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2008/09 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL3222 Four Women Write Africa

20 creditsClass Size: 30

School of English

Module manager: Professor Jane Plastow
Email: j.e.plastow@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2008/09

This module is not approved as an Elective

Objectives

This module will allow students to understand and compare writing across a number of genres by four of Africa's leading women writers. They will be able to see how writing styles, forms, themes and concerns vary across the continent. They will be able to assess the significance and impact of, and strategies adopted towards, a number of key issues such as women's rights, sexuality, patriarchy, spirituality, race, family and identity.

Learning outcomes
Students will have developed:
the ability to use written and oral communication effectively;
the capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse;
the ability to manage quantities of complex information in a structured and systematic way;
the capacity for independent thought and judgement;
critical reasoning;
research skills, including the retrieval of information, the organisation of material and the evaluation of its importance;
IT skills;
efficient time management and organisation skills;
the ability to learn independently.

Skills outcomes
Skills for effective communication, oral and written.
Capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse.
Ability to acquire quantities of complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way.
Capacity for independent thought and judgement.
Critical reasoning.
Research skills, including information retrieval skills, the organisation of material, and the evaluation of its importance.
IT skills.
Time management and organisational skills.
Independent learning.


Syllabus

The module will focus in depth on the work of four of Africa's most important women writers and will cover a range of types of writing including novels, short stories, plays, autobiography and polemic. Writers have been selected to demonstrate perspectives from a range of geographical regions of Africa and a variety of racial perspectives; Ama Ata Aidoo is a black woman from Ghana in West Africa, Nadine Gordimer is a South African white, Bessie Head is of mixed race and from South Africa/Botswana and Nawal el-Saadawi is Arabic and from Eygpt. This range will allow students to examine key issues relating to women, rights, identity and resistance to oppression from a variety of viewpoints. The module will allow students to explore the diversity of African women's experience alongside points of convergence. It will also focus on the radical experiments with form and subject matter that these writers have undertaken in order to seek to find suitable means to render their experience of Africa.

Teaching methods

Delivery typeNumberLength hoursStudent hours
Meetings51.005.00
Seminar101.0010.00
Private study hours185.00
Total Contact hours15.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)200.00

Private study

Teaching will be through weekly seminars (10 x 1 hour) plus up to 5 additional hours (content to be determined by the module tutor). The 5 additional hours may include lectures, plenary sessions, film showings, or the return of unassessed/assessed essays.

Private Study: Reading, seminar preparation and essay writing

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Seminar contribution
1st assessed essay (Week 7)

Methods of assessment


Coursework
Assessment typeNotes% of formal assessment
Essay1700 words33.30
Essay2750 words66.70
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 24/04/2008

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