Syllabus Post-Apartheid Literature - 44837 Last update 24-10-2015 HU Credits: 2 Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master) Responsible Department: english Academic year: 0 Semester: 2nd Semester Teaching Languages: English Campus: Mt. Scopus Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Louise Bethlehem Coordinator Email: louise.bethlehem@mail.huji.ac.il Coordinator Office Hours: Tuesday 9:30-10:30 Teaching Staff: Dr. Louise Bethlehem page 1 / 6
Course/Module description: Why Postapartheid Literature? This course explores literature written in South African following the negotiated transition to democracy in that country in 1994. It surveys three central topics relevant to understanding postapartheid society: Body, Witness (Political Violence and HIV/Aids), Urban Space. The emphasis falls mainly on prose, but we will consider selected works of poetry as well. We will at times refer to cinematic renderings of selected literary texts or to works of documentary film, including Steve Jacobss production of J.M. Coetzees Disgrace (2008), Mark Kaplan's Between Joyce and Remembrance (2003), and Gavin Hoods Tsotsi (2005). Course/Module aims: To characterize postapartheid literature across formative themes of the new democratic state: Body, Witness, Urban Space. To read associated texts. To understand the social and historical framing of these texts. Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: To identify salient continuities and discontinuities between apartheid-era and postapartheid texts. To offer historically informed close textual readings of such texts. To point to major historical events shaping literature after the transition to democracy. Attendance requirements(%): 100 Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Seminar Course/Module Content: Introduction: What Was Apartheid? Meeting 1: Gordimer, Nadine 1976 A Lion on the Freeway, Quarry 76, edited by Lionel Abrahams and Walter Saunders, 185-188 (Johannesburg: Ad. Donker). Wilhelm, Peter 1975 Pyro Protram, in LM and Other Stories, 55-64 (Johannesburg: Ravan). page 2 / 6
Coetzee, J. M. 1987 (1992) "Jerusalem Prize Acceptance Speech" in Doubling the Point: Essays and Interviews, edited by David Attwell, 96-99 (Cambridge, M.A.: Harvard University Press). (Handout) Body Meetings 2-4: Behr, Mark 1995 Smell of Apples (New York: St.Martins). Available in Hebrew translation. http://simania.co.il/bookdetails.php?item_id41760 Barnard, Rita 2000 The Smell of Apples, Moby-Dick, and Apartheid Ideology Modern Fiction Studies, Volume 46, Number 1, Spring 2000, pp. 207-226. DOI: 10.1353/mfs.2000.0001 Stobie, Cheryl 2008 Fissures in Apartheid's Eden: Representations of Bisexuality in The Smell of Apples by Mark Behr Research in African Literatures, Volume 39, Number 1, Spring 2008,pp. 70-86 (Article). DOI: 10.1353/ral.2008.0001 Van der Vlies, 2011 An Interview with Mark Behr, Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies, 12:1, 1-26. Her Body Meetings 5-7: Coetzee, J.M. 1998 Disgrace (Harmondsworth: Penguin). Available in Hebrew translation: http://simania.co.il/bookdetails.php?item_id33864 Boehmer, Elleke 2002 Not Saying Sorry, Not Speaking Pain: Gender Implications in Disgrace Interventions Vol. 4(3) 342351 Cornwell, Gareth 2002 Realism, Rape, and J.M. Coetzees Disgrace, 43(2): 307-322. Graham, Lucy 2003 Reading the Unspeakable: Rape in J.M. Coetzees Disgrace Journal of Southern African Studies 29(2): 433-444. Marais, Mike 2006 "J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace and the Task of the Imagination," Journal of Modern Literature 29(2): 75-93. Screening: Steve Jacobs Disgrace (2008) Optional Reading: Brink, Andre 1993 Cape of Storms: The First Life of Adamastor (New York: Vintage) or any other edition, eg. Kindle edition. Available in Hebrew translation: http://bookme.co.il/books/item_details.aspx?barcode692-57 Also available under the title: The First Life of Adamastor. Review available from NY page 3 / 6
