The rain came grace ogot symbolism

Unit 6: Continental Europe III: Modern Drama - Research Links

To research the playwright, click the Doll's House, an Ibsen library, Ibsen home page, or a bio of Ibsen.

To research feminist readings, strike an American production, or Ibsen and feminism.

To research feminism, hit feminist activism, counters to radical feminism. There are many kinds of feminism: see the most extenstive bibliography.

Module 6: Lecture -- A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen

Objectives:

With the perhaps founding work of modern drama before us, different in theme and technique from ancient or late medieval and Renaissance drama, we shall be looking for evidence that the play sets out an indictment of patriarchal institutions of marriage and family, as has been alleged by many readers. Ibsen seems to deny it.

Modern drama privileges an individual character's point of view. How is that true here? Gender roles, and the division of labor, are typical modernist themes (though they do occur earlier, often in surprisingly different form!) Ask whether the play demonstrates inequity between the sexes.

The emphasis on perspective, however, puts a particular burden on the audience or reader. Your own ability to perceive and to judge can be crucial in determining what the play means. So do not just accept what someone else says is the meaning! Note thus that we should want more than just assertions of inequity.

The modernist assumptions about sexual inequity may hide a more conflicted and ambiguous (or tragically ambivalent) situation. See then whether there is a definitive clash of values, or of systems of belief, such as we would expect in ancient Greek tragedy.

NOTE! If there is a clash along the tragic lines of the Greek model, then both sides may have strong reasons on their side, and the pursuit of ideals can lead to personal and social catastrophe on both sides. Such a "final cause" to the action (Nora leaving) would honor neither the deeply flawed society that Ibsen depicts -- nor, for that matter, the moral and socio-economic condition of a woman who chooses to walk away from it all.

What role does moral agency play in this modern drama? What role does emotion play? How is moral agency defined here? And is this a tragedy -- or a comedy?

NOTE! A successful indictment of a patriarchal institution would be deemed by many feminist readers a "happy" way to end the play, while Ibsen's own case study notes for this play are strikingly entitled a "tragedy."

Competencies:

Don't forget to provide these in the journal; copy them over.

1. Demonstrate the use of foreshadowing in the plot development here.

2. Define social stereotypes and illustrate them here. Why do they exist, and what