Interview your neighbors and be ready to report someone else’s:


Course Objectives:


Satisfies--1c (other literature); 3: genre (fiction); 4a (multinational); 4e (women writers); GER 1983/2002: F1 (World Literature)


-    to appreciate the interconnectedness of 20th-century world literature (comparative literature)

-    to deepen knowledge about global politics and culture and their centrality to literature (global studies)

-    to learn to analyze literary elements in short stories, novels, and dramas (literary criticism)

- to consider any differences and similarities between the way men and women represent experiences (gendered readings)

-    to synthesize writers’ representation of difference (ethnic studies)


Literary Terms

I. Coming of Age: 1) reaching maturity, respectability, or prominence; 2) losing one's virginity. When it is used as an adjective, it is written with hyphens (coming-of-age).

Characters who come of age in literature do so through life-changing events that challenge them to leave childhood behind, and to embrace their status as adults. Examples of coming-of-age stories are often found in young adult literature, such as fairy tales, Catcher in the Rye, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

We address the following questions: What do the coming-of-age stories expose about the Holocaust, surviving the Atom Bomb, and postcolonial identity? Why do authors use coming-of-age stories to depict individuals' and countries’ struggles to mature in the post-WWII era?

II. Allegory: An allegory is a story that teaches readers and listeners about important values by means of visual cues. Many dictionary definitions cite the example of "blind justice," or the figure of Justice, who balances the scales while wearing a blindfold. This visual allegory teaches audiences that justice weighs issues blindly. Allegorical stories nearly always try to teach audiences about some moral or lesson.

III. Symbol: Allegorical stories often use symbols. In the example above, the blindfold symbolizes impartiality, and the scales depict fairness.

These literary terms are on Blackboard/Glossary.

Paul Celan’s “Death Fugue”

- Talked about fugue structure of poem, use of he/we and choral voices and effect that has on your interpretation of it

- “black milk”
Literal meaning : milk = sustenance of life

Milk is black b/c ashes from crematoriums make milk black >> symbol that something is terribly wrong, pervasiveness and repetition of death, and example of oxymoron

- Celan’s dilemma: German = mother tongue but also language of the oppressors

"What does 'Death Fugue' teach us about the Holocaust?" = Example of essay question for midterm. My comments on your written response aim to get you to connect more examples to specific, supportable interpretations.


Lingering questions (midterm?):

What is the significance of Margarethe and Shulamith in Paul Celan’s poem, “Death Fugue”? How do they connect to the oxymoronic symbol of “black milk,” and why does the author end the poem with these two female figures?

Goal of today’s class: to learn more techniques of dissecting the text using literary analysis

Day 1 of Crazy Iris

"The Crazy Iris" by Ibuse: Reread and consult the suggested pages in order to answer the following questions:

Groups 1-2: What does the recurring motif of paper mean? (30, 31, 34)

Groups 3-4: What does the “crazy iris mean”? (9, 34, 35)

Group 5 / Bonus Question: Why do Paul Celan’s poem, “Death Fugue,” and “The Crazy Iris” both focus on ash? What are the literal and symbolic meanings of ash?

~*~

Discussed role of coming of age, homosexuality, the A-bomb, and peversity in some scenes of "Human Ashes"

Unanswered questions in "Human Ashes:"

- Amanda: What happened during the scene at the factory where Oyamada works? What kind of attack was it?

- Jen: Why does Oyamada want to find his aunt so badly? (79)

- Chelsey: What are the literal and symbolic meanings of "white smoke" and "white ashes"? (84)

- Brittany: Oda describes the scene of dead bodies explaining: "the sight did not seem sad. [Instead he] saw it as an opportunity to observe in deatil the process by which human beings die. It awoke in [him] a sense of great wonderment, even of curiosity" (81). Why does Oyamada seem somewhat unaffected by the obvious tragedy surrounding him?
Review: Student Questions

1.    Why does Artie refer to his mother by her first name, Anja?
2.    On p. 79, why does the German soldier steal the furniture?
3.    Why does Artie walk away from Mala when she starts to
talk about the Holocaust? (92-3)

4.    Why does Vladek throw away Artie’s jacket when he keeps
everything of his own?

How are the father’s pack-rat tendencies related to his experiences
in the Holocaust?

What is the significance of Mala saying that V likes things more than
people? (93)

5.    Does the use of animals to represent people strike you as
gimmicky?

6.    Why does the author portray Anja as always wanting to die?
Is there significance or foreshadowing in this?

7.    What role does Art’s relationship with his father play in the
 narrative?

Why does Artie sometimes act like an “exasperated parent”? In what
Other ways is their relationship strained and why?




Free write: Write on this topic for 10-15 minutes:

In what ways is Maus a coming-of-age story—or not? If so (or if not), what does this allegory tell readers about surviving the Holocaust?

