How to Talk about Africa? Literature, Photography and Film from Portuguese-Speaking Africa (MLP2004)

15 credits

How to talk about Africa stands as one of the biggest problems in the field of postcolonial studies. How can you trace the transformative potential of postcolonial art and literature without reducing it to its ‘political’ dimension? You will address this important question as you learn about the experiences of colonisation, decolonisation and nation-building in Angola and Mozambique, two countries that faced five centuries of Portuguese colonisation. This module is suitable for non-specialist students interested in learning about twentieth-century Portuguese-speaking Africa. All texts will be studied in translation, although students of Portuguese are strongly encouraged to read the texts and watch the films in the original language.