Graduate Programs English

Full-Time Bachelor of Arts (BA) Programme 

Admission Requirements

Regular undergraduate students are admitted into the programme through University Matriculation Examination (UME), Direct Entry, and transfer.  A minimum of five O’ level credit passes obtained in not more than two sittings in WASSCE, SSCE, NECO, GCE (O/L) or any other examination that is acceptable to the University Senate qualifies the applicant for admission through UME. The candidate must have passed the English language and literature in English at credit level. Besides, the University also administers a post UME screening exercise on candidates before they are short-listed for admission.

Direct Entry

Candidates for admission through direct entry must have passed literature in English in the GCE (A/L) or at the Higher School, or at the NCE. A student who has at least a credit pass in English at the NCE need not have passed literature at credit level in the SSCE, WASCE, NECO, GCE (O/L) or any other examination acceptable to the Senate of Nnamdi Azikiwe University.

Transfer

Inter-Departmental Transfer

A student admitted through UME into another department, but who wishes to transfer to the Department of English Language and Literature must spend one academic session in the original department and, thereafter, apply for a transfer into the second year (200 level) of the new department, following the approval of his/her application by the senate.

Thus, transfers are not allowed into the first or final year of the programme. Transferring students are required to meet the admission requirements specified in 2.1 above

Course Codes and Criteria for Coding

The code of each course in the Department begins with a three letter abbreviation (ENG), which represents the Department of English. This is followed by a three-digit number, the first of which indicates the year of study in which the course is taught (except in part-time programme), the second digit refers to the subject area within the course and the third digit represents the number of times the course has run in that area and the semester for the course; odd numbers refer to the first semester, and even numbers of the third digit refer to the second semester. There are however some exceptions. The stress areas represented by the middle digit are numbered as follows:

1. Linguistics- General Language Courses

2. Language- Phonetics and Phonology

3. Language-Morphology, Syntax and Semantics

4. Language-Composition, Reading and Writing

5. English Literature-Survey and General Courses

6. Literature in English – Area Studies, Including African Literature, etc.

7. English Literature – Stress areas e.g Poetry, Drama, Fiction

8. English Literature – Specific Periods, Specific Authors

9. Project, Research Methods, Special Methods

10. Basic/Elementary.

 Designation/ Status of Courses

Major courses: These are compulsory courses. They are Core courses within the Department of English that must be taken and passed. Required courses: These are courses outside the discipline; otherwise known as subsidiary, that must be taken and passed.

Full-Time Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Programme

Elective courses: These are courses within or outside the discipline from which students select a number, for purposes of fulfilling the minimum requirements for the award of the degree. Whichever one selected must be taken and passed.

General Studies: These are courses under the School of General Studies programme which students must do to fulfil the University requirements for the award of the Bachelor’s degree. These courses must all be passed.

Optional Compulsory: These are major departmental courses from which students choose for the purposes of completing the number of required credits for the semester. More importantly, the courses chosen from this group of courses help to orientate a student towards language, or towards literature, and help to indicate the student’s area of greatest interest.

 Full-Time Bachelor of Arts (BA) Programme

A regular student reading for a four-year B.A (Hons) degree in the Department of English is supposed to do a minimum of seventy-nine courses (75 core courses + 4 non-core courses).

List of First Year Courses for Direct Entry students

Direct entry students are expected to join the second year students for the continuation of their studies.  However, they must do the under-listed courses of the first year.

1. GSS 103: Introduction to Logic and Philosophy

2. GSS 104: Introduction to History and Philosophy of Science

3. GSS 107: Nigerian Peoples and Culture

They must also offer two of the following electives for the first and second semesters of the first year. 

First Semester

4. IGB 101: Elementary Igbo I

                                    or

5. FRE 101: Elementary French I

                                    or

6. CHI 101: Elementary Chinese I

  

Second Semester

7. IGB 102: Elementary Igbo II

                                    or

8. FRE 102: Elementary French II

                                    or

9. CHI 102: Elementary Chinese II

2.5 List of Regular Academic Programme Courses

REGULAR

ACADEMIC PROGRAMME FOR THE

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

FIRST YEAR

FIRST SEMESTER			SECOND SEMESTER
Code	Course Title	Hrs	Code	Course Title	Hrs
ENG 101	Elements of Eng Gram & Usage I	2	ENG 102	Elements of Eng Gram & Usage II	2
ENG 111	Intro to Gen Linguistics I	2	ENG 112	Intro to Gen Linguistics II	2
ENG 141	Mech of Reading Comp & Summ	2	ENG 142	Basic English Composition	2
ENG 161	Introduction to Nigerian Lit	2	ENG 144	Introduction to Creative Writing	2
ENG 171	Introduction to Prose Fiction	2	ENG 152	Intro to Oral Literature	2
ENG 173	Introduction to Poetry	2	ENG 162	Intro to African Literature	2
GST 101	Use of English I	2	ENG 174	Intro to Drama & Theatre of Eng	2
GST 103	Intro to Philosophy & Logic	2	GST 102	Use of English II	2
GST 107	Nigerian Peoples & Cultures	2	GST 104	Intro to Hist & Philo of Sci	2
GST 109	Agumagu Igbo I	2	GST 110	Agumagu Igbo II	2
*LIT 101	Introduction to Literature I	2	*LIT 102	Introduction to Literature II	2
	Electives (Only one of these)			Electives (Only one of these)
IGB 101	Elementary Igbo I	2	IGB 102	Elementary Igbo II	2
FRE 101	Elementary French I	2	FRE 102	Elementary French II	2
CHS 101	Elementary Chinese I	2	CHS 102	Elementary Chinese II	2
HAU 101	Elementary Hausa I	2	HAU 102	Elementary Hausa II	2
YOR 101	Elementary Yoruba I	2	YOR 102	Elementary Yoruba II	2
	Total	22		Total	22

*LIT 101 and 102 are not for our Departmental Students but for Law students borrowing the course from the English Department

Total Core Courses for First Semester = 10;                  Number of Credit Units = 20

Total Core Courses for Second Semester = 10               Number of Credit Units = 20

Total Number of Core courses for First Year = 20         Number of C.Units = 20+20 = 40

Total Number of Electives for first semester = 1           Number of Elec for 2nd Sem = 1

Grand Total Core & elective courses for 1st & 2nd semester = 11 and 11 respectively

Grand total credit units for first year = 22 + 22 = 44

 

SECOND YEAR

FIRST SEMESTER			SECOND SEMESTER
Code	Course Title	Hrs	Code	Course Title	Hrs
ENG 201	History of English Language	2	ENG 202	Language & Society	2
ENG 211	English as a Second Language	2	ENG 232	Intro to the English Syntax	2
ENG 221	Intro to Phonetics & Phonology	2	ENG 234	Varieties of English	2
ENG 241	Advanced English Comp I	2	ENG 242	Advanced English Composition II	2
ENG 251	Survey of English Literature I	2	ENG 252	Survey of English Literature II	2
ENG 253	Survey of Afric Amer & Caribb Lit	2	ENG 254	Literary Appreciation	2
ENG 255	Folklore	2	ENG 264	Survey of American Literature	2
ENG 281	Modern Comedy	2	ENG 282	Eng Lit of the Neoclassic Period	2
ENG 283	English Lit of the Renaiss Period	2	ENG 284	English Lit of the Romantic Period	2
CSC 100	Intro to Computer Appreciation I	2	CSC 112	Intro to Computer Appreciation II	2
	Electives (Only one of these)			Electives (Only one of these)
****	Peace & Conflict Resolution	2	ENG 256	Language and Gender Studies	2
SOC 141	Introduction to Anthropology	2	ENG 258	Youth and Children’s Literature	2
	Total	22		Total	22

Total Core Courses for First Semester = 10;                  Number of Credit Units = 20

Total Core Courses for Second Semester = 9                 Number of Credit Units = 18

Total Number of Core courses for Second Year = 19    Number of CUnits = 20 + 18 =38

Total Number of Electives for first semester = 1   Number of Elective for Second Semester = 1 Grand Total Core & elective courses for first & second semester = 11 and 10 respectively

Grand total credit units for second year = 22+ 22 =44

THIRD YEAR

FIRST SEMESTER			SECOND SEMESTER
Code	Course Title	Hrs	Code	Course Title	Hrs
ENG 321	Phonology of English	2	ENG 312	Intro to Applied Linguistics	2
ENG 331	Modern Eng. Structure & Usage	2	ENG 314	Intro to Sociolinguistics	2
ENG 333	Discourse Analysis	2	ENG 332	Intro to Semantics	2
ENG 335	Intro to Systemic Functional Gram	2	ENG 334	Morphology of English	2
ENG 341	Speech Writing	2	ENG 336	Psycholinguistics	2
ENG 351	Theory of Literary Criticism	2	ENG 352	Practice of Literary Criticism	2
ENG 361	African Fiction	2	ENG 362	African Poetry	2
ENG 381	Eng Lit of the Victorian Period	2	ENG 364	African Drama	2
ENG 383	Shakespeare	2	ENG 382	Eng Lit of the Modern Period	2
GST 301	Entrepreneur	1	ENG 392	Research Methods/Seminar	2
	Total	19		Total	20

Total Core Courses for First Semester = 10;                  Number of Credit Units = 19

Total Core Courses for Second Semester = 10               Number of Credit Units = 20

Total Number of Core courses for third Year = 20        Number of Credit Units = 19 + 20

                                                                                        = 39

FOURTH YEAR

FIRST SEMESTER			SECOND SEMESTER
Code	Course Title	Hrs	Code	Course Title	Hrs
ENG 411	English for Specific Purposes	2	ENG 432	Lang & National Develpment.	2
ENG 413	Multilingualism	2	ENG 434	Mod. English Gram. & Usage	2
ENG 431	New Trends in Syntax	2	ENG 444	Workshop in Creative Writing	2
ENG 433	Pragmatics	2	ENG 454	Stylistics	2
ENG 451	Commonwealth Literature	2	ENG 472	Studies in Poetry	2
ENG 471	Studies in Fiction	2	ENG 474	Studies in Drama	2
ENG 481	Modern Authors	2	ENG 482	Comparative Literature	2
			ENG 492	Project	6
	Total	14		Total	20

Total Core Courses for First Semester = 7             Number of Credit Units = 14  Total Core Courses for Second Semester = 7 + Project                 Number of Credit Units = 14+6=20

Total No of Core courses for 4th Year = 14 +Project=15     Number of Credit Units =

14+20 = 34

Summary:

Total Number of Core Courses				Total Number of Credit Units
Year	Core	Elective	Total	Year	Core	Elective	Total
1st Year	20	2	22	1st Year	40	4	44
2nd Year	20	2	22	2nd Year	40	4	44
3rd Year	20	Nil	20	3rd Year	38	Nil	38
4th Year	14+Project	Nil	15	4th Year	28+6	Nil	34
Grand Total	75	4	79	Grand Total	152	8	160

2.6 Course Description for all Undergraduate Courses

 

ENG 101: Elements of English Grammar and Usage I

Course Description

This course is designed to explore the salient features of English grammatical structure in a fairly practical way. The students will be exposed to the general principles of language, what grammar is, starting with the most basic elements of meaning, classification, forms, features and functions of the parts of speech closed and open system.

 

Course Outline

1. Grammar: what it is

2. Parts of Speech: open and closed systems

3. Nouns

4. Types

5. Grammatical functions

• Noun phrases and clauses

1. Grammatical categories of nouns

2. Verbs

3. Finite and non-finite verbs

4. Regular and irregular verbs

• Transitive and intransitive verbs

1. Auxiliary verbs

2. Verb phrases

3. Grammatical categories of verbs

4. Adjectives

5. Types

6. Identification of adjectives

• Grammatical functions

1. Word order of adjectives

2. Adjectival phrases and clauses

3. Defining and non-defining (restrictive/non-restrictive) adjectival phrases and clauses

• Grammatical categories of adjectives

6. Adverbs

7. Morphological characteristics

8. Adverbial positions

• Adverbial phrases and clauses

1. Grammatical functions

2. Grammatical categories of adverbs

3. Pronouns

4. Types

5. Grammatical functions

• Grammatical categories of pronouns

8. Prepositions

9. Types

10. Grammatical functions

11. Conjunctions

12. Types

13. Functions

ENG 102: Elements of English Grammar and Usage II

Course Outline

1. Morphemes: Definition

2. Free Morphemes

3. Bound Morphemes

4. Inflectional Bound Morphemes

5. Derivational Bound Morphemes

6. Words: Definition

7. Simple to compound words

8. Word Formation Processes: Major and Minor Processes

9. Phrases: Definition

10. Adjectival and Adverbial Phrases: Overview

11. Noun Phrase: Definition

12. Clauses: Definition and Types

13. Sentences: Definition and Types

• Elements that Constitute a Simple sentence structure

7. The English Concord: Overview

8. Tense and Aspect

Course Description

The course is a continuation of ENG101. Its focus is on the most basic elements of meaning and grammatical form the morphemes, words, phrases, clauses and sentences of English. The aim of this course is to improve students’ proficiency in English by highlighting their areas of difficulty and helping to sharpen their sense of grammatical correctness vis-à-vis communicative effectiveness, through the impact of the English Concord and correct use of the tenses.

