Lits

Lits

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES – ST. AUGUSTINE
Department of Liberal Arts

LITS 2508 – WEST INDIAN PROSE FICTION:   THE NOVEL
Semester 2: 2010/2011

Lecturer / Tutor: Dr. Geraldine Skeete
Telephone: 662-2002 Ext. 3039; messages: Ext. 3868
Cell phone:   782-5983
Fax:   663-5059
E-mail: Geraldine.Skeete@sta.uwi.edu

Office Hours:   Monday 4.30 – 6.30 p.m.; FHE 324
(Other days / times by appointment)

Lecture Hours: Monday 1.00 – 3.00 p.m.; FHE SB 2

Tutorial Hours: Monday 3.00 – 4.00 p.m.; FHE 330

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COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course focuses on a selection of West Indian novels dating from the 1930s to the end of the twentieth century. It explores thematic and stylistic trends in the selected texts, reading these texts against the historical and cultural realities peculiar to the region.

AIM

The aims of this course are:
    • To equip students with knowledge and understanding of issues shaping the development of the West Indian novel.
    • To develop students’ skills of literary criticism and related academic writing skills.

OBJECTIVES

By the end of the course students will be able to:
    • Relate the texts to their historical, social, and cultural contexts.
    • Critically analyze in a novel: structure, characterization, narrative perspective and voice, the construction of dialogue, and other aspects of the writer’s craft.
    • Analyze language use in the work of West Indian writers.
    • Analyze the writer’s treatment of some major themes of West Indian fiction, for example: the colonial experience, resistance, ethnicity, class, gender, family, the development of a West Indian culture, and the experience of the West Indian diaspora.
    • Draw meaningful comparisons between texts.
    • Present ideas in an academic essay that is written in a formal register of Standard English, is well organized, and uses the required documentation style.

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