Contemporary African Migrant Literature and Film: Mediating Human Rights
Contemporary African Migrant Literature and Film: Mediating Human Rights
Grade needed: 90%Essay Question- Compare and contrast the representation of migrant/refugee journeys in the massmedia and in two selected works.
Texts (you can choose any two literary texts, two films or one text and one film from this list.)
Ali Farah, Cristina.Little Mother. Trans. Giovanna Bellesia-Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi-Poletto. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2011.
Atta, Sefi.News From Home. Northampton, MA: Interlink, 2010.
Carpignano, Jonas (dir.).Mediterranea. 2015. Film.
Diome, Fatou.The Belly of the Atlantic. Trans. Ros Schwartz and Lulu Norman. London: Serpent's Tail, 2006.
Fedele, David (dir.).The Land Between. 2014. Film.
Kechiche, Abdellatif (dir.).The Secret of the Grain("La Graine et le Mulet"/"Couscous"). 2007. Film.
Lalami, Laila.Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005.
Mengestu, Dinaw.The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears. New York: Riverhead Books, 2007.
Selasi, Taiye.Ghana Must Go. New York: Penguin, 2013.
Word Count - 3000
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this module will be able to:
Critically analyse key literary texts and films on contemporary African migration
Identify key theories, concepts and data pertaining to current human rights debates on the question of migration, and relate them to the primary texts and films studied
Describe and assess the relationship between the poetics and politics of these texts and films
Module Summary
Migration has been a central concern of human rights debates at the UN and international NGOs, in the policies of European and North-American governments and in interdisciplinary academic conversations and theoretical reflections. Literature and film have made some of the most imaginative, productive, and influential recent contributions to the study of migration and human rights. Triggered by conflicts and socio-economic factors, new waves and forms of migration from the African continent have inspired powerful portrayals of the "migrant's crisis". In this module we will examine selected contemporary African novels, short stories, and films in relation to human rights violations and the question of the "human" in both the country of origin and the host country. The issues that will be explored include: trauma, hope, labour, exploitation, violence, xenophobia, racial tensions, discrimination, smuggling and trafficking, borders, refugee status, citizenship, diaspora, socio-economic and cultural assimilation, home, immigration policies, globalization, "migritude", transnationalism and relationality. We will evaluate how human rights discourse both inflects and is inflected by the reimagined realities and imaginative alternatives offered by these texts and films. The material covered will also allow us to address the mass media and social media (mis)representations of African migration.
Assessment criteria
You will be assessed according to your ability to:
Critically analysetwo literary and/or filmic representations(one text and one film or two of eithercovered in class) of contemporary African migration
Clearly relate key theories, concepts and data in current human rights debates to the selected texts/films
Briefly describe and evaluate the relationship between the poetics and politics of these texts and films, based on class discussions of this question
Demonstrate very good command of an adequate and relevant critical language
