Lecture Video #8: The Double Vision of Colonialism

Before you read Miguel Street, watch this short video and respond with a comment below. This gives you a little context about what makes this book of stories a "postcolonial" text, and how colonialism left a lasting legacy on the literature of its former colonies. 

Be sure to see the reading & questions for Miguel Street in the post below this one! 

Reading & Questions for Naipaul, Miguel Street (stories below)

 

For next week, be sure to read the following stories from V.S. Naipaul's book of stories, Miguel Street:

* Bogart

* The Thing Without a Name

* His Chosen Calling

* Man-Man 

Answer 2 of the following: 

Q1: What clues do we get about the narrator in these first stories? Who is he? What is his relationship to the men in the stories? Why do you think he's telling us about them? 

Q2: At the end of "Bogart," the title character leaves his wife and return to Miguel Street. When the Eddoes asks Hat why he left, his response is, "To be a man, among we men" (16). What does this reveal about the culture of Port of Spain, and how do we see this sentiment expressed in the other stories?

Q3: Trinidad (where the stories take place) didn't get its independence from Britain until 1961, a bit after these stories were written. Therefore, Miguel Street depicts a world still under the thumb of colonial values and expectations. How do we see the British influence in Port of Spain society? How does a sense of Britishness shape the lives of even the poorest citizens in Miguel Street?

Q4: The characters in these stories--Bogart, Hat, Eddoes, Man-Man, etc.--are great eccentrics, each one humorous for the way they act and talk, especially to an outsider. Do you think Naipaul is making fun of them? Is he satirizing the small-town life of Miguel Street, which is ridiculously from any other point of view? Or is his humor more affectionate and understanding? An example either way? 

Reading & Questions for Soseki, Botchan, Chapters 6-11

Since the book is relatively short and reads quickly, try to finish it for next week's class. If you don't quite finish, no worries, since you can finish it later (you'll want to for the next paper assignment). I won't post a blog response so you can just focus on reading, reading, reading! But honestly, it goes very quickly--I finished the last chapters in just over one sitting. 

Answer 2 of the following:

Q1: The German term "bildungsroman" means "a novel (roman) that concerns itself with the spiritual/moral growth of an individual over the course of the story." Certainly, Botchan can be seen as one, since we see him grow up, take his first job, and struggle with growing up and becoming a teacher. But it's also expected that a protagonist change over the course of the novel and learn valuable truths about being human. Does Botchan do this? Does he grow up? Or only preserve his 'Tokyo' identity?

Q2: Several times throughout the novel, Botchan's colleagues burst out laughing when he says anything, particularly in a department meeting (as on page 72, when he explains "I had assumed in all innocence that such things [leaving night duty] were allowed"). Why does he strike them as so funny, when Botchan thinks he's a very serious and intimidating person? Are we more often laughing at him, or sympathizing with his plight?

Q3: Botchan is very critical of people who are 'sissies' or too cultured, as when he writes, "Haiku is either for masters like Basho, or for guys like hair stylists. What business does a math teacher have fooling around with little poems about morning glories and the bucket at the well?" (94). Why does he find this ridiculous and offensive? Does it reminds you of Lady Gertrude's phrase in Hamlet, "methinks he doth protest too much"? 

Q4: Why does Botchan never write Kiyo a return letter after she begs him to write more about his daily life? What excuse does he give the reader, since he obviously feels somewhat guilty about it? Might this be one of his most unreliable acts of narration yet?

Q5: The book ends very abruptly with Botchan thrashing Redshirt and The Hanger, then leaving the school forever with Porcupine. We then get a single paragraph summarizing his later life and the death of Kiyo. Why do you think Soseki ends his novel with this surprising epilogue? Does he want us to view this as Botchan's success or failure in life? 

Lecture Video #7: The Perspective of Haiku

Watch the video below which gives a little context for Japanese art and literature, particularly the famous genre of haiku, which is very different than what we find in Soseki's modern novel...and yet, we could argue that Botchan is a humorous novel of almost haiku-like wit and succinctness. There are three haiku by Bashō below, which you will use to answer the question at the of the video. Don't forget to read Chapters 1-5 for next week and answer the questions (not everyone is doing them--hint, hint!). 

