Native American Folktales (Background)

Just to brush up on our geography, I thought that I'd post a map of the Pacific Northwest, the part of our country where the Coyote Tales we read came from.  (The map is from Sheppard/Wood Distributors, a commercial warehouse and distribution company from Boise.)

Below is a map of Idaho itself from the Eastern Idaho Interagency Fire Center.


"Coyote and Bull" and "Coyote and the Mallard Ducks" came from the Nez Perce, so I thought I would begin with a little information about this people, but while we are posting maps, I will post a map of the territory held by the Nez Perce in the 19th century.  This map is from the Chief Washakie Foundation's web site.


Adam Kittleson's article from Minnesota State University at Mankato's E-museum is a good place to begin. 

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/northamerica/nez_perce.html

This history is from the Nez Perce tribal government's official website:

http://www.nezperce.org/content/history/nimiipu.htm

http://www.nezperce.org/Official/historyfaq.htm

For more detailed information, see this article by Deward E. Walker, Jr. and Peter N. Jones:

http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/walker.html

The Nez Perce were also among the many peoples that the Lewis and Clark Expedition met on their way to the Pacific Ocean.

http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/native/nez.html

The Nez Perce were also known for their Appaloosa horses:

http://www.nezperce.com/npedu13a.html

If you don't know what an Appaloosa horse looks like, here is a picture below. The picture is a public domain photograph from Wikimedia Commons.

Chief Joseph (1840-1904) was also one of the most famous Nez Perce.  For his story, see this link:  http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/chiefjoseph.htm

This biography is also interesting:

http://www.windriverhistory.org/exhibits/chiefjoseph/chiefjoseph01.htm

The picture of Chief Joseph below is from Wikimedia Commons.  It was taken in 1900, towards the end of his life and long after he had surrendered to the United States.



Here Jeff Head writes about his travels along the Nez Perce trail.  The pictures are beautiful!

http://www.jeffhead.com/magruder/index.htm

On to the Wishram, the people who gave us "Coyote and Eagle in the Land of the Dead."  They once lived along the Columbia River, the border between Oregon and Washington.  At one point, they were relocated to the Yakama Reservation, about 100 miles north of this area.

As you may see from this free map from the Map Company, quite a few groups lived in this area.  The map below shows where the Wishram live now as part of the Yakama Confederation.



Here is a little more information about the Wishram:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/record_tribes_064_13_33.html

http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/native/wis.html

For more information about the Yakama Nation, see this site.  Scroll down past the ads for an interesting article.

http://www.ohwy.com/wa/y/yakamana.htm

Below is a Wikimedia Commons picture of Wishram petroglyphs at a site called Wishram Village.  It is now part of a national park near The Dalles, Oregon.


Scroll down for more information about Wishram Village or Nixluidix:

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMYPK

The picture below is from www.waymarking.com. 



The story of She Who Watches is also from the Wishram:

http://www.lensjoy.com/gallery/20.htm

The photo below is by Chris Carvalho.


With the Shoshone and "Wolf Tricks the Coyote Trickster," we return to Idaho.  Finding a map for the Shoshone is particularly difficult since their one-time territory was so large.  The map below is from Boise State University's magazine Idaho Issues Online.  Here are a few pieces to put together, but I will provide only an overview and focus on the Shoshone within Idaho since the story about Wolf and Coyote is from the Lemhi-Shoshone.





For more information about the Shoshone, see these sites:

http://www.shoshoneindian.com/

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/record_tribes_017_11_8.html

This site also includes audiofiles as well:

http://www.wisdomoftheelders.org/program301.html

Lewis and Clark's guide Sacajawea was a member of the Shoshone although she had been kidnapped away from her tribe and sold into slavery.  The illustration below is from the Chief Washakie Foundation's website.

http://www.shoshoneindian.com/sacajawea_001.htm


Here is a web article on Chief Washakie, an Eastern Shoshone chief who lived into the 20th century.

http://www.windriverhistory.org/exhibits/washakie_2/index.htm

Below is a picture of Idaho's Snake River, along which the Shoshone lived.  This picture came from the University of Montana-Missoula's Regional Learning Project.

