Global Literature Exam Review - OCR PDF

GLOBAL LITERATURE Exam Review  EXAM FORMAT Worth: 15% Length: 2 hours Date / Time: Monday, 16 December, 15:30 Place: Dalplex Section 1: Multiple Choice 5/15 Recommended time: 30 minutes Ten q...

GLOBAL LITERATURE Exam Review  EXAM FORMAT Worth: 15% Length: 2 hours Date / Time: Monday, 16 December, 15:30 Place: Dalplex Section 1: Multiple Choice 5/15 Recommended time: 30 minutes Ten questions, three to four possible answers for each question One question for every text or pair of texts Section 2: Short Answer (ID) 5/15 Recommended time: 60 minutes 5 questions (you may choose 5 to answer out of 10 possibilities) You will be given a quotation. Identify which text the quotation is from, who the author is, and several reasons why the quotation is important in the context of the longer text and the themes we discussed in class (3-4 sentences) You will be given a list of the texts and authors we have studied Section 3: Long Answer 5/15 Recommended time: 30 minutes One question You will be asked to discuss a theme from the class with reference to three texts. You will be able to choose between 2-3 questions. You will not be permitted to repeat more than one text from section 2.  WHAT IS GLOBAL LITERATURE? Three definitions of world literature: 1. An established body of classics 2. An evolving canon of masterpieces 3. Multiple windows on the world whatever texts a given community of readers takes as literature (David Damrosch)  ORAL STORIES: CINDERELLA Oral stories evolve over time Rhodophis (Egypt): The oldest Cinderella Benefits of oral storytelling (Strabo) Oral stories are personal Yeh-Hsien (China): The first full recorded version: Oral stories have changing details Similar and different key details Oral stories are a unique experience Cendrillon (France, Charles Perrault): Similar and Oral stories do not privilege education different key details Disadvantages of oral storytelling Aschenputtel (Germany, Grim Brothers) Oral stories are exclusive Lin-Lan The details of oral stories are hard to preserve over time The Male Cinderella The experience of oral stories is hard to preserve Donkeyskin / Catskin over time LOPE DE VEGA: FUENTEOVEJUNA Differences between drama and other texts Theatre spaces Feudalism, Ferdinand and Isabella, and the unification of Spain The difference between the source text and the play Machiavelli vs. Erasmus: Ruling by love or by fear Three kinds of honour: Rank / birth Hard work / respectability Chastity Unity of the town The role of music Early modern concepts of rulership and the rights of citizens Justice vs. revenge Equality vs. hierarchy (Appealing to the King, the printing press and free thought) Action offstage  SOR JUANA INES DE LA CRUZ: LOA TO DIVINE NARCISSUS Colonialism Existing drama in New Spain Autos sacramentales and the Corpus Christi Human sacrifice Sacraments: eucharist and baptism Conversion / convincing through points of similarity (Acts 17) rather than violence or force The tocotin and incorporation of indigenous culture  OLAUDAH EQUIANO: THE INTERESTING NARRATIVE The Transatlantic Slave Trade and Abolition The Purpose of the Text: “to excite…a sense of compassion for the miseries which the Slave-Trade has entailed on my unfortunate countrymen” Three strategies: 1. Emphasizes his own humanity and that of other Africans Names Voice 2. Challenges African inferiority / European superiority Africa as a land of dancing, singing, poetry, family, good government, riches, food, etc. Europeans as dirty, sick, violent 3. Emphasizes community and unlikely friendship  GEORGE ORWELL: “SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT” The conflicted narrator: Dislike for empire Dislike for Burmese Shooting the elephant as a metaphor for the British colonial apparatus: The elephant is native to the land but considered dangerous since others have settled it The elephant is a useful and necessary piece of machinery The elephant is strong enough to harm those trying to control him, and unpredictable The people are unsympathetic to the elephant and eager to watch a display of power To what extent is the narrator responsible for his own actions even though he claims to hate being a part of the colonial apparatus?  