Gulliver's Travels: Text and Contexts - Single View

This course will examine the categories of character and the grotesque in literature. We will answer questions like what is character and characterization? What is the grotesque? What functions do these categories serve in literature? In answering these questions we will draw from a range of theoretical works starting with E.M Forster’s classical theory of flat and round characters to more recent understandings of characterization by critics such as Alex Woloch. We will understand the grotesque through the work of thinkers like Mikhail Bakhtin, Wolfgang Kayser, Achille Mbembe and Geoffrey Harpham. We will then examine aspects of character and the grotesque in different African novels published in the post-independence period. Choose and read at least one novel from the list provided in the “literature” section by the first day of class. A detailed course description, bibliography, course readings and assignments will be uploaded on Learnweb during the semester break. You can access the course folder on Learnweb using the password “grotesque”.

Jonathan Swift's world-famous Gulliver's Travels (1726) is more than a children's book about dwarfs and giants; it is an incisive and unparalleled satire on society, institutions, nations, humankind itself.

In addition to exploring the four travels of Gulliver into "Several Remote Nations of the World" as well as the book's publication history, we will examine Swift's satirical masterpiece in a variety of contexts ‒ biographical, historical and socio-political, scientific, philosophical and literary. Thereby, we will draw on sources from Swift's own library and reading. Finally, a short glance at the book's reception will lead us to the question why Gulliver's Travels is still to be found on lists like "fifty novels everyone should read."

Every student is expected to read the text in preparation for this seminar.  

Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow (2006)

Ayi Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968)

Sony Labou Tansi, The Shameful State (2015)

Legson Kayira, The Detainee (1974)

Sembéne Ousmane, Xala (1976)

Meja Mwangi, The Big Chiefs (2013)

Please note that in order to take part in this course you need to have passed the foundations module.