ENG 111:  Introduction to General Linguistics 1

Course Description

Introduction to general linguistics runs for two semesters. The course is geared towards introducing students to the basic concepts and facts about language as a purely human capability. The topics to be treated include

Course Outline:

1. Meaning and definitions of language

2. Characteristics of language

3. Origin and theories of language

4. Functions of language

5. Phonetics & phonology

6. The relationship/differences between communication among human beings and other communicative systems

7. General misconceptions about human languages.

ENG 112: Introduction to General Linguistics II

Course Descriptions

This course complements ENG 111 and it basically centres on the linguistic messages that are influenced by context (pragmatics). It also examines how words combine into phrases and clauses (syntax). It equally has to do with patterning of sounds in a language (phonology), and what words and phrases mean and why they actually mean what they mean (semantics). In view of the above-mentioned, the specific topics to be treated are:

1. Morphemes: Free morphemes vs. bound morphemes

2. Affixation: Suffixes, prefixes, infixes, circumfix

3. Derivational vs. inflectional morphology

4. Morphological processes of word formation

5. Syntactic categories: nouns, verbs, adjectives, determiners, prepositions

6. Phrase Structure Rules: Sentence rule, Noun Phrase rule, Verb Phrase rule, Prepositional Phrase rule

7. Recursive rules

8. Structural ambiguity

9. Word and sentence meaning

10. Language Contact: Borrowing, Code-switching, Interference

11. Attitudes towards language contact and language change

This course is the second aspect of ENG 111 which is introduction to general linguistics 1. Here, the students will be introduced to:

1.  Morphology

2.  Syntax

3.  Semantics

4.  Pragmatics

5. Applied linguistics

6. Sociolinguistics

7. Psycholinguistics

8. Neurolinguistics

 

ENG 141: Mechanics of Reading Comprehension and Summary

Course Description 

This course is designed to expose students to the need for constant and consistent reading. There is a need for undergraduate students to choose appropriate reading strategies for varied reading activities. The students will be exposed to the different reading techniques like the Intensive and the extensive reading techniques and when to use them; this will equip them for the numerous reading assignments in their course.

The students will also be exposed to the effective way of analysing comprehension passages, summary assignments and determining the readability of a text. Students will be provided suitable passages to enable them practice the necessary skills.

Course Outline

1. Defining the concepts of Reading and Reading Comprehension.

2. Elements of Reading Comprehension.

3. Components of Reading.

4. Levels of Reading Comprehension.

5. How to improve the reading Skill.

6. Causes of Reading difficulties.

7. Pre-reading techniques.

8. Active Reading Strategies

9. Reading Techniques

10. Effective ways of analyzing comprehension passages.

11. Summary writing

12. Summary assignments and determining the readability of text materials.

ENG 142: Basic English Composition

Course Description

The course exposes students to paragraph writing generating the topic sentence developing the writing paragraph and essay. Basic composition writing using the controlled expression method is taught. Qualities of effective writing: unity economy, simplicity, clarity and coherence are emphasized.  Emphasis is placed on narrative, descriptive, expository and argumentative essays.

Course Outline

1. Major characteristics of the English essay

2. The paragraph

• The three-part structure

• Paragraph development

3. Qualities of a good paragraph

4. The sentence

5. The topic sentence

6. Types and functions of the essay

7. Features of the English essay

8. Steps to writing a good essay

9. Stages in essay writing

10. Letter writing – types

11. Business correspondences

ENG 144: Introduction to Creative Writing (ENG 244: CEP)

Course Description

The course ENG 341 is designed to expose student to the concepts of creative writing as well as stimulate their creative potentials. It aims at instructing the student on imaginative thought, writing and rehearsal in prose, drama and poetry. The course will be taught via lectures, seminars and/or workshop, with available writers leading the discussion. English 341 will serve as the introductory course and link to ENG 443: Workshop on Creative Writing.

Course Outline

1. Introductions to the course, Creative Writing

2. Expounding on Elements/Parts of Art Work

3. Appeal to Genres of Literature – Poetry, Prose and Drama

4. Writing Short Stories/The Writer’s Needs

5. Discussion on Writer’s Block/Qualities of a Writer

6. Libel and General Discussions on Litigations and Writing

7. Writing for Pleasure

8. Rehearsals and Revisions

Some Recommended Textbooks

1. Michael Legat: Writing for Pleasure

2. Michael Legat: Plotting the Novel

3. Mbanefo Ogene (ed.) Creative Writing Workshop

4. Adele Ramat: Creative Writing.

ENG 152:  Introduction to Oral Literature

Course Description

In-depth exploration of oral literature is required so that by the end of the exercise, the students should be able to identify the various aspects of oral literature, examine the relevance and functions of oral literature and analyse different forms of oral literature. Emphasis should be on poetic forms such as panegyrics, war songs, lullabies, epic.  Other dramatic forms such as masquerading, wrestling, dance and other similar performances with effusive discussions of proverbs and ghost lore; and narrative genres such as folktales, myth, legend, ghost tales, epic, jokes, riddles and tongue twisters will be explored.

Course Outline

1. Definition of oral literature – historical background

2. Formal elements of oral literature; features and characteristics

3. Forms of oral literature

4. Dramatic aspects: masquerading

5. Dramatic aspects: wrestling, dance and other performance

6. Narrative genres: folktales, myths and legends

7. Field work and discussion

8. Proverbs, meaning, acquisition and usage

9. Proverbs and interpretation

10. Narrative genres: ghostlores, epics, jokes, riddles, tongue twisters

11. Poetic forms: Chants, panegyrics

12. Poetic forms: war songs, lullabies

13. Revision

14. Examination

ENG 161: Introduction to Nigeria Literature 

Course Description

The two semester courses, 161 and 162, are intended to introduce the “new” student to Nigerian and African Literature, respectively. In the course of the study, major and minor approaches as well as genres of this literature will be explored, as well as the general milieu that informed it. The lecture extends to the inter-relationship between the literature and the oral tradition with which it co-exists, and the socio-political milieu.

Course Outline

This is to cover the general introductions and backgrounds that gave rise to Nigeria literature. Such topics as:

1. Definition/Explanation of the term “Nigeria literature”

2. Pre-cursors of the written tradition

–     Oral tradition and its nature/characteristics

–     Influences of the oral tradition on the written    Nigeria literature

3. Who is who in Nigeria literature – from the beginning to 1978, pre-colonial; post-colonial; civil war; post-civil war.

4. Later practitioners (from 1974 -)

5. Onitsha Market Literature.

Revisions

Some Recommended Textbooks

Primary Reference Materials

1. Amos Tutuola: The palm wine drunkard

2. Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart

3. Wole Soyinka: Poems of Black Africa (An anthology)

4. Donatus Nwoga: West African Verse

5. Thomas Hodkin: Nigerian Perspective

6. Chinua Achebe: Chike and the River

            —             No Longer at Ease

            —            A Man of the People

7. Wole Soyinka: The Man Died

            —           Idanre

            —     A Shuttle in the Crypt

            —     Death and the King’s Horseman

            —     Madmen and the Specialist

            —     The Trials of Brother Jero

8. Cyprian Ekwensi: Veronica my Daughter

            —       People of the City

9. John Pepper Clark: Ozidi

10. Ola Rotimi: The gods are not to blame

11. Zaynab Alkali: The Still Born

12. Akachi Adimorah-Ezeigbo: Trafficked

13. Ezenwa Ohaeto: The Voice of the Night Masquerade

14. Rems Umeasiegbu: Ghost Stories

15. Okey Umeh: Nigeria we hail thee

16. Mbanefo Ogene: The Divorce of Idemili and other     poems

17. Niyi Osundare: Song of the Market Place

18. Chimamanda Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun

19. Christopher Okigbo: Labyrinths with Path of Thunder

20. Buchi Emecheta: Second Class Citizen

                        —         The Joys of Motherhood

 

Secondary Texts

21. Dennis Osadebe: Introduction to Nigerian Literature

22. Bernth Lindfors: Critical Perspectives on Nigerian Literatures

23. Ernest Emenyonu: Studies on the Nigerian Novel

24. Graham Furniss: Poetry, Prose and Popular Culture in Hausa

25. Chinweizu et al. Toward the Decolonization of African Literature. Vol 1

26. Chinwe Achebe: The World of the Ogbanje

ENG 162: Introduction to African Literature

Course Description

An Introduction to African Literature is designed to usher in the students to the African worldview of Literature. Its scope extends to the three basic genres of Poetry, Drama and Prose in African Literature. The course extends to the pre-colonial and post-colonial African literature and terminates at the stage of pioneer and early African writers. Oral literature shall be explored, especially its origin and influences on the written African literature. Every aspect of the course should revolve around the state of Africans before the colonial contact and the after effects of the African literature that results in its being tagged literature in English.

Course Outline

1. What is African Literature?

2.  Oral Tradition, its nature and Characteristics in African Literature.

3. The influences of Oral Tradition on the Written African Literature.

4. Genres of African Literature.

5.  Different Regions of Africa and Peculiarities of their Literature.

6. Major Canons and Tempo in African Literature

1. Canons of Poetry and their Tempo

2. Canons of Drama and their Tempo

• Canons of Prose and their Tempo

1. African Literature and its Critics

2. Developments in African Literature

Recommended Texts

1. G.T. Basden: Among the Ibos of Nigeria

2. Ulli Bier: Introduction to African Literature

3. Ruth Finnegan: Oral Literature in Africa

4. Gbadamoshi & Ulli Bier: Yoruba Poetry

5. Eldred Durosimi Jones Ed. African Literature Today, Volumes 1 – Latest

6. Gerald More: Twelve African Writers

7. Adrian Roscoe: Mother is Gold

8. Lewis Nkosi: Task and Mask

9. Wole Soyinka: Myth, Literature and the African World

10. Christopher Heywood: Aspects of South African Literature

11. Chinweizu, et al.: Toward the Decolonization of African Literature

12. Donatus Ibe Nwoga: West African Verse.

ENG 171: Introduction to Prose Fiction (ENG 271: CEP)

Course Description

This course exposes students to fiction as a form of prose. It examines the basic elements of fiction—plot, characterization/character, setting, diction, style, theme, point of view etc. Various aspects of fiction, such as short story, novella/novelette and the novel are explored using the basic elements of fiction. This course examines short story, novella/novelette and the novel beyond cultural/historical boundaries, times (periods) and perception. Generally, the course is meant to expose students to the complexity of human experiences in different cultural milieux as depicted in fictional texts.

Course Outline

1. Definition of Literature

2. Why study literature?

3. Literature and personal experience

4. Genres of literature (poetry, prose and drama)

5. Introduction to Fiction (Origin/Background)

6. Prose: (Fiction and Non-Fiction as forms of Prose)

7. Origin/Background to Fiction

• Elements of Fiction (Plot, Characterization/Characters, Subject Matter, Theme, Diction, Style, Point of View, Setting)

4. Major Aspects of Fiction

5. Short story

6. Novella/Novelette (Short Novel)

• Novel

5. Types of Novels.

6. Romance

7. Epistolary Novel

• Psychological Novel

1. Science Fiction

2. Auto-biographical Novel

3. Biographical Novel

• Historical Novel

6. Elements of Fiction (plot, characterization/character, setting, subject matter/ theme, diction, style, point of view)

7. Plot

8. Structures of the plot (Beginning, Middle and End)

9. Types of plot

10. Qualities of a good plot

11. Components of the plot (conflict, complication, climax, denouement/ resolution)

12. Characterization

• Subject Matter/ Theme

1. Diction/ Style

2. Point of View

3. First-Person Narrative/ Point of View

4. Third Person Omniscient Point of View

5. Third Person Limited Point of View

6. Second Person Point of View

7. Setting

8. Space (Physical/ Geographical Setting)

9. Time (Period/ Historical Setting)

 

Recommended Texts

The course lecturer can recommend both primary and secondary texts that expose the students to literature and fiction in particular. The lecturer can also recommend texts that explicate different cultural milieu.

 

 

 

 

ENG 173: Introduction to Poetry    (ENG 273: CEP)

Course Description

This course introduces students to the nature and form as well as other unique characteristics of poetry. It exposes students to the different modern conceptions of poetry, different types and divisions of European and African poetry; sonnet, ballad, lyric, dramatic, narrative, epic to enable students to imbibe the process and techniques of literary appreciation. Techniques, literary devices and appreciation of poems form major study practice in this course especially the poems of prominent African and non- African poets.  Major classification of poems and poets into Pioneer and Modern, Negritude, Contemporary should be highlighted. The assumed general fear and difficulty often erroneously attached to the comprehension and application of poetry will be demystified.

 

Course Outline

1. What is poetry?

2. Definitions

3. Descriptions

4. The essence of poetry

5. Functions

6. Purpose(s)

• Effects

3. Elements of poetry

4. Mechanics

5. Metre/metric feet

• Scansion

1. Verse forms

2. Stanza

3. Special stanzas

4. Kinds of poetry

5. Narratives

6. Epic

• Romance

1. Lyrics

2. Ode

3. Sonnet

4. The African scene

5. Appreciation of poetry

Texts

1. West African verse: Donatus Nwoga

2. A Selection of African Poetry E Senanu and T. Vincent

3. Studies in Poetry Ademols Dasyva and Oluwatoyin Jegede

4. The study of poetry Egudu Romanus

5. Essentials of Poetry Chike Okoye

ENG 174: Introduction to Drama and Theatre in English (ENG 274: CEP)

Course Description

The course is an introduction to the nature, form, and characteristics of drama/theatre as an important and serious literary genre. It is designed of the tools and techniques of drama analysis via selected plays. Basic concepts and facts such as types, origins, nature and conventions will be explored. Illustrative texts which will span the centuries and reflect works of playwrights from different literary backgrounds will be used for literary analysis.

 

Course Outline

1. Drama as a Genre of Literature

2. Origin and Functions of Drama

3. Characteristics of Drama

4. Theatre: What it is and features

5. Elements of Drama: Plot, Imitation, Action, Dialogue.

6. Dramatic Techniques: Foreshadowing Planting, Deux ex Machina, Play-Within-Play, Dramatic Characters

7. Dramatic Conventions: Prologue. Epilogue, Interlude, Aside, Soliloquy Dramatic Illusion, Fourth Wall, Dramatic Structure.

8. Dramatic Genres: Forms/Types of Drama: Tragedy, Comedy Heroic Drama, Bourgeois or Domestic Drama, Melodrama

9. Textual Analysis of Plays

 

LIT 101: Introduction to Literature I

Course Description

This is a general course to introduce students to fundamental elements of literature, its aesthetic principles, genres, conventions and techniques, in the first contact, the content of the course is designed to present to the students the major forms of prose fiction, their characteristic features, and major techniques employed by prose fiction writers.  Emphasis will be to explore the different texts within English and African Literature in English.

 

Course Outline

• What is Literature?

• What is Prose Fiction?

• Origins

• Characteristic of Prose Fiction

• Types of Prose Fiction

• Elements of Prose Fiction: Plot, Character, Theme/Subject Matter, Diction, Setting Point of View.

