Study Guide for Midterm in EN 202 Summer 2010, pt. 2

Today (7/21) we moved on to African literature, specifically Things Fall Apart.  I'm pleased that I was able to find an image from the movie that we saw today.  Having been done in 1987, the movie (or mini-series) is just old enough not to have much about it on the internet.  Below is a link to an interview with Pete Edochie, the actor who played Okonkwo.  Underneath the bombast and politics he does talk about the experience of filming Achebe's novel:

http://www.thesourceng.com/Thingsapartseptember8.htm

OK, I've found a good summary of the entire series from African Movies Direct:
http://www.africanmoviesdirect.com/product_info.php?products_id=43036

Below are the scenes that we watched in class:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MEDIAFRICTV#p/u/49/5ZijfjuYftw

http://www.youtube.com/user/MEDIAFRICTV#p/u/48/qBy0-08uw3o

In addition to watching these scenes from the 1987 Nigerian mini-series, we also discussed Achebe's depiction of Africa, Igbo society, and Okonkwo as an individual.

Leopold Sedar Senghor's "Black Woman" and "Prayer to the Masks" will also be on the exam.  See the following link for his obituary:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1722156.stm
The BBC also has some interesting links to articles about France's relationship to its former colonies as well as to information about Senegal.

Here is the original French of "Black Woman" or "Femme Noire":
http://www.clubsoleil.net/beaute_noire/senghor.htm

See the link below for the original "Prayer to the Masks" or "Priere aux masques":
http://poemasenfrances.blogspot.com/2004/11/lopold-sdar-senghor-prire-aux-masques.html

Below is a map of Senegal.

On Thursday (7/22), we continued discussing Things Fall Apart.  I mentioned the Soviet theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) who is a useful theorist for reading Achebe's novel.  Bakhtin considered the novel to be the apex of literature because it could include many different voices.  I called this polyphony, but it may also be called heteroglossia.  In fact, that is the term that Bakhtim used.  Sandy Kuo's outline is fairly technical, but it is among the more useful sources I could find:

http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/marxism/Bakhtin_heteroglossia.htm

This page from the University of Singapore is also useful; plus, it is more concise:

http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/theory/maslin/The_Novel_716.html

After I introduced Bakhtin's idea, we looked at how heteroglossia plays out in Things Fall Apart, specifically when the third-person narration moves to Ikemefuna.  However, as you pointed out, there are other parts where we hear voices other than Okonkwo or the omniscient narrator ('voice of God").

We watched the following videos of Igbo dance:

The first is of dancing at an Igbo funeral.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xvnjo8xckQ&feature=related

These dancers wear masks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrWu7Dp3Ea0

These we used to look at the funeral in chapter 13. 

How would you respond to Okonkwo's accident in chapter 13?  How does Achebe wish us to respond?  Consider Oberieka's thoughts at the end of chapter 13, another moment of heteroglossia.

We talked about Okonkwo's exile in his mother's hometown.

We concluded by considering Things Fall Apart as a tragedy and as a naturalistic novel.  For the definition of tragedy that I used, see the following link:

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html

For the definition of naturalism, see this link:
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap6/6intro.html

Okonkwo's conflict with his father and his son Nwoye are also important.  Consider that at the time when Achebe wrote this novel Freudian psychology had much credibility and currency.  A man's conflict with his father (the Oedipus conflict) was seen as an inevitable stage of a male child's life.  (Note that Oedipus is a key figure in tragedy.  Perhaps he is the ultimate tragic hero.)

Today (7/28) we finished up Things Fall Apart.  We began by looking at the impact of orality.  Orality encompasses the characteristics of a culture without a system of writing.  Once a culture has a system of writing, it is literate.  Once it has printing, we may refer to it as a print culture.

For more detailed information about Orality and Literacy, a key study by Father Walter J. Ong, S.J., see the link below:

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/51

Art Bingham's review is more detailed.  It essentially outlines the book:

http://www.engl.niu.edu/wac/ong_rvw.html

Or you may find Prof. Mindy McAdams' slide show to be useful:
http://www.slideshare.net/macloo/orality-and-literacy

Given that Things Fall Apart is a novel, a genre that epitomizes print culture, how does Achebe's depiction of Igbo society reflect its orality?  (Consider elements such as performance, the practical past, fullness of expression, use of proverbs, and perhaps even Igbo attitudes towards the law and forgiveness.) 

We also looked at law & forgiveness in TFA, the performance of authority, and Achebe's depiction of Christianity & Christianization.  What did you make of the ending?


We then discussed the language of TFA.  Does it matter that Achebe wrote his novel in English?  (Thanks for the background information about Igbo & Achebe's own translation of TFA into his dialect of that language, Michelle & Natalia!)  Of course, translation is less of an issue when an author can be his (or her) own translator.



We finished up this part of EN 202 Summer 2010 by talking about Acholi/Ugandan author Okot p'Bitek's Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol.  Lawino is a traditional African woman responding to the contempt of her husband, Ocol.  Ocol wishes to be more "modern," to assimilate into Afro-European culture.  Lawino is illiterate and worships her people's gods.  Ocol is literate and Christian.  In the original book-length poems, we see that Ocol is interested in another woman, the young, Westernized Clementine or Tina. 

How does Song of Lawino reflect orality?  How does Song of Ocol reflect literacy?

Do you believe that Lawino is a woman speaking with a woman's voice?  (p'Bitek was a man.)

Below are Acholi dancers.

And of course, the picture below is a map of Uganda.