Events

From Literature Studies to Green City Development: Bridging the Interest

When literature is taught, it is mostly about character analysis and setting’s impacts on character development, while both elements are always (and for all intents and purposes) construed as fictional. As lite- rary criticism is concerned, it is mostly about analyti- cal discourse often detached from reality. This talk seeks to highlight Komla M. Avono’s stepping into literature with a heavy background of 1) colonial history with his country as former German colony, as colonists sought support from Tuskegee Institute in
1901 to train Togolese nationals in cultivating cotton, 2) his encounter with ideas developed by American writers known as “Southern Agrarians” who promoted return to land and agrarian vs. urban ways of life, and critical analysis of American pastoral verses, and 3) a growing interest in ecocriticism at the heart of which lies “a commitment to environmentality from whatever critical vantage point” (Buell 11). Interestingly, as this presentation intends to show it, the difficult boundaries between fiction and real nature
can be broken through a careful choice of materials to read/teach and a self-engagement in activities bringing together students’ associations working for environment protection and urban communities practicing urban agriculture.
The event will be held together with the Sustainability Office of Humboldt University (Nachhaltigskeitbüro) and the Edible Cities Network Project.

Join the online lecture from 16:15 – 17:45 under this zoom link.