University Of Cape Town English
University Of Cape Town English
The English Department is home to a wide range of creative and critical engagements in literary and cultural studies. Concerned with the global, the local, and the decolonial, our curriculum centralizes South African and African literature while remaining in constant dialogue with international intellectual traditions, asking what it means to read canonical and world literature from the South.
The University of Cape Town is located in one of the most culturally diverse and socially complex cities in the world. Our department’s research, teaching, and archival work both reflect on and respond to our city’s history and present in all its richness and difficulty. In our lectures and intensive small-group seminars, we welcome students from various disciplines across the university. This intellectual and creative diversity shapes our curriculum and gives our students a lively introduction to different ways of thinking, researching, and writing in a twenty-first-century world.
They work with the written word across a variety of literary genres, but also with other kinds of meaning-making, including images, photographs and maps, spoken word, and the creative and performing arts. In doing so, we consider the historical and social contexts that shape the meaning of texts. Our newly reimagined curriculum traces how words, images, and performances are assembled, archived, and placed in dialogue across space and time.
Learning English as a Foreign Language
The ELC offers classes in Business English, General English at all levels, from beginner to advanced, and courses for the IELTS and Cambridge ESOL exams. Language Excursions is a special experiential learning program that we also provide. You can sign up for as many weeks as you need and begin sessions on any Monday. Twenty, twenty-five, or thirty lessons per week are available to students in a laid-back, welcoming, and encouraging setting.
The following first-year courses are offered. Click on the course name to see the details.
SEMESTER ONE
ELL1013F LITERATURE: HOW AND WHY?
Course Convenor: Dr. Peter Anderson
SEMESTER TWO
ELL1016S IMAGE, VOICE, WORD
Course Convenor: Dr. Peter Anderson
The following second-year courses are offered:
SEMESTER ONE
ELL2000F CULTURES OF EMPIRE, RESISTANCE, AND POSTCOLONIALITY
Course Convenor: Dr. Chris Ouma and Assoc. Prof. Harry Garuba
SEMESTER TWO
ELL2001S LITERATURE AND THE WORK OF MEMORY
Course Convenor: Assoc. Prof. Nadia Davids
The following third-year courses are offered:
SEMESTER ONE
ELL3000F MOVEMENTS, MANIFESTOS, AND MODERNITIES
Course Convenor: Prof. John Higgins
SEMESTER TWO
ELL3001S CONTEMPORARY LITERARY STUDIES
Course Convenor: Dr. Hedley Twidle
Visit the Department of English Language & Literature website.
Contact us:
Isa Mkoka
Tel: 021 650 2836 / 5472 (English)
Fax: 021 650 2080
Physical address:
The AC Jordan Building
University Avenue
UCT Upper Campus
Rondebosch
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