• Textual Analysis:

LIT 102: Introduction to Literature II

This course is a continuation of Lit 101: It is designed to introduce the students to the fundamentals of drama and poetry. It explores the basic concepts and facts such as types, origins, nature and form of drama that are designed to guide the students to acquire the tools and techniques of drama analysis through selected plays. The course at the other level introduces the students to the nature, form and characteristics of poetry through selected poems. The students are guided to acquire the tools and techniques of literary analysis within the dramatic and poetic genres.

Course Outline

• Drama as a Genre of Literature

• Origin and Functions of Drama

• Characteristics of Drama

• Elements of Drama: Plot, Introduction Action, Dialogue

• Conventions and Techniques

1. Dramatic Techniques: Characterisation Foreshadowing, Planting, Deux ex Machina Play–within–play.

2. Dramatic Conventions: Prologue, Epilogue, Interlude, Aside, Soliloquy, Dramatic Illusion, Fourth Wall, Dramatic Structure, Dramatic Characters

• Dramatic Genres: Forms/Types of Drama: Tragedy, Comedy Heroic Drama, Bourgeois/ Domestic Drama, Melodrama

• Textual Analysis of Texts

• What is Poetry?

• The Many Uses of Poetry in Human Life

• Poetry and Modes of Meaning and Expression

• Forms and Types of Poetry

• Elements of Poetry

• Special Features or Characteristics of Poetry

• Forms of Sound in Poetry: Rhyme, Rhythm, Assonance, Alliteration, Onomatopoeia and Dissonance.

 

ENG 201: History of English Language     (ENG 301: CEP)

Course Description

The origin of English, the changing nature of the language and its present role as a world language form the focus of this course.  Differences between old English, Middle English and Modern English, and the influences of other cultures especially on the vocabulary of English as it is known today are further explored.  In establishing sources of words, concepts such as widening and narrowing of meaning, lowering and rising of meaning, borrowing and loan words are defined.

 

Course Outline

1. General Introduction

2. Why Study the History of English?

3. Language Families

4. Proto Indo-European Family of Language

5. Niger-Congo language family

6. English Speaking Countries of the World

7. Old English Period (450-1100 AD)

8. Grammar and Vocabulary of Old English

9. Middle English Period (1100-1500)

10. Early Modern English Period (1500-1800)

11. Late Modern English Period (1800-Date)

12. Foreign Elements in the English Word Stock

ENG 202: Language and Society

Course Description

This course focuses on language as an indispensable binding force in any society. Students should also appreciate the functions of language(s) in society. It covers such areas as language and societal worldview, and the contributions of ethnographers in our understanding of the phenomenon of language.

 

COURSE OUTLINE

1. The concepts “language” and “society”

2. The nature of language

3. The nature of society

4. Functions of language in society

5. The relationship between language and society

6. Varieties and variations in language use

7. Varieties according to user – Dialects – Regional and social varieties, idiolects, accents.

8. Varieties according to use: – Registers, Genre, Style, Jargon/Argot, Slang

9. Language and the representation of reality

10. Contributions of ethnographers to the study of language and society

11. Language, culture and thought

12. Language and social class

13. Language and gender

14. Language and age

15. Language and identity

16. Language and ethnicity

17. Language and politics

18. Language and the media

19. The concept of speech community

20. Criteria for a speech community – geographical, social, sociolinguistic

21. Types of speech community – monolingual, bilingual and multilingual speech communities

22. Language contact/languages in contact

23. Code switching and code mixing

24. Diglossia

25. Language birth

26. Pidgin

27. Creole

• The post-creole continuum

 

ENG 211: English as a Second Language

Course Description

In this course, the learning of English as a second language will be examined as well as problems and prospects associated with it. The following will be explored: the differences between a second language and a foreign language, the difference between the acquisition of L1 and L2, the status of English as an L2 in Nigeria, the salient features of language, errors in second language learning, sources of errors, error analysis and contrastive analysis, etc. will be discussed. Textual examples and practice exercises would be provided.

 

Course Content                                                  

1. Second language: what it is; difference between first language, second language and foreign language

2. Theories of first language acquisition and implications on second language acquisition

3. Second language acquisition hypotheses

 (a)    Acquisition- Learning hypothesis

 (b)   Natural order hypothesis

 (c)    Monitor hypothesis

 (d)   Input Hypothesis

 (e)    Affective filter hypothesis

 (f)    Critical period hypothesis

4. Teaching and Learning English as a second language: Approaches, methods and techniques

5. Motivation in second language learning

6. Approaches to errors in second language learning

7. Contrastive analysis

8. Error analysis

9. Interlanguage

10. Fossilization

11. Learning Second language Vocabulary

12. Language skills in second language learning

 

ENG 221: Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology

This course covers the principle of phonetic description and organs of articulation using English and other languages for illustration. It also involves the identification, classification, description of speech sounds as basic raw materials with which human speech is formed and establishes the relationship between anatomy and sounds of speech. Students are here introduced to broad (simple) phonetic transcriptions, the prosodic features (syllable structure, stress, intonation, etc.) that contribute to meaning in the language (especially English). Students are made to see that accent in L2 is a function of linguistic interference and other ethno-linguistic and socio-linguistic factors. The course is, therefore, designed to introduce students to some of the analytical procedures and approaches involved in the understanding of English phonology, hence the identification of phonemes of English, the taxonomic principles of phonemic analysis (contrastiveness, similarity, random and non-random variations, etc.), introduction to generative phonology (notion of distinctive features, phonological processes, phonological rules in English, underlying representation, systematic photometric, etc.).

The topics to be discussed here are:

1. Meaning and definitions of phonetics

2. Branches of phonetics

• Articulatory phonetics

• Acoustic phonetics

• Auditory phonetics

• Instrumental phonetics

• Forensic phonetics

3. Organs of articulation

• The teeth

• The palate

• The uvula

• The tongue

• The nasal cavity

• The oral or buccal cavity

• The pharynx

• The epiglottis

• The larynx

• The vocal cords

• The glottis

• The trachea

• The jaws

4. The human speech mechanism

5. The English Sound system

6. (a) Consonant sounds

(b)        Classification of consonants

(c)        Description of Individual consonants

(d)      The consonant chart

7. Vowel Sounds

(b)        Classification of vowels

(c)        Description of individual vowels

(d)       The vowel chart

(e)        Phonological features of vowels

8. The syllable structure

 

English 232 Introduction to the English Syntax    (ENG 338: CEP)

Course Description

This course deals with the study of the basic characteristic of English Syntax. Grammatical categories, phrases and sentences are discussed in relation to their forms and functions. Students will study a variety of sentence structures/ contexts. These structures will help students to understand and communicate better in different situations.

 

Course Outline

• Introduction to the course

• Syntax as Science- The Scientific method

• Choosing among theories about syntax

• Determining parts of speech

• The major parts of speech/ nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs

• Other parts of speech

• Structural relations

• Binding theory

• Phrase structure grammar

• Cross categorical generalization- complements, adjuncts, specifiers

• The passive construction

• Existential extraposition; idioms

ENG 234: Varieties of English

Course Description

1. English as a global language

2. The world Englishes

3. The Concepts of varieties and variation

4. Language Variation

5. Varieties as stable forms of variation

4. Varieties according to User

5. Regional Dialect

6. Social Dialect

• Idiolect

5. Varieties According to Use

6. Register – Field, Tenor, Mode

7. Style

8. Meaning of Style

9. Features of Style

10. Formal & Informal Styles

11. The Frozen Style

12. Consultative Style

13. The Casual Style

14. The Intimate Style

• Jargon and Argots

1. Slang

 

6. National varieties

7. British/American English

8. Lexical Differences

9. Grammatical Differences

• Differences in Punctuation

1. Spelling Differences

2. Phonological Differences

3. Nigerian English

4. Lexical Differences

5. Grammatical Differences

• Differences in Punctuation

1. Spelling Differences

2. Phonological Differences

3. Classification of Nigerian English

4. Standard and Non-Standard English

5. Ethnic and racial varieties

6. Variety According to Medium

• Writing Medium

• Modal Language

• Graphological Devices

• Use of Meta Language

• Speaking Medium

1. Variety According to Contact/Hybrid varieties

(a) Pidgin     (b) Creole

 

ENG 241        Advanced English Composition I

Course Description

This course deals with specialized composition writing. The focus will be on the writing or composing process, various types of essays, letters: formal features of informal and formal letters, formats for job applications and resumes/curriculum vitae, other types of business letters like enquiry, petition, queries, request letters, memos and circulars. Attention will be paid to correct language use and technical matters connected with these kinds of writing.

Course Outline

1       a.      Composition – What it is

1.      Basic Principles of Composition Writing

2. The Writing Process / the Composing Process.

3. Prewriting Stage

4. Writing Stage

5. The “Building Blocks” of Composition Writing

6. Word/Vocabulary

7. Sentences and Sentence Varieties

8. The Paragraph

9. What a Paragraph is

10. Qualities of a Good Paragraph

• Patterns of Paragraph Development

5. The Essay

6. Types

7. Narration

8. Description

• Exposition

1. Argumentation/persuasion

2. Essay Development

3. Letter Writing

4. Types and Formal Features

5. Optional features of formal letters

  Mechanics of writing

1. Grammatical errors

2. Punctuation errors

3. Spelling errors

ENG 242        Advanced English Composition II

Course Description

This course is a follow-up to ENG 241. The focus is on specialized composition writing with particular attention on the art of discourse and writing beyond the level of the sentence: writing of reports, long essays/term papers, summary writing and mechanics of writing. As in ENG 241, attention will be paid to correct language use and other technical matters connected with these kinds of writing.

 

Course Outline

1. The art of written discourse, cohesion and coherence

2. The long essay / term paper

3. What is a long essay/term paper?

4. Difference between the long essay and short essay

5. Planning the research paper

6. Writing the research paper

7. Research article introductions and abstracts

8. Report writing

9. What is a repot

10. Types of reports

11. The minutes of meetings

12. Format for Different Kinds of Business Letters

13. Job Application Letters

14. – Reference Letters

• – Inquiry Letters

1. – Petitions

2. – Memoranda / Circulars.

3. Resumes / Curriculum Vitae

ENG 251: Survey of English Literature I

Course Description

These courses expose the students to the history and development of English Literature from the earliest time to the Modern period. The first part, ENG 251 exposes students to the historical development of English literature by surveying Four (4) major periods—the Old English (Anglo Saxon), Medieval (Middle English), Renaissance and Neoclassical periods.

 

Course Outline

1. The Old English Period (Anglo-Saxon Period)

2. History of the Old English Society

3. Characteristics of the Old English Literature

• The Epic of the Heroic Poem

1. Two Kinds of Epic (Primary and Secondary)

2. Characteristics of Epic

3. Epic Conventions

• Poets- (Anonymous) Example: Beowulf

 

2. The Middle English Period of English Period: Medieval Period, the Age of Chaucer (1340-1400)

3. History of the Middle English Society

4. Medieval Literature

• Types of Medieval Literature (Allegory, Fabliau, Fable, The Miracle Play, The Morality Play, Romance)

1. Characteristics of Romance

2. Geoffrey Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales

3. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

3. The Renaissance Period (1509-1660)

4. Background and Characteristics of the Renaissance Period

5. The Sonnet: Origin and Characteristics

• The Development of Drama

1. University of Wits: Major writers and playwrights (John Lyly, Robert Greene, George Peele, Thomas Lodge, Thomas Kyd, Thomas Nashe and Christopher Marlowe).

2. Shakespearean Drama- (William Shakespeare)

3. Metaphysical Poetry- (John Donne, Andrew Marvel, John Milton, Sir Francis Bacon etc)

• The literary Writings of Edmund Spencer

• John Milton (1608- 1674) and Epic: (Paradise Lost, Lycidas)

1. John Bunyan and his literary work: The Pilgrim Progress

2. The great English Humanist, Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

3. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) The Defence of Poesie

4. Neoclassical Period (1660-1714)

5. The History of Neoclassical Period: Age of Satire

6. Restoration Age (1660-1700)

• The Augustan Age (1700-1750)

1. The Age of Johnson (1750-1798)

2. Characteristics and Literary Philosophies of the Neoclassical Period

3. Literary forms of the Neoclassical Period (poetry, prose, drama)

Major poets and writers of the period

1. John Dryden –Mac Flecknoe

2. Jonathan Swift – A Modest Proposal

• Alexander Pope—The Rape of the Lock or the Dunciad

1. Samuel Johnson—The Rambler or Rasselas and Essays

ENG 252: Survey of English Literature II

Course Description

This is a continuation of ENG 251: Survey of English Literature I. The second part, ENG 252 surveys the Romantic, Victorian and Modern periods. These courses are meant to expose students to the origin, worldview (significant issues/changes) and developments of English Literature using major selected texts suitable for different periods. Therefore, these courses are meant to showcase how historical contexts contribute to the development of English Literature.

Course Outline

1. The Romantic Period (1798-1832)

2. History of the Romantic Period

3. Characteristics or Features of the Romantic Period

• The Pre-Romantics: Works and Contribution (Robert Burns, William Blake etc)

Major Romantic Poets and Writers: Contributions

1. William Wordsworth(1757-1827)—The Solitary Reaper

2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1770-1850—The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• John Keats (1795-1821) – Ode on a Grecian Urn

1. Percy Bysshe Shelley(1792-1822)—Ozymandias

2. George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)—Lara

3. The Victorian Period

4. Background of the Victorian Period (Industrial Revolution, Scientific Evolution)

5. Victorian Compromise

• Characteristic/ Features of the Victorian Age

Poets and Writers of the Period: Major Contributions

1. Alfred Lord Tennyson – In Memoriam

2. Edward Fitzgerald – The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

• Robert Brownin – My Last Duchess

1. Oscar Wilde – The Importance of Being Ernest

2. Mathew Arnold – Dover Beach

3. John Henry Cardinal Newman—The Idea of a University

• Thomas Carlyne – past and present

3. Modern Period

4. Background of the Modern Period

5. Characteristics/ Features of the Modern Period

• The ‘isms’ of the Modern Period

Major Modern Poets, playwrights and Writers of the Period

1. George Bernad Shaw—Arms and the Man

2. Samuel Beckett—Waiting for Godot

• Henrik Ibsen—A Doll’s House

1. S Eliot—The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

2. B Yeats— “The Second Coming”

 

ENG 253: Survey of African-American and Caribbean Literature

Course Description

This course scans the most important events and literary outputs that represent the African-American and Caribbean literature overtime. Authors such as Claude McKay, Phillis Wheatley, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brookes, WEB Du Bois, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and others will be mentioned vis-à-vis their major works and contributions in the context(s) of time and era. Slavery, Harlem Renaissance, Abolition etc. will be studied too. Notable Caribbean authors such as Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, Kamau Braithwaite etc. will be treated as representatives of the Caribbean experience.