KATHERINE MANSFIELD: “THE GARDEN PARTY” Colonialism Class: Jose: condescending Mrs. Sheridan: blasé Laura: embarrassed Free Indirect Discourse: third person narration in which the narrator can sometimes represent the thoughts and perspectives of the characters WITI IHIMERA: “THIS LIFE IS WEARY” Writing Back: the process of writing against the centre rather than for it, and against assumptions of the centre to a prior claim to legitimacy and power Class: the myth of upward mobility  HARRY MULISCH: THE ASSAULT The German occupation in the Netherlands, The Hongerwinter, collaboration, and the Dutch Resistance The Cold War, The Korean War, Russia / Budapest protest, Vietnam, Nuclear arms protest Everything touches everything else—ashes from a volcano Trauma: A psychic injury, esp. one caused by emotional shock, the memory of which is repressed and remains unhealed; an internal injury, esp. to the brain, which may result in a behavioural disorder of organic origin. Also, the state or condition so caused. Motif: A particular subject for imaginative treatment, esp. an incident, situation, ethical problem, etc., embodying a central idea that informs a work; a recurrent theme, subject, or image. (Dice, horseshoe, bicycles, symbolon, flames, airplanes, the number four, etc.) Symbol: Something that stands for [or]…represents something else (not by exact resemblance, but by vague suggestion, or by some accidental or conventional relation); esp. a material object representing or taken to represent something immaterial or abstract… (Dice, horseshoe, etc.) Simplifying the narrative / complicating the narrative The distortion of time Numbing / burying trauma / sealing off episodes Anton’s ways of dealing with trauma (action, silence, crying, talking back, sleeping) Repetition of episodes Solving puzzles—no ashes in sight  THOMAS KING: “BORDERS” “I am…this native writer who’s out there in the middle, not of nowhere.” Liminality: A transitory, in-between state or space, characterized by ambiguity and resisting categorization Stereotype: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person, thing, or place Undermining difference Subtext: content of a creative work which is not announced explicitly by the characters or author, but is implicit Land borders as somewhat artificial Multiple kinds of borders  CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE: “A PRIVATE EXPERIENCE” The Amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria Divisions Ethnicity / Language Religion Class Equalizers: Injuries Worry for family Danger / death A private experience: Grief Prayer  SHAUN TAN: THE ARRIVAL Closure and types of transitions The effect of using no words to tell this kind of story: The reader is forced to experience the alienating immigrant experience At the same time, the fact of no language makes this text accessible to everyone An alien world Experiencing the world as an immigrant Motifs Origami Cups Reasons for immigration Communication beyond language (music, games, art, gestures)  MARJANE SATRAPI: PERSEPOLIS Comic art as a point of connection: “First of all, the primary language of human beings is drawing, not writing. Drawing is a universal language. If you want to describe an emotion, when you draw someone with that emotion, no matter where you come from, you understand it” (Satrapi). Culture Shock: the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes. Reverse Culture Shock: Defamiliarization: the process of making something familiar strange  DIONNE BRAND, SASENARINE PERSAUD, AND DAVID DABYDEEN Diaspora: The dispersion of a people group in multiple places far from their original homeland The trans-Atlantic slave trade to the Caribbean India to Guyana Further immigration to Canada, the UK, the US Nostalgia: a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations “Return I”: repetition / multiple meanings of the word “still” “Catching Crabs”: Crab metaphor and “survivors’” guilt “Gifting the Light of the Soul”: curry, spices, cricket. Plants / animals from both India and Guyana. Incorporation of Hinduism  History of Newfoundland as a stopover location Globalization: The action, process, or fact of making global; esp. (in later use) the process by IRENE SANKOFF AND which businesses or other organizations develop DAVID HEIN: COME international influence or start operating on an international scale, widely considered to be at the FROM AWAY expense of national identity. Corporations, easy air travel, economic / career opportunity, communication 9/11 and the ripple effect: War on Iraq, Department of Homeland Security, increased Islamophobia, etc. Props: Representing diversity and also making do Division and Fear: Change in air travel, treatment of Ali Foils: Nick and Diane vs. Kevin and Kevin Coming together: How the Kevins expect to be treated vs. how people treat them, the bus strike, Bob’s transformation, Hannah and Beulah, Ali and Beulah Ways of coming together: screeching in,  COMMON THEMES Colonialism / Imperialism / Diaspora / Immigration / Globalization Music / dance Cultures coming into conflict / war Borders Division vs. coming together Concepts of home Connection across language barriers Community and belonging Class and power dynamics