BOWEN UNIVERSITY IWO, OSUN STATE

COLLEGE OF LIBERAL STUDIES

ENGLISH PROGRAMME
SECOND SEMESTER 2023/2024

COURSE OUTLINE

COURSE CODE: ENG 318

COURSE TITLE: MODERN AFRICAN DRAMA

1. Background of Modern Drama

2. Contract between the playwright and the audience
3. The influence of Colonialism on Modern African Drama
4. Conflicts in Drama
5. The influence of time on Modern African Drama
6. The distinction between African Drama and that of the other regions

Recommended Texts:

1. Ama Ata Aidoo - Dileman of a Ghost

2. Ama Ata Aidoo - Anowa
3. Ngugi Wa Thiong o - The Trial of Dedan Kimathi
4. Twafik Al-Hakim - Fate of a cockroach
5. Wole Soyinka - Death and the King’s Horseman
6. Athol Fugard - Sizwe Bansi is Dead
7. Ola Rotimi - Our Husband has Gone Mad Again
8. Femi Osofisan - Morountodun
9. J. Pclark - The Masquerade
 BOWEN UNIVERSITY IWO, OSUN STATE
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL STUDIES
ENGLISH PROGRAMME
SECOND SEMESTER 2023/2024

COURSE CODE: ENG 336

COURSE TITLE: BOOKS AND THE MAKING OF THE READING PUBLIC
(A) COURSE OUTLINE
1. The significance of literacy; some of the social functions of literacy. The rise of
different publics; the location of ideas and of information; information, education and
propaganda; the difference between influence and the manipulation of public opinion.

2. Reading and other forms of receptive communication; process, response, consequences

– an introduction.

3. What is a text? Oral and written texts and forms of textual communication and types of
audience.

4. A history of writing:
(i) The origin of writing – Locations: Asia and the Middle East; the African experience
(ii) Ideographic and Syllabic Scripts. Writing tools – from stone tablet to papyrus and
paper
(iii) Religions and early manuscripts and books; the rise of professionals and specialists –
scribes and literates priests; scriptures.

5. The making of books:

(i) Types of manuscript and the earliest books.
(ii) The development of the printing press and the earliest printed books
(iii) The social consequences of printed books and the emergency of the early
newspapers.

6. The development of libraries.

7. Schools, mass literacy and the rise of the reading public; the rise of the mass media.
8. The culture of reading; reading communities and reading resources
9. Competing forms of literate communication and the implications for reading cultures.
10. Social

(B) Practical – The ENG 336 Class as a reading Community:

1. Prescribed texts and suggested by the class: guided reading activities.
2. Projects.