ENG 254: Literary Appreciation

Course Description

The course is meant to stimulate the interest of students to cherish literature. The concepts of literature and literary terms would aptly be discussed and students will be exposed to different genres of literature and their characteristics. By the end of the exercise, students should be able to effectively critique written works and distinguish good works from the bad ones. Various aspects of prose fiction and non-fiction would be discussed with representative texts used for illustration. Types of drama with representative texts would be discussed. Poetry and figures of speech as they appear in poems would be highlighted. Different authors’ works from across the globe would be discussed

 

Course Outline

1. Introduction and definition of literature

2. Major literary terms

3. Introduction to prose: fiction and nonfiction

4. Types of prose fiction

5. Analysis of representative texts

6. Introduction to drama and origin

7. Drama: tragedy, comedy and tragicomedy

8       Analysis of representative texts

9. Poetry and types

10. Analysis of selected poems

11. Analysis of selected poems

12. Revision

13. Examination

 

 

 

 

ENG 255:  Folklore   (ENG 355: CEP)

Course Description

In-depth exploration of oral literature is required so that by the end of the exercise, the students should be able to identify the various aspects of oral literature, examine the relevance and functions of oral literature and analyse different forms of oral literature. Emphasis should be on poetic forms such as panegyrics, war songs, lullabies, epic etc.; dramatic forms such as masquerading, wrestling, dance and other similar performances with effusive discussions of proverbs and ghost lore; narrative genres such as folktales, myth, legend, ghost tales, epic, jokes, riddles and tongue twisters

 

Course Outline

1. Definition of oral literature – historical background

2. Formal elements of oral literature; features and characteristics

3. Forms of oral literature

4. Dramatic aspects: masquerading

5. Dramatic aspects: wrestling, dance and other performance

6. Narrative genres: folktales, myths and legends

7. Field work and discussion

8. Proverbs, meaning, acquisition and usage

9. Proverbs and interpretation

10. Narrative genres: ghostlores, epics, jokes, riddles, tongue twisters

11. Poetic forms: Chants, panegyrics

12. Poetic forms: war songs, lullabies

13. Revision

14. Examination

ENG 256: Language and Gender Studies

Course Description

This course introduces students to the concept of gender and its relation to language and literary studies. Emphasis will be on the binary concepts of gender/sex, male/female, man/woman, masculine/feminine and how these concepts impact gender identity construction. The different theories of gender – divine, deficit, dominance, difference and dynamic), feminisms, their various phases and movements, and how language constructs gender differences and inequality will be explored. Gender as social construction as well as different stereotypes of men and women: man-made language, women’s “powerless” language (mitigation, hedges, tags, backchannel etc) will be explored. Sexism, sexist language, how language constructs sexism and possible gender-neutral terminologies that deconstruct sexist language will be treated. Equal emphasis will be given to the representation of gender in literary works especially by women. Finally, the postmodern view of gender as a performance: that is the performativity view of gender as an action rather than as a being will be emphasized.

Course Outline

1. Heterosexual sex versus gender – some definitions

2. Some concepts – male-female, man-woman, masculine-feminine and implications for gender identity construction

3. Men and women talk

4. Do men and women talk differently?

5. What are the differences in conversational styles of men and women?

6. Gender identity construction – cultural and social factors that enhance gender identity construction

7. Hegemonic masculinity and femininity

8. Socialization patterns

9. Gender stereotypes – (see Language and Woman’s Place by Robin Lakoff 1975)

10. Women’s language “Powerless language

11. Mitigated styles

12. Hedges

• Backchannel

1. Covert and overt prestige

2. Sexism and sexist language (see Man-made language – Dale Spender 1980

3. Examples of sexism in language

4. Alternative gender-neutral terminologies

• Other forms of sexuality

8. Theories of gender

9. Divine

10. Deficit

• Dominance

1. Difference

2. Dynamic

3. Feminism – waves and movements

4. Gender and literary writings by women

ENG 258: Youth and Children’s Literature

Course Description

This course exposes students to young adult and children’s literature. It examines different genres, forms and worldviews in Youth and Children’s Literature in order to enhance students’ knowledge and understanding. This course also exposes students to strategies that stimulate interest and imagination in children’s literature. Generally, the course explores the genres of poetry and prose to depict how these genres give insight into the ordinary and extraordinary world of young adults and children. In essence, this course explores fictional works written to entertain and instruct youth and children.

 

Course Outline

1. Introduction to Youth and Children’s Literature

2. Background to Children’s Literature

3. Classification of Children’s Literature according to Genre and Age

4. Oral tradition/ Children’s Tales

5. Development of Early Children’s Literature

6. Modern / Contemporary Children’s Literature

 

1. Trends in Children’s Literature

2. Youth and Children’s Literature in the Family Unit as represented by Literary Artists

3. Children’s Literature and Gender

4. Children’s Literature and War

5. Children’s Literature and Culture

6. Children’s Literature and Folktales

7. Children’s Literature and Social Integration

8. Children’s Literature and Other Social Issues

1. Strategies in Reading and Writing Youth Literature

2. Theoretical and Critical Issues in Youth and Children’s Literature

 

ENG 264: Survey of American Literature

Course Description

This 200 level course aims at giving students a cursory knowledge of the “how” and “why” of American Literature; their periods, trends, major writers and works. Most studies in this course are done with an implied comparison with English Literature in order to enhance differentiation and understanding

 

ENG 281: Modern Comedy            (ENG 381: CEP)

Course Description

Modern Comedy is essentially modelled to articulate the major forms of comedy from Moliere to Soyinka. Representative texts are to studied in details.

 

Course Outline

• Descriptions of Comedy

• Feature of ‘Modern’ Comedy

• Characteristics of Comedy

• Techniques of Comedy

• Qualities of Comedy

• Types/Forms of Comedy

• Textual Analysis of Plays

ENG 282: English Literature of the Neoclassical Period (ENG 382: CEP)

Course Description

This course exposes students to the English Literature of the Neoclassical Period. The course covers the Restoration Age (1660-1700), the Augustan Age (1700-1750) and the Age of Johnson (1750-1798). The meaning, origin and features of the period are well detailed for adequate background knowledge of the course. The works of major literary artists of the period such as John Dryden, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson are critically discussed and well explored to reflect historical contexts or worldview of the period.

 

Course Outline

1. Neoclassical Period (1660-1714)

2. Background to the Literature of the Neoclassical Period

3. The History of Neoclassical Period: Age of Satire

4. Restoration Age (1660-1700)

5. The Augustan Age (1700-1750)

6. The Age of Johnson (1750-1798)

7. Characteristics and Literary Philosophies of the Neoclassical Period

8. Literary forms of the Neoclassical Period (poetry, prose, drama)

Major poets and writers of the period

• John Dryden

1. Mac Flecknoe

2. Religio Laici

• An Essay on Dramatic Poesy

• Jonathan Swift

1. A Modest Proposal

2. A Tale of a Tub

• Gulliver’s Travels

1. Alexander Pope

2. The Rape of the Lock

3. An Essay on Criticism

• The Dunciad

1. Samuel Johnson

2. The Rambler

3. The Vanity of Human Wishes

 

ENG 283: English Literature of the Renaissance Period (ENG 383: CEP)

Course Description

This course is about the literary culture of the English Renaissance in England, 1485-1660, from the reign of Elizabeth I through to the Civil Wars of the 1640s and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. This course will explore the diverse and remarkably vital humanism of the sixteenth century—literature that exuberantly celebrates man’s ability to shape himself and his world, accompanied by a deep skepticism about his capacity to do either. It is based on a study of poetry and plays, and it focuses on intertwined themes of love, conscience and the state as they are written and rewritten across the period intertwined in the writings of Sidney, Shakespeare, Donne, Marlowe, Webster and Milton etc.  Readings will range from utopian fiction to the love lyric, from romance/epic adventure to a formal “defence” of poetry. It includes Shakespearean comedy that ends in multiple marriages to domestic tragedy that concludes with spousal murder. Other major authors will include Wyatt, More, Marlowe, Sidney, Spenser, Milton’s Paradise Lost.

 

Course Outline

1. Background: General characteristics and conventions of the Renaissance period

2. The concept of the Great Chain of Being

3. Literature and the age:

(i)     Elizabethan and the early Stuart, Jacobean and Carolus Periods.

(ii)    Social Conditions in England

(iii)   Intellectual and Religious Revolutions

(iv)   Humanism and Patronage of Writers

(v)    Theatre Audience

4. The Renaissance Poetry and its Major Forms

5. The Development of Sonnet (from Italian Partriach to English Shakespeare)

6. Sir Phillip Sydney

• Edmund Spencer

1. William Shakespeare

2. Types of Poetry: Elegy, Pastoral, Dirge, Epic, Metaphysical Poetry, Sonnets.

3. Poets:

• John Milton – “Paradise Lost”

• Christopher Malowe.

• Ben Johnson.

• John Donne.

• Sir Philip Sydney.

• Thomas Gray.

• H. Auden.

• B. Teafs.

• Williams Shakespeare Etc

5. Development of Drama

• Classical Influence

1. The Renaissance Theatre & Drama

2. Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus

3. Selected Plays of William Shakespeare.

 

ENG 284: English Literature of the Romantic Period

(ENG 384: CEP)

Course Description

This course is designed to explore the English Literature of the Romantic Period. The course exposes students to the philosophy, beliefs or worldviews of the Romantic Age. The course discusses three significant events that brought drastic changes in England: Industrial Revolution, French Revolution and Wesleyan Revival. The tenets of Romanticism or the concepts of the Romantic Period are well explored to depict “love for nature” as the major hallmark of the Romantic Period. Major Romantic poets/ writers such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George Gordon, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats are discussed to reflect the spirit of the age.

Course Outline

1. Background to the Romantic Period (Industrial Revolution, French Revolution and Wesleyan Revival)

2. Tenets of the Romanticism

3. Major Romantic Poets and Writers

4. William Wordsworth

5. Line Written in Early Spring

6. The Solitary Reaper

7. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

8. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

9. Christabel

10. George Gordon, Lord Byron

11. Lara

12. Prometheus

13. Percy Bysshe Shelley

14. Ode to the West Wind

15. Ozymandias

16. John Keats

17. Ode to a Nightingale

18. Ode on a Grecian Urn

19. Sir Walter Scott

20. The Dreary Change

21. “Proud Maisie”

22. Romantic Prose

23. William Wordsworth

Preface to Lyrical Ballads

1. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Biographia Literaria

1. Percy Bysshe Shelley

A Defence of Poetry

1. Wiiliam Hazlitt

My First Acquaintance with Poets

1. Thomas De Quincey

The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power

Other Texts

1. Oxford Anthology of English Literature

2. Norton Anthology of English Literature

ENG 312: Introduction to Applied Linguistics

Course Description

This course examines the contributions which the science of language and the theories of language can make in other areas of human knowledge, especially in such areas as second language learning and teaching, language planning and policies in a multilingual nation, psychology, textbook writing, etc. The course also includes discussions on the influence of different linguistic theories on approaches to language acquisition and learning

Course Outline

1. Introduction

2. The development of Applied Linguistics – early history

3. Applied Linguistics during the 20C – an overview of the century: social/cultural and contextual elements in Applied Linguistics

4. Essential areas of enquiry in Applied Linguistics

5. Second language acquisition – linguistic perspectives

6. Universal grammar

7. Monitor theory

8. Psychological perspectives

9. Behaviourism

10. Cognitive psychology

• Connectivism

1. Multidimensional model

2. Interactionist perspectives

3. Sociocultural perspectives

4. Grammar

5. Issues in describing grammar

6. Form and function

7. Discourse grammar

• Spoken and written grammar

1. Limitations of grammatical descriptions

2. The interdependence of grammar and lexis

3. Lexicogrammar – The problem of defining boundaries

• Learning grammar

1. Teaching grammar

2. Discourse Analysis: Spoken and written discourse

3. Approaches to discourse analysis: Sociology: Conversation analysis

4. Turn-taking

5. Patterns in turn-taking – adjacency pairs

6. Sociolinguistic approaches

7. Ethnography

8. Variation theory

9. Language policy and planning

10. Linguistic approaches

11. Systemic functional linguistics (SFL)

12. Critical discourse analysis

13. Corpus linguistics

14. Pragmatic approaches

15. Assigning reference

16. Figuring out what is communicated directly

17. Figuring out what is communicated indirectly

18. Examining the impact of social factors: The role of context

19. Pragmatics and language learning and teaching

 

ENG 314: Introduction to Sociolinguistics

Course Description

This course provides an introduction to the history, methodology, basic concepts and application of sociolinguistics.  It considers the relationship between language and society, focusing attention on attitudes towards language varieties and social dialects and the problems of multilingualism.  It includes discussion on the importance of language in relation to development.

