Short Story International: An African Perspective, Part 2

In this course we continue our exploration into the short-story genre in the vast literary traditions of  Africa. The suggested text, the highly lauded Granta Book of the African Short Story, edited by the distinguished Nigerian novelist-poet, Helon Habila, contains writers from 20 African countries, with a preference for newer, younger, contemporary voices over earlier ones. For example, Angolan writer and political activist Manuel Rui, who writes novels, short stories, and poetry in Portuguese; Zimbabwean novelist, short-story writer, and playwright Dambudzo Marechera, whose death at thirty-five cut short one of the most promising careers in African literature; and Zoë Wicomb, whose best-known works--written during her twenty-year self-imposed exile from her native South Africa--address the lives of mixed race—“coloured’’—South Africans under apartheid. These writers reflect Africa's many vibrant, diverse short-story traditions and represent dynamic cross-sections of various African societies. Their voices resonate through urban, rural, regional, and national landscapes, private and public passions, and dramatic political events.