Leslie Marmon Silko (whose poems I read on Monday) is descended from the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico.  As we learned from reading "Franz Boas' Visit," she also has white ancestry.  The map below is from Prof. S.J. Crouthamel's site for his course, Introduction to American Indian Studies at Palomar College.



The Pueblo is a much larger group, but I thought I'd begin with an overview.

  http://www.cabq.gov/aes/s3pueblo.html

Writing in 1932, James Paytiamo explains how the Laguna Pueblo came to be and were named.

http://southwestcrossroads.org/record.php?num=508

This history is more formal and less anecdotal:

http://southwestcrossroads.org/record.php?num=665

Here is a picture of the Laguna Pueblo from teacher Nancy Lopez's site at Jefferson Middle School in Albuquerque, NM.


This profile essay on Leslie Marmon Silko also gives you a little background on the Laguna Pueblo.

https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~rnelson/woman.html

Here is an extended interview with Ms. Marmon Silko:

http://www.altx.com/interviews/silko.html

The Laguna Pueblo are also known for their pottery:

http://www.clayhound.us/sites/laguna.htm

The picture below is also from www.clayhound.us .


I will finish up with information about the Anishinaabe, Gerald Vizenor's background.  This people lives in the upper Midwest, in Minnesota.  Specifically, Vizenor is a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation (see the map from Native Wiki further below).

For more information about the Minnesota Chippewa, see the site below:

http://www.mnchippewatribe.org/a_brief_history.htm

This site has quite a bit of information about the White Earth Reservation:

http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/mn/whitearth.htm
With our current interest in biodiversity and local food, the wild rice has become more and more important:

http://www.savewildrice.org/history

A branch of the Anishinaabe are based in Canada.  Anishinaabe-Canadian Norval Morisseau's work is depicted below.  I found this image at virtualmuseum.ca , an online collection of images from Canada's museums.

 

Study Guide for Final (Summer 2009) -- part 2

(The picture above is from Lore and Saga, a British site for teachers and museum educators.)

Monday we covered the folktale, a part of world literature that draws on orality, local traditions, and the art of storytelling.  We looked at European and Native American folktales.  The European folktales were Charles Perrault's "Donkey Skin" (1697 -- long 18th century) and the Brothers Grimm's "All Kinds of Fur" (1819 -- 19th century).  The Native American folktales were "Coyote and Bull" and "Coyote and the Mallard Ducks" (Nez Perce) as well as "Coyote and Eagle Go to the Land of the Dead" (Wishram) and "The Wolf Tricks the Coyote Trickster" (Shoshone).  We also discussed Gerald Vizenor's "Shadows" (1994), a literary short story that examines storytelling (Bagese's game of wanaki and her mistrust of writing) and I.B. Singer's "Gimpel the Fool" (1945), a short story that one might mistake for a folktale.


Here are the videos that I would have liked to have shown in class!
Here are links to the videos I wanted to show today. The first is a link to one of the more politically correct Bugs Bunny cartoons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM5Gwzk3Vfc

The next pits Bugs against Wile E. Coyote.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr47amcDU4I

Now here are videos of the storytellers. The first is Len Cabral, a New England storyteller whom I've seen perform.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhoYeJPNC88

Robert Clements' performance also includes music and song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beYSvSOe1K0

Here is a video from the Manchester Museum in the UK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQXOR-KZxO4

Gregg Howard is a Cherokee storyteller:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlHtzU133NI

A schoolteacher videotaped a shadow play that he put on for his students. BTW, he said that the Coyote Tales were for the winter time only. Was that why we had our computer problems today?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjUlyarH9F0

How do these videos help you understand Monday's folktales more?

Below is a picture of a Lakota storyteller, Kevin Locke.  He also performs the hoop dance and traditional Lakota flute songs.  He is based in South Dakota, and the picture below is from The South Dakota Arts Council's web site.


Below is a picture of Chief Joseph, a Nez Perce chief who figures in US History.  The picture is from the website of Dr. Daniel N. Paul, a journalist and historian from the Mi'Kmaq.


Tuesday we watched two of the storytelling videos in class (Len Cabral and the shadow play).  The shadow play was held at a school on the Navajo reservation, so it adds another culture to our mix.  The Navajo, by the way, were raiders...kind of like their Coyote.