 

Course Outline:

1. Overview

2. What sociolinguistics is and what sociolinguists do

3. Linguistics and sociolinguistics: the differences

4. Micro sociolinguistics (sociolinguistics proper – language variation)

5. Variational sociolinguistics

6. Language variation, variety and related concepts

7. Language varieties – regional and social varieties

8. Regional varieties – standard and nonstandard varieties, dialects, isoglosses, accent, idiolects

9. Social varieties – sociolects, register and stylistic variation

10. Macrosociolinguistics (sociology of language)

11. Language contact/languages in contact

12. Bilingualism and multilingualism

13. Language birth/generation – pidgin and creoles

• Language maintenance, shift and death

5. Interactional sociolinguistics:

6. Talk in interaction/conversation

7. Code and inferential model of interaction

• Contextualization cues

1. Politeness and address terms

2. Framing

3. Intercultural misunderstanding

• Verbal hygiene and political correctness

6. Language change and historical linguistics/philology

7. Diachronic and synchronic approaches

8. Theories of language change

• The family tree model

• The diffusion and wave theory

7. Language attitudes/Attitudes to language

8. Standardization

9. Historicity

• Autonomy

1. Vitality

2. Language planning/policies

3. The national language question in Nigeria

4. The national language policy on education in Nigeria.

ENG 321: Phonology of English

Course Description

This course provides a detailed study of segmental and prosodic features of RP English and their organisation in concrete discourse. It includes practical exercises on transcription and an introduction to various approaches to the description of English phonology, taxonomic (phonemic), prosodic, and generative; the taxonomic principles of phonemic analysis (contrastiveness, similarity, random and non-random variations, etc.) introduction to generative phonology (notion of distinctive features, phonological processes, phonological rules in English, underlying representation, systematic photometric, etc.).

Course Outline

1. The Sounds of English

• Phonology

• Phonemes

• Classification of Sounds

• Voicing

• Places of Articulation

• Manners of Articulation

2. Segmental vs. Non-Segmental

3. Consonants and vowels

4. Distinctive Features

5. Assimilation

6. Phonotactics

7. Consonants of English

• Charts

• Places of Articulation

• Manners of Articulation

4. Vowels of English

• Classification of Vowels

• Heights of Tongue

• Shapes of Mouth

• Parts of Tongue

• The Vowel Sounds – Pure or Monothongs (Charts/Branches)

• Gliding or Diphthongs – Closing and Centring (Charts and Branches)

5. Distinctive Features

6. Sound Modification

• Assimilation (Regressive-Backwards Fussing, Progressive- Forward)

• Elision

• Secondary Assimilation

7. The Syllable

• Phonotactics

• Theories of the Syllable

• Syllable Descriptions

• Syllable Trees

8. Stress in English

• What is Stress

• Types of Stress

• Word Stress

• Sentence Stress

• Emphatic/Contrastive Stress

9. The Intonation of English

• What is Intonation

• Intonation vs. Tone

• Uses of Intonation

10. Transcription

 

ENG 331:  Modern English Structure and Usage

Course Description

The course examines some theories of grammar, traditional, structural, transformational generative and functional grammar, and their basic units and patterns of structural analysis. Modern English structure parsing (encompassing the idea of sentence elements (SVOCA) and basic word classes) of traditional grammar, bracketing or chain diagram, paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations and constituent analysis of structural grammar; phrase structure rules, transformational rules and tree diagrams of generative grammar and such principles embodying functionalism as ideational, interpersonal and textual meaning will form the basic structural teachings of the course. Emphases will be on an in-depth study of basic grammatical units: morphemes, words, phrases, clauses and sentences as well as the various roles they perform as basic units of analyses in the various models.

Course Outline:

1. Concept of “structure” in language study

2. Categories of structural analysis

3. Unit: morpheme, word, phrase, clause, sentence

4. Class: word classes – open and closed systems

• Structure: syntagmatic relations of language – “what goes together with what?”

1. System: paradigmatic relations of language – “what goes instead of what?”

2. Theories/models of structural analysis: Overview – prescriptive versus descriptive

3. Traditional/classical grammar model:

4. Contributions to modern language study

5. Basic unit of analysis – the word – parsing

• Model analysis in traditional grammar – Tree diagrams

• The Subject-Predicate structure

• The Subject-Verb-Object-Complement-Adjunct (SVOCA) structure

• Other finer structures that include Determiner, Auxilliary, Preposition, etc.

1. Criticisms of traditional grammar model

2. Structural grammar model: The Saussurean and American interpretation

3. Contributions to modern language study

4. Basic unit of structural analysis – the morpheme

• Root, stem, base and affixes

1. Derivational and inflectional paradigms

2. Immediate constituent (IC) analysis

3. Construction types

• The structure of Predication

• The structure of Modification

• The structure of complementation

• The structure of Coordination

• Tagmemics

• Criticisms of structural grammar

6. Transformational generative grammar model

7. Contributions to modern language study

8. Basic unit of analysis – the sentence: the “kernel” sentence

• Phrase-structure rules

1. Transformation rules

2. Types of transformations

3. Sentence analysis in TG – Tree diagrams

4. The functional grammar model

5. Contributions to modern language study

6. Basic unit of analysis – the clause

• Metafunctions: ideational (experiential and logical), interpersonal and textual

1. Lexicogrammar: Transitivity, Mood and Theme

2. Sample analysis in functional grammar

 

ENG 332: Introduction to Semantics

Course Description

This course introduces students to the different possible approaches to the study of “meaning”, situating the investigation within the general framework of linguistic structure. It also looks at “sense properties and sense relations, problems of word vs sentence meaning, semantic markedness”, etc. It will also include areas of pragmatics, that is, utterance-meaning as distinct from sentence meaning, and on sociocultural and linguistic rules that determine correct interpretation of terms in the real world.

Course Outline:

1. General overview

2. The terms “semantics” and “meaning”

3. Linguistic semantics

4. Concerns of linguistic semantics

5. Scope of semantics – word meaning, sentence meaning, utterance meaning, propositional meaning, meaning and context (pragmatics)

6. Approaches to the study of semantics

7. Traditional semantics

8. Behavioural semantics

9. Structural semantics

10. Generative semantics

11. Dimensions of meaning

12. Conceptual meaning

13. Associative meaning

14. Connotative meaning

15. Collocative meaning

• Affective meaning

1. Reflected meaning

2. Stylistic meaning

3. Thematic meaning

4. Word meaning (Lexical semantics)

5. Sense and reference

6. Theories of word meaning

7. Referential theory of meaning

8. Image theory of meaning

• Conceptual theory of meaning – meaning and concepts

1. Contextual/operational/use theory of meaning (context of use theory)

2. Componential analysis

3. The lexeme

4. Sense relations – meaning relations at the word level

5. Synonymy

6. Polysemy

• Homonymy

1. Hyponymy

2. Antonymy

3. Homophony

• homographs

5. Sentence meaning

6. Meaning relations at the sentence level

7. Paraphrase

8. Ambiguity

• Vagueness

1. Tautology

2. Presupposition

3. Entailment

• Anomaly

• Contradiction

1. Redundancy

2. Meaninglessness

3. Analyticity

4. Role relations

5. Utterance meaning

6. Features of an utterance

7. Prosodic features

8. Presupposition

• Implicature

1. Speech acts

2. Meaning and context

ENG 333: Discourse Analysis

Course Description

Discourse analysis introduces students to the practice of looking at how language is used in varying subject matters, whether in spoken or written contexts, conditioned by the requirements of such contexts in the achievement of correct interpretations.

This follows that the discourse analyst is assumed to have mastered the principles of phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics and can apply these principles in varying degrees in relevant contexts – cultural, social, philosophical, psychological, political, religious – to achieve correct interpretations of texts or utterances.

Contexts (subject matters) vary and each has peculiar requirements for its practice. These requirements must be understood to achieve the goals of any particular discourse. People play roles as listeners (readers) or speakers (writers) and the relationships in terms of age, status, authority are internalized by participants and reflected in the utterances or texts that come from such interactions to achieve communication. Formal discourse includes formal writings and speeches. Informal discourse is also reflected in speeches and writings. Letters to HODS, registrar, or banks, or job interviews are forms of formal discourse while casual conversations, jokes, letters to boyfriend, girlfriend, mother, father etc are examples of informal discourse. In all, the principles of coherence and cohesion are important in building and interpreting utterances and texts.

 

Course Outline

1. Introduction

2. Discourse

3. Analysis

• Formal discourse

1. Informal discourse

2. Form and function

3. Utterance

• Communication

2. Contexts

3. Linguistic

4. Extra or non-linguistic context (including physical context)

• Hymes’ context

3. Modes of Discourse

4. Written discourse

5. Spoken discourse

6. Theories of Discourse

7. Sociology: Conversational Analysis e.g Sacks et al 1974

8. Lingusitics: Discourse Structure (Sinclair and Coulthard 1975)

• Sociolinguistics: Dell Hymes’ Context

5. Features of Discourse

Conversation, adjacency pair, turn taking, exchanges, moves, acts

6. Cohesion in Discourse (Halliday & Hassan)

7. Lexical Cohesive Devices

8. Grammatical Cohesive Devices

9. Coherence in Discourse

10. Background Knowledge and Discourse Interpretation Strauss etc)

 

 

 

 

ENG 334: Morphology of English

Course Description

This course examines the formation of words and the internal structures of words formed. Such elements or derivation and inflection generally called affixation are emphasized to enable students to understand and exemplify the complexities made possible by morphomic components. Also, such technical terms as root, base, stem, bound/free morphemes, word, functional and lexical morphemes will be explained.

Course Outline

1. What is Morphology

2. Morpheme description

3. Recognition of morpheme

4. Morphological terms

5. Morphological processes

6. The scope of Morphology: Derivation Inflection. Compounding/ Composition.

7. Minor word formations

 

ENG 335: Introduction to Systemic Functional Grammar

Course Description

This course focusses on the basic tenets of Halliday’s systemic functional grammar. The three strata of language at the contextual, semantic and lexico-grammatical level will be explored. Students will be made aware of the difference between functional grammar as a system of meaning making in context with the different functional labels that depart from traditional grammatical structures. Emphasis will be on the contextual dimensions of register and genre, semantic dimensions of ideational (experiential and logical), interpersonal and textual metafunction; and the lexicogrammatical features of Transitivity, Mood and Theme. The clause is taken as the basic unit of analysis. Students will be expected to distinguish these functional meaning with traditional models of analysis

 

Course Outline

1. What is systemic functional grammar

2. Differences in concepts between functional grammar and traditional grammar

3. Contextual dimension

4. Field: what is happening, the nature of the social interaction taking place: what is it that the participants are engaged in, in which language figures as an essential component?

5. Tenor: who is taking part; the social roles and relationships of participant, the status and roles of the participants

• Mode: the symbolic organization of the text, rhetorical modes (persuasive, expository, didactic, etc.); the channel of communication, such as spoken/written, monologic/dialogic

4. Semantic dimension

5. Ideational – experiential and logical: propositional content;

6. Interpersonal: speech-function, exchange structure, involvement and detachment, personal reference, use of pronouns, “interactive items” showing the position of the speaker (just, whatever, basically, slightly), discourse markers (words that moderate/monitor the interaction, e.g., well, might, good, so, anyway)

   • A spoken corpus is primarily an “I”, “You” text; the world as seen by you and me. Illustrates INVOLVEMENT

   • A written corpus often takes 3rd person and objective reporting styles (it, he, she, and passive voice). Illustrates DETACHMENT

• Textual: type/token ratios, vocabulary use, register

5. Lexicogrammatical dimension: The clause as the unit of analysis in lexicogrammar

6. Transitivity: Participant-process-circumstance

7. Mood and Modality: Mood-residue

   1. Subject-finite

   2. modality through (in English) modal auxiliaries, e.g., (in Yates, 1996:42)

   3. modals of obligation (must, need, should)

   4. modals of ability and possibility (can, could)

   5. modals of epistemic possibility (may, might)

   6. modals of volition and prediction (will, shall)

   7. hypothetical modals: (would, should)

• Theme: Theme-Rheme

  1. Topical theme

  2. Marked theme

6. The system of cohesion and coherence

 

ENG 336: Psycholinguistics (ENG 436: CEP)

Course Description

This course represents the psycholinguistic account of language and the relationship between language and the mind.Topics are to cover:

Course Outline

1. An Introduction to psycholinguistics-

2. Nature and function of language – language and communication

3. Development, themes, research methods

4. Animal communication and human communication

5. Is language specific to humans?

6. The critical age issue

7. Language acquisition and language learning

8. The behaviourist view

9. Cognitive/innate capacity view

• The nature/nurture controversy/debate

4. The biological bases of language

5. Language and the brain

6. General brain structure and function

• Language areas of the brain and their functions

1. Localization and lateralization

2. Language disorders

3. Aphasia

4. Dyslexia

• Other language-related disorders

1. Sign language

2. The structure and content of the mental lexicon

3. How humans learn and store words

4. How humans find the right words

• How humans understand the words of others

1. Lexical retrieval

2. Language and memory

3. Short term memory

4. Long term memory

• The schema theory

1. Meaning representation

2. inference

3. Language processing

4. Bottom-up processing

5. Top-down processing

• Serial and parallel processing

1. Perceptual and conceptual information

2. The role of context

3. Language Production: Productive language skills – speaking and writing

4. Speaking

5. Characteristics of speaking

6. Stages in the speaking process

• Syntactic planning

1. Lexicalization

2. Speech errors

3. Writing

4. Writing systems

5. The stages of writing

• Errors in writing

10. Language Comprehension: Receptive language skills – Listening and reading

11. Listening

12. Difference between listening and hearing

13. Levels of listening

• Problems/barriers in the listening process

1. Reading

2. The whole word versus the decoding approach

3. Eye movement

• Skilled and unskilled reading

 

ENG 341: Speech Writing    (ENG 441: CEP)

Course Description

This course is designed to focus closely on speech writing as a communicative skill. Topics to be included are general guidelines for speech writing, models of public speaking (Situaion-Purpose-Audience-Method model), guidelines for gathering support materials – where to look and what to look for, patterns of organization of speeches and different types of speeches. Attention will also be given to general guidelines for speech presentation.

Course Outline

5. General guidelines for speech writing

6. Formal features/models of public speaking (The SPAM model)

7. Situation

8. Purpose

9. Audience

10. Method

11. Language: word choice and sentence varieties

12. Tone

• Voice production and non-verbal delivery

1. Ethics in language use: avoid fallacies

2. Style

3. General guidelines for speech presentation

4. Preparing Speeches

5. Gathering materials for speech writing

6. Where to look: sources of materials: primary, secondary, electronic.

7. What to look for: statistics, facts, definitions, illustrations, anecdotes, quotes, etc

8. Patterns of organization of speeches

9. Time-sequence

10. Deductive: general to specific

• Cause-effect

1. Comparison-contrast etc

2. Types of speeches

3. Informative speeches: Format

4. Persuasive Speeches: Format

5. Persuasive strategies

6. Logical fallacies

7. Entertainment speeches

8. Specialized speeches: Formats for:

9. Ceremonial speeches

10. Courtesy speeches

• Contest speeches etc.

