The English department will host Professor Mabel Komasi, Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, for the Spring 2012 semester. While at Salisbury University, Professor Komasi will offer two special topics courses in African Literature (see descriptions below).

Interested students should contact Professor James King (jsking@salisbury.edu) for more information.

Poetry and Society In Africa
In this course, we shall study a representative selection of poetry in Africa with a view to exploring the development of poetic forms, themes and purpose and how these intersect with the norms, beliefs and worldviews of African society. We shall further examine the oral dimensions of African poetry and the persistence of the oral aesthetic formulas in contemporary written African poetry.

Selections from the following the following poets, among others, will be considered: Okot p’Bitek, Kwabena Nketia J.P. Clarke, Afua Kuma, Kofi Awoonor, and Kofi Anyidoho.

Introduction to African Literature
This is essentially a survey course meant to offer a formal introduction to African Literature in its broadest historical and cultural contexts. The aim is for each student to gain a close, personal familiarity with selected representative texts of major forms/genres and of the major writers of various periods. The texts will be placed in the general socio-political and cultural contexts of their production.

We will be exploring writers such as D.T. Niane, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Wole Soyinka, Ayi Kwei Armah, Ama Ata Aidoo, Tsitsi Dangarembga, and Amma Darko.