Private instruction available at any level with permission and arrangement of the instructor only during the first week of classes.

Private instruction available at any level with permission and arrangement of the instructor only during the first week of classes.

Private instruction available at any level with permission and arrangement of the instructor only during the first week of classes.

Private instruction available at any level with permission and arrangement of the instructor only during the first week of classes.

Semi-private instruction available at any level with permission and arrangement of the instructor only during the first week of classes.

Semi-private instruction available at any level with permission and arrangement of the instructor only during the first week of classes.

Semi-private instruction available at any level with permission and arrangement of the instructor only during the first week of classes.

Semi-private instruction available at any level with permission and arrangement of the instructor only during the first week of classes.

An introduction to some topics in African studies, reading and writing about such contemporary authors as Ama Ata Aidoo, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Bessie Head, Mariama Ba, Chimamanda Adichie. Studying both fiction and essays, the course focuses on recent political situations (Ghana, Congo, South Africa), on images of women, and on representations of Africa in news media and in cinema, both from Africa and the West.

This course will examine representations of figures not considered human, focusing on the nonhuman animal, with attention to the monster and the machine. We will analyze the verbal and visual techniques with which these figures are depicted, the social and political concerns they address, and the tenuous boundary between human and nonhuman. Authors, filmmakers, and critics may include Bierce, Cronenberg, Dunbar, Kafka, London, Martel, Moore, Poe, Ritvo, Scott, Wells, and Sewell.