Major Themes in Commonwealth literature

Course Master: Prof. Adamu Pangmeshi

Course description:

This course gives an overview of commonwealth and Commonwealth literature with the
intention of bringing out its major concerns and distinctions. It will equally make attempt at :

-giving an overview of the origin and development of commonwealth and African literature be it
poetry, drama and prose forms.

-to equally explore the socio-cultural and political experiences that generate different themes in
both literatures

-it will also identify and determine the link between the different blocks of both literatures

-it will also study the thematic concerns of commonwealth and African literature which are
distinct from western values

-To understand and distinguish the concerns of the modern writers as distinct in themes but
related in style, language and structure.

Nb: Students will be expected to read the primary texts on their own.

Authors to be studied:

Achebe , Chinue. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann. 1958.

-Ngugi Wathiong ‘O. The Black Hermit.

Ryga, George. The Ecstacy of Rita Joy.( Downloadable)

Wole Soyinka. The Swamp Dwellers

-Bole Butake. Bethrodal Without Libation

- - -.Family Saga

-John Nkemngong Kengasong. The Widow’s Might.,

--- Across the Mongolo

Weekly Programmes:

1. General introduction of the course and expectations.

-lectures on the idea of commonwealth and Commonwealth literature

2. General characteristics of the specific regions of the commonwealth literature

-the commonwealth and the African milieu in literature

3. Major themes and threads in Commonwealth literature ( Students should be grouped in pairs
to work on each of these topics)

-Politics of apartheid and exclusion

-Politics of corruption and hypocrisy

4.-Politics of land and displacement

-Politics of oppression and militarism

5. Major blocks of Commonwealth and African literatures.

-Central Africa -Major thematic concerns

-West Africa-Major thematic concerns

6. Major blocks continues

-East Africa- Major thematic concerns

-South Africa-Major thematic concerns

7. Contemporary Commonwealth and African literatures

-The new writers in Africa-major concerns-Migrancy, failure of democracy, leadership, conflicts

etc.

-trauma, disillusionment, displacement , Cultural assertion etc

8. Varieties of Commonwealth and African literature

-Anticolonialism

-Social realist literature

-gender and class

-war fiction

Nb: Issues such as corruption, marginalization, tribalism,despotism, repression and oppression

will be addressed.
9. General conclusion and submission of student’s personal input.

Critical Readings

1. Achebe chinua. 1958. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann.

2. Chiwenzue et al. Towards the Decolonization of African Literature.
3. Gikandi , Simon.(1987).Reading the African Novel. London:Heinemann.
4. Irele, Abiola. (1981).The African Experience in Literature and Ideology.London,
Ibadanand Nairobi: Heinemann.
5. Obiechina, Emmanuel. 1975.Culture, Tradition and Society in the West African Novel.
Cammbridge:C.U.Press.
6. Sarah Anyang Agbor. Introduction to Commonwealth Literature.
7. Pangmeshi, Adamu. Conceptions of Marginality in the Postconial Novel: Revisiting
Bessie Head. Liverpool: Dignity Publishing.
8. - - -. Locating Home on The Move: New Perspectives on Diasporic Literature.
Lambert Academic Publishing.
9. Pangmeshi and Blossom eds. Rewriting Her Story: Critical Essays on the Female Subject
in the colonial and Postcolonial World. Kenscholars Publishing.
10.

Short Notes

With its multi-dimensional subject of study, Commonwealth literature includes the whole complex fate
of man in time, space, history and ecology. It records the process that changed the life and status of the
natives, and bought slaves under centuries of domination.

The concept of Commonwealth Literature is not strictly varied. The writers of Commonwealth
countries are engaged on writing in the same language as if there is a union between them similar
to each other. They are at the same time different in their religion, philosophy, morality, ethics,
customs and traditions. Commonwealth literature has to do with literature by citizens of
countries that were colonized by Great Britain. It is a sort of literature that is written as a
response to the colonial centre.