THE HAIKU: 

#1: Having slept 

In the rain,

The bamboo corrected itself

To view the moon.

#2: I picked my way

Through a mountain road,

And I was greeted

By a smiling violet.

#3: With a hat on my head

And straw sandals on my feet,

I met on the road

The end of the year. 

Reading & Questions for Soseki's Botchan, Chapters 1-5

Read through Chapter 5 (or as close as you can) for next week, and as you read, think about the subtle conflict between Eastern and Western ideas in the novel. I'll post a video soon that discusses a few things you might consider and look for as well. Otherwise, I think you'll enjoy this humorous novel about a ne'er do well who becomes a teacher out in the sticks, and has utter contempt for his students and his profession. And yet, for all his pride and buffoonishness, his character and voice are irresistible. 

Answer 2 of the following:

Q1: In many ways, our hero, "Botchan" is an unreliable narrator who doesn't always present things the way they truly are, even if that's the way he thinks they are. How does he share some personality traits and narrative techniques that we saw earlier with des Greiux in Manon Lescaut? How do we know that Soseki doesn't completely want us to trust Botchan?

Q2: Reflecting on his long-time servant, Kiyo, Botchan says, "She must have been absolutely crazy about me...The kind of devotion she had for me was downright scary. She was absolutely certain I was going to have a glorious career and become a wonderfully distinguished man" (8). Why does she place him on a pedestal and ignore his brother? Does he seem to encourage this behavior, or does he really bother him as he suggests? 

Q3: Why does Botchan get so annoyed by the phrase "na moshi' that his students use as the end of almost every sentence? What do you think it means? Does it seem like they're being disrespectful to him? Or is he taking it the wrong way?

Q4: In Chapter 4, Botchan explains that "Whatever faults I may have, my ancestors were retainers of the Shogun, a line of warriors going back to the Emperor Seiwa and descended from the great Minamoto non Mitsunaka" (44). Why does he want us (the readers) to know this, and are other people in the book aware of this? What role does class and rank play in early 20th century Japan, according to Soseki's novel? 

Lecture Video #6: Intertextuality in Literature

This video is designed to help you think about the Proper Paper #1 assignment (don't you just love that title! :)) as well as Cavafy's poems in general. It discusses literature as theory as well as the crucial element of intertextuality present in all literature and art. Be sure to respond to the question as a comment below! Enjoy! 

Reading & Questions for Cavafy, Poems 1916-1918

Note: this is an actual mummy at the Mebee-Gerrer Museum in Shawnee, which is from the period that many of Cavafy's poems take place (around 400-600 AD): go see it if you've never been! 

We won't have time to read through the entire volume of poems, but feel free to keep reading yourself--you can use any poem in the book for your Proper Paper #1 assignment. However, for next time, I want to focus on a specific kind of poem that Cavafy excelled at, the elegy or epitaph. 

* Since Nine O'Clock 

* Aristobolous

* Cesarion
* Nero's Term
* In the Harbour Town
* Tomb of Lanes
* Tomb of Iases
* Tomb of Ignatius
* In the Month of Athyr
* For Ammones
* Aemilianus Monae
* Grey

* Days of 1903

Only ONE question this time, but I want you to answer it for TWO different poems:

Q: Since each one of these poems is an epitaph about someone (or something) that has died, what is it that remains after death? How does Cavafy memorialize the remains of someone who once lived? What does he want us to see or remember? And how does this relate to some of the great themes of his work that we discussed in class (or, if you don't come to class, how does this relate to another poem that you read in the earlier selections)? 

Proper Paper #1: Your Own Private Ithaca (see new due date!)

