Study Guide for Midterm part two (Summer 2009)

Now that another week is over, I thought that I'd post the next installment of our study guide.  This entry will cover Things Fall Apart, The Turkish Embassy Letters, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl as well as the web sites and videos we looked at this week.

Monday we began our discussion of Things Fall Apart (1958), one of the first major works in modern African literature and the first that most of us read.  This novel was also Chinua Achebe (1930-)'s first.  Among the topics we talked about were Okonkwo's character, his relationship with his father (was Achebe influenced by Freudianism), Achebe's depiction of Igbo society, his use of third-person narration, the role of the council, the role of the egwugwu, and Okonkwo's wives.  We also discussed Okonkwo's hypermasculinity and compared it to the masculinity of the other men in the village.  In addition, we talked about elements of orality, especially the proverbs that appear in the narrative as well as in characters' speech.  For more information about orality, see this site here:  http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~univ302/StudentWork/S96/Sandman/Orality.html


We also watched the following scenes from the TV movie version of Things Fall Apart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBy0-08uw3o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXFuiRaiYB0

I have to add this earlier scene that we did not watch because it allows us to watch Pete Edochie's Okonkwo in action.  Isn't he well cast?! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZijfjuYftw


Tuesday we continued discussing Things Fall Apart.  Topics we considered included Okonkwo as tragic hero, his tragic flaw (his temper?  his pride?  his hypermasculinity?  his misogyny?), Ikemefuna's murder (and Okonkwo's role in it), Igbo society, colonialism, and the impact of Christianity on Umuofia. 

For more information about the tragic hero, see this site:  http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/tragedy/aristotle.htm

This site has more information about tragedy:

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



In addition, we watched the following videos.  The first, a brief video, contains Chinua Achebe's remarks on slavery, colonialism, and the African diaspora.  It will also shed light on The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdjcFOoVi8

The next, a longer video, is part of Bill Moyers' interview of a middle-aged and vigorous Achebe.  The interview took place just before Achebe returned to Nigeria to become the leader of his town's council.

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

We also watched the following examples of Igbo dance.  The first is a masquerade, and the second takes place at a funeral.  Note how these videos help you understand some of the rituals in the novel, particularly the egwugwu.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrWu7Dp3Ea0

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


The picture below is of an egwugwu, specifically an elephant spirit.  How does this picture compare to the way that Achebe depicts the appearance of the egwugwu in the village?



Wednesday we began our unit on life writing, a genre that includes autobiographies and memoirs, letters, journals and diaries, and biographies.  In other words, life writing documents an actual individual's life.  Olaudah Equiano's and Harriet Jacobs' writing fall under the category of autobiography.  (Memoirs cover only part of an individual's life.  For example, if Jacobs wrote about her nearly seven years in her grandmother's attic, then her work would be a memoir.  Other examples of the memoir would be Maya Angelou's series that begins with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  As you can see, though, from this image from www.littlebrown.uk, the terms autobiography and memoir are often used interchangeably.


Wednesday we discussed Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789) and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Turkish Embassy Letters (first published in 1837, long after the author's death).  For more information about Equiano's life, see this Critical Biography by Prof. Brycchan Carey:

http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/biog.htm

For more about the controversy over Equiano's birthplace, see these links:

http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/nativity.htm
http://www.everygeneration.co.uk/equiano_review.htm

Jim Egan's review is interesting but may be too technical for some.  However, he raises some important points about biographies' old-fashioned attitudes:

http://ecti.english.illinois.edu/reviews/46/egan-carretta.html

I must admit that in our discussion of Equiano's rhetorical strategies and his relationship with Capt. Pascal we fell into some of the errors that Egan mentions.  However, as Prof. Carey's biography indicates, Equiano really did have a complicated relationship with the captain. 

Other passages we focused on were Equiano's first impressions of the Europeans, his relationship with his mentor Daniel Queen, his first impressions of England, a paragraph on cruelty towards new slaves (especially women and girls), the way that he achieved his freedom, and his expressed wish to track down Capt. Pascal (who had sold him off his ship right before it landed in England...again).


This picture is from the University of Maryland's Early Americas Web Gateway.  Vincent Carretta, the scholar who argued that Equiano was born in the Carolinas and not in Africa, is a professor at College Park.  I guess I am going to put his biography of Equiano on my reading list! 

