University of Fort Hare English Department
University of Fort Hare English Department
The Department of English and Comparative Literature focuses on the study of local and international literature written in English. Additionally, the department offers courses in Linguistics and Language Teaching.
With the necessary supporting theoretical emphasis, the literature examines the socio-political, economic, and cultural contexts of Africa within the continent. The study of literature also includes the works of writers from the diaspora, such as those from the Caribbean and Africa. All literary subgenres are covered, including drama, poetry, and prose. Theoretical linguistics, language teaching and learning, language policy and planning, corpus linguistics, and onomastics are among the linguistics courses offered.
Department of English & Comparative Studies
• Bachelors Degree
• Master of English
• Doctoral Degree (thesis)
Undergraduate
AEB111F/111L Business English for Management and Commerce Students
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To strengthen grammar skills, understand discourse analysis, develop comprehension and critical thinking skills, and develop the research and composition skills essential for students entering university.
Instruction: weekly lecture and double tutorial session.
AEB121F/121L Business English for Management and Commerce Students
Elective/Core: Core
Contents: Through the assigned textbook students learn the necessary skills for written business English.
Prerequisites: Entry into the Foundation program with the Faculty of Management and Commerce.
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To enable students to develop the English writing skills necessary for success in the field of commerce, to develop an understanding of investigative and evaluative reporting and comprehend the process necessary to complete a detailed, comprehensive report, and to develop the leadership and participatory skills essential for small group communication.
Contents: Through the assigned textbook students learn the necessary skills for written business English.
Prerequisites: Entry into the Foundation program with the Faculty of Management and Commerce.
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To continue developing students’ English writing skills necessary for success in the field of commerce, and to develop the leadership and participatory skills essential for small-group communication.
Contents: Through the assigned textbook, learners are aided in developing their business English writing and oral communication skills.
APR111F/111L Academic Reasoning Skills for Management and Commerce Students
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To enable learners to acquire a sound knowledge of the foundational aspects of basic academic practices and reasoning skills.
Contents: Learners are provided with reading and research skills; recognition and practice of formal/academic writing; interpretation of meaning — objectivity/subjectivity and ambiguity. Expository lectures, seminar discussions, and learner presentations.
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To enable learners to acquire reading and analytical skills, with emphasis on the ability to construct a logical, coherently written document.
Contents: Learners are equipped with skills in recognizing, evaluating, and constructing arguments; reasoning; critical activity, judgment, logic, and argument;
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To strengthen grammar skills, understand discourse analysis, develop comprehension and critical thinking skills, and develop the research and composition skills essential for students entering university.
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To enable students to develop the English writing skills necessary for success in the field of accounting, to develop an understanding of investigative and evaluative reporting and comprehend the process necessary to complete a detailed, comprehensive report, and to develop the leadership and participatory skills essential for small group communication.
Contents: Learners are provided with a textbook that examines the key elements of written business communication.
BEA211/E Business English for Accounting Students
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To develop oral presentation skills, understand and design effective advertising material, to compose a curriculum vitae, and prepare for a job interview.
Contents: Learners are provided with a textbook addressing the issues of public speaking and group oral presentations, as well as the correct selection and use of visual displays. Students also learn how to develop their own curriculum vitae and the essential elements of a job interview.
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose: To enable second, third, and/ or final-year learners to develop the advanced communication skills in English that they will need for their professional lives. The focus is on public speaking and the use of written English in the business world.
Contents: Learners are provided with a manual containing key information concerning professional communication in English, encompassing the use of both written and spoken English in the business world. The focus of this module is on practical work.
Prerequisites: Completion of at least 1 year of tertiary study.
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose: To enable second, third, and/ or final-year learners to develop the advanced communication skills in English that they will need for their professional lives. The focus is on public speaking and the use of written English in the business world.
Prerequisites: Completion of at least 1 year of tertiary study.
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose: To enable learners to develop the written communication skills necessary for success in the classroom and in the workplace.
