Proseminar History Ethnicity and Cultural Identity in Contemporary African Canadian Fiction

Contemporary African-Canadian literature is as diverse and many layered as the country it originates from. Although Canada openly embraces multiculturalism as its major social policy since the 1970s, many African-Canadian authors are still struggling to rework the history of their presence on Canadian soil in different fields of cultural production. Especially in literature and cultural criticism there are a number of publications of exceptional artistic, analytical and argumentative brilliance to be found. In this seminar we will read a variety of texts byAfrican-Canadian authors against the background of theoretical texts concerned with the topics history, ethnicity and cultural identity in order to define the place of those texts in contemporary Canadian cultural discourse. In addition to the shorter texts we will will read two highly acclaimed novels: Lawrence Hill's Someone knows my name and George Elliott Clarke's George and Rue. Students are required to buy their own copies of the novels and start reading before the beginning of term. A reader with the theoretical texts, excerpts from dramatical works and poems will be available by the beginning of term from the copyshop on Reckhammerweg. Primary Texts: Lawrence Hill, Someone knows my name. New York & London: Norton 2008. George Elliot Clarke, George & Rue. Toronto: Harper & Collins 2005. Anglistik Universität Duisburg-Essen SS 2011 LHRGe, Lehramt an Grund-, Haupt-, Real- u. Gesamtschule, Sp Haupt-, Real-, Gesamtsch. Pudzich Gregor