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LITERATURE IN ENGLISH

OLT 121: Literary Theory and Criticism

Objectives: Upon completion of this course you should be able to;
i. Describe the various literary theories
ii. Explain key concepts of literary criticism
iii. explain key concept of literary criticism
iv. use different approaches for criticising literary works
v. criticise works of literature on the basis of criticism presupposes knowledge

Topics
i. Classical critism
ii. Renaissance
iii. 19
th
Century criticism
iv. New criticism theory and concepts
v. Current style of literary criticism i.e.
home based criticism
, structuralism,
post structuralism,
psychoanalytical literary criticism,
literary critical thought,
existentialism,
post modernism,
Africa criticism

References
Chidi, A. (1989) The Theory of African Literature: Implications for Practical
Criticism.London:Zed Books
Ealgeton, T. (1983) Literary Theory : An Introduction University of Minnessota Press
Raymond, O. (1981) Aggressive Prose. DSM: TUKI
Msokile, M. (1993). Misingi ya Uhakiki. East African Educational Publishers: Nairobi
Sengo na Kiango (2010) Hisi Zetu, Rivesed edition
Senkoro, FEMK (1982) Fasihi: Press and Publicity Centre: Dar es Salaam
Wellek & Warren (1964) Theory of Literature. Penguin: London
Charles, E. (2006) Bressler Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and
Practice. Amazon
Waugh, P. (2007) Literary Theory and Criticism An Oxford Guide. Amazon
Habibu, M. A. R. (2007) A History of Literary Criticism from Plato to Present.
Amazon
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Tigiti S.Y. M. Sengo(2009) Sengo na FASIHI ZA kiinchi;publisher AERA,
Dar es Salaam


OLT 122: Studies in African Literature

Objectives: Upon successful completion of this course, the you will be able to;
i. produce a concise biographical note on a chosen African writer
ii. produce a competent piece of work in a long essay format on African literature
iii. explain the history, trends, and recurrent themes of the African literature
iv. use internet search engines when seeking information on a given topic related to
African literature

Topics
1. Introduction to oral literature
2. Pre-colonial literature (francophone Africa, Anglophone Africa and Portuguese
speaking Africa)
3. Colonial African literature (francophone Africa, Anglophone Africa and
Portuguese speaking Africa)
4. Postcolonial African Literature (francophone Africa, Anglophone Africa and
Portuguese speaking Africa).

References:
Cook D (1977). African literature: a critical view. London: Longman
Amuta C (1989). The Theory of African literature: implications for practical criticism.
London: Zed Books
Dathorne OR (2009). African literature in the twentieth century. Minnesota: University
of Minnesota Press
Ngugi Wa ThiongO (1997). Writers in politics: a re-engagement with issues of literature
& society. Oxford: James Currey Publishers
Grard AS (1981). African language literatures: an introduction to the literary history of
Sub-Saharan Africa. London: Longman Publishing Group.
Julien E (1992). African novels and the question of orality. Indiana: Indiana University
Press.
Griffiths G. (2000). African Literatures in English: East and West. London: - Addison-
Wesley Longman Ltd
Mortimer MP (1990). Journeys through the French African novel: London: Heinemann
Educational Publishers.


Harrow KW (1994). Thresholds of change in African literature: the emergence of a
tradition. London: Heinemann Educational Publishers
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Killam GD (1984). The Writing of East and Central Africa. London: Heinemann
Educational Books
Harrow KW (2001). Less than one and double: a feminist reading of African women's
writing. London: Heinemann Educational Books
Petersen KH, Rutherford A. (1991). Chinua Achebe: a celebration. London:
Heinemann Educational Books
Cazenave OM (1996). Femmes rebelles: naissance d'un nouveau roman africain au
fminin. Paris : L'Harmattan Edition


