well
as a final research paper (topics to be determined via conferences
between the instructor and students). Alternative projects
may be considered. Below are some possible texts for the course:
1940s-50s: Abrahams, Peter. Mine Boy; Paton, Alan.
Cry, the Beloved Country (film); Mphalele, Ezekiel.
Down 2nd Avenue; Poetry Selections (from Drum);
1960s-80s: Biko, Steven. Excerpts from I Write What I
Like; Mandela, Nelson. Excerpts from Long Walk to Freedom
and Selected Speeches; Mhlope, Gcina. "Have You Seen
Zandile?"; Wicomb, Zoë. You Can't Get Lost in
Cape Town; Poetry selections (from Staffrider); Amandla:
A Revolution in Four Part Harmony (film)
1990s-present: Krog, Antjie. Country of My Skull;
Magona, Sindiwe. Mother to Mother. Mda, Zakes. Ways
of Dying; Gordimer, Nadine. The House Gun. Long
Day's Journey into Night (film); Facing the Truth
(film)
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