Comparative Literature 266 - STUDIES/S AFRICAN LIT AND FILM

Topics course. A study of South African literature and film since 1948 in their historical, social and political contexts. How do writers and film makers of different racial and political backgrounds remember and represent the past? How do race, class, gender and ethnicity shape the ways in which they use literature and cinema to confront and resist the racist apartheid state? How do literature, film and other texts such as testimonies from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission function as complex cultural and political sites for understanding the interconnections among apartheid taxonomies, various forms of nationalisms and the often hollow post-apartheid discourse of nonracial "New South Africa?" Texts include testimonies from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, novels such as Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country, Mazisi Kunene's Mandela's Ego, Njabulo Ndebele's The Cry of Winnie Mandela, Nadine Gordimer's July's People, J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians, Athol Fugard's Tsotsi and Zoe Wicomb's You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town. We also analyze films such as Cry the Beloved Country, Sarafina!, Tsotsi, Cry Freedom and South Africa Belongs to Us.(E)

Topic: Adapting Violence to the Screen in Sount African Film