English 2112 World Literature Blog

Final details on format:

Part One, ID questions - You must answer 5 out of 8.

Part Two, short essay - You must answer 5 out of 8.

Part Three, long essay - You must answer 1 out of 4.

Mrs. Brown,

My printer has died.  I need to make a copy of 2 short stories.  Can I do that before class in the morning?  Please let me know.

I need The Horse Dealers Daughter and te one about Key West.


Thanks,
Joy 

I just want to say that this class has been really fun and exciting at times.  I was really afraid of this final because it was so much literature to cover and study but it has all been worth it.  After studying the past two days, I realized I have learned a lot.  I didn't really realize how much literature could be so fun.  I really think this blog has been a great asset to the course as well.  It's been really interesting.  I hope everyone has had good luck with studying.  I just got really tired of studying for a second so I figured I would take a break and post.  But I just wanted to say Good Luck tomorrow!

I found a quote on yahoo that was chosen #1 by votes, that asked: In "Oral History", what is the symbol of the title of this story?
Response: The title "Oral History", means that it is not just about what is written in history, but about what people experienced and remembered. Gordimer uses the mopane tree as a symbol of life and death; the chief hangs himself in the mopane, the dead are buried in the mopane, and finally the tree becomes a means of consolidation. "The women are to be seen carrying tins and grain panniers of mud up from the river. In talkative bands they squat and smear, raising huts again. They bring sheaves of reeds exceeding their own height, balanced like the cross-stroke of a majuscular T on their heads."

I was just wondering exactly what class discussion we had over this story?  I had to miss class this past Saturday due to surgery to remove my wisdom teeth.  This is the only one I've been studying that I need more opinions on.  Any suggestions?

I just thought I would share that there was a question on final jeopardy about E.B. Browning.  It was actually an excerpt from Sonnets of the Portuguese titled "How Do I Love Thee".  Before this class, I didn't really pay attention to things on tv that much; however, I've noticed in the last few weeks a lot of the people we have studied about in class have been mentioned in one way or another on tv: movies, jeopardy, etc.

I'm finalizing the exam and thought I would mention a few themes that have been on my mind as I work on it...

*religion and hypocrisy
*gender roles and expectations, and attitudes toward women
*the relationship between an individual and the society in which he lives
*tradition(s)
*paradigm shifts (changes in the dominant view of self/world among members of a society)
*money and its effects on the individual
*idealism versus reality
*works about writing and/or artists
*nationalism and national identity
*social classes and hierarchies

Hope you find these helpful ways to think about connections between works that we have read.

This is a very interesting story.  After I read it, I had to go back and read about the author.  The story was almost written from a first hand account.  Once I read about the author it explained that she was writing about events that are occurring around her where she lives.  This story is a tragedy.  One of betrayal, clandestine meetings, terrorist acts; much the same as we hear today about Africa.  When reading the story you get the feeling that it is simply a way of life.  They took it in stride that they could not be walking around after dark.  It was an accepted fact of life.  How spoiled we are to not have the worries that some people have daily.  The chief betrayed even his own family and seemingly had no remorse at all for his part in it.  He set them up to die and did not care. 

On one level, the conflict is between the traditional society of Umuofia and the new customs brought by the whites, which are in turn adopted by many of the villagers. Okonkwo also struggles to be as different from his deceased father as possible. He believes his father to have been weak, lazy, disgraceful, and poor. Consequently, Okonkwo strives to be strong, masculine, productive, respected, and wealthy.

As a story about a culture on the verge of change, Things Fall Apart deals with how the prospect and reality of change affect various characters. The tension about whether change should be privileged over tradition often involves questions of personal status. Okonkwo, for example, resists the new political and religious orders because he feels that they are not manly and that he himself will not be manly if he consents to join or even tolerate them. To some extent, Okonkwo’s resistance of cultural change is also due to his fear of losing societal status. His sense of self-worth is dependent upon the traditional standards by which society judges him. This system of evaluating the self inspires many of the clan’s outcasts to embrace Christianity. Long scorned, these outcasts find in the Christian value system a refuge from the Igbo cultural values that place them below everyone else. In their new community, these converts enjoy a more elevated status.

 

I know that it has been a really long time since we talked about this poem/play so I thought I might take a chance to help everyone refresh their memory.  I was looking back in my notes and there were several themes in Tartufe.  Obviously one is hypocrisy.  This was Moliere's purpose in writing Tartuffe, t reveal the hypocrisy in the devots.  The second one is zealotry.  Moliere was using satire to reveal the hypocrisy in the clergymen, particularly catholics. A third one is gullibility.  Orgon is gullible to believe everything that Tartuffe does and says.  Another one is that sometimes the underdogs bite, Dorine is very forthright with Orgon from the beginning.  She doesn't hold back anything and says exactly what she thinks.  And lastly, while there are a lot more to mention, the seven deadly sins applied to Tartuffe.  If you take a moment to look at te difinitions of the seven deadly sins, it becomes very obvious how individually they apply to Tartuffe.  Especiallyif you look at the meanings they held once upon a time, versus the meanings many of them hold today.