Dr. Szlyk's Blog for ENGL 190

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

On Chinese poetry (the Book of Songs, Han Shan, Li Bo, and Wang Wei)

Link

For more information about Chinese poetry that may have influenced Jia Zheng's view of nature, see the link above.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Midterm Prompts for Summer 2009! Note new #1 prompt!

Below are the prompts for the take home part of the midterm. Choose only one prompt. The essay will be due on Monday, July 27.

1. Discuss the way that childhood is depicted in up to three of our works. 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. One theme that we've talked about this session is Imperialism or Colonialism and Post-Colonialism. Choose up to three works that we have read so far, and examine how each fits--or doesn't fit into this focus. Do any works complicate this focus? Consider that Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is writing about a flourishing Ottoman Empire and that The Story of the Stone is set during the last dynasty of the Chinese Empire. Raise the Red Lantern and "Stale Mates" are set in the aftermath of empire.

3. Discuss the role that masculinity and/or femininity play in up to three of the works we've read so far. 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.

4. Consider the novel as a genre. What do our novels (Heart of Darkness, Things Fall Apart, The Story of the Stone) have in common? How are they different? Feel free to bring in other novels that you have read in the past. How does the novel change from time period to time period? How does it change from culture to culture? Also, how are novels different from autobiographies like Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl?

5. Discuss life writing as a genre of literature. Given your definition of literature, how is lifewriting (not only autobiographies and memoirs but also biographies, letters, and diaries) literature? How is it NOT literature? Could life writing be a more personal form of history? Consider The Turkish Embassy Letters, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl as your main examples, but feel free to include other examples from your reading (The Diary of Anne Frank, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Black Elk Speaks, Into the Wild).

6. Discuss film as a genre of literature. Given your definition of literature, how is film literature? How is it NOT literature? If you were to teach a film and literature course, which films would you include? Why? In this type of course, is it more important for a film to be a groundbreaking film (like Apocalypse Now) or for a film to be based on an important work of literature (like Jane Eyre or David Copperfield or Things Fall Apart)? Why?

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.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Study Guide for Midterm (Summer 2009)

It seems like we've just begun,but I'd like to start posting our midterm guide as soon as possible. The take home midterm is due July 27, but since it will cover what we've discussed in class, I want to make up this guide sooner rather than later.

We began our summer session by defining literature and watching some scenes from Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now (1979). Coppola's film reworks Heart of Darkness, resetting it during the Vietnam War. For people in the late 1960s and 1970s, Vietnam was extremely controversial and, for some, disillusioning. (BTW, in the interview we saw, Joseph Campbell alludes several times to Vietnam--even though the interview took place in the mid-1980s.)

If you would like to rewatch some of the scenes that we saw, here are links to YouTube videos. The first is the beginning when Willard (Coppola renamed Marlow) is in Saigon, waiting for his mission:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzM4D2_uOP0

Next Willard gets his mission:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iw1KobfPwk

Then he and his men meet Col. Kilgore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmrEo85vuEI

I am not able to find a video of the rest of this scene, but here is the scene where Lance surfs and Willard mutters "Charlie don't surf."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiRTONtkVb8

Finally, here is the scene where Willard & Chef encounter the tiger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbFvAaO9j8M

Tuesday we discussed the first part of Heart of Darkness. I gave a brief definition and history of the novel. Here is a link to a more extended definition.

http://www.nvcc.edu/home/ataormina/novels/history/define.htm

Here are some outlines of the 18th, 19th, and 20th century novel. Note that Conrad is not included in this history!

http://www.nvcc.edu/home/ataormina/novels/history/origins.htm

http://www.nvcc.edu/home/ataormina/novels/history/19thcent.htm

http://www.nvcc.edu/home/ataormina/novels/history/20thcent.htm

For more information about Conrad's life, see this very full chronology:

http://conrad-centre.w.interia.pl/pages/chronology_en.html

This page has more detailed information about Conrad's most well-known novels:

http://www.mantex.co.uk/ou/a319/conrd-01.htm

Below is the album cover for the soundtrack of a 1960s movie based on Conrad's novel Lord Jim. (Marlow also narrated this novel as well. In this novel, he mentions that he likes to mentor young men.)

Among the topics we discussed Tuesday were the frame narrative (story within a story), the unnamed narrator & Marlow's depictions of London, Marlow's depiction of Brussels ("whited sepulcher"), his description of Africa (coast & the first station), his audience's perception of him, our perception of him, his relationships with women (specifically his aunt), his relationship with other Europeans, and his perception of the native workers. Since we discussed Marlow's admiration for the accountant with his starched cuffs and collar, we watched a little more of Apocalypse Now's scenes featuring Col. Kilgore.