OLT 221:ORAL LITERATUTE

Objectives: Upon completion of this course you should be able to;
i. describe the prevalence of literary qualities in African orature
ii. integrate and enrich various genres in their writing of modern literary works
iii. form self acceptance and confidence as Africans

Topics
i. context and concepts of oral literature
ii. structures of oral literature, genres
iii. roles and of oral literature
iv. theoretical and critical aspects of literature
v. virtues and vices
vi. traditionalist and modernism and globalization

References
Cutter, N. 1920 Songs and Tales From Dark Continent. N.y
Finnegan, R. 1967 Limba Stories and Story Telling. OLAL, Oxford
Finnegan, R. (1970) Oral Literature in Africa. Nairobi: Oxford
Finnegan, R. (1970) Oral Literature in Africa. Oxford University Press Harries, L. 1981
Mlokozi, M.M (1989) Tanzu za Fasihi Simulizi. Mulika 21: 1-24
Sengo, TYSM (1985) Folktale Performance in Pemba and Zanzibar PHD Thesis
Khartoum: Khartoum University (E.A Section UDSM)
Ndungo, C. M. na Wafula, R. M. Nadharia ya Fasihi Simulizi na Tanzu za Fasihi
Simulizi, BSW 308A University of Nairobi College of Education and External
Studies
Obiechina, E.N Transition from Oral to Literary Tradition
TAKILUKI 1983. Fasihi Zanzibar. Zanzibar: TAKILUKI
Taylor, W. E. Africa Emphasis or Sawa from Kiswahili Land, London
Steere, E. and Werner (1922). Swahili Tales as Told by Natives of Zanzibar with an
English Translation, London
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Vansina, J. 1965 Oral Tradition, Astudy in Historical Methodology. London: H. M
Writht
Werner, A. 1927 Swahili Poetry, J. Afr. Soc.26
Sengo T.S.Y.N 2010 Utafiti wa Utani na Jamii: Ukwere (forthcoming) Dar es Salaam
AERA Kiswahili Research Product












OLT 222: Literary Stylistics (course outline to follow)

OLT 321: EUROPEAN LITERATURE
This course is designed to give the learners a general insight and artistic appreciation of
European Literature in both prose and poetry forms. Please go to the moodle to find
many support materials, as well as digital copies of the novels you will need to read.

The approaches to be used included making descriptions, meaning formulation, analysis
of various key areas, etc., as are stipulated in the subtopics below:

FICTION

Topics studied include:

1. Realism: its definition and background, the use of figurative language in realism,
realisms relationship with reality and history in Daniel Defoes Moll
Flanders and Robinson Crusoe.

2. The French Revolution as the historical content of Balzacs novel Old Goriot.
Examining Eugene Rastignac as the point of view character in Old
Goriot. The structure and style of Balzacs Old Goriot.
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3. The reflection of the industrial revolution in Charles Dickens Great Expectations.

4. Character development, structure and use of symbolism in Great Expectations.

5. The impact of declined hopes in Great Expectations.

6. Tracing the feministic aspects in g Flauberts Madame Bovary

7. Making a literary analysis of the importance of the structure and style, plot and point of
view of Madame Bovary.

8. The background and consequences of Emma Bovarys tragic flaw

9. Describing the search for happiness of meaning of life in Madame Bovary and
Camus The Outsider.

10. The criminal mentality, marriage and family in Dostoyevsky: The double, Notes
from the Underground, and Tolstoys Happy ever after.

11. Outline the background and effects of moral decline in The Death of Ivan Ilyitch
(Tolstoy).

12. Tracing modernism (as a movement) in Kafkas The Trial.

13. Literary trends: modernism, social realism and post-modernism in Barnes Flauberts
parrot, Gorkys Mother and Kafkas The Trial on issues like definitions,
features, and their contributions to European prose fiction.