“If a literary work is conceived as a succession of actions upon the understanding of a reader, then an interpretation of the work can be a story of that encounter, with its ups and downs...To interpret a work is to tell a story of reading” (Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction)

INTRO: One of the most popular forms of literary theory, “Reader Response Criticism,” suggests that interpretation is about the journey readers take with a given text, and in college, that journey occurs in the classroom. How we read a work is shaped, in large part, by how we first experience it. As you read these books chronologically from Week 1 to Week 8, you created a kind of inner narrative of what they mean, why they’re important, and how they relate to one another. So when you write a paper about them now, it tells a story of reading…of how you read them, and how your journey of reading led to discovering your own private ‘Ithaca.’ So for this first paper, I want you to show me a piece of this journey, and how reading one work shaped how you read the others—and made your own narrative of self-discovery.

PROMPT: To do that, I want you to choose ONE Cavafy poem that you can use as a THEORY. By “theory,” I mean a kind of thesis, or focus, in which to shine a light on the other two books in class. The beginning of your paper (1) should be a close reading of the poem, explaining how you read it, and what you think are the most important ideas Cavafy is trying to convey. Then, (2) you will use this poem to examine some aspects of both Manon Lescaut and at least one of the Chekhov plays. In other words, by reading the Cavafy poem first, how does it influence how we read the other two works: what new ideas or interpretations would we see once we read them? How could the poem actually be an ‘introduction’ of sorts to the novel and the play?

EX: I love the poem “Ithaca,” so I would write an analysis that illustrates how it represents Cavafy’s worldview and how it relates to a general view of life and experience. Then I would find moments in Manon and, say, The Seagull, that seem to benefit from Cavafy’s thesis. Where does the idea that “Ithaca…has nothing to give you any more” resonate in one or more of the characters of each work? Remember, your reading doesn’t have to be bulletproof, just plausible and (of course) interesting. I’m more interested in the voyage—not the ultimate destination (like “Ithaca” itself!). NOTE: You don’t have to use this poem—it’s just an example!

REQUIREMENTS

• Page limit…up to you
• Must use only ONE Cavafy poem as your focus, and you must analyze it first
• Must compare it to passages in Manon and one of the plays (but you can use more than one play if you wish)
• DUE THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 19^th, but NO LATER THAN FRIDAY BY 5pm!

Revised Schedule!

Below I have posted a new schedule for BOTH classes, changing a few dates and moving things back. I've had a hard time coming to terms with how this class works, and instead of looking at it day-by-day, I'm just looking at in terms of a single week. So throughout the week, this is the work I'll be posting, and all of it is due by your next face to face class. So now you don't have to worry about doing the blog on a Friday, which was never really the intention anyway. Note, too, that I moved the Polished Paper #2 assignment back. I'll be giving that to you in class next week (the 5th and 7th), and I'll post it on the blog for those of you who don't attend class. Let me know if you have any questions!  

OCTOBER

Week of the 5^th:            Discuss Cavafy, Poems II

                                    Video for Poems III

                                    Questions for Poems III

 

Week of the 12^th:          Discussion for Cavafy, Poems III

                                    Video for Botchan, Part I

 

Week of the 19^th:          Discussion for Botchan, Part I

                                    Questions for Botchan, Part II

                                    Polished Paper #2 by Friday by 5pm

 

Week of the 26^th:          Discussion for Botchan, Part II

                                    Video, The Postcolonial Nation

                                    Questions for Miguel Street, Part I

NOVEMBER  

Week of the 2^nd:           Discussion for Miguel Street, Part I

                                    Questions for Miguel Street, Part II

                                    Video for Miguel Street, Part III

 

Week of the 9^th:            Discussion for Miguel Street, Parts II-III

                                    Questions for The Lover, Part I

           Rough Paper #2 due Friday by 5pm

 

Week of the 16^th:          Discussion for The Lover, Part I

                                    Questions for The Lover, Part II

                                    Video for The Lover, Part II

 

Week of the 23^rd:          Discussion for The Lover, Part II 

                                    Questions for The Lover, Part III

 

DECEMBER 

Week of the 30^th:          Discussion for The Lover, Part III

                                    Video: Final Thoughts, Final Paper

 

Proper Paper #2 due TBA