We then moved on to poetry, focusing on masculinity and femininity.  The poems we discussed included the excerpts from Okot p'Bitek's Song of Lawino, Anne Sexton's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," Bettina Judd's very recent "Gender Bend/Sankofa," Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing," Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California," and Emily Dickinson's "I heard a Fly buzz."  We also listened to Anne Sexton's "Her Kind":

 http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15297

I wish I could find a picture of Anne Sexton with her backup band, "Her Kind"!

Recently, Ms. Sexton has been the subject of an opera.  For more information about this opera, see the blog entry below:

http://www.scene4.com/karrenlalondealenier/2007/04/transformations_an_opera_that_1.html

We won't be able to listen to Walt Whitman reading "I Hear America Singing," but here are a few links to others reading it.  The first reader is Garrison Keillor.

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2002/07/04

The other is poet Billy Collins.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.100010968/default.html

The picture below is Thomas Eakins' painting of Walt Whitman.  I found it at Washington College's web site.



Here are links to the versions of Snow White that we looked at.  The first version is from 1812.

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0709.html#snowwhite

The other is from 1857.

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm053.html

Finally, here is a synopsis of Disney's Snow White (1937).

http://www.filmsite.org/snow.html

The illustration below is from 1911, predating Disney's film by a few years.  It is from Heidi Anne Heiner's site, SurLaLune Fairy Tales.



By the way, after doing a little research, I found out that Okot p'Bitek's mother's name was Lawino and that she encouraged his interest in Acholi culture.  Below is a picture of an Acholi courtship dance from John Paul Aporu's web site.  Mr. Aporu is a Ugandan currently studying in Austria.



If you would like to learn more about Okot p'Bitek's life, here are a few good sites:

http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/cm/africana/pbitek.htm

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pbitek.htm

By the way, both of his daughters are writers as well.  In 2008, Jane Musoke-Nteyafas interviewed his younger daughter, Juliane Bitek.

http://ugpulse.com/articles/daily/Literature.asp?id=997

The picture below is from the web site of Robert de Beaugrande, a linguistics professor, most recently at a university in Slovenia.



Wednesday we continued discussing poetry, focusing on representations of childhood as well as on form and content.  When focusing on representations of childhood, I asked the following questions:

-- what light do representations of childhood shed on the author's culture?

-- what light do representations of childhood shed on the author's time period?

-- what light do representations of childhood shed on genre? 

The poems covered in class were Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays," Elizabeth Bishop's "In the Waiting Room," Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night" (a villanelle), Gwendolyn Brooks' "the rites for cousin vit" (a sonnet), Philip Levine's "M. Degas Teaches Art and Science at Durfee Intermediate School, Detroit 1942," Charles Simic's "The Prodigy," William Blake's "Holy Thursday" (from Songs of Experience), and E. Ethelbert Miller's "Looking for Omar."  For more information about the villanelle, see this link:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5796

For more information about the sonnet, see this link:

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/sonnet.html

And if you'd like to see an example of Edgar Degas' work, here is his Ballet Dancers in the Wings (1900), which I found on Wikipedia.  The medium is pastel rather than paint.



In addition, we watched two presentations.  Tiffany's topic was Taiwan and its culture; Julie's was Cambodia.  The first picture is of a night market in Taipei, also from Wikipedia.



Below is a picture of Angkor Wat, Cambodia's capital during the Khmer Empire.  This picture is also from Wikipedia.


Thursday was our last day.  For the most part, it was devoted to preparation and presentations.  James and his cousin gave a presentation on Liberia, specifically its civil war and its effects on the nation.  Here is a link to the video that they showed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGMyo2SUm4Y

As James mentioned, this video covers both sides of the conflict: the rebel army (LURD) and President Charles Taylor's.  Individuals from both sides are interviewed, and you get to hear the child soldiers psych themselves up.

The picture below is from Every Day Should Be Saturday, which is generally a blog about football.  The blog's author, Orson Swindle (aka Spencer Hall), however, works in International Affairs, which probably explains the photo from Liberia.


Young presented on A Doll's House, focusing on Ibsen's career and introducing us to a new modern adaptation.