Content: Text is assigned that provides instruction in core business communications, report writing, and small group dynamics.
Instruction: Weekly lectures and double tutorial sessions
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose: To enable learners to develop the written and oral communication skills necessary for success in the classroom and in the workplace.
Content: Text is assigned that provides instruction in visual literacy, CV and interview preparation as well as various areas of professional communication such as cultural and gender language awareness.
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To enable learners to develop the written communication skills necessary for success in the classroom and in the law environment.
Content: Text is assigned that provides instruction in critical reading and writing skills with a special emphasis on issues relating to law.
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To enable learners to develop the written and oral communication skills necessary for success in the classroom and in the law environment.
Content: Text is assigned that provides instruction in written business communication and report writing, as well as oral communication with attention paid to speech writing and delivery.
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To enable learners in the B Cur program to develop the English writing skills necessary to understand and apply the rules of correct punctuation in written assignments, research and craft longer essays and analyze articles on health care.
Content: Learners are instructed in summarizing and paraphrasing discovering meanings and definitions, creating narrative, descriptive, expository, and comparison and contrast paragraphs.
Elective/core: core
Purpose: To enable learners in the B Cur program to develop the written and oral communication skills necessary for a professional health care worker.
Content: Learners are instructed in the construction of a well-written business letter, the development and presentation of individual and group oral communication, the process of researching and writing a comprehensive health care report, and the necessary roles and responsibilities of participants in group activities.
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To improve learners’ reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in English.
Contents: Various materials intended to improve learners’ competency in English.
Prerequisites: University entrance
ESP122/122E Reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To improve learners’ reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in English, building on ESP111/111E.
Contents: Various materials intended to further improve learners’ competency in English.
Prerequisites: University entrance.
Elective/Core: Compulsory for SDE (without matric exemption/bachelor’s admission) students.
Purpose: To enable SDE learners to acquire a sound knowledge of the foundational aspects of basic academic practices and reasoning skills.
Contents: Learners are provided with reading and research skills; recognition and practice of formal/academic writing; interpretation of meaning — objectivity/subjectivity and ambiguity. Expository lectures, seminar discussions, and learner presentations.
Prerequisites: SDE admission. (without matric exemption/bachelors admission)
Elective/Core: Compulsory for SDE (without matric exemption/bachelors admission)
Purpose: To enable SDE learners to acquire reading and analytical skills in addition to those acquired in APR111/111E, with emphasis on the ability to construct a logical, coherently written document.
Contents: Learners are equipped with skills in recognizing, evaluating, and constructing arguments; reasoning; critical activity, judgment, logic, and argument;
Prerequisites: SDE admission (without matric exemption/bachelor’s admission). University of Fort Hare English Department
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To introduce learners to what literature and language studies are, and to the basic terminology of both fields of study.
Contents: a) What language is, its features, the relationship between linguistics and language, and which aspects of language the various branches of linguistics deal with.
b) A selection of poems, both oral and written, from African and world literature, spanning a wide range of different periods. A textbook designed for first-year learners who have not received intensive exposure to the study of poetry provides information concerning the use of various poetic devices and also offers assistance in developing learners’ capacity to read and write about poetry.
c) Various appropriate drama or other literary texts.
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To introduce learners to what literature and linguistics are, and to the basic terminology of both fields of study, building directly on the first semester’s work in ECL111.
Contents: a) The learner is introduced to the basics of English sounds, word structure, sentence structure, and meaning relations in English.
b) Methodology for studying poetry, and a short collection of poems written by African and other poets, closely analyzed orally in class and in writing.
c) Various appropriate fiction or other literary texts (chiefly from Africa). University of Fort Hare
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To encourage learners to appreciate the role of orature and poetry in social transformation, introduce learners to advanced linguistic study, and develop learners’ understanding of either African drama or African fiction.
b) Sound production and description, the phonology of English sounds and English syllable types;
c) either i] a study of African drama, dealing with cultural, historical, political, and social elements of the African continent, OR ii] a study of several novels by various renowned African writers, together with background information and methodologies for examining these.
