Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2025 - WL 202 D100

North/South Intersections (3)

African&Caribbean Fiction

Class Number: 6869

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 3 – Dec 2, 2025: Wed, 2:30–5:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Investigates cross-cultural interactions between European or North American traditions and those of the "global South." May explore themes such as empire, globalization, and modernity, or examine how the artistic achievements of Africa, Oceania, Latin-America, or South Asia influence other traditions. This course may be repeated once for credit when different tonics are offered. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Cultural Memory and Forgetting in Postcolonial African and Caribbean Fiction.

The tension between cultural memory and cultural forgetting is a constant trope in postcolonial literatures. In Discourse on colonialism, Aimé Césaire deplores the colonial destruction of African cultures, artefacts, religions, and languages. This course examines some sociocultural and linguistic implications of the encounters between the global North and the global South. Focusing on Négritude as a memory-oriented response to cultural erasure, students will get insights into the historical and societal diversities of Africa and its diasporas. Other key concepts to be discussed include diglossia, hybridity, creoleness (créolité), black feminism and transnational identity.

Grading

  • Attendance & Participation 10%
  • First In-Class Essay 25%
  • Second In-Class Essay 25%
  • Term Paper 20%
  • Group Oral Presentation 20%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Hamidou Kane, Ambiguous Adventure, New York, Walker, 1963. [available at SFU library]

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, London, Heinemann, 1958. [available at SFU library]

* Maryse Condé, Desirada, New York, Soho, 2000. [available at SFU library]

Aimé Césaire, Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, Middletown, Wesleyan University Press, 2001 (A few excerpts: To be provided in class).

Sembène Ousmane, La noire de … , 1966. (Black girl/film: To be provided in class)

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.