 
Then Xirui and Ming presented on Chinese Wu Shu or martial arts.  The schools that they focused on were Nanquan, Tong Bei Quan, O Mei Quan, and Tai Chi Quan.  They also discussed Wuxia, a type of fiction about martial arts adventures and showed us clips of theatrical and film adaptations of these works.  The picture of a graphic novel illustration below is from Wikipedia.




We also discussed Ruben Dario's poems "To Roosevelt" and "Walt Whitman."  Note that he wrote "Walt Whitman" much earlier.  The painting below is of Theodore Roosevelt, and it is also from Wikipedia.

Final Prompts for Summer 2009

Below are the prompts for the take home part of the final.  Choose only one prompt.  The essay will be due on Monday, August 9.

1.  Discuss the way that childhood is depicted in up to four of our works.  (Two works must be from the second part of the session.)  What does the author seem to assume about childhood, parents, and the family?  What role does class and/or gender play?  How do depictions of childhood change from culture to culture or genre to genre?  Feel free to talk about your own assumptions about childhood.


2.  Discuss the role that masculinity and/or femininity play in up to four of the works we've read so far.  Two works must be from the second part of the session.  Consider the role that history, culture, and even genre play in defining what appropriate masculinity and femininity are.  Also, consider your viewpoint as a 21st century man or woman.


3.   How do you define literature?  Support your definition with four separate works.  Two works must be from the second part of the session.  Also, be sure to consider what is NOT literature.

4.   Discuss the folktale as a genre of literature.  Given your definition of literature, how is the folktale literature?  How is it NOT literature?  Consider the role that orality, performance, and audience may play.  Should it matter that today's storytellers' audiences are often children? Consider the impact of history, race relations, and readers' expectations.  Do you consider the Coyote Tales to be American Literature and "All Kinds of Fur" and "Donkey's Skin" to be German and French Literature respectively?


5.  Most of the most recent works that we are reading this session are poems.  How do these poems reflect the changes in our society that have occurred since the 18th or 19th century?  How do these poems fit with the older works that we have read?  How do they not fit?  Consider the role of gender, genre, and culture.

6.  While we discussed A Doll's House, we saw scenes from two film versions as well as videos from stage versions.  Compare and contrast the way that the films and the stage versions approach Ibsen's play.  What seems to be the central idea of the films and one or two of the stage versions?  Consider film and plays as genres.

6 a.  Alternately, compare and contrast the films of A Doll's House with the other films that we've seen in class (Apocalypse Now, Raise the Red Lantern, and Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring Again as well as David Copperfield and Jane Eyre).  Consider film as a genre, the films' visual elements, and their aural elements.  Which film(s) would you consider including in a film and literature course?  Why?  Why not?

Study Guide for Final (Summer 2009) -- part 1

Hmmm...Kristin Chenoweth was certainly a dazzling Cunegonde.  I wonder how she would be as Nora!

That said, let's start part 1 of our study guide for the final.

On Monday, we finished discussing Raise the Red Lantern and talked a bit about "Stale Mates" as it shed light on the film.  Then I introduced drama/theater and Ibsen's A Doll's House (1879).  Remember that drama refers to the written form of the play or the playscript and the playwright's intentions.  Theater refers to the performed form of the play, reflecting the director's intentions, the audience, and the director's central idea about the play.  The central idea is an especially key concept.  Without a central idea, a performance goes all over the place.  With a central idea, the play is definitely worth seeing even if you've seen the play before.

We also talked about realism (psychological, individual) vs. naturalism (sociological, group) as well as Raymond Williams' key terms: dominant (present-day and mainstream), emergent (foreshadowing of the future), and residual (remains of the past).  For example, in A Doll's House, the role that Nora plays in her marriage reflects the dominant idea of True Womanhood.  Mrs. Linden's work for Helmer could be considered emergent as clerical work was not considered to be women's work in 1879.  For more information on these terms, see the following link from Arizona State University:

http://www.public.asu.edu/~kheenan/courses/101/fall00/101analysis.htm#DOMINANT,%20RESIDUAL,%20EMERGENT

We also discussed the term anachronism (something that is out of time like a wristwatch on a Roman warrior). 