Now for Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and her Turkish Embassy Letters!  For a biography of this most interesting woman, see this link:  http://www.luminarium.org/eightlit/montagu/marybio.htm

I think that her letters are particularly interesting in EN 202 for two reasons.  First of all, she is writing at a time (1716 to 1718) when the British Empire was not dominant, so she did not depict the Ottoman Empire from a position of superiority and perhaps contempt.  Secondly, she writes to a number of different people, so her point of view changes from letter to letter.  In fact, here are a few more letters that our anthology did not include:

http://www.ic.arizona.edu/ic/mcbride/ws200/montltrs.htm

The letters we looked at in class were Lady Mary's literary letter to Alexander Pope, her letter to a friend that detailed the Turkish practice of vaccination against smallpox, and her letter to her sister, the Lady Mar.  In that last letter, Lady Mary writes about her visit to two very different harems.  The picture below looks more 19th century than 18th century, but it gives you an idea of what the harems might have been like for Lady Mary.


Thursday we covered Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) and scenes from film adaptations of 19th century British novels.  I also talked about the transition from the 18th century to the 19th century.  Even though the difference in gender and geography between Equiano and Jacobs may well be differences enough, I think that the different time periods are also important factors.  I'm particularly thinking of the difficulty that Jacobs' family has in buying their freedom, Jacobs' own embrace of True Womanhood (piety, purity, submissiveness, domesticity), her praise for womanly women like her grandmother and the elderly white woman who gave her her freedom and her scorn for unwomanly women like Mrs. Flint, and her depiction of her childhood (until the death of her parents). 

I am going to post a link to a 1973 edition of Orlando, the book that I read.  If you go to the contents and then to the end of chapter four and the beginning of chapter five, you'll find the passage that I read in class:

http://books.google.com/books?id=EOC258GapEoC&dq=virginia+woolf+orlando&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=KAxiSvj1D6Oltgf8r8jvDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4

About fifteen years ago Orlando was made into a movie.  The picture below is of Orlando as a young man during the Elizabethan era.  I told you that this novel was not realistic!!



Here is a YouTube video of Orlando in the 18th century with her salon of literary friends.  One (the man with his head wrapped up) is, I believe, Pope. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acWUkoi4Zpc

Unfortunately, I can't find a video of Orlando during the 19th century.

Here are links to the videos that we watched in class:


Above is a picture of young David Copperfield working in the shoe-blacking factory after his mother dies.  His evil stepfather Mr. Murdstone sent him to work there.

This is the part of David Copperfield that we saw:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAle3Efw8-s

This is the opening to the 2006 Jane Eyre:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XsB22Qjz3A

You may also prefer this more straightforward opening from the 1940s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxoB2FqeuXw

By the way, she ends up marrying her employer (see picture below):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-5owa_DD7o



What light do these videos shed on Equiano's and Jacobs' autobiographies? What light to they shed on the novel? or the 19th century with its separate spheres for men and women?

Below is an image of the wanted poster that Dr. Norcom (the actual Dr. Flint) circulated after Harriet escaped to her grandmother's attic.  As we learned, Harriet was not free from the Norcom family's menaces until her employer bought her freedom or, rather, paid their blackmail.

Study Guide for the Midterm (Part 2)

Above is a picture from a recent production of Nigerian playwright Biyi Bandele's adaptation of Oroonoko.  I hope that this play comes to the D.C. area!

Back to our study guide. 

Oroonoko (1688) -- connections between this novel & Things Fall Apart or Heart of Darkness, Oroonoko as heroic figure, early novel/Behn as pioneering woman/novel author...or is it a novel?!, Oroonoko as Abolitionist text (or not), primitive vs. civilized, myth of the Noble Savage, genre, cultural contact, relationship between Oroonoko & narrator, relationship between Oroonoko & Imoinda, Behn's depiction of Africa, Behn's depiction of Surinam

Candide (1759) -- what is funny?  what is disturbing?, satire exposing problems, satire as a problem/solution paper, picaro, philosophies, initiation as a theme, Candide's humor, objects of satire, Voltaire's depiction of Paris, Candide's relationship with Cunegonde, his relationship with Pangloss, his relationship with Martin, the ending -- why is Candide's commune in the Ottoman Empire?, treatment of women & lower-class in this satire


Recently Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater staged Harriet Jacobs, Lydia R. Diamond's play based on Incidents and Ms. Jacobs' life.  Above is a picture from the play's rehearsal; below is a video of a rehearsal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ilWF-Fjrgk

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)-- life writing, slave narrative, 19th c. vs. 18th c., Virginia Woolf's description of the 19th c. from Orlando, slave narrative as argumentative or persuasive writing, Jacobs' expectations for women, her treatment by her owners, her sense of audience, her narration and use of asides to the reader, ending of narrative, how does she feel about her daughter knowing who her father was?