ENG. 351: Theory of Literary Criticism    (ENG 451: CEP)

Course Description

Literary Criticism is a survey of Western literary theory and criticism with an emphasis on the most prominent theorists, texts, schools, and ideas. It is a course in the history of ideas—specifically, ideas related to the theory and criticism of literary texts. The course introduces students to the debate that has persisted for more than 2000 years among philosophers, writers, and critics over the following kinds of questions: What is the nature, function, and value of literature? What is the function of the artist, the critic, and of criticism and theory itself? Can we know the artist’s true intentions in a work? Readings were drawn from the classical period to the beginning of the 20th century. This course also surveys the major schools of 20^th-and-21^st-century literary criticism and theory, ranging from Russian formalism and structuralism to New Criticism and post-structuralism; including Marxism, gender and queer studies, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, ecocriticism, phenomenology, reader-response theory, race and ethnicity studies, post-colonial theory, and cultural studies, etc. It will assist in answering three main questions: (1) What practical tools for reading and analyzing literature can we derive from each of these approaches? (2) How can we arrive at valid interpretations of literary texts? (3) What does theory tell us about the function and social value of literature in the postmodern world?

Course Outline

1. Conceptual Background: What is Literary Theory?

2. What is Literary Studies?

3. Literary Criticism.

• The Relationship of Theory to Criticism and Vice Versa.

1. Criticism as Judgment.

2. Critical Essays:

3. Aristotle’s Poetics

4. Plato’s “The Republic”

• Roland Barthes: “The Death of the Author”

1. Other Related Essays.

2. Origin and Evolution of Literary Criticism:

3. From Plato (423-347BC) to Mathew Arnold (1822-88).

4. Approaches to Literary Criticism

5. Sociological Approach

6. Psychological Approach

• Moral Approach

1. Formalist Approach

2. Archetypal Approach

3. Doth Century Critical Theories:

4. New Criticism

5. Reader-Response

• Surrealism

1. Structuralism

2. Post Structuralism

3. Deconstruction

• Psychoanalysis

• Existentialism

1. Formalism

2. Post-Colonial

3. Feminism

• Eco Criticism

• Queen Theory and Criticism

• Marxism Etc.

 

Texts:

1. Aristotle’s Poetics

2. Plato’s The Republic

3. Critical Theory Today: A Closer Friendly Guide by Lois Tyson

4. Literary Theory: An Introduction: 2^nd Edition by Terry Eagleton

5. Literary Criticism: From Formal to Question of Method by A. N. Akwanya

6. Theory of Literature by Pene Wellek and Austin Warren

ENG. 352: Practice of Literary Criticism   (ENG 452: CEP)

Course Description

This course is designed to sensitize the students on the practical aspects of literary criticism. From I.A. Richard’s revolution of criticism in the 20^th century to the isms of the postmodern era, the study anchors on the formalist’s concept of “arts for art’s sake” to synthesize the symbiotic relationship between theory and practice of literature. Emphasis should be on the analysis, interpretation, evaluation and judgment of literary texts. Aspects of meaning and approaches to literary criticism and different types of criticisms should be looked into. Also, the student should know the meaning of literary criticism, its origin and functions. Emphasis is on the continuity of key ideas in the theory and history of criticism, as well as the gradual displacement of once-revered concepts such as “greatness,” “meaning,” and “beauty” as goals of aesthetic inquiry. It also considers the ideological debates surrounding multiculturalism, political correctness, textual authority, and the literary canon and what their impact has been on the current practice of literary criticism. It asks these questions: How can literary art be dealt with objectively? How can readers gain greater access to the richness and complexity of literary texts? What criteria do we use to determine a work’s “greatness”? What does the “beauty” of a literary work mean? How do we account for multiple interpretations of a text? What is the relationship between the content and the form of a literary work? Does literary language differ from ordinary language? This course equally provides “intensive introductory study of 20th-century theory by carefully studying a handful of key essays in 20th- and 21st- concepts and practices. Writing assignments give students the opportunity to apply diverse critical theories to the analysis of selected works of literature.

 

Course Outline

1. General Introductions: Literary criticism and its origins

2. What is the Relationship between Literary Theory and Literary Criticism?

3. Practical Application of Literary Approaches to the analysis of texts.

4. Origin and Foundations: Seminar Texts:

5. Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels from “The German Ideology”

6. Sigmund Freud’s “Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis”

• David Lodge: “Analysis and Interpretation of the Realist Text”

1. Theodor Adorno “On Lyric Poetry and Society”

2. Raymond William “Marxeson and Literature

3. Femininity, Gender and Subjectivity.

4. Elain Showalter: “Towards a Feminist Poetics” (1979)

5. The Marxist-Feminist Collective. From “Women writing Jane Eyre, Shirley,

• Julia Kristeva “Women’s Time”

1. Luke Irigary “Sexual Differences”

2. A brief survey of Criticism before I.A. Richards and the rise of Formalism in Criticism.

3. Approaches to Literary Criticism. (I) Wilbur Scott’s Five Approaches to Literary Criticism.

(ii) Mbanefo Ogene’s Literary Appreciation

8. The New Approaches to Literary Criticism from I.A. Richards up

(i)     Psychoanalytic Approach

(ii)    Marxist Approach

(iii)   Feminist,

(iv)   Ecocriticism,

(v)    Deconstruction

(vi)   Structuralism,

(vii) Reader-Response,

(viii)    Postcolonial Criticism

(ix)   The New Criticism

9. Types of Literary Criticism:

• The Book Review/Appraisal

• Constructive Criticism

• Destructive Criticism

• The Praise Singer

• The Amateur Criticism/Touting (Bolekaja)

10. Histories and Textuality:

11. M. Bathiri from “Discourse in the Novel” (1934).

12. Jerome J. McGann: “The Text, the Poem, and the Problem of Historical Method”.

13. Postmodernism and Post Colonialism

14. Jean-Francis Lyotard: “Answering to Question: What is Post Modernism” (1986).

15. Terry Eagleton: From The Illusions of Postmodernism” (1997).

• Patricia Waugh “Postmodernism and Feminism” (1998).

1. Gatafu Chak a Vorty Spirak: “The Post-Colonial Critic (1990)

2. Rehearsals/Practical

 

Some Recommended Texts

1. I.A. Richards: Practical Criticism

2. A.N. Akwanya: Literary Criticism: From Formal to Questions of Method

3. Rene Wellek and Austin Warren: Theory of Literature

4. Wilbur Scott: Five Approaches to Literary Criticism

5. M.H. Abrams: A Glossary of Literary Terms

6. David Daiches: Critical Approaches to Literature

7. Chinweizu et al: Toward the Decolonization of African Literature

8. Raymond Chapman: Linguistics and Literature: An Introduction to Literary Stylistics

9. John Crowe Ransom: The New Criticism

10 .   L. Abercrombie: Principles of Literary Criticism

11. H. Coombes: Literature and Criticism

12. Terry Eagleton: Marxism and Literary Criticism

13. Mbanefo S. Ogene: Literary Appreciation, Theory and Practice, with Creative Writing…

14. Okey Umeh: Poetry and Social Reality

15. Edward Said: “Culture and Imperialism” (1993).

16. Emmanuel Levina: From Totality and Infirmity.

17. Terry Eagleton from “Literary Theory on Introduction”

18. Stanley Fish “From Political Correctness” (1996).

ENG 361: African Fiction    (ENG 461: CEP)

Course Description

This is a course designed to introduce students to novels by African (or/and expatriate) authors, dealing with African themes, life and experiences. The course will cover the regions of Africa: (Francophone and Anglophone) West Africa, East Africa, South Africa and the Islamised North.

ENG 362: African Poetry     (ENG 462: CEP)

Course Description

African poetry is a course designed for a study of the development of poetry in Africa from the oral to the written traditions. Selection will be made from oral poetry to the pioneer written poetry, as well as the Modern African poetry from East, West, North and South plus central Africa. The pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial poetry will be studied as parts of external contacts of Africa with the west.

 

Course Outline

1. Introduction to African Poetry: Origin, Nature and Functions of African Poetry.

2. The Oral Poetry / Pre-colonial Period.

3. Modern/ Written African Poetry-the Post-Colonial Period.

4. Regionalization Periodization and Movements in Modern African Poetry.

5. Historicism, Criticism and Modern African Poetry.

6. The Strengths and Limits of Traditions in Modern African Poetry.

7. New Trends: Style, Language and Innovation in Modern African Poetry.

8. Education of some Poetry /Revision.

 

Recommended Texts (Primary Ref.)

1. Wole Soyinka:Idanre and Other Poems, A Shuttle in the Crypt

2. Christopher Okigbo:  Labyrinths

3. P Clark: A Decade of Tongues.

4. Niyi Osundare:Waiting Laughters, Songs of the Market Place, The Eye of the Earth

5. P’ Bitek: Song of Lawino/Ocol/Malayal

6. Leopold Sedar Senghor: Collected Poems.

7. David Diop: Hammer Blows

8. Dennis Brutus:Simple Lust.

9. JaredAngira: Silent Voices.

10. Tchicaya U Tamsi :Selected Poems.

11. Lenrie Peters: Satellite.

12. Oswald Mtshali: Sounds of a Cowhide Drum, Fire Drum

 

 Some References (Secondary Texts).               

1. Any good Dictionary or Glossary of Literary Terms

2. African Literature Today: Nos. 5,6 and 7.

3. Claude Wauthier: The Literature and Thought of Modern Africa.

4. Gerald Moore:Twelve African Writers.

5. Adrian Roscoe: Mother is Gold.

         —: Uhuru’s Fire

6. Lewis Nkosi:Task and Mask.

7. Romanus Egudu: Four Modern African Poets.

         — Modern African Poetry and the African Predicament

8. Wole Soyinka: Myth, Literature and the African World.

9. Christopher Heywood, ed.: Aspects of South of South African Literature.

10. Chinweizuetal: Towards the Decolonization of African Literature.

11. G.A Heron: The Poetry of Okot P’Bitck

 

ENG 364: African Drama    (ENG 464: CEP)

Course Description

The course will focus on written drama by playwrights of African descent both in the continent and in the diaspora, especially from the four African regions: South, East, West and North Africa. The course will trace the development and growth of the genre from emergence to the present in the different parts of the continent. Emphasis will be on thematic, aesthetic, style, form and structural trends in the works of the playwrights.  It will also identify prominent schools of thoughts and areas of critical thematic issues in texts of selected plays. The course will offer deep insights into the practice of drama as theatre.

Course Outline

1. What is Drama? Nature and Forms of Drama.

2. What is African Drama:

3. Oral Narratives, Context and Content, Performance Technique, and Literary Devices.

4. Mimetic Dances and Masquerade, Storytelling.

• Dramatic Conventions: Thematic, Aesthetic and Structural Trends: Elements of Drama: Plot, Setting, Theme, Characterization, Figurative Expressions.

3. Influence of Western Dramatic Literature in African plays

4. Major Playwrights from Diverse African Cultures: West Africa, East Africa, South Africa, North Africa.

5. African Drama: Its Theme and Styles.

6. Schools of Thought on Africa Drama.

7. The Evolutionist School

8. The Relativist School

• Moralist Approach

1. Tragic Aesthetics

2. Revolutionary Aesthetics

3. Feminist School.

• Folkonst Dramatic theory

• Satanistic Drama

7. The Modern African Drama.

• The Development of Nigerian Drama.

• Contemporary Plays.

• Drama and Criticism – Political and Social

 

Texts

• Plays from: W. Africa, S. Africa, E. Africa and N. Africa

• Female playwrights

ENG 381: English Literature of the Victorian Period     (ENG 481: CEP)

Course Description

This course bridges the gap from the Romantic era to the modern period. It looks at the literary output of the Victorian period esp. as a period of the novel. Major writers and major movements of the period will be studied across the different literary manifestations of the novel, poetry, and essay.

 

Course Outline

1. Background to the Victorian Period

2. Different Phases of the Victorian Period

• Early Victorian Period

• Middle Victorian Period

• Late Victorian Period

3. Characteristics of the Literature of the Victorian Period

4. The Victorian Literature

• Introduction

• Characteristics of the Literature of the Victorian Age

• Drama in the Victorian Age

• The Victorian Poetry

• The Victorian Novels/Essays

ENG 382: English Literature of the Modern Period (ENG 482: CEP)

Course Description

This course exposes students to the historical background of the period which is basically a 20th century English literature. The course discusses the major “-isms” of the period (existentialism, surrealism, materialism, absurdism, naturalism etc.) as well as their contributions to understanding the literature of the Modern Period. The works of major poets, dramatists and writers such as T. S Eliot, W.B Yeats, Joseph Conrad, G.B Shaw, A.E Houseman, Wilfred Owen, James Joyce and D.H Lawrence are discussed to depict how they experimented with the various “-isms” that characterized the period.

 

Course Outline

1. Background to the 20^th Century

   1. Historical imperatives—political and social developments such as the 1^st and 2^nd World Wars

   2. Scientific Developments and discoveries

   3. The ‘isms’ of the 20^th Century: Modernism, Humanism, Utilitarianism, Determinism, Darwinism, Pragmatism, Agnoticism, Existentialism, Rationalism, Relativism, Naturalism, etc.