Prerequisites: ECL110/110E and ECL120/120E
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To introduce learners to detailed morphology and syntax, and to develop learners’ understanding of Shakespearean English literature and other historical literature, or encourage creative writing capacities.
Contents: a) English word structure and word formation processes as well as the structure of English phrases, clauses, and sentences,
b) various plays and poems from 16th-century England, with background information and systems for analyzing these texts,
c) either i] a series of presentations, written and oral, gradually develops towards the evolution of the learner’s own portfolio of writing, or ii] plays and poetry by Greek and Roman authors, background information on Greek and Roman culture, and methods of understanding the texts concerned,
or iii] works by Geoffrey Chaucer, together with background information on medieval culture, and methods of analysis together with assistance in understanding Late Middle English.
Prerequisites: ECL110/110E and ECL120/ ECL120E
Elective/Core: Core.
Purpose: To expose learners to the complexities of specific forms of poetry, to show the development of English literature in the eighteenth century, to encourage the study of varieties of English according to use and user, English as an international language, the role English plays in South African society, and either to encourage learners to investigate orature as an agent of social transformation (expanding on work already undertaken in ECL210), or to offer learners the opportunity to expand their creative writing skills, or to allow learners to pursue their own interests and develop their research skills, or to study the “African Diaspora” created by the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
c) either i] Works in translation by Phillis Ntantala, A C Jordan and Randall Peteni, or ii] learners’ own creative work, or iii] learners’ own academic research; or iv] poetry, speeches, short fiction, and autobiography by former slaves and their descendants or v) attendance of English for Career Purposes.
Prerequisites: ECL210/210E and ECL220/220E
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To encourage learners to engage with South African literature in a political context, to introduce learners to the study of the nature and structure of conversations in English, and either to expose learners who are familiar with postcolonial literature in Africa to the postcolonial literature of other colonized cultures, or to offer learners to enhance their creative capabilities by working intensively as creative writers, or to investigate the period from the Modernist era to the present, thus bridging the chronological gap in learners’ literary understanding or independent academic research.
b) analysis of direct and indirect speech acts, and the general structure of conversations
c) either i] various novels and other texts from the LACAAP countries, with background information and methodologies for analysis including post-colonial ideology, or ii] learners to produce their own creative writing in a range of genres, or iii] novels, plays, and poems from the 20th century, with background information and some ways of analyzing the texts, including philosophical ideas, or iv] learner’s own academic research or v] attendance of English for Career Purposes.
Prerequisites: ECL210/210E and ECL220/ 220E
Postgraduate:
ENGLISH HONOURS
The English Honours qualification comprises four (4) CORE modules and one (1) ELECTIVE from a menu of ten (10). The four core modules are designed to locate the student in a South African and Pan- African context, as well as provide a theoretical and methodological framework for further academic study in the discipline of English Language and Comparative Literature. Although the student has ten electives to choose from, this would be subject to the availability of a staff member to teach a particular elective. In summary, to complete the English Honours qualification the student must read all four (4) CORE modules and one (1) ELECTIVE.
ECL501/501E African Literature
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose:To introduce learners to the African meta-theory as a basis for the requisite development of an African center as an anchor on which to interrogate texts.
Contents: Various texts provide a survey of the pan-African ideal and its concomitant challenges from the pre-colonial period to the post-independence dispensation.
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ECL502/502E South African Literature
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose:To encourage learners to examine South African Literature using the full range of skills acquired in their undergraduate years, and to expand their knowledge of the literature. This is based on the assumption that the task of reconstructing the post-apartheid society will involve acts of textual interpretation rooted in historical memory.
Contents: Various South African literary texts by luminaries such as E’skia Mphahlele, Can Themba, Lewis Nkosi, Lauretta Ngcobo, Miriam Tlali, Wally Serote, Njabulo Ndebele and Mbulelo Mzamane, together with theoretical discourses and other works.