We watched some scenes from two film versions of A Doll's House.  Both were from 1973, and I suspect that the central idea for both was to capture the attention of the era's movie audiences.  Joseph Losey's film (starring Jane Fonda and David Warner) took liberties with the play in an attempt to make it a better film and help audiences understand what Nora had done.  Patrick Garland's film (starring Claire Bloom and Anthony Hopkins) was more faithful to Ibsen even though it did go outside the playscript and show Krogstad with his boys.

I wish that I could have shown this scene!  And I wish that there were a still of Jane Fonda at the confectioner's shop.


I'm afraid that this picture of Parisian macaroons is the best I can do!  They certainly look prettier than the half-price kosher macaroons that my husband and I buy after Passover.


On Tuesday, we continued to discuss A Doll's House, and we looked at a few more theatrical versions of the play. 

Did you know that A Doll's House was written in Norwegian?

These are a few of the links that we looked at:

 First is Mabou Mines' experimental production:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHn2FxLJOoI

Next is a more traditional British production starring Gillian Anderson and Toby Stephens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9IU5yvIKkQ

Here is a link to Ingmar Bergman's adaptation set in the 1950s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb3CIsynKa4







For a review of the Mabou Mines production, follow this link:

http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=950CE4D7103BF937A15752C1A9659C8B63

Here is the Gothamist's interview with director Lee Breuer.  He explains the reasons behind his casting of very tall women and very short men, and then he talks about audiences' responses to this casting:

http://gothamist.com/2009/02/27/director_lee_breuer_mabou_mines_dol.php

For reviews of the production starring Gillian Anderson, see these links:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/charlesspencer/5354252/A-Dolls-House-at-the-Donmar-Warehouse---review.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/may/24/theatre-review

I can't find a review of The Hunger Artists' version. 

Wednesday we watched Act 3 of Patrick Garland's version of A Doll's House.  Weren't Anthony Hopkins and Claire Bloom amazing!


We also talked about applying stages of moral development to the characters in A Doll's House.

For more information about Carol Gilligan's theory of women's moral development, see this link:

http://www.slideshare.net/drburwell/carol-gilligan

(It's actually a PowerPoint presentation that you may download.)

For more information about Lawrence Kohlberg's theory, see this link:

http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kohlberg.htm

And here is a link to my Multiply entry on A Doll's House with many pictures:

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/20/A_Dolls_House_More_Pictures

As we finish up our quick unit on drama, remember Avery Brooks' comparison:

films tell stories; theater is a place to explore ideas

Below is a scene from Oregon State University's production of A Doll's House.  Yes, yes, yes, it is set in the 1950s.


Thursday we discussed the French author Voltaire's satire, Candide (1759).  Candide is very much a product of the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason (1649-1789), a time when philosophers, scientists, and writers began to question authority and received wisdom.  Keep in mind that, though, that the French king was an absolute monarch and that people still believed in the divine right of kings there.  (Voltaire's king was Louis XIV.)  A satire not only holds up a mirror to nature and indicates problems in society but also proposes a solution.  (What did you make of Voltaire's solution in chapter 30?)  Satires may take various forms.  Candide is the story of a picaro who wanders around the world and has a series of adventures.  Some other satires are Gulliver's Travels (in the form of a travel narrative) or The Colbert Report (in the form of a right-wing commentator's show). 

For more about the Colbert Report, see this link:

http://www.colbertnation.com/home

To get an idea of the picaro, here is a video from My Name Is Earl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYlhCFNRRXg

Or you may find that Candide is more like Wile E. Coyote.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYTWnjFqTDk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfAlyLNBG5Y


Finally, here are some YouTube videos of Kristin Chenoweth as Cunegonde.  The first is her performance of "Glitter and Be Gay."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWzewHTcHew

The next is her performance of "You Were Dead You Know," a duet with Candide:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImlvydPgfBg

Assignment Sheet for the Essay

Above is a picture from NC Stage's 2005 production of A Doll's House.

