Liberal Arts

Culture/Conflict/Syncretism in African & African-American Literature

Course No. LLC441.1  Credits: 3
Faculty Olatubosun Ogunsanwo

This course is primarily concerned with the dialectic of multiculturality and multidimensionality. Africans under colonialism, like most of the Third World at one time or the other, were confronted with the overwhelming encroachment of European/Western/Christian ways of life and thought alien to them. Yet Africa still struggles up till today to preserve its integrity, its intrinsic identity, notably in the form of neotraditionalism. This vortex of cultural interplay in Africa has led to socio-cultural phenomenon described as deracination or "the crisis in the soul" (Achebe) or "triple heritage/cultural accommodation" (Ali Mazrui). In postmodernist terms, it has led to syncretism. The course will also explore analogies from the multidimensional art, mainly from the interchange between visual and literary arts. Fulfills Humanities/Cultural Studies distribution requirement. Creative Writing Concentration course. 3 credits.