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ECL503/503E Literary Theory
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose:To expose learners to the history of literary theory in English and to the basic questions posed by literary theory, and to encourage the practices arising out of such theory.
Contents: Various critical texts from Plato to the present and discussions of these.
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ECL504/504E Research Project
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To allow learners to pursue their own interests and oblige them to develop and display their research skills at the postgraduate level.
Contents:Learner decides him/herself, under departmental supervision.
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent. University of Fort Hare
ECL505/505E Ancient Period to the Renaissance
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose:To allow learners to survey the development of literature up to the beginnings of the modern era.
Contents: A large number of texts from the earliest Mesopotamian and Mediterranean cultures to the Shakespearean period. University of Fort Hare English Department
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ECL506/506E Neoclassical to Realism and Naturalism
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose:To allow learners to survey the development of literature in the formative period of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Contents:A large number of texts from the period, with background and critical readings.
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ECL507/507E Modern and Contemporary Period
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose:To allow learners to examine recent literature and its immediate origins.
Contents: Various texts from the twentieth century, with background and critical readings.
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ECL508/508E The African Diaspora
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose: Learners investigate the impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the “peculiar institution” of slavery, at the postgraduate level.
Contents: Works by African-American and Caribbean icons such as Equiano, Phyllis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, WEB du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Sojourner Truth, and Alex Hailey, among others, in addition to interpretative texts.
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ECL509/509E Literature of the LACAAP countries
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose: To give learners an in-depth study of leading works of literature from Latin American, Caribbean, Asian, Australian, and Pacific countries. Learners are familiarised with significant literary developments in these countries as well as examining current literary trends. The focus is also on specific areas of critical theory, including post-colonial theory, that equips learners with analytical tools that are particularly relevant to a study of the prescribed texts.
Contents:A cross-section of works of fiction and poetry by leading LACAAP writers, from long-established works of literature to cutting-edge contemporary texts.
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ECL500/500E Orature — Comparative Perspectives
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose: To encourage learners to investigate orature as an agent of social transformation and perform their own research into this at the postgraduate level.
Contents:A wide variety of relevant works of orature and theoretical studies within the discourse.
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ECL512/512E Creative Writing or Translation
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose: To develop advanced creative writing ability or translation skills at the postgraduate level. The creative writing or translation work produced by the end of this module should be suitable for publication.
Contents: Learners work independently, developing creative capacity or translation skills, towards the production of either a book-length portfolio of creative writing or a body of work translated from an African language (isiXhosa, Sesotho, isiZulu, Afrikaans, etc.) into English. The lecturer supervises and acts as editor. University of Fort Hare English Department
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ECL513/513E Special Topic
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose:To allow learners to pursue their own interests and develop their research skills in a context less challenging and intimidating than that of a full Honours dissertation.
Contents:Learner decides him/herself, under supervision.
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ECL514/514E Advanced Studies in General Linguistics
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose:To allow learners to do extensive research into the study of the English language.
Contents: Various linguistic materials, some developed by the learner.
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ECL515/515E Advanced Studies in Applied Linguistics
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose:To allow learners to do extensive research into how the English language is applied in practice.
Content:Various linguistic materials, some developed by the learner.
Prerequisites: ECL300/ECL300E or equivalent.
ENGLISH MASTERS BY COURSE WORK (MA in Pan-African Letters)
ECL701/701E Pan Africanism and Cultural Affirmation
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To allow learners to study the Pan-African movement from the formation of the Pan-African Congress in 1900 to the present, and the literature inspired by Pan Africanism
Contents: Chiefly autobiographies and polemic writing, with other material aimed at unraveling the circumstances which necessitated the evolution of Pan-Africanism.
Prerequisites: ECL500 or equivalent.
ECL702/702E Critical Theory and Research Methodology
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To build a learner’s capacity in performing individual research informed by critical theories of her/his choice.
Contents:A research project of the learner’s choice and a survey of contemporary critical theories.