Below is our assignment sheet:

Out-of-Class Essay– Due August 9, 2009

Outcomes:

To study great, representative literary works from around the world, analyzing them in depth and applying appropriate literary terminology;

To survey a selection of world literature from various cultures after 1650

To promote understanding of these works through written response;

To identify and appreciate major literary genres, content, and style in a variety of works;

To acquire and practice literary terminology;

To develop critical thinking through comparative consideration of world literature and, where appropriate, secondary sources;

To examine literature in relation to its political, social, and historical environment;

To build on group discussions and blog entries of issues pertaining to the literature and its criticism;

To write multi-page papers that demonstrate critical reading of texts (primary & secondary sources) and use a style appropriate for academic discourse;

To maintain academic honesty and use MLA citation (in-text and works cited)

In this assignment, you will be writing a two to five page argument responding to a reading from our class schedule or a video that we’ve seen in class.   I would recommend expanding on one of the journal entries that you have written.  Please see me if you would like to explore another topic.

You may use secondary sources from literary criticism.  At this point, though, I am much more interested in what you think of Nora and Helmer’s relationship for example, based on your reading of the text rather than what I think or what some literary critic thinks.   However, depending on the approach that you’re taking, you may need to use some secondary sources to provide additional background or support a point that you are making.  Keep in mind that these secondary sources are simply that—background material and support.  They will assist you as you make your case, but make sure that you have the best possible source.  Even though I have gathered a number of web sites, I try to choose the most scholarly yet accessible sites as well as sites that reflect other cultures’ viewpoints—and those that present performances based on our readings.)

For citation, even if you do not use secondary sources, you will be using MLA (in-text and works cited).  Please see me if you need additional information, especially if you are using a source that is not in our anthology or if it has been a while since your last freshman composition course.

It goes without saying that I expect this paper to be your own work.  Feel free to draft your paper in your blog or journal.  I’ll also be happy to talk over or look over your ideas during my office hours or (internet connection permitting) online.  If you’d like a second opinion, you may also want to work with one of the Writing Center’s tutors.

Grading

An A paper will be outstanding on all or most levels: close, critical reading of a text or texts, focus, development, support for argument, organization, style, and grammar/mechanics.  (I have listed each level in order of importance; however, errors in the last area will affect your grade.)  It may be on a reading we’ve discussed to death.  In that case, it will show me new insights derived from your close, critical reading and, if necessary, secondary sources.  Alternately, this paper may be on a reading that has been assigned but not discussed in class.  This option may not produce an easier “A,” as I will be looking at your ability to scrutinize a text and produce a well-written essay without the opportunity to discuss your text (and listen to others’ insights about it) in class.  However, it can be a productive route to an A.

A B paper will be effective on all or most levels: close, critical reading of a text or texts, focus, development, support for argument, organization, style, and grammar/mechanics.  (I have listed each level in order of importance; however, errors in the last area will affect your grade.)  It may be on a reading we’ve discussed in class or a reading that I’ve assigned but not discussed in class. 

A C paper will be adequate on all or most levels: close, critical reading of a text or texts, focus, development, support for argument, organization, style, and grammar/mechanics.  (I have listed each level in order of importance; however, errors in the last area will affect your grade.)  It may be on a reading we’ve discussed in class or a reading that I’ve assigned but not discussed in class.  Note that a C is not failing, simply “average.” 

A D paper will contain significant problems on one or more levels:  close, critical reading of a text or texts, focus, development, support for argument, organization, style, and grammar/mechanics.  The first five areas are especially important.  Papers can also be too long or too short.  Please check in with me or a tutor at the Writing Center if your paper has fallen into this category.

A failing (F) paper will be inadequate on one or more levels:  close, critical reading of a text or texts, focus, development, support for argument, organization, style, and grammar/mechanics.  The first five areas are especially important.  Papers can be too long or too short.  Please check in with me if your paper has fallen into this category.

I reserve the right to give your paper a grade of R.  This is not a failing grade, but I am requiring you to rewrite your paper because of problems on one or more levels:  close, critical reading of a text or texts, focus, development, support for argument, organization, style, and grammar/mechanics.  I may also assign this grade because of what I perceive to be insufficient effort or inadequate understanding of the assignment.  If your paper falls into this category, please see me to talk about ways to rework your paper.

Please let me know if you are having problems with your paper or may have to hand in your paper late.  There will be a late penalty of one-third of a grade per day, but I will waive the penalty if you’ve talked to me ahead of time.

 

Overview for Midterm

Above is a picture of Igbo elders in council.  Below is a quick overview of our material.