   4. The Influences of these on literary writings of the 20^th century

2. Poets and Poems

3. S Eliot—Brief Biography

4. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

5. “The Hollow Men”

• “The Waste Land”

1. Tradition and the Individual Talent (Prose)

2. B Yeats— Brief Biography

3. “The Second Coming”

4. “Sailing to Byzantium”

• “Adam’s Curse”

1. “No Second Troy”

2. H Auden – Brief biography

• “Lullaby”- The Unknown Citizen”

• “The Fall of Rome”

3. Novels

4. H . Lawrence—Brief biography

• Sons and Lovers

1. Thomas Hardy—Brief biography

• Mayor of Casterbridge

1. Joseph Conrad

• Heart of Darkness

1. James Joyce—Brief Biography

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

1. Virginia Woolf—Brief biography

• To The Lighthouse

• Dalloway

4. Drama

5. George Bernard Shaw—Arms and the Man

• Samuel Beckett—Waiting for Godot

• Henrik Ibsen—A Doll’s House

 

5. Other Texts

6. Oxford Anthology of English Literature

7. Norton Anthology of English Literature

• The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature by George Sampson

1. The Pelican Guide to English Literature

2. The English Novel—Walter

3. Drama From Ibsen—Four Plays

• The Literature of England Vol. 6

 

ENG 383: Shakespeare         (ENG 483: CEP)

Course Description

This course interrogates the life and times of William Shakespeare as well as his works with reference to the Elizabethan period when he lived. A critical study of his language, stage conventions, thematic pre-occupations, belief systems and the principles of studying/reading Shakespeare will be undertaken. Representation texts will be explored.

ENG: 392 – Research Methods/ Seminar   (ENG 492: CEP)

Course Description

The course is a prerequisite for the project or long essay students are expected to write before their graduation. Students are introduced to methods and tools of research. The differences between quantitative and qualitative research methods are highlighted. Students are equally exposed to the departmental format for project writing while emphasis is made on the content, organization, data gathering, data analysis and documentation styles. This is to prepare them for seminar writing and presentation, the project/long essay and future researches.

Course Outline

1. Research Method: An Overview

2. Types of Research Library, Experimental, Field etc)

3. Qualitative and Quantitative Research

4. Choosing a Topic

5. Formulating a research proposal

6. Research Question(s)

• Hypothesis ( Hypothesis testing, Types of hypothesis)

3. Reviewing Literature

4. The Use of Computer in researches

5. The Internet

6. Online Sources (Databases, Electronic journals. Blogs and social networks)

7. Research Methodology

8. Defining the instrument for gathering data (interview, questionnaire, observation, judgemental/purposeful etc.)

9. Analysing data

• Sample and Sampling Techniques

6. Writing Seminar paper and presentation

7. Documentation Styles (MLA, APA)

ENG 411: English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

Course Description

The course examines the reasons for making English functional in particular circumstances for the purposes of effective communication and understanding. Emphasis is on specialized varieties of English such as the language of journalism, bureaucracy, a science and technology, public speaking, law, medicine, ordinary conversation, etc. are given. Students are required to write a fieldwork project on any of the areas covered.

 

Course Outline

1. General Introduction

2. What is ESP

3. Types of ESP

4. Origin of ESP

5. Reasons for the Evolution of ESP

6. What is Course Design

7. Approaches to the ESP Course Design

8. Factors Affecting ESP Course Design

9. Language Description

10. Learning Theories

11. Needs Analysis

12. Application

13. Syllabus

14. Material Evaluation

 

ENG 413: Multilingualism

Course Description

This course introduces students to the problems of having several languages operating simultaneously within same linguistic environment community or country. Nigeria is a good example. In the course, these problems are identified, classified and analysed; and solutions to them are proffered.

 

Course Outline

1. Concept and Origin of Multilingualism

2. Distinguish between bilingualism and multilingualism

3. Multilingualism in Nigeria – Nigeria as a multilingual nation

4. Minority and majority Languages in Nigeria.

5. Problems and prospects of multilingualism in National Development/Unity

6. Multilingualism and the national language question

7. Language Marginalisation

8. Minority Languages and Formal Education in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects

9. Multilingualism, education and mental development

10. Multilingualism and Language Learning

11. Multilingualism and multiculturalism: Advantages and Disadvantages

12. Multilingualism and culture

13. Multilingualism and Globalisation

ENG 431: New Trends in Syntax    (ENG 531: CEP)

Course Description

This course introduces fundamental aspects of syntactic structures such as constituent and relational structures. Major principles and parameters in syntax will be treated such as the phrase structure grammar model: X Bar Theory, GB Theory, case and case checking, movement operations, role relations and the basic aspects of the minimalist model.

Course Outline

1. Grammatical relations: Properties of grammatical relations

2. Coding properties – case, agreement

3. Behavioural properties

4. Aspects of syntactic structures

5. Constituent structures

6. Relational structures

7. Semantic roles

8. Verb-specific

9. Thematic roles

• Macro-roles

4. Principles and parameters – general overview

5. Phrase structure grammar model

6. X-Bar model

7. CP and IP Hypotheses

• DP Hypothesis

1. VP internal Subject Hypothesis

2. Case and case checking

3. Government and control relationships

4. The lexicon and semantic roles

5. Movement operations

6. A-Movement

7. A-Bar Movement

• Head Movement

1. Movement constraints

2. Minimalist model of GG

ENG 432: Language and National Development

Course Description

The course focuses on language as a vehicle for national development in a multilingual, multi-ethnic and multicultural Nigeria.  The use of language for inclusion and exclusion and the construction of in-group and out-group ethnic identities will also be focused on as well as the prospects and constraints of evolving a national language for achieving unity in diversity The course will also focus on the existing national language policy and its possible implementation for national development; language being the most effective means of human communication and the corner-stone of mass participation in the development process itself.

 

Course Outline

1. Functions of Language in National Development

2. National language

3. Target language

4. Official language

5. Lingual Franca

6. Indigenous Language

7. Various Definitions and Indications of National Development

8. What is a Nation?

9. National Development and its Objectives

10. Relationship between Language and National Development

11. The Quest for a National Language – Problems and Prospects

12. Language as Instrument of Inclusion and Exclusion in Nigeria

    1. The concept of Inclusion and Exclusion

    2. Modes of Inclusion and Exclusion through Language

    3. In-group and Outgroup ethnic identity construction

    4. The language situation in Nigeria

13. Multilingualism, multi-ethnicity and multi-culturality in Nigeria

14. Problems and prospects of Multiplicity of Language to Development in Nigeria

15. Language Situation in Nigeria vis-à-vis achieving unity in Nigeria

16. The Language Policy in Nigeria

17. The national language policy on education in Nigeria (2004)

18. Effects on Education as a Cornerstone for National Development

19. Problems, Prospects and Implementation of the National Language Policy

 

ENG 433 – Pragmatics         (ENG 533: CEP)

Course Description

The course focuses on the study of pragmatics as intended speaker meaning as against propositional, truth-conditional meaning. Emphasis will be on the study of meaning of utterances in context, both linguistic and extra-linguistic. Insights will be drawn from pragmatic principles of conversation, conversational maxims, implicature, presupposition and speech acts. Other contextual dimensions of interaction such as politeness, indirectness and relevance will be explored.

 

Course outline

1. What is pragmatics

2. Scope of pragmatics

3. Prosodic features

4. Deixis

• Presupposition

1. Implicature

2. Pragmatics distinguished from Semantics

3. Other major theories of pragmatics

4. Speech acts

5. Politeness theory

• Conversational implicature

1. Relevance theory

2. Application of pragmatic principles to speeches and literary texts

 

ENG 434- Modern English Grammar and Usage (ENG 534: CEP)

Course Description

The course, Modern English Grammar and Usage, gives a detailed study of modern English structure and usage with reference to syntax and word choice. Emphasis is on an in-depth study of the relationship between the grammatical and lexical characteristics that mark contemporary usage in selected areas of English grammar which co-relate English structure, grammatical categories, vocabulary and usage in both writing and speech. Thus, elements of the English sentence would be considered from both syntactic and functional perspectives; the basic sentence patterns, different kinds of concord, special characteristics of the sentence constituents, an in-depth examination of adjuncts, disjuncts, the verb and its complementation, the complex noun phrase etc., would be studied in detail. Besides, there would be some critical analysis of the English spelling system, passivization, the use of figurative expressions, etc. As usual, textual examples and practice exercises would be provided.

 

Course Outline

1. Different perceptions of the term ‘grammar’

2. The morpheme: structure and types

3. Words and word formation processes

4. Word classes: open and closed systems

5. Grammatical (morphosyntactic) categories:

6. Grammatical categories for nouns

7. Inherent categories for noun: number, gender or noun class, definiteness

8. Relational categories for nouns: case

9. Grammatical categories for pronouns:

10. Inherent categories: person, number, gender

11. Relational categories: case.

12. Grammatical categories for verbs:

13. Inherent categories: tense, aspect, mood, transitivity

14. Relational categories: voice

• Agreement categories: agreement (concord) with arguments of the verb

1. Grammatical categories for adjectives: Inherent categories: degrees of comparison (positive, comparative, superlative)

2. Phrases: structure and types

3. Clauses: structure and types

4. The sentence: types and varieties, basic sentence patterns and non-basic sentences

5. Constituent structure of sentences

6. Inter-sentential cohesion: combining sentences

7. Reporting speeches

8. Grammaticality and acceptability

 

ENG 444: Workshop in Creative Writing

Course Description

The course is a practical writing course designed to train and equip students on the basic concepts of writing creatively, publishing and marketing of written works. It will employ various measures aimed at helping the degree students acquire training and knowledge that will sustain them in life through the art of writing, science of publishing, advertising and disposal of published texts. Nigeria has many challenges that range from poor writing and reading culture to underdevelopment, which a good knowledge of creative writing, publishing and marketing will help to address.

 

Course Outline

1. General Introductions to the course, what is Workshop on Creative Writing?

2. Expounding on the Selected Workshop Materials and Documents for Training

3. Guest Lecturer (if any) or Practical Exercise on Collected Manuscript, Editing, Printing…

4. Seminars by Students on Publishing in Nigeria (Course Lecturer(s) to Guide)

5. Continuation of Seminars by Students on Publishing in Nigeria as above

6. Lecture/Seminar on the Art of Styling Sentences

7. Lecture/Seminar on the Art of Styling Sentences

8. Post Mortem on Textbook, if any is Published and Marketed.

Some Recommended Textbooks

1. Marie L. Wadell et al: The Art of Styling Sentences: 20 Patterns to Success

2. Publishing in Nigeria, Ethiope Publishing Corporation, 1972

3. Mbanefo Ogene (ed.) Creative Writing Workshop

4. Marie Correli: The Sorrows of Satan.

 

ENG 451: Commonwealth Literature        (ENG 551: CEP)

This course exposes students to the study of the literature of different countries of the commonwealth such as Britain, Austria, Canada, India, West Indies, New Zealand etc. The course further discusses the thematic and stylistic issues replete in the literature of the commonwealth. A comparative approach is adopted to further explore the different historical contexts or experiences that characterize each cultural milieu. The historical developments— intellectual, socio-political situations and cultural perceptions are critically discussed to further interpret unique fictional experiences that characterize each country.

 

Course Outline

1. What is Commonwealth Literature?

2. Commonwealth Literature and post-colonialism

3. Issues, concepts and concerns

4. Thematic scope

5. Other/otherness

• Manichaean Allegory

1. Orientalism

2. Hybridity

3. Language abrogation

• Language appropriation

• Regional characterization

1. Writing models

2. Thematic parallels

3. Frontier elements

• Settler/Native

4. Study of texts (short stories, poems, essays etc) from diverse areas of the Commonwealth

5. West Africa: Achebe, Aidoo, etc

6. East Africa: p’Bitek, etc

• Southern Africa: Head, etc

1. Australia: Macauley, Jeffery’s, etc

2. Caribbean: Benneth, Walcott, etc

3. Canada: Atwood, etc

• South East Asia: Bin Salleh, etc

Texts

1. An Anthology of Postcolonial Literatures in English – John Thieme (Ed)

2. An Introduction to Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literatures – Chike Okoye

 

 

ENG 454: Stylistics    (ENG 554: CEP)

Course Description

Stylistics introduces students to a higher level of appreciating language forms in linguistic and literary organizations. At the linguistic level, it is assumed that students are conversant with how specific areas of human endeavours: law, business, education, engineering, administration etc. require special linguistic forms (register) for their operations. At the literary level, students are mostly unaware that the beauty of what they read as poems, novels and plays is rooted in the deliberate flouting of normal or literal order of writing or speaking language, by creative artists, in order to praise, criticize, mock, eulogize, approve, deride objects, persons, institutions, traditions, cultures or philosophy. The analysis of literary texts stylistically, therefore, includes knowledge of normal patterns of linguistic organizations at the levels of syntax, phonology, semantics and graphology (i.e. techniques of writing) which will lead to knowledge of flouting the rules at such levels.

Deviations from the normal patterns (background) above result in what is referred to as ‘foregrounding’, and this is prominent among literary texts. Therefore, a blend of linguistic theories, literary criticism and appreciation exposes students to the knowledge that what is referred to as literary appreciation constitutes what is referred to as ‘foregrounding’ in linguistics at semantic, phonological, syntactic and graphological levels. Linguistic and literary theories are used to internalize these principles in students so that they can face the challenges of interpreting texts and imparting linguistic and literary knowledge to students to be brought under their care.

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Style b) stylistics   c) communication

3. Stylistics

4. General Stylistics

5. Field of discourse

6. Tenor of discourse

• Mode of discourse

1. Literary Stylistics

2. Linguistic Stylistics

3. Literary Criticism

• Literary Appreciation

3. Linguistic Stylistics

4. Linguistic deviation

5. Linguistic foregrounding: Theory

6. Syntactic Foregrounding

7. Phonological Foregrounding

• Lexical or Semantic Foregrounding

1. Graphological Foregrounding

2. Literary Criticism

3. Genres of literature: Poetry, Fiction, Drama

4. Sub-genres like: realism, surrealism, naturalism

• Literary ages: Classical, Neo-classical, Elizabethan, Romantic, Victorian, Modern, Post Modern etc as well as the canons governing writings within each age or period.

5. Literary Appreciation

Figures of Speech

Metaphor, simile, hyperbole, synecdoche, metonymy, litotes, oxymoron, irony, alliteration, assonance etc.