Group Discussion Question:

TRAUMATIC NARRATIVES: What lessons and values do traumatic narratives teach Western readers and audiences about surviving the Holocaust? Discuss Maus and Night and Fog, and analyze the authors’ and/or directors’ depiction of trauma. Argue which piece better memorializes these events more effectively, and explain why. What literary techniques do the authors use? What symbols and allegories help Western readers and viewers to remember and honor any of these tragedies? Use specific examples and unique interpretations to support your answer.
Scarlet Song--Day 1

M = West, logic
 O = New, independent Africa
Respect for elders
 disagrees w/conserv. parents (20); superficially follows orders
 careful not to betray roots (20); works for mother (21); "collective existence" (36)
Community, tradition
 defies tradition by choosing O.; grew up outside France
 rebel (43)

What does this coming-of-age story say about colonial and postcolonial relationships? In what way are women, like Africans under French rule, "colonized"?

Midterm Review

Reflect, in writing, on at least two of these quotes. What symbols or keywords are important? What do these quotes reflect about surviving tragedy?

1. "Empty Can:" “Several small fragments of glass, four or five millimeters long, formed the kernel of the fat, and the fat had covered them over like a white, round pearl”  (Hayashi 139-40).

2. "Human Ashes:" “Dim memories of nightmares I used to have as a child when I was running a high fever came to life again, and pale human faces passed before my eyes, appearing and disappearing, disappearing and appearing in the midst of flames, jets of spurting blood and black smoke” (Oda 84).

3. [Artie to Vladek on discovering the destruction of his mother's diaries in Maus I]: "God damn you! You--you murderer! How the hell could you do such a thing!" (Spiegelman 159).

4. "But for Ousmane, any compromise was synonymous with surender. He countered Mireille's 'stubbornness' with 'the hardening of his own position'. Even when he was in the wrong, he would not give in. Any compromise, any backing down, seemed to him the abdication of his own personality" (Ba 99).
Bâ, M. Scarlet Song; Celan, P. “Death Fugue”; Duras, M. Hiroshima mon Amour [dir. A. Renais]; Hayashi, K. “The Empty Can”; Ibuse, M. “The Crazy Iris”; Lanzmann, C. Shoah; Oda, K. “Human Ashes”; Oe, K. “Introduction” to Crazy Iris;Spiegelman, Maus I

1. Coming of Age
1.1 What is coming of age? Give 3 examples from texts we have read, and explain their allegorical meaning.

1.2 In what ways did the A-Bomb and the Holocaust strip away our innocence, and bring us into modern maturity?

2. Gender
2.1 How do the memories of female survivors in “Empty Can” differ from those of the male narrators in “Human Ashes” (Oyamada) and “Crazy Iris” (Masu)?

2.2 Why don’t the Senegalese women in Scarlet Song feel as conflicted about their African identities as Ousmane does about his?

2.3 How did Anja and or how does Mala seem to experience the trauma of the Holocaust different from Vladek in Maus?

3. Trauma
3.1 Define what trauma is, and why the trauma of the Holocaust, A-bomb, and colonialism are important to memorialize.

3.2 What message or did the author of Maus, and the directors of Night and Fog and Shoah, want to get across to audiences, and what techniques did they use to reinforce this moral?

Student Ques.

1. JM: Does literature lose it meaning when it's translated?

2. BT: What are the potential postive and negative aspects of reproducing
world literature?
    AS: Do we bring our own ideals to world literature?

3. RF: How and why does a work belong to world literature? How and why
does it stay well read over time?

4. CW: Damrosch writes on p. 9 about writers who "achieve greatness" by emulating foreign models. Is that fair?

AA: Damrosch quotes Goethe on p.9--the need for intercourse . . . -- do you agree why or why not? How can we apply to writers we've read?

LB: Which works can we classify as world literature in this course?

Review of free-write question: What is world literature?

WRONG ANSWER: “literature that appeals to everyone”

Damrosch suggests the opposite: that other countries choose works of world literature that appeal to their own sensibilities. These works may or may not appeal to readers in the author’s home country.

Damrosch also calls world literature “all literary works that circulate beyond their country of origin” (Damrosch 4); a way of reading and classifying literature; and “a mode of circulation and reading” (Damrosch 5).

World literature used to mean a selection of works from the canon (of existing literature), the 19th-century concept of literary masterpiece  (Damrosch 6).

See also my page on this subject: http://chss.montclair.edu/~nielsenw/worldlit.html

Work Cited:

Damrosch, David. What is World Literature? Princeton and Oxford: Princeton UP, 2003.







What are some of the problems with reading world literature? List at least 3 concrete examples by consulting pages 8, 11, 13-14, 17-19, 22, and 32.


What does Damrosch mean when he writes that Westerners almost always assess non-Western literature using “neocolonialist patterns of projection and outright appropriation”? (Damrosch 113). List at least 3 concrete examples by consulting pages 113, 117, 124, 130, 133, and 140.