Prerequisites: ECL500 or equivalent. University of Fort Hare
ECL703/703E Southern Africa
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To allow learners to explore Southern African literature and its associated elements, and provide them with an authentic cultural center from which to view their world.
Contents: A wide variety of relevant primary and secondary literature, serves to explore the Southern African experience and the historical conjunctures that speak to the relativity of human experience and the specificities of Southern Africa. University of Fort Hare English Department
Prerequisites: ECL500 or equivalent.
ECL704/704E Mini Dissertation
Elective/Core: Core
Purpose: To allow learners to pursue their own interests while perfecting their research skills under supervision.
Contents:Learner decides him/herself, under departmental supervision.
Prerequisites: ECL500 or equivalent.
ECL705/705E Literature in Africa (Orature and Fiction)
Elective/Core: Elective.
Purpose:To allow learners to develop original concepts in the field of African orature and fiction.
Contents:A broad range of appropriate primary and secondary texts.
Prerequisites: ECL500 or equivalent.
ECL706/706E Literature in Africa (Drama and Poetry)
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose:To allow learners to develop original concepts in the field of African drama and poetry.
Contents: A broad range of appropriate primary and secondary texts.
Prerequisites: ECL500 or equivalent.
ECL707/707E African-Caribbean Literature
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose:To allow learners to develop original concepts in the field of African- Caribbean literature.
Contents: A broad range of appropriate primary and secondary texts.
Prerequisites: ECL500 or equivalent.
ECL708/708E African-American Literature
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose:To allow learners to develop original concepts in the field of African-American literature.
Contents:A broad range of appropriate primary and secondary texts.
Prerequisites: ECL500 or equivalent.
ECL709/709E African Diaspora in Britain, Canada, Germany, France, etc.
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose: To develop learners’ advanced understanding of the impact of forced migration on people of African descent currently residing in these countries.
Contents: A selection of significant texts in the field, including autobiography, poetry, and fiction by authors such as Sam Selvon and George Lamming.
Prerequisites: ECL500 or equivalent.
ECL711/711E Race, Class and Gender in Pan African Literature
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose: To develop learners’ advanced understanding of the interplay of race, class, and gender issues in Pan-African literature, through investigating relevant theoretical tools (such as postcolonial theory, second-wave feminisms, and womanism) enabling learners to embark on independent analyses of appropriate texts or other appropriate investigative subjects. University of Fort Hare
Contents:A selection of significant Pan-African literary texts and relevant works of critical theory.
Prerequisites: ECL500 or equivalent. University of Fort Hare English Department
ECL722/722E Post-Coloniality as Theory and Praxis
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose: To develop a learner’s understanding of the practical meaning of all theory, particularly of post-colonial theory and the context in which it may be applied in work and life.
Contents: A broad range of appropriate primary and secondary texts.
Prerequisites: ECL500 or equivalent.
ECL712/712E Special Topic
Elective/Core: Elective
Purpose: To allow learners to pursue their own interests and develop their research skills in a context less challenging and intimidating than that of a full MA dissertation.
Contents: Learner decides him/herself, under appropriate supervision.
Prerequisites: ECL500 or equivalent.
ENGLISH MASTER AND DOCTORAL DEGREES BY RESEARCH
ECL 700 A Masters’s degree in English by research is offered to suitable candidates.
Research topics for these degrees are chosen in consultation with the Head of the Department and are subject to final approval by the Faculty Research and Higher Degrees Committee.
ECL 900 A Doctoral degree in English by research is offered to suitable candidates.
Research topics for these degrees are chosen in consultation with the Head of the Department and are subject to final approval by the Faculty Research and Higher Degrees Committee.
Contact Us:
Ms. Z Mnguni
New Arts Block, 2nd Floor
Telephone number:
040 – 602 2242 [Alice Campus]
043 – 704 7219 [East London Campus]
Fax number:
040 – 653 1255
E-mail: zmnguni@ufh.ac.za