Literature-in-English

Core definitions, functions of literature, the three major genres (Prose, Drama, Poetry), and foundational elements of literary appreciation.

Study of figurative language: simile, metaphor, personification, oxymoron, paradox, hyperbole, irony, onomatopoeia, and symbolism.

Dramatic genres (Tragedy, Comedy, Tragicomedy), stage conventions, dialogue, soliloquy, aside, dramatic irony, catharsis, and tragic flaw.

Stanzaic forms, poetic types (Sonnet, Elegy, Ode, Ballad, Lyric, Epic), meter, rhyme scheme, rhythm, tone, and mood.

Narrative techniques in African fiction, point of view, conflict, cultural themes, post-colonial disillusionment, and gender roles.

Critical study of non-African prose texts: historical context, social stratification, internal psychological conflicts, and universal human themes.

Staging African drama, role of the chorus, mime, music, dance, ritual enactments, traditional vs. modern tensions, and societal reformation.

Study of Shakespearean and modern non-African drama: tragic heroes, fate, free will, political ambition, deception, and theatrical conventions.

Oral foundations of African poetry, praise poetry, dirges, anti-colonial protest, Negritude, African identity, and contemporary social critique.

Mastering unseen prose and poetry analysis: determining theme, voice, diction, tone, mood, figurative language, and scoring maximum marks.

Greek classical tragedy, Aristotle's Poetics, tragic flaw (hamartia), dramatic irony, fate versus free will, and the Oedipal conflict.

Satire, irony, parody, character caricatures, and theatrical protest against political corruption, dictatorship, and neocolonialism in Africa.

The Romantic movement (Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley), sublime nature, emotional intensity, imagination, and revolt against industrialization.

Alienation, cultural dislocation, lament for destroyed traditions, critique of military rule, brain drain, and the search for authentic African voice.

Elizabethan theatrical conventions, soliloquy, aside, dramatic foils, tragic flaw (hamartia), supernatural motifs, and blank verse in Shakespearean tragedy and comedy.

Feminist literary criticism, representation of women in traditional and modern African society, polygyny, motherhood, female education, and female agency.

The Metaphysical poets (Donne, Herbert), metaphysical conceits, paradox, and 20th-century anti-war poetry (Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon) stripping romantic illusions of war.