Prepare to answer the following questions next class:

1. How can we solve some of the problems of reading world literature?

2. Explain what Damrosch means when he writes that “world literature is an elliptical refraction of national literatures” (281)

Review

Problems with reading world literature:
 Neocolonialist Readings


1. Explain what Damrosch means when he writes that “world literature is an elliptical refraction of national literatures” (281)

2. According to Damrosch, how can we solve some of the problems of reading world literature?
Day 2 of Reading Groups:

Find textual evidence to support your answers to the following questions:

1.    What roles are expected of men and women in your book? How do characters rebel against these norms, and what are the consequences?
2.    Identify moments that resemble magical realism, fantasy, or fairy tale. What political or cultural significance do these incidents represent?
3.    What remains “foreign” about this work of world literature? How might you, as a Western reader, be reading this book differently than a non-Western one? 

Finally, exchange 3 journal entries and discuss the passages you have chosen to analyze.

The facilitator should have notes to summarize the three questions, and have at least one journal entry to discuss.

Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

A. In many ways, this text is as much about Brave Orchid’s coming-of-age story as her daughter’s. What events signal turning points in Brave Orchid’s coming of age, and what do these experiences symbolize about gender, immigration, race, class, and/or politics in China and the West?

B. It is important to analyze the talk stories the narrator recalls in their context within in the memoir. I’d like you to challenge your previous responses to the story of the No-Name aunt. 1) If it is such a forbidden tale, why does Kingston’s mother tell her the tale? 2) Why does Kingston include the fable of Fa Mu Lan in her memoir? 3) Why does she include her mother’s life tales in what appears to be her memoir? Provide specific passages to support your response.

C. Reexamine the role of magical realism and its juxtaposition with statements Kingston’s memory reports as true or traumatic, such as on p. 83, 85, 87-89, 92. In what ways might these tales of female strength and fortitude be colored by Kingston’s own insecurities as a child—and her inability to understand Chinese culture, practices, and even something as universal as irony?

One Hundred Years of Solitude

A. Recount the many instances of incest in the novel. What might they symbolize, both in their specific contexts, and as allegories for political repression and turmoil?
B. What does solitude mean in the novel, and what seem to be characters’ solitary fates? (see worksheet)
C. What happens to magical realism when war breaks out in Macondo? Why is the magically real absent from GM’s description of the war period (p. 90-140)?


I, Rigoberta Menchu

A. What events seem to mark female maturation in Menchu’s life?
B. In what ways are the Indians’ lives different than the ladinos’? What political, social, and economic factors play into these differences?
C. Closely reread the passages about her father’s fight for his land (103-116). What specific factors and issues seem to be the cause of the strife?
Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

1.    How has China apparently changed since Brave Orchid left?
2.    In what ways are Moon Orchid and Brave Orchid different?
3.    Based on the answers to the above ques., hypothesize about the narrator’s understanding of Chinese customs regarding gender roles, and her mother’s talk stories.

I, Rigoberta Menchu

1.    What customs and socio-political and economic issues do Indians share?
2.    What factors inhibit Indians from joining forces together?
3.    Based on the answers to the above ques., argue in support of or against Menchu’s claim that her testimony represents all Guatemalans’ experiences.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

1. Why does the banana company (aka United Fruit Company) come to Macondo? How does the banana company affect Macondo?
2. In what ways is the banana company like a colonial power? What other colonial powers change the lives of Macondans?
3. Based on your answers to the above ques., examine how magical realism is juxtaposed to the issue of the banana company and colonialism. Pose a hypothesis for how and why Garcia Marquez uses magical realism (in order to disguise his political agenda, for ex.).

Peer Review of Journals

Journals should be well written, with no stylistic or grammatical mistakes, and they should closely analyze a quote within the context of the literary work. This close analysis should ideally raise a provocative issue or interpretive point. Help you peer to achieve these goals.

Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

1.    How does Brave Orchid use talk stories (143-44, 155)? What might this say about the talk stories the narrator grows up with?
2.    What does the term “ghost” mean in the chapter, “At the Western Palace”?
3.    Compare these two stories of immigration—Brave Orchid’s and Moon Orchid’s. What’s the significance of juxtaposing these two narratives?

One Hundred Years of Solitude

1. What do Remedios the Beauty, the banana plantation, and Fernanda have in common in the second half of the book?
2. How is Meme’s baby different from the other Buendia bastards (Arcadio)?
3. What does the banana revolt have in common with Meme’s baby?

I, Rigoberta Menchu

1.    What atrocities happen in Guatemala? How do you react to them as a reader?
2.    Closely reread those passages referring to atrocities. Is Menchu positive the way they occurred—why or why not?
3.    How would it change your reaction to the atrocities in Guatemala if the ones Menchu recounts happen not to her immediate family, but rather to other people she knows and hears about?



Review for Final (Ques. 2) 

1.    What class do your protagonists belong to, and in what ways does class identity affect their lives?
2.    Explain what colonialism is, and how it works in your book selection.
3.    In what ways does tradition conflict with modernity/change in your book selection?