Each of you will be doing a presentation in groups of 2 or 3. Here are some general guidelines. You should be sure to consult with one another about this project! I'm also happy to have you come speak with me beforehand.
You should choose a passage (a couple of paragraphs) from the novel, or you may choose a theme (example: religion vs. science) or a repeated image (example: a thread unspooling). Give a 5-minute presentation on how your passage is significant, or how the author uses the theme/imagery. Then you should come up with a substantial question or two to pose to the group. This should be a discussion question--one that will spark conversation--and not just a question that could be answered simply.
I will give you a fair amount of leeway in how you structure the presentation, as long as you engage critically and substantially with the material.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Paper topics
Write a 4-5 page paper on one of the following topics.
Paper due: Wednesday, April 1, 4 p.m. to my office, Cushing-Martin 134
Analyze images of the date palm tree in Season of Migration to the North. Salih begins the novel with a deeply-rooted palm that gives a “feeling of assurance” to the narrator. What does the palm tree represent to him, and how does that meaning shift over the course of the novel?
Discuss the role of poetry in Season of Migration. Mustafa Sa’eed’s poetry recitation first reveals his secret former life; the narrator has a doctorate in English poetry; the driver in the desert sings Arabic poetry to his car; and when the narrator enters Sa’eed’s room, we learn that Sa’eed has tried to write poetry himself. What is the significance of these various poems? What do they tell us about the characters who write/recite them? What kind of language is a poem, and how does it differ from other forms of narration or storytelling? What do the poems have to do with cultural identity? Why does Salih include poems as part of his novel (verse in the midst of prose)?
Compare Jean Morris and Hosna Bint Mahmoud as doubles of one another. Although they are very different in both character and circumstance, there are many parallels between them—most obviously that both are murdered by their husbands in an act of sexual violence, and both also threaten violence themselves. Analyze these characters’ motivations and the events that shape their relationships with men. What does this doubling tell us about the larger themes of the novel—the conflict between or blurring of North and South, male and female, black and white, colonizer and colonized? About problems of power? Be careful not just to list their similarities and/or differences, but to explore how and why Salih creates this parallel.
Analyze images of war, battle, and violence in Season of Migration. Mustafa Sa’eed imagines himself as a warrior and his bedroom as a “theater of war;” who or what is he fighting? Why is the poem he recites about World War I? Where else do we find war imagery?
Analyze images of water (rivers, oceans, floods) in Season of Migration. What does water represent to Salih? Is it healing or damaging; an escape or a trap; productive or destructive? Why does Se’eed describe his mother’s face as being like the sea? Does its meaning change over time, depending on the context, or for different characters?
Compare the relationship between aliens and humans in two of the following films/readings: E.T., War of the Worlds, Alien, or Forbidden Planet. Some of the questions you might address: What does the alien’s physical appearance tell us? What dichotomies (pairings of opposites) and conflicts does it set up? What is the goal of the “invading” species? What human fears does the encounter incite? What, if anything, does it warn against? How are humans different from and similar to the alien? (Be sure not simply to answer these questions, but to develop a specific and narrow argument.)
Analyze images of parents in Alien and/or E.T. Alien is full of images and the vocabulary of mothering, birth, and gestating. E.T. seems preoccupied with absent fathers and father-figures. Why are parents so important in these tales?
Analyze Derek Walcott’s use of mythical, Biblical, or epic imagery in one or two of his poems. How does his use of these allusions interact with the ordinary, present-day elements of the poems?
Compare images of arrival in two of Walcott’s poems: “Homecoming: Anse La Raye,” “Landfall, Grenada,” or “Exile.” How do his different speakers imagine their arrivals? What conflicts and encounters does he depict—between people, between cultures, between bodies and land—and how do his speakers deal with those encounters?
Both of Lahiri’s stories present imperfect marriages with a third party (Mrs. Croft and Mr. Kapasi) who somehow intervenes in or helps to “interpret” the marriage. How does each of these stories understand marriage? Are Mrs. Croft and Mr. Kapasi similar in any way? How do you analyze the ending of each story?
Paper due: Wednesday, April 1, 4 p.m. to my office, Cushing-Martin 134
Analyze images of the date palm tree in Season of Migration to the North. Salih begins the novel with a deeply-rooted palm that gives a “feeling of assurance” to the narrator. What does the palm tree represent to him, and how does that meaning shift over the course of the novel?
Discuss the role of poetry in Season of Migration. Mustafa Sa’eed’s poetry recitation first reveals his secret former life; the narrator has a doctorate in English poetry; the driver in the desert sings Arabic poetry to his car; and when the narrator enters Sa’eed’s room, we learn that Sa’eed has tried to write poetry himself. What is the significance of these various poems? What do they tell us about the characters who write/recite them? What kind of language is a poem, and how does it differ from other forms of narration or storytelling? What do the poems have to do with cultural identity? Why does Salih include poems as part of his novel (verse in the midst of prose)?
Compare Jean Morris and Hosna Bint Mahmoud as doubles of one another. Although they are very different in both character and circumstance, there are many parallels between them—most obviously that both are murdered by their husbands in an act of sexual violence, and both also threaten violence themselves. Analyze these characters’ motivations and the events that shape their relationships with men. What does this doubling tell us about the larger themes of the novel—the conflict between or blurring of North and South, male and female, black and white, colonizer and colonized? About problems of power? Be careful not just to list their similarities and/or differences, but to explore how and why Salih creates this parallel.
Analyze images of war, battle, and violence in Season of Migration. Mustafa Sa’eed imagines himself as a warrior and his bedroom as a “theater of war;” who or what is he fighting? Why is the poem he recites about World War I? Where else do we find war imagery?
Analyze images of water (rivers, oceans, floods) in Season of Migration. What does water represent to Salih? Is it healing or damaging; an escape or a trap; productive or destructive? Why does Se’eed describe his mother’s face as being like the sea? Does its meaning change over time, depending on the context, or for different characters?
Compare the relationship between aliens and humans in two of the following films/readings: E.T., War of the Worlds, Alien, or Forbidden Planet. Some of the questions you might address: What does the alien’s physical appearance tell us? What dichotomies (pairings of opposites) and conflicts does it set up? What is the goal of the “invading” species? What human fears does the encounter incite? What, if anything, does it warn against? How are humans different from and similar to the alien? (Be sure not simply to answer these questions, but to develop a specific and narrow argument.)
Analyze images of parents in Alien and/or E.T. Alien is full of images and the vocabulary of mothering, birth, and gestating. E.T. seems preoccupied with absent fathers and father-figures. Why are parents so important in these tales?
Analyze Derek Walcott’s use of mythical, Biblical, or epic imagery in one or two of his poems. How does his use of these allusions interact with the ordinary, present-day elements of the poems?
Compare images of arrival in two of Walcott’s poems: “Homecoming: Anse La Raye,” “Landfall, Grenada,” or “Exile.” How do his different speakers imagine their arrivals? What conflicts and encounters does he depict—between people, between cultures, between bodies and land—and how do his speakers deal with those encounters?
Both of Lahiri’s stories present imperfect marriages with a third party (Mrs. Croft and Mr. Kapasi) who somehow intervenes in or helps to “interpret” the marriage. How does each of these stories understand marriage? Are Mrs. Croft and Mr. Kapasi similar in any way? How do you analyze the ending of each story?
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