Genres:

novel -- a fictional prose narrative of at least 50,000 words, which emphasizes character over plot, focuses on a protagonist with whom we are supposed to sympathize, and has a realistic-seeming setting

life writing -- non-fictional writing about an individual's life.  Sub-genres are biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, letters, and journals or diaries.

autobiography -- covers the whole of the author's life

memoir -- covers part of the author's life

Works --

Apocalypse Now (1979) dir. by Francis Ford Coppola.  Set in Vietnam although it is an adaptation of Heart of Darkness.  Capt. Willard is the narrator.  He is sent on a mission to kill Col. Kurtz, a Green Beret who has gone rogue.  The men on the boat escorting Willard include Chef (remember the tiger scene) and Lance the surfer.  Along the way we meet Col. Kilgore (who wants to see Lance surf) and a photojournalist (played by Dennis Hopper) who is Coppola's version of Kurtz' Russian.

Heart of Darkness (serialized 1899, published as a book 1902) by Joseph Conrad for whom English was *not* his first language.  This novel is a frame narrative, beginning with an unnamed Englishman's narration and then moving to Marlow's narration.  Marlow is a merchant marine who goes to the Belgian Congo as an employee of the nefarious Company.  He is sent to captain a boat rescuing Kurtz, a star of the Company.  Along the way we meet the Accountant (who may remind you of Kilgore), many pilgrims, the Helmsman and the Fireman, the Russian, and Kurtz' Intended.  Is Marlow on the hero's journey as he moves from the center (London) to the margins (Congo, esp. Kurtz' trading post)?  Note that London has not always been the center.  It has been one of the dark places like the Congo.

"An Image of Africa" (1975) -- African novelist Chinua Achebe strongly criticizes Conrad's depiction of Africa and Africans.  He focuses on Conrad's description of the landscape and his refusal to let Africans speak for themselves.

Achebe on writing in English -- Achebe feels that he has been given the gift of English.  He argues for his choice to write in English.  (Ten or fifteen years later Kenyan Ngugi wa' Thiongo will argue for his choice to write in Gikiyu, his first language.)

Things Fall Apart (1958) -- This is not only Chinua Achebe's first novel but also one of the first works of modern African literature. Achebe wrote this novel shortly before Nigeria gained its independence from the UK.  Things Fall Apart is a third-person narrative set in the 1890s when missionaries were active in the British colony.  Its protagonist is Okonkwo, a forceful man whose downfall may be his pride, his anger, or his desire NOT to be like his father.  Is he a tragic hero?  Okonkwo has three wives and many children.  We focus on Nwoye, his son who repudiates his father to become a Christian, and Ezinma, his daughter whom Okonkwo wishes were his son.  She has "the right spirit."  We also meet Ikemefuna, Okonkwo's foster son whom O. kills.  Ikemefuna's death naturally alienates Nwoye.  Along the way, we learn much about Igbo culture (especially its reliance on oracles, proverbs, and a council of elders).  We also watched a TV miniseries of TFA that includes scenes NOT in the novel.

 
Turkish Embassy Letters (not published during the life of their author, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu).  Lady Mary wrote these letters while accompanying her husband, the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1716 to 1718.  At this time, the British Empire was not yet dominant, and the Ottoman Empire was powerful and prosperous.  The letters we read included Lady Mary's letters to the poet Alexander Pope (she makes many literary and cultural references and even translates some Turkish poetry), her friend Susan Chiswell (about vaccination for smallpox), and her sister Lady Mar (about trips to the harems or homes of two Turkish women of high rank).  Does it make a difference that Lady Mary edited these letters?

