Admission requirements
‘N.B. Course descriptions are subject to change’
This course is open to second and third year students. Higher requirements will be imposed on third-year students. The codes for the third-year course is : 5733K2011
Description
In an era when that culture and humanities have been linked to the digital, what does manuscript and print culture mean in Africa? In this course, students will be introduced to notions of orality and literacy, as well as the history of print culture in Africa and the co-existence of a plethora of media cultures which do not replace each other in any sort of straight line, particularly in African oral cultures and societies where people have on one side recorded texts by heart but also penned down a prolific amount of handwritten documents in their vernacular languages. Hence, texts and genres such as – poetry but also periodicals and booklets - will be seen in their fluidity across time and space and in their socio-historical context (mainly focused on Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa). Questions on how much a precise manuscript and print culture can tell us about the oral or written nature of a text will be investigated. Students will have the opportunity to see manuscripts and early printed booklets from special archive collections and understand the challenges of deciphering, editing and digitalizing them.
Course objectives
Upon successful completion of the course, students will:
Acquire critical knowledge of a text’s fluidity and variability in its written and oral forms;
Situate manuscript traditions within their cultural and socio-historical context;
Acquire critical knowledge of the history of books in Africa;
Acquire the skills to recognise oral features and references in a written text;
Acquire and practice techniques of critical text editions useful for the digital humanities;
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Assessment method
take home-tentamen 20%
werkstuk, paper e.d. 60%
abstract, oral presentation 20%
Resit for any part that has been graded < 5,0
Reading list
The following list is indicative. Please consult the syllabus and the course shelf for more detailed information.
Karin, Barber. (2012). Print Culture and the First Yoruba Novel : I.B. Thomas's 'Life Story of Me, Segilola' and other texts
Eickelman, Dale F,Anderson, Jon W (1999). New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere
Dammann, E. (1993). Afrikanische Handschriften
Dereck Peterson, Emma Hunter and Stephanie Newell (2016). African Print Cultures Newspaper and their publics in the twentieth century
Finnegan, R. (1974). “How Oral is Oral Literature?”
Ong, W. (1982). Orality and Literacy: the Technologizing of the Word
Pilatszewicz, S. (1985). “The Rise of Written Literatures in African Languages”
Lambertus Willem Cornelis van Lit (1997). Among Digitized Manuscripts. Philology, Codicology, Paleography in a Digital World
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Registration Studeren à la carte
Registration Contractonderwijs
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Reuvensplaats