Courses
WInter 2008-09
ENG 765: Theory of Literature
Day: ; Time: ; Room:
Instructor: Zakes Mda
Course Description
In this course we look at 20th century fabulists, focusing on magic(al) realism and its precursors. We examine how these modes function, particularly at a point of conjunction of post-modernism and post-colonialism; the authors' difficult relationship to mimesis, reality and the fantastic; and their coupling of history and imagination. We will pay special attention to magic realism and/or magical realism as a literary phenomenon located within a special historical context, and relating it to concepts of hybrid aesthetics. We also aim to deconstruct the term by interrogating what it has come to mean in the academy today, and examine its problematic nature.
Course Readings
- We will read works of fiction by Kafka, Borges, Marquez, Fowles, Labou Tansi, Llosa and others. We will also have one prescribed work of critical theory titled Magic(al) Realism: the New Critical Idiom by Maggie Ann Bowers and articles by Theo L. D'haen, Franz Roh, Wendy B. Faris, and Stephen Slemon.
Search for other courses taught by Zakes Mda or try a new course search.