On Wednesday we moved on to part 2 of Heart of Darkness, focusing on its depiction of Africa and Africans as well as of Europeans. Some key scenes were Marlow's depiction of his fireman, his reaction to the death of the helmsman, and his encounter with the young Russian. A number of you mentioned Chinua Achebe's "An Image of Africa":

http://www.idst.vt.edu/modernworld/d/Achebe.html

We also took another perspective on Conrad's novel, examining the more recent history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (aka DR Congo or Zaire). For more specific information, see this link to my earlier Multiply entry:

http://worldlit2.multiply.com/journal/item/84/Reading_Heart_of_Darkness_Historical_Background>Reading Heart of Darkness (Historical Background)

Here you may rewatch the YouTube documentary on Patrice Lumumba that we saw in class:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrcX3XUm7eA

In addition, these are links that I sent you with the questions for Wednesday:

This is a link to an English-language trailer of the movie Lumumba :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLh4LGadxoU

Here are links to Al-Jazeera English's documentaries on the Congo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d4dFYiIzK8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpd3ykS4QOQ

Although we did not listen to the music of the Baka people until Thursday, I am linking it here since it fits in better with Wednesday's emphasis on African history and culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Xj_oLkRT4

Thursday we moved on to part three of Heart of Darkness and another perspective: Joseph Campbell's outline of the hero's journey. Do you think that Marlow follows the hero's path? If so, where does he cross the threshold? who are his helpers? and what is the elixir that he brings back? Was his elixir that compassion that he shows to Kurtz's fiancee?

To review the outline, you may go to this link from UC Berkeley:

http://orias.berkeley.edu/hero/JourneyStages.pdf

To watch more of the video that we saw in class, go to this link:

http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/herojourney.html

We also discussed Marlow's expectations of Kurtz, his impressions of him, the reasons why Kurtz escaped into the woods & Marlow went after him, and his final interview with Kurtz's fiancee, his Intended, as well as the novel's last paragraph.

On to Things Fall Apart!!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Heart of Darkness (Cultural Background)

As it turns out, there are more than two hundred ethnic groups or tribes in the DR Congo, so this entry will do much less than scratch the surface. However, I thought that this topic would complement today's class and Chinua Achebe's lecture nicely.

Let's begin with a link to historian John Henrik Clarke's article on the ethnic groups *before* colonization:

http://www.africawithin.com/clarke/LumumbaCongo.html

The Encyclopedia of the Nations has a brief overview of the Congo's ethnic makeup.

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Congo-Republic-of-the-ROC-ETHNIC-GROUPS.html

This index from Wikipedia is simply a list, but it is a fairly specific list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ethnic_groups_in_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo

Let's begin with a few links about the Kongo (or Bakongo) after whom the region was named. The Kongo Kingdom extended from what is now the DR Congo to what is now Angola.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people/kongo.html

http://countrystudies.us/angola/5.htm

This site includes more specific information about their art.

http://www.zyama.com/kongo/pics..htm

The figure pictured above is a power figure. For more information, see this article:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/chapters/kml/KME5.html

This article concerns the Kongo's original religion:

http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/sub/kongo.html

After 1491, the Kongo were Christian. The crucifix below is in New York's Met Museum.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/acko/hd_acko.htm

The DR Congo has a number of pygmy ethnic groups such as the Mbuti and the Mbenga. They may be the original inhabitants of this region. Blogger Rashid Faridi has written up a fairly comprehensive overview of these groups. The picture above is of a Ba Aka family.

http://rashidfaridi.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/pygmiesafrican-peoples-of-the-rainforest/

For more information about the Ba Aka, see this site:

http://tiki.oneworld.net/features/survival/survival_2_ba-aka.html

http://www.baka.co.uk/baka/

Another group is the Efe:

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2003/11/26/entertainment/art/11_25_0312_31_09.txt

National Geographic has recently published an article on the Mbuti. The picture below is not from that article but from Yale University's Tropical Resources Institute. One of its students worked on a project with the Mbuti.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0509/feature5/

For more information about Ellen Brown's project, see this link:

http://www.yale.edu/tri/fellows2004/Africa.html#ellenbrown

Not suprisingly, the Mbuti are known for the bark cloth that they make:

http://www.indigoarts.com/gallery_africanart_textl7.html

Or you may prefer music:

http://www.tower.com/mbuti-pygmies-ituri-rainforest-various-artists-cd/wapi/106408965

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW2lv7_2KQg

However, the pygmies have been victims of outrageous cruelty recently:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2933524.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3869489.stm

To add insult to injury, logging companies have devastated the rainforests where the pygmies live.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/congos-pygmies-take-on-world-bank-to-save-rainforest-from-loggers-396903.html

I'll move on to a little bit about the Chokwe:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people/Chokwe.html

http://www.zyama.com/chokwe/index.htm

http://www.rebirth.co.za/chokwe_mask_history.htm

Below is an image of one of their masks. This was used at a king's coronation.

