FREN 440: Advanced Literary Studies

This course is designed to introduce different Mandinka oral narrative forms through the lens of different disciplines. By reading and discussing popular and specialized literature, we will explore the nature and function of Mandinka verbal arts such as tare (folk tales, fables), sanda (proverbs), sandakòdòbò (riddles), dònkili (songs), fasa (honorifics, praise songs), buruju (origins, ancestry), mabalma (oratory technics for creating new songs from fasa), and study in detail maana (tarikh in Arabic), the Mandinka epic as reconstructed in Camara Laye’s Kouma Lâfôlô Kouma ou le maître de la parole. Works by Djibril Tamsir Niane, Massa Makan Diabaté and Ahmadou Kourouma will also be discussed. Finally, the course will reflect on ways oral narrative forms have influenced contemporary African writers.