FICTION LECTURES:
Lecture 1: Realism and the rise of the European Novel

Lecture 2: Honor de Balzacs Old Goriot
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Lecture 3: Balzacs Old Goriot

Lecture 4: The theme of Fatherhood in Old Goriot

Lecture 5: Gustave Flauberts Madame Bovary

Lecture 6: The structure and style of Madame Bovary

Lecture 7: Emma Bovarys romantic quest

Lecture 8: Dostoyevsky: His life and work

Lecture 9: Dostoyevskys The Double and Notes from the Underground

Lecture 10: The life and work of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Lecture 11: Tolstoys Happy ever after, The Cossacks and The Death of Ivan Ilych

Lecture 12: The life and work of Charles Dickens

Lecture 13: Dickens Great Expectations

Lecture 14: Trends in 20
th
century fiction Kafkas The Trial, and Orwells Nineteen
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POETRY

Topics studied include:

1. Distinguishing narrative and lyrical poetry in the European poetic tradition.

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2. Tracing the emergence of the romance as a literary artistic form in European poetry.

3. Discussing the major thematic concerns of metaphysical and romantic poetry basing on
areas like love, man and God, etc. in the works of William Blake, P. B.
Shelley, J. Keats, Bertold Brecht, Wordsworth, etc.

4. Realism in Alexander Pushkins poem The Prophet

5. The relationship of Vladimir Mayakovski to the revolution of 1917 as shown in his
poems:
-To answer
-My soviet passport


6. Artistic concerns of W. B. Yeats as shown in:
-Down by the Salley Gardens
-Words


7. Making a critical appreciation of Yeats poetic style in the poem No Second Try

8. Identification of style in:

-T. S. Eliots poems The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Wasteland

The Wasteland and Ash Wednesday, and Portrait of a Lady on areas such as
language use, sound patterns imagery and use of allusion


9. Examining form and content in B. Brechts poems

-Ballad of the pirates

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-A bed for the night

POETRY LECTURES:

Lecture 1: Background to European Poetry
The Epic
The Romance
The Sonnet
The Renaissance Lecture 2: Metaphysical Poetry
Thematic Concerns

Lecture 3: Metaphysical Poetry
Theme of Love
Theme of Man and God
Paradox
Imagery
Rhythm and Rhyme


Lecture 4: Romantic Poetry- the background
What is Romanticism?

Lecture 5: Romantic Poetry- English Romantics
William Blake

Lecture 6: Romantic Poetry- English Romantics (part 2)
William Blake (part 2)
William Wordsworth
Samuel Coleridge
P. B. Shelley
John Keats

Lecture 7: Alexander Pushkin
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Romanticism and Realism
Poems on the Decembrists
Love lyrics
The Role of the Poet

Lecture 8: Willam Butler Yeats
Life and work
Traditional sources
Stylistic Aspects

Lecture 9: W. B. Yeats (part 2)
Love poems
Nationalistic concerns
World civilization concerns

Lecture 10: Bertold Brecht: Life and work
Phase One: poems Song of the Fort and Donald Railroad Gang
Phase Two: Ballad of the Pirates and A Bed for the Night
Phase Three: Pride


Lecture 11: T. S. Eliot
Life and work
Poems:
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Style
Language
Sound Patterns
Imagery
Allusion
Portrait of a Lady

Lecture 12: Vladimir Mayakovsky Russian futurism
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His life and work

Lecture 13: V. Mayakovsky
Poems:
What about you?
Kindness to horses
Order No. 2 to the Army of Ants
Contagious Cargo
My Soviet Passport





Assessment: Students are evaluated by two examinations.

Works

Balzac, Honor de Old Goriot

Barnes , Julian Flauberts parrot Pan Books 1985

Brecht, Berthold Ballad of the pirates; A bed for the night

Camus, Albert The outsider Penguin 1973

Defoe, Daniel Moll Flanders; Robinson Crusoe

Dickens, Charles Great Expectations Penguin 1980

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Notes from the underground and The Double Penguin 1973

Eliot, T.S. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock; The Wasteland; Ash Wednesday
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Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary

Gorky, Maxim Mother 1974

Kafka, Franz The Trial Penguin 1971

Mayakovski, Vladimir To answer; My soviet passport

Tolstoy, Leo Happy ever after Penguin 1980
The death of Ivan Ilych Penguin 1971

Yeats, W. B. No Second Try; Down by the Salley Gardens; Words

Watson, George The story of the novel Macmillan 1979

Watt, Ian The rise of the novel Berkeley 1971







OLT 322 African American Literature
This course is designed to introduce students to the study and appreciation of African
American literature by examining how historical context, such as slavery and the Harlem
Renaissance impacted the literary production of Black Americans.

Topics explored include:
1. Slavery, race, self-consciousness, the background and use of oral narratives, the
meaning and use of the blues, negro spirituals, songs, autobiographies, violence,
education for freedom, alienation and emancipation, the American dream, western
civilization, black subjugation, the nature of master-slave relationships.

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2. Tracing the development of black consciousness as shown by the poets of the Harlem
renaissance: Claude Mackay, Langston Hughes, etc.

3. Exploring the political and cultural rebirth of the black race as depicted by Marcus
Garvey, Locke, Claude Mackay and Amiri Baraka.

4. Analysis of the thematic concerns in African American literature on issues of identity,
violence, blindness, invisibility, discrimination, the Jim Crow laws, black escapism and
the destruction of black manhood.

5. Examining the causes and impacts of fate, dread, hate, disillusionment, sadism and
shame that characterize black people in the USA.

6. Studying/analyzing the concepts of love and Christianity as perceived by James
Baldwin, Richard Wright and others.

7. Craftsmanship in the literary artistic works of Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Toni
Morrison, Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, etc., and their use of:
-imagery, point of view, flashback, irony, satire, symbolism, etc., to portray their
messages.

LECTURES:


Lecture 1. African-American Literature: Introduction

Lecture 2. The Slave Narrative

Lecture 3. Frederick Douglass

Lecture 4. The Harlem Renaissance

Lecture 5. Claude Mackay
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Lecture 6. Langston Hughes

Lecture 7. The Period of the Depression

Lecture 8. Richard Wright: Native Son

Lecture 9. Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man

Lecture 10. James Baldwin

Lecture 11. James Baldwin: Go tell it on the mountain

Lecture 12. James Baldwin: Blues for Mr. Charlie

Lecture 13. Amiri Baraka

Lecture 14. Women Writers: Toni Morrison and Alice Walkers feminist approaches to
African American literature

Assessment: Students are evaluated by two examinations.


TEXTS

Baldwin, James The Fire Next Time Penguin 1971
Go tell it on the mountain Black swan 1984

Benston, Roseann et al, eds. Steady Black Bridges: visions of Black women in
literature Anchor Books 1979

Bebston, Kimberly Baraka: the revenge of the black mask Yale University
Press 1976
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Bone, Robert The Black Novel in America Yale 1971

Brooks, Gwendolyn Selected Poems Harper and Row 1963

Douglass, Frederick The Narrative of a Slaves Life

Ellison, Ralph The Invisible Man Penguin 1970

Jones, leroi The Dutchman and The Slave Morrow 1964

Morrison, Toni Beloved New American library 1987

Rosenblatt, Roger Black Fiction Harvard University Press 1968

Wright, Richard Uncle Toms Cabin Harper and Row, 1975

Native Son 1978

Walker, Alice The Color Purple Pocket Books 1982

In Search of our Mothers Gardens Harcourt, brace, Jovanovich 1983




OLT 323: Creative Writing

The object of the course is to encourage students to write creatively and to build their
works with an understanding of such issues as form, content and point of view, and to
expose students to the elements of creative writing in the genres of prose, poetry and
drama. The topics in the lectures include an approach to writing, free-writing, revision,
as well as techniques to improve the various skills.

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Part I

Theoretical perspectives

Lecture 1: What is Creative Writing?

Lecture 2: Form, content and effect

Lecture 3: The Creative Writer and the Tools

Lecture 4: The genres: prose, drama and poetry

The practicals: creative writing through Games

Lecture 5: Prose models

Lecture 6: Dramatic mode and models

Lecture 7: Poetic mode and models; elements of poetry (Metaphor, rhyme, etc.)

Final activities, assignments, samples

Lecture 8: Identifying your topic

Lecture 9: Assignments

Part II

Lecture 1: An approach to Creative Writing

Lecture 2: Creative Writing and Non-fiction

Lecture 3: Free-writing and rewriting
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Lecture 4: Revising I

Lecture 5: Revising II

Lecture 6: Revising with feedback

Lecture 7: The Question of Audience

Lecture 8: Business and thesis writing

Remember: this is CREATIVE WRITING, so try to find your INSPIRATION! BE
CREATIVE! LOOK FOR WAYS TO ADD IMAGINATION AND CREATIVITY TO
YOUR WORK, AND FINALLY: READ AS MUCH QUALITY WRITING AS YOU
CAN (FEED YOUR BRAIN THE GOOD STUFF!)

Assessment: Mid year and annual exams


OLT 324: DRAMATIC AND THEATRICAL STUDIES
Aims
This course is intended to impart knowledge on African oral performances eg rituals,
rites, story telling, ngoma, heroic recitation etc.It is further intended to expose the
students to various concepts of drama and theatre;to enlighten students on the emergence
and development of drama and theatre in East Africa; and teach comparative drama and
theatre from the time of folkloric performance.

Objectives: Upon completion of this course you should be able to;
i. determine the prevalence of literary qualities in drama and theatre
ii. write plays and film scripts
iii. analyse plays and dramatic, theatrical works
iv. perform actual drama and theatre
v. publish drama and theatrical materials
vi. perform act, direct and produce direct plays
vii. analyse plays effectively
viii. producing qualitative artistic works in drama and theatre.


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Topics
Poetry, Drama, Novel, Act, Alliteration, Ambiguity, Plot, Allegory, Allusion, Antagonist,
Protagonist tragedy, Comedy, Conflict, Characterization, Catharsis, Chorus, Climax,
Dialogue/monologue rhetoric, theme, Context, Diction, Didactive theothex, Epic satire


References
Dawson, S.W. , 1970 Drama and the Dramatic. London Muthuen
Dukore, B. F. 1974 Drama Theory and Criticism. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Wistons, Inc
Fergusson, F. The Idea of A Theatre. Pinceton University Press
Gotrick, Kacke. 1984. Epidan Theatre and Modern Drama. Stockholm: Almovist &
Wiksell International
Lihamba, A. 1985 Political Theatre in Tanzania after the Arusha Declaration, 1967-
1984, Phd. Thesis, Leeds, University of Leeds
Mhando, P. & Balisidya, 1976 Fasihi na Sanaa ya Maonyesho. Dar es Salaam:
Tanzania Publishing House
Turner, V. 1982 From Ritual to Threatre: The Human Seriousness of Play, New
York: Performing Arts.

Dramatic Texts
Hussein, E.N -Kinjiketile
-Mashetani
-Wakati Ukuta
-Jogoo Kijijini
Mbogo, E. -Ngoma ya Mwanamalundi
-Morani
-Giza Limeingia
-Sundiata
-Fumo Liongo
Soyinka, W. -Death and the Kingshorseman
-The Road
-Kongis Harvest
-The Trials of Brother Jero
Ngugi - I Shall Marry When I want
- The Trial of Dedan Kimathi
Watene -Dedan Kimathi
Muhando, P. - Hatia
-Heshima Yangu
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-Nguzo Mama
Semzaba, E. -Ngoswe
-Tendehogo
Lihamba, M. -Mkutano Mkuu wa Ndege