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) -- Afro-British businessman, anti-slavery activist, and former slave Olaudah Equiano writes his autobiography.  We discussed his depiction of being taken onboard the Europeans' slave ship (he was already a slave), of seeing snow for the first time, of being betrayed by his first English owner Captain Pascal, of witnessing the sexual harassment of female slaves, and of finally buying his freedom.  How does Equiano represent himself?  How does he address his audience?  Who is his audience?  Some scholars question whether Equiano was born in Africa, but most do not.  Equiano was also an Igbo, but he lived on the coast of what is now Nigeria.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) -- American social activist, educator, and former slave Harriet Jacobs writes her autobiography.  However, she calls herself Linda Brent in this work.  (At the time she wrote, slavery was still legal in the US, and the Fugitive Slave Act was in effect.)  Jacobs emphasizes what it was like for a child and then a young woman to be a slave.  We see that she grew up in a community of slaves who were thwarted in their efforts to be free.  As a young woman, she was menaced by her owner's father, Dr. Flint, a "hoary-headed miscreant, " yet she had an affair with a white neighbor.  From this affair, she bore two children.  She also distinguishes between womanly women (like her grandmother) and unwomanly women (like Dr. Flint's wife).  Jacobs eventually escaped from slavery, spending almost seven years in her grandmother's attic before finally traveling to the North.  There, as we learn, she was not free until (against her wishes) her employer bought her freedom from Dr. Flint's son-in-law.

We also watched scenes from TV versions of Dickens' David Copperfield (contrasting David's joy with his nurse Peggotty's family and his fear with his stepfather Mr. Murdstone) and Jane Eyre (focusing on her mistreatment by her aunt and cousins).  Below is an original illustration of David with his nurse's family.


The Story of the Stone (written during the 1740s & 1750s, published in 1791) by Cao Xueqin (vol. 1-3) and Gao E (4-5).  This very long novel (five volumes in its English translation) narrates a wealthy young boy (Bao-yu)'s growth from a spoiled child to a man.  He is also involved in an emotional triangle with his delicate, sensitive cousin Dai-yu and the more resilient and emotionally intelligent cousin Bao-chai whom he will marry.  This novel has a complicated and dense frame narrative!  Along the way, we meet Bao-yu's Grandmother Jia, his father Jia Zheng (the masculine ideal for his class), many girl-cousins, and Bao-yu's maid and later chamber wife Aroma.

We watched scenes from Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring Again (2000), a film by Korean filmmaker Kim Duk-ki.  This film is set in a secluded, rural monastery that was built in the middle of a small lake.  It follows the relationship between a monk and his adopted son, a passionate man who will eventually kill his wife.  We looked at scenes from Spring (the son's boyhood) and Fall (the son's young adulthood). 

Finally, we watched Raise the Red Lantern (1991), a film by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou.  This film, adapted from a novella by Su Tong, follows a former university student, Songlian, as she becomes the fourth wife of a wealthy man from rural Northern China.  We do not see much nature except for human nature as the women of the compound compete with each other and the servants look on and comment.  Important characters are not only the Master whose face we rarely see but also the second wife Zhouyan (a scorpion with the Buddha's face), the third wife Meishan (a former opera singer), Songlian's disgruntled servant Yan'er, Meishan's lover Dr. Gao, and Feipu, the Master's older son.  Is Songlian a tragic heroine?


Presentations

Sean's presentation on the life of Black Nationalist, entrepreneur and Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

Bryan's presentation on the history of Liberia

Concepts

mimesis -- art that imitates life...or elements of art that imitates life

orality -- characteristics that arise from or remain from a preliterate society (or a society without writing).  Some of these characteristics may include a reliance on proverbs, performance, and an audience.  In a preliterate society, memory is especially pragmatic and flexible...since there are no written records.  An oral performer also relies on set phrases to jog his or her memory.

imperialism -- refers to one country's political, economic, and sometimes cultural domination over another

colonialism -- refers to the practice of settling a country as the British settled in America (before we became independent), India, or their territories in Africa

post-colonialism -- refers to the aftermath of independence.  Post-colonialist writing is generally by individuals whose lands were occupied and depicts experiences from their perspectives.

center/margins

hero's journey -- Joseph Campbell's term.  Stages include birth, call to adventure, crossing the threshold, helpers/amulet, tests, climax/final battle, return, elixir, and return home.  Is Marlow a hero?  If so, what is his elixir?

hypermasculinity

misogyny -- hatred for and distrust of women or the feminine

tragic hero -- is often of noble stature but is not perfect, is capable of both good and evil, experiences a downfall because of his/her tragic fall, and does not deserve his/her punishment.  Yet his/her fall is not completely negative and depressing.  There is room for his/her awareness and our catharsis (or purging of emotion).

nature/human nature

film as literature

film's visual elements

film's aural elements