+1 862 207 3288 Instructions:
Write a 5-paragraph essay of approximately 500-750 words (no more than 750, no fewer than 500) fully answering the posed question. This assignment must include paraphrases/summaries from the films to support your ideas. Be specific and use in-text citations and a works cited page completed according to MLA guidelines. No outside research is required, but if you use it, you must cite it. The scholarly articles are ‘outside research.’
Option one: Choose two to three works from weeks 3-5. Describe how the writer/filmmaker comments on social issues in his or her work.
Option two: Choose two to three works from weeks 3-5. Describe the role of women in these stories. How are they depicted? What kinds of power do they have? How are they similar and different?
Week 3 Lesson
Voices of Asia
The Chinese literary tradition is centuries old, and picking one or two representative works from this country is a daunting task. No one piece captures the spirit of the country or its people over time, just as no single American short story or novel can fully represent American life and the stylistic range and thematic concerns of all American writers, living and dead.
One feature that Chinese and Japanese writings share is a poetic sense of symbolism. Many Asian works are almost allegorical or parable-like in that the relationships that are depicted often seem to represent a larger message about the political landscape of the country. Traditional values and social messages underscore and permeate much of this work.
In the Modern era, as we’ve seen, 20th century man began to shrug off traditional norms. We see Lu Xun’s stories, written in 1918, begin to make these same kinds of gestures, as man is depicted in conflict with his society. Jumping ahead to the contemporary work of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and Chinese American author Amy Tan, we see similar conflicts between contemporary and traditional values in the form of generational conflicts between parents and their children.
American author Amy Tan was born in California after her parents emigrated from China. As a first-generation American, her relationship with her mother was often characterized by a clash between cultures. They were not only separated by language, but by the aspirations and expectations that come from the Chinese way of life and the American way of life. The Joy Luck Club was written in 1989 and made into a movie in 1993, by Chinese- American director Wayne Wang. It roughly parallels Amy’s relationship with her mother and how learning about her mother’s past shaped her as a young American woman.
As we embark on our journey through film, it’s important to understand what this medium brings to the learning experience. First, it allows us to experience full-length works; the majority of our selected films are based on full-length novels we could not otherwise read in an 8-week term. Some of this source material was written by people from the culture/society under consideration. For example, Tolstoy, a Russian, wrote Anna Karenina. Other works were written by people who interacted with the culture under consideration as a visitor or colonial power. For example, E.M. Forster, a British man, wrote A Passage to India. Examining cultures through the eyes of an outsider can allow us to consider both cultures simultaneously. More accurately, they can show us a facet of the subject culture at the moment when it comes in contact with the Western world, encouraging us to consider our preconceptions about both.
Second, film is a rich, immersive medium with wide appeal. Yes, some readers can get ‘lost’ in a novel, which is a wonderful experience, but it doesn’t happen for everyone! Film appeals to many, encouraging confidence in our engagement with challenging texts. We bring to the table an “innate knowledge” of how film works, and so we are more comfortable viewing and analyzing and sharing our thoughts about these pieces than we might be about a poem or short story ( Fluitt-Dupuy). It is my hope that these films will allow you to experience these works on a deeper level, enjoying the visual representation of these cultures as well as the nuances of character interaction.
Please note that when we don’t have supplemental readings from the countries under consideration, I have provided links to further readings about the films themselves or to scholarly journal articles from our online library so that you can get a broader sense of the cultures we are discussing and their literary tradition. I’ve tried to select articles that give you the ability to focus on areas of interest– either historical tradition or contemporary themes in literature, free from Hollywood’s interpretation and repackaging.
Week 4 Lesson
The First Grader
This is a film based on a true story. It relates the relationship between an 84-year old Kenyan man, once a Mau Mau freedom fighter who stood up to British colonial rule in the 1950s, and young teacher to whom he comes for a primary education, promised by the government. Additionally, this film explores the relationship between the older generation ( who lived through this tumultuous time) and the young children who have no understanding of their past, and the middle generation who aren’t sure that they want the past remembered.
This piece, as the title suggests, is about education: the power of education and the many ways we learn throughout our life.
The First Grader was written by Ann Peacock, a California-based screenwriter born and raised in S. Africa. It was directed by Justin Chadwick, from the UK.
This week we are also reading a short story by the most well-known African writer, Chinua Achebe, who died in 2013. His most famous novel, Things Fall Apart, tells the story of a Nigerian tribal leader who struggles with the modernization of his country, to tragic effect. It is Shakespearean in its tragic arc. Jerome Brooks of the Paris Review shares this biographical information about Achebe:
Chinua Achebe was born in Eastern Nigeria in 1930. He went to the local public schools and was among the first students to graduate from the University of Ibadan. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation as a radio producer and Director of External Broadcasting, and it was during this period that he began his writing career.
He is the author, coauthor, or editor of some seventeen books, among them five novels: Things Fall Apart, 1958; No Longer at Ease, 1960; Arrow of God, 1964; A Man of the People, 1966; and Anthills of the Savannah, 1987. He is the editor of several anthologies, including the essay collections Morning Yet on Creation Day and Hopes and Impediments, and the collection of poetry Beware Soul Brother. He is the editor of the magazine Okike and founding editor of the Heinemann series on African literature, a list that now has more than three hundred titles. He is often called the father of modern African literature. He is the recipient, at last count, of some twenty-five honorary doctorates from universities throughout the world and is currently the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of English at Bard College.
Week 5 Reading
View: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Voices of Russia
Russian Literature
Russian literature boasts many of the great names of the 20th century, including Tolstoy, Bulgakov, Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn, and Nabokov.
These writers employed many styles, including social realism, magical realism, and Modernism to create famous characters like Anna Karenina, the Brothers Karamazov, and Lolita, all of whom reflect their historical moment and provide a framework for social commentary, a dangerous prospect at times in a country where the KGB monitored expression carefully.
Anna Karenina
Critically praised when it was released in 2012, Anna Karenina is directed by Joe Wright, a British man, and based on an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s novel by the Czech-born British playwright Tom Stoppard.
You’ll notice that it is highly stylized. By that, I mean that costumes, scenery, and staging are a significant element of this film version that communicate a message all on their own.
As you are watching, you will notice that there are many relationships featured: those between husband and wife, wife and lover, husband and lover, boyfriend and girlfriend, siblings, parent and child, etc. Additionally, this work explores how all these relationships are anchored to society at a specific moment in time, when traditional life was slowly evolving to more modern ways of thinking. At its core, this film, and the novel upon which it is based, explores the value of tradition in a modernizing world.
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