Times:http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/03/21/specials/brink-cape.html Witness Meetings 8-10: Krog, Antjie 2000 Country of My Skull (New York:Random House). [Extracts] de Kok, Ingrid (Extracts from her poetry) Graham, Shane 2003 The Truth Commission and Post-Apartheid Literature in South Africa, Research in African Literatures, 34 (1): 11-30. Krog, Antjie 2007 Fact Bordering Fiction and the Honesty of I River Teeth 8(2): 34-43 Moss, Laura 2006 "'Nice Audible Crying,': Editions, Testimonies, and Country of my Skull," Research in African Literatures 39(4): 85-104. Spearey, Susan 2008 May the unfixable broken bone/ [] give us new bearings: ethics, affect and irresolution in Ingrid de Kok's A room full of questions Postcolonial Text 4(1): 2-24. Steinberg, Jonny 2014 Bungityala, in A Long Way Home: Migrant Worker Worlds 1800-2014, edited by Peter Delius, Laura Phillips and Fiona Ranking-Smith, 215-223 (Johannesburg: Wits University Press). Posel, Deborah 2005 Democracy in a Time of AIDS, Interventions Vol. 7(3) 310-15. Sitze, Adam Denialism The South Atlantic Quarterly, Volume 103, Number 4, Fall 2004, pp.769-811 (Article) Urban Space Meetings 11-14: Beukes, Lauren 2010 Zoo City (Johannesburg: Jacana Media). Mpe, Phaswane 2001 Welcome to Our Hillbrow (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press). Gevisser, Mark 2014 Lost and Found in Johannesburg: A Memoir (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) page 4 / 6
[Extract] Mbembe, Achille 2004 Aesthetics of Superfluity, Public Culture 16(3): 373405. Optional Reading Paton, Alan 2003 (1948) Cry the Beloved Country (New York: Scribner). Required Reading: Primary texts listed in order of their appearance over the course of the semester. Gordimer, Nadine 1976 A Lion on the Freeway, Quarry 76, edited by Lionel Abrahams and Walter Saunders, 185-188 (Johannesburg: Ad. Donker). Wilhelm, Peter 1975 Pyro Protram, in LM and Other Stories, 55-64 (Johannesburg: Ravan). Behr, Mark 1995 Smell of Apples (New York: St.Martins). Available in Hebrew translation. http://simania.co.il/bookdetails.php?item_id41760 Coetzee, J.M. 1998 Disgrace (Harmondsworth: Penguin). Available in Hebrew translation: http://simania.co.il/bookdetails.php?item_id33864 Krog, Antjie 2000 Country of My Skull (New York:Random House). [Extracts] de Kok, Ingrid (Extracts from her poetry, class handouts) Steinberg, Jonny 2014 Bungityala, in A Long Way Home: Migrant Worker Worlds 1800-2014, edited by Peter Delius, Laura Phillips and Fiona Ranking-Smith, 215-223 (Johannesburg: Wits University Press). Mpe, Phaswane 2001 Welcome to Our Hillbrow (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press). Additional Reading Material: page 5 / 6
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) Optional Reading Brink, Andre 1993 Cape of Storms: The First Life of Adamastor (New York: Vintage) Hebrew translation: http://bookme.co.il/books/item_details.aspx?barcode692-57 Also available under the title: The First Life of Adamastor. Review available from NY Times:http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/03/21/specials/brink-cape.html Paton, Alan 2003 (1948) Cry the Beloved Country (New York: Scribner). Optional Reading: Course/Module evaluation: End of year written/oral examination 0 % Presentation 30 % Participation in Tutorials 0 % Project work 50 % Assignments 0 % Reports 20 % Research project 0 % Quizzes 0 % Other 0 % Additional information: page 6 / 6