The Chokwe are also known for their chairs and stools:

I'll conclude with some information about the Kuba Kingdom. The picture above is of a Bwoom mask from that group.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/kuba/hd_kuba.htm

These links contain information about this kingdom's art:

http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/faculty/Miller%20Kuba/Kuba%20Site/kuba_home.html
http://www.zyama.com/kuba/pics..htm

http://www.randafricanart.com/kuba_Bwoom.html

http://www.marlamallett.com/kuba.htm

Below is a picture of the Kuba's raffia cloth:

There is so much more that I could post, but I think that I will stop here for now.

How does this information add to your understanding of Heart of Darkness?

Sunday, July 5, 2009

What is Colonialism?

It's easy to confuse orientalism and colonialism (and imperialism), so I thought that I would complement my entry on orientalism with an entry on colonialism.

By the way, the picture above is a still from the 1984 film A Passage to India, an adaptation of the British writer EM Forster's novel. This novel is set during the time when India was a British colony struggling to become independent. In the scene pictured above, the Englishwoman Adela Quested (the sometime fiancee of colonial civil servant Ronnie Heaslop) is traveling to the Malabar Caves. She is riding with Dr. Aziz; later she will falsely claim that he tried to rape her in the cave. This will result in a trial and Dr. Aziz's humilation. Ironically, Adela was initially very sympathetic towards India and its people. For more information about this movie and a clip from it, see this link:

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/37349/A-Passage-to-India/overview

To distinguish among the three terms...orientalism, imperialism, and colonialism....

Orientalism (that is, the meaning that literary critic Edward Said has popularized) is more about how Westerners interpret the East. In other words, orientalism is the belief that Westerners are better able to interpret the East and Easterners and that Easterners cannot interpret or represent themselves on their own. Orientalism leads to Westerners' interpreting the Other to suit themselves.

Imperialism and colonialism, on the other hand, are political and economic terms. The former, imperialism, refers to one country's political, economic, and sometimes cultural domination over another. Colonialism, the latter, refers to the practice of settling a country as the British settled in America (before we became independent), India, or their territories in Africa. However, the British were not the only colonizers. The Romans, the French, and the Spanish, to name three nationalities, colonized various regions. For more information about this distinction, see this link to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/colonialism/

This timeline from the University of Iowa will give you a broad overview of how many nations were involved in colonialism:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~c016003d/Resources/Imperialismtimeline.htm

Or you may prefer these statistics from Mt. Holyoke:

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pol116/colonies.htm

Otherwise, the timelines can be fairly overwhelming. Below is one professor's timelines that cover the British Raj and India's struggle for independence:

http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum210/tml/indiatml/indiatml3.htm

http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum210/tml/indiatml/indiatml4.htm

Here is the BBC's timeline for Africa. Note that it begins in prehistoric times.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1624_story_of_africa/page96.shtml

Below is the Metropolitan Museum of Art's timeline on the Guinea Coast, an area that includes some of Nigeria. It covers arts and culture as well as politics and economics, but it seems to be the most detailed and authoritative timeline that I've seen:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/10/sfg/ht10sfg.htm

Finally, here is a timeline on the Congo that covers both the colonial era and independence:

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/hhanson/241/congotimeline.html

The BBC's timeline is more detailed:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1072684.stm

Even if we focus on the settings of Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart, ignoring every other former colony, there is still much to investigate on this topic. I will conclude by making one more distinction. First published in 1898 (in serialized form), Heart of Darkness is a colonial novel since Conrad wrote it at a time when Belgium still occupied the Congo and Britain had a considerable empire. Conrad himself lived in the Congo for a very short period. Things Fall Apart, on the other hand, is a post-colonial novel even though Achebe wrote it in 1958, just *before* Nigeria became independent. Achebe is from the colony that became Nigeria, and even though the novel is set in the 1890s, he depicts Okonkwo from the perspective of a member of his ethnic group (Igbo).

For more information about post-colonialism, see this link:

http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Intro.html

As this article's author states and the example of Things Fall Apart demonstrates, we use the term post-colonial a little more loosely than one would imagine. However, it is still a useful term, and a distinction between Conrad's perspective and Achebe's must be made and maintained.