6. Theories of Stylistics

Functional Systemic Theory (for syntax: MAK Halliday)

Generative Theory (for poems)

Structural Theory (for novels. J. Culler, Claud Levi

 

ENG 471 Studies in Fiction              (ENG 571: CEP)

Course Description

The course involves indepth study of advanced works of fiction, the historical and sociological realities that inspired the writing of the novels. Emphasis would be on fiction types and techniques and thorough appraisal of the author’s background. Realistic fiction, ethnographic fiction, historical fiction and other types of fiction need to be deeply discussed so that students understand the real message of the individual authors and how they have been able to use their works to represent their various societies and age. Emphasis need be paid on individual authors’ stylistics and themes

 

Course Outline

1. Introduction

2. Needs/ roles of fiction

3. Current trends in fiction

4. Realistic fiction, characteristics and examples

5. Analysis of a realistic novel

6. Ethnographic fiction, features and examples

7. Analysis of selected novels

8. Historical fiction, its difference from real history

9. Discussion of some texts

10. Other aspects of fiction

11. Parsing the texts

12. Revisions

13. Examination

ENG 472: Studies in Poetry             (ENG 572: CEP)

Course Description

This is a more adventurous and in-depth 400 level follow-up on the first year Introduction to Poetry (ENG 173). It takes up the erstwhile unknown and more abstract aspects of the different sub-genres, their differences, histories, origins, dynamics, variations, etc. Epic, Romance, Ballad, Lyric, Sonnet, Ode, Elegy, Narrative poems are all further and thoroughly explained. Other forms such as the Haiku, concrete poetry (writing for the eye/imagistic poetry), Traditional African forms, Metaphysical poetry etc. are all treated in detail. Theories form the major part of the course as the students are exposed to essays that have shaped the course of poetry, its form(s) and critiques over the years. Plato’s “the Republic”, Aristotle’s “Poetics”, Sidney’s “Defence”, Pope’s “Essays”, Wordsworth’s “Ballads”, Arnold’s “Study”, Eliot’s “Talent”, Chinweizu’s “Decolonization” etc will all be studied.

 

ENG 474: Studies in Drama            (ENG 574: CEP)

Course Description

This course is a study of the developmental trends of the dramatic traditions across the literary eras. This is done through a selection of relevant plays from the classical to the modern eras. It discusses the texts and relates them to the various concepts and ideas bestriding the world of drama especially realism, naturalism theater of the Absurd, epic theatre feminism, consinological in fluencies, philosophical reflections etc. as such, emphasis is placed on the critical theory of dramatic literature.

 

Course Outline

• Classification of Drama

• Tragedy: Traditional and Modern

• Non tragic Serious Drama: Heroic Drama, Bourgeois or Domestic Drama, Melodrama

• The playwright: Dramatic Structure and Dramatic Characters.

• Drama in the Classical Era

• Medieval Drama

• Renaissance/Elizabeth Drama

• Restoration Drama in England

• The Twentieth Century Drama/Modern Drama

• Realism/Naturalism in Drama

• Feminism and Drama

• Theatre of the Absurd

• Epic Theatre/Revolutionary Theatre

• Drama as a Source of Philosophical Reflection

• Drama and History.

ENG 481:  Modern Authors            (ENG 51: CEP)

Course Description

The course is intended to cover important, major and prominent writers from 1900 to the present in literature, written or translated to English. Their study is important because of literary trends or movements they either started, made popular or propagated; which in unique symbiosis based on the relationship between literature and life, changed man’s view of life, existence, race, segregation, value and man’s place and responsibility in the general scheme of things.  Their major works, often representative of their ideas and views are the main issues of concern. Their personalities, where applicable and necessary also form part of the course content. These authors include Pound, Eliot, Beckett, Yeats, Woolf, Achebe, Soyinka, Dostoyevsky, Gordimer, Auden, Marguez, Okri etc.

Course Outline

1,      Introduction:

1. The Modern Period in Literature (The 20th Century and After)

2. The Main Characteristics of Modernism

• The Edwardian and the Georgian Era

1. Some Isms of the period

2. The Modern Poets and Some of their Poetry

3. The Modern Drama and Some of Their Plays

4. The Modern Fiction and Some of Their Prose

5. The World War 1 Texts: James Joyce etc.

6. D.H Lawrence (Poems)

7. “Ordour of Clirysarthemums”

8. “Snake”

9. Why the Novel Matter

10. T.S. Eliot:

11. “The Love Song of J. Alfred”

12. “Sweeney amongst the Nightingale”

13. “The Hollow Men”

14. “Journey of the Magi”

15. Tradition and the Individual Talent

16. “The Waste Land’

17. Discussions on George Orwell

18. Discussions of World War 2 and other voices

19. Harold Pinter

20. Dyland Thomas

21. W.H. Auden

22. SamuelBeckett: Waiting for Godot

23. Studies on the Black British Literature

 

Texts

1. Norton Anthology of English Literature, 7^th

2. Oxford Anthology of the English Literature, Vol. 2.

3. Abram, M.H. and Harpman Geoffery. A Glossary of Literary Terms.United States of America: Wadsworth, 2005.

4. Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove press, 1954.

5. Beever, Anthony. The Second World War. London: Weidenfield & Nicolson, 62012.

6. Cronin, A. Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist. London: Flamingo, 1997.

7. Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. London: Penguin Books, 2009.

8. Jowitt, David. English Language and Literature in Historical Contest. Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited, 2009.

9. Ker David. Literature and Society in Africa.Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited, 2004.

10. Rainey, Lawrence. Modernism: An Anthology. Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005.

11. Peter, Faulkner. London: Methuen,1977.

12. Evans, David. The First World War, Teach Yourself. London: Hodder Arnold, 2004

13. Ferguson, Nigel. The War of the West: Twentieth Century Conflict and the Descent of the West. New York: Penguin Press, 2006.

ENG 482: Comparative Literature             (ENG 582: CEP)

Course Description

The basics of interest in comparison in Literature such as context, history, language, translation, style, influences etc., will be treated with proper exemplary texts. Theories and concepts guiding comparative literature will be studied too.

ENG 492: Project                  (ENG 592: CEP)

Under the supervision and direction of a lecturer, each student is expected to present an original independent research on any topic of interest related to the different courses studied throughout the programme. The final product should be a sustained and well- organized work and should demonstrate sound knowledge of the field and the theoretical and methodological issues involved. Emphasis should also be placed on appropriate documentation and knowledge of referencing. The final product should not exceed 45 pages or less than 35pages.

2.6 Continuing Education Programme (CEP) B.A Degree Programme

A part-time student reading for a five-year B.A (Hons) degree in the Department of English is supposed to do a minimum of seventy-nine courses (75 core courses + 4 non-core courses).

2.6.1 List of First Year Courses for Direct Entry students

Direct entry students are expected to join the second year students for the continuation of their studies.  However, they must do the under-listed courses of the first year.

1. GSS 103: Introduction to Logic and Philosophy

2. GSS 104: Introduction to History and Philosophy of

                                    Science

3. GSS 107: Nigerian Peoples and Culture

They must also offer two of the following electives for the first and second semesters of the first year.

First Semester

4. IGB 101: Elementary Igbo I

                                                            or

5. FRE 101: Elementary French I

                                                            or

6. CHI 101: Elementary Chinese I

Second Semester

7. IGB 102:             Elementary Igbo II

                                                            or

8. FRE 102: Elementary French II

                                                            or

9. CHI 102: Elementary Chinese II

 

2.7 List of Continuous Education Programme (CEP) Courses

 

CEP

ACADEMIC PROGRAMME FOR THE

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

FIRST YEAR

FIRST SEMESTER			SECOND SEMESTER
Code	Course Title	Hrs	Code	Course Title	Hrs
ENG 101	Elements of Eng Gram & Usage I	2	ENG 102	Elements of Eng Gram & Usage II	2
ENG 111	Intro to Gen Linguistics I	2	ENG 112	Intro to Gen Linguistics II	2
ENG 141	Mech of Reading Comp & Summ	2	ENG 142	Basic English Composition	2
ENG 161	Introduction to Nigerian Lit	2	ENG 152	Intro to Oral Literature	2
GSS 101	Use of English I	2	ENG 162	Intro to African Literature	2
GSS 103	Intro to Philosophy & Logic	2	GSS 102	Use of English II	2
GSS 107	Nigerian Peoples & Cultures	2	GSS 104	Intro to Hist & Philo of Sci	2
GSS 109	Agumagu Igbo I	2	GSS 110	Agumagu Igbo II	2
	Electives (Only one of these)			Electives (Only one of these)
IGB 101	Elementary Igbo I	2	IGB 102	Elementary Igbo II	2
FRE 101	Elementary French I	2	FRE 102	Elementary French II	2
CHS 101	Elementary Chinese I	2	CHS 102	Elementary Chinese II	2
HAU 101	Elementary Hausa I	2	HAU 102	Elementary Hausa II	2
YOR 101	Elementary Yoruba I	2	YOR 102	Elementary Yoruba II	2
	Total	88		Total	18

Total Core Courses +Electives for First Semester = 8+1; Number of Credit Units = 18

Total Core Courses + Electives for Second Semester = 8+1

Number of Credit Units = 18

Grand Total Core & elective courses for first & second semester = 9 and 9 respectively

Grand total credit units for first year = 18 + 18 = 36

SECOND YEAR

FIRST SEMESTER			SECOND SEMESTER
Code	Course Title	Hrs	Code	Course Title	Hrs
ENG 211	English as a Second Language	2	ENG 202	Language & Society	2
ENG 221	Intro to Phonetics & Phonology	2	ENG 234	Varieties of English	2
ENG 241	Advanced English Comp I	2	ENG 242	Advanced English Composition II	2
ENG 251	Survey of English Literature I	2	ENG 244	Introduction to Creative Writing	2
ENG 253	Survey of Afric Amer & Caribb Lit	2	ENG 252	Survey of English Literature II	2
ENG 271	Intro to Prose Fiction	2	ENG 254	Literary Appreciation	2
ENG 273	Introduction to Poetry	2	ENG 274	Intro to Drama &Theatre of Eng	2
CSC 100	Intro to Computer Appreciation	2	CSC 112	Intro to Computer Program II	2
	Electives (Only one of these)			Electives (Only one of these)
****	Peace & Conflict Resolution	2	ENG 256	Language and Gender Studies	2
SOC 141	Introduction to Anthropology	2	ENG 258	Youth and Children’s Literature	2
	Total	18		Total	18

 

Total Core Courses +Electives for First Semester = 8+1; Number of Credit Units = 18

Total Core Courses + Electives for Second Semester = 8+1       Number of Credit Units = 18

Grand Total Core & elective courses for first & second semester = 9 and 9 respectively

Grand total credit units for Second year = 18 + 18 = 36

 

THIRD YEAR

FIRST SEMESTER			SECOND SEMESTER
Code	Course Title	Hrs	Code	Course Title	Hrs
ENG 301	History of English Language	2	ENG 312	Intro to Applied Linguistics	2
ENG 321	Phonology of English	2	ENG 314	Intro to Sociolinguistics	2
ENG 331	Modern Eng. Structure & Usage	2	ENG 332	Intro to  Semantics	2
ENG 333	Discourse Analysis	2	ENG 334	Morphology of English	2
ENG 335	Intro to Systemic Functional Gram	2	ENG 338	Intro to the English Syntax	2
ENG 355	Folklore	2	ENG 364	Survey of American Literature	2
ENG 381	Modern Comedy	2	ENG 382	English Lit of the Neoclassic Period	2
ENG 383	English Lit of the Renaissance Period	2	ENG 384	English Lit of the Romantic Period	2
GST 301	Entrepreneur	1
	Total	17		Total	16

Total Core Courses for First Semester = 9;        Number of Credit Units = 17

Total Core Courses for Second Semester = 8     Number of Credit Units = 16

Total Number of Core courses for third Year = 17       Number of Credit Units =

17 + 16 = 33

 

 

FOURTH YEAR

FIRST SEMESTER			SECOND SEMESTER
Code	Course Title	Hrs	Code	Course Title	Hrs
ENG 411	English for Specific Purposes	2	ENG 432	Lang & National Development	2
ENG 413	Multilingualism	2	ENG 436	Psycholinguistics	2
ENG 441	Speech Writing	2	ENG 444	Workshop in Creative Writing	2
ENG 451	Theory of Literary Criticism	2	ENG 452	Practice of Literary Criticism	2
ENG 461	African Fiction	2	ENG 462	African Poetry	2
ENG 481	Eng Lit of the Victorian Period	2	ENG 464	African Drama	2
ENG 483	Shakespeare	2	ENG 482	Eng Lit of the Modern Period	2
			ENG 492	Research Methods/Seminar	2
	Total	14		Total	16

Total Core Courses for First Semester = 7;    Number of Credit Units = 14

Total Core Courses for Second Semester = 8 Number of Credit Units = 16

Total Number of Core courses for fourth Year = 15  Number of Credit Units =

     14 + 16 = 30

FIFTH YEAR

FIRST SEMESTER			SECOND SEMESTER
Code	Course Title	Hrs	Code	Course Title	Hrs
ENG 531	New Trends in Syntax	2	ENG 534	Mod. English Gram. & Usage	2
ENG 533	Pragmatics	2	ENG 554	Stylistics	2
ENG 551	Commonwealth Literature	2	ENG 572	Studies in Poetry	2
ENG 571	Studies in Fiction	2	ENG 574	Studies in Drama	2
ENG 581	Modern Authors	2	ENG 582	Comparative Literature	2
			ENG 592	Project	6
	Total	10		Total	16

Total Core Courses for First Semester = 5     Number of Credit Units = 10Total Core Courses for 2nd Semester = 5+Proj   Number of Credit Units  = 10+6=16

Total No of Core courses for Fifth Year = 10+Project=11   Number of Credit

Units = 10+26 = 26

Summary:

Total Number of Core Courses				Total Number of Credit Units
Year	Core	Elective	Total	Year	Core	Elective	Total
1st Year	16	2	18	1st Year	32	4	36
2nd Year	16	2	18	2nd Year	32	4	36
3rd Year	17	Nil	16	3rd Year	33	Nil	33
4th Year	15	Nil	15	4th Year	30	Nil	30
5th Year	10+Project	Nil	11	5th Year	20+6	Nil	26
Grand Total	75	4	79	Grand Total	153	8	161

 

Note:  Only one of the elective courses is selected per semester