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) -- life writing, slave narrative, the popularity of this work, slave narrative as argumentative or persuasive writing, Equiano's Christianity, his relationship with Capt. Pascal, Equiano was a slave in Africa as well, Equiano as narrator, Equiano was from what is now Nigeria


Jane Eyre -- what was controversial about this novel, its narrator

"Stale Mates" (1955, written in the US & in English)  -- set in Hangzhou (a picturesque city in Southern China) during the 1920s, the Warlord Era, what does it mean to be modern?, can one be modern?, Zhang Ailing's depiction of polygamy, the narrator and her attitude towards the characters, men & women, depiction of tradition

Raise the Red Lantern (1991, film) -- set in the north of China during the 1920s, what does it mean to be modern?  what does it mean to be traditional?, Zhang Yimou's depiction of women & of polygamy, visual/aural impact, relationship among the wives, relationship between Songlian and her maid Yan'er, is Master Chen a nice guy, a nice jerk, or a jerk?, what do you make of the ending?

The Story of a Stone/Dream of the Red Chamber (written 1740 to 1750, published 1791, the English translation is in five volumes!) -- frame narrative, Daoist novel, extended family, triangle among Bao-Yu, Bao-Chai, and Dai-Yu, Bao-Yu was a stone in a previous life; Dai-Yu was Diamond Pearl, debt of tears, how do we respond to Bao-Yu (he is moody, prefers to be with women, hates to study, and is interested in clothes and makeup), Bao-Yu's relationship with his father, Jia Zheng (a more traditional man, a scholar and civil servant), role of nature, Bao-Yu's relationship with his grandmother

Midterm Study Guide for Spring 2008 -- part 1: Life Writing

This study guide will be the first of three or four that I will put up before our midterm on March 5 and 7.  To begin with, I will focus on the genre of life writing, a form of history that focuses on individuals' lives and a form of literature that provides evidence about individuals' real lives.  This genre is non-fiction, unlike plays, poems, short stories, or novels.  Documentary films that narrate a person's life story could be considered in this category, but life writing generally consists of autobiographies, memoirs, biographies, letters, and diaries.  Novels may take on the form of life writing, but this is simply a device to intrigue people or perhaps even to further mimesis (the imitation of reality).

Note that memoirs are about one part of one's life.  Autobiographies cover one's entire life (so far).

We have read two examples of life writing in class: Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative and Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.  Both works are slave narratives, autobiographies written by former slaves to show the cruelty of slavery and argue for its abolition.  The slave narrative often encourages its readers to recognize what they have in common with the author.  Accordingly, Harriet Jacobs depicts her loving family who sheltered her as a young child, and Olaudah Equiano reminds his readers that he is a Christian like they are.

On the other hand, the contexts of Equiano's and Jacobs' autobiographies differ from each other.  Equiano's autobiography was published in 1789, during the year the Bastille fell and at the beginning of the anti-slavery movement.  Equiano may have been born in Africa (in present-day Nigeria), and his masters included Africans as well as Englishmen.  His autobiography was exceedingly popular and helped make him a wealthy man.  (I wonder if Benjamin Franklin read it.)  Jacobs' autobiography was published in 1861, the year that the Civil War began and two years before the Emancipation Proclamation.  The book was published anonymously, and in it, Jacobs referred to herself as Linda Brent.  Her authorship was not conclusively proven until the 1980s, and some sites continue to list Lydia Maria Child as her co-author.

Here is more information about the Interesting Narrative and Incidents respectively.

About The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano
-- Our anthology contains only part of this work.  The entire narrative is available online at  http://history.hanover.edu/texts/equiano/equiano_contents.html
-- The excerpt that our anthology includes begins with young Equiano being brought on board an English slave ship.  He is frightened, never having seen whites before, and expects that these strange spirits are going to kill him. 
-- In the next section, Equiano (who is 12) arrives in England and sees snow for the first time.  He believes that it is salt until he tastes it.  At this point, he is owned by Captain Pascal who will cheat him of his money and belongings.  Equiano befriends several Englishmen: a teenager named Dick who teaches him to read and a barber who teaches him religion and his trade.
-- Equiano is sold to another sea captain who brings him to the West Indies.  Eventually, he is bought by Robert King, a wealthy Quaker, but works for Captain Farmer, who helps him buy his freedom in an excerpt included in our anthology. 
-- Once free, Equiano works his way to England where he will become an antislavery activist and write his autobiography.

About Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
-- Harriet Jacobs begins her autobiography with a depiction of her happy, sheltered childhood.  Even though she and her family are slaves, she does not realize it until after her mother dies and she must work for her mistress.  We meet Jacobs' father, a strong-minded carpenter, and her grandmother, an industrious businesswoman.  Jacobs' grandmother will be the "friend of her youth."
-- Jacobs' first mistress appears to take into consideration that she is a child, letting her play.  However, she also borrows money that Jacobs' grandmother has saved in order to buy her family's freedom.  When the first mistress dies, she does not free her slaves as had been expected, but gives them to her family.  At this point, Jacobs is a growing girl, nearly a teenager.
-- After the death of her first mistress, Jacobs is given to the daughter of Doctor Flint, a "hoary-headed miscreant."  Jacobs' grandmother is sold at auction to an elderly relative of the late mistress who then frees her.  When Jacobs' father dies suddenly, she is not allowed to mourn but is forced to string together garlands for a party at the Flints' house.  Jacobs notes that whites criticized her father for his independence and strong-mindedness.
-- Doctor Flint attempts to seduce Jacobs, alternately threatening her and lavishing her with "kindness."  His wife is very much aware of this and is jealous.  Jacobs is repulsed by Doctor Flint and criticizes his wife for her jealousy and cruelty.  Nevertheless, the doctor tries to get Jacobs to sleep in his room when she works as his daughter's nurse.  Instead, Mrs. Flint demands that Jacobs sleep in her room.  She tries to find out how successful her husband's attempts at seduction have been.  (The doctor has raped other slave women before.  He sells them and their children when he loses interest in the women.  A slave who spoke about his partner's relationship with the doctor is savagely beaten.)
-- Doctor Flint builds a house for Jacobs who then informs him that she cannot live in this house because she is pregnant with another man's child.  This man is an unmarried white neighbor of the Flint's.  He appears to treat Jacobs kindly, and she is proud of his interest in her.  Later she is ashamed of this liaison. 
-- However, Jacobs must tell her grandmother that she is pregnant.  At first, the grandmother throws her out of her house.  Eventually she shows that she understands her granddaughter's situation but does not forgive her.
-- Several years later, after the birth of two children (Benny and Ellen), Jacobs decides to escape.  While making Doctor Flint think that she has fled to the North, she hides in a crawl space at her grandmother's house.  Benny and Ellen, in the meantime, are bought by their father who will eventually marry.
-- After seven years, Jacobs heads up North where she still must flee from first Doctor Flint and then his heirs.  When Emily Flint and her ne'er do well husband come to New York City to track Jacobs down, she must flee with her daughter to Massachusetts, and her friend Mrs. Bruce must buy her despite Jacobs' disapproval.  Only then are Jacobs and her children free.  At the end of Incidents, Jacobs and her children return to live with Mrs. Bruce.

Keep in mind that The Interesting Narrative and Incidents are only one type of life writing (autobiography/slave narrative).  Beginning with St. Augustine, other writers wrote spiritual autobiographies.  In the 17th century, Puritan Lucy Hutchinson wrote a biography of her husband who was executed by Charles II on his return to power.  In the 18th century, scandalous autobiographies were popular, but Benjamin Franklin wrote his autobiography in order to provide a model for readers.  Autobiographies and memoirs are also means of self-expression.  Some life writing was never intended to be published; in the 1660s Samuel Pepys kept his diary in code!  One wonders whether Anne Frank would have wanted her diary to be published if she had lived.

Olaudah Equiano

One of the units I intend to include in EN 202 will be on life writing (or autobiography/memoir), and our anthology has several examples of the slave narrative.  One of these is Olaudah Equiano's.  (You may recognize his picture from Vol. D of our anthology.)

Equiano was a chief's son who was kidnapped into slavery around 1755 or so.  He fortunately was able to buy his freedom.  He then became an anti-slavery activist in Britain, and he wrote his autobiography, which not only was popular but also helped to spark the movement to abolish slavery in the British Empire and eventually elsewhere.  I wonder if Equiano ever met the poet Mary Robinson, for they were contemporaries, and she became active in the movement that he inspired.

For a little more information about Equiano, see these sites:

http://www.black-history-month.co.uk/articles/olaudah_equiano.html

http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/index.htm

The second site includes excerpts from Equiano's Interesting Narrative. 

Below is a roster of other British abolitionists:

http://www.brycchancarey.com/abolition/index.htm

Equiano was not the first former slave who wrote his life story:

http://www.brycchancarey.com/cugoano/index.htm

Below is a timeline of events connected with slavery:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/9generic3.shtml

For more information on African history, see these sites:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section10.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/10chapter2.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section4.shtml