African 210: African Storyteller

The African Storyteller, one of the oldest and most popular courses in UW-Madison history, will take students on a new and exciting journey where they will discuss oral traditions and the written word, the composition of stories, the relationship between performer and audience, and the transmission of tradition in various African societies.

This 4-week course will introduce students to the diversity of the African continent and its unique storytelling traditions. The course is designed to be semi-synchronous, meaning that all students will have plenty of opportunity for flexibility within the structured pace of course designed.  This course weaves in another genre, the novel, to offer a rich engagement with literary themes and tropes. Like an audience sitting before a storyteller, students will engage with ideas that have been contemplated for generations, but the storyteller will address you as you are, where you are. In the moment of performance, the old will be new again!