LFU:online

Institut für Anglistik Institut für Anglistik

Dr. Geoffrey Vernon Davis Dr. Geoffrey Vernon Davis

609776

Anglophone Cultures: Zimbabwe: Literature and Culture

SE 2

10

Block

semestral

Englisch

Although Zimbabwe is in process of emerging from a period of political conflict and severe economic depression, the country is still facing serious problems, among them the long-term effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic; the effects of ongoing political repression and human rights abuse; continuing international isolation which particularly affects its relations with neighbouring countries; the economic and political ramifications of large-scale migration, mainly to South Africa, but also to the UK; and polarisation within the coalition government which will perhaps only be resolved through the election scheduled to take place during 2013. All of these factors impact on the arts and culture sector just as negatively as they do on Zimbabwean society as a whole.

Against this background we shall try to gain a picture of the development of the arts and culture in Zimbabwe through analysing some major literary works (including writings from the diaspora) and by discussing filmed productions of two recent plays and three well-known feature films.

Doris Lessing, The Grass is Singing (1950; Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961) Charles Mungoshi, Waiting for the Rain (London: Heinemann Educational, 1975) Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (London: The Women’s Press, 1988) Yvonne Vera, Butterfly Burning (Harare: Baobab Books, 1998; New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000) Brian Chikwava, Harare North (London: Jonathan Cape, 2009) Petina Gappah, An Elegy for Easterly (London: Faber and Faber, 2009) (short stories) Stephen Chifunyise, Rituals (2010) and Waiting for Constitution (2010) (both on DVD) Films: Everyone’s Child (1995) (Shimmer Chinodya and Tsitsi Dangarembga); Flame (dir. Ingrid Sinclair 1996); and Jit (dir. Michael Raeburn, 1990)

Anmeldevoraussetzung/en: Masterstudium: positive Beurteilung des Pflichtmoduls 3 Diplom- und Lehramtsstudium: abgeschlossener 1. Studienabschnitt Entspricht im Diplomstudium (343): SE 2: English Literature/Culture Entspricht im Lehramtsstudium (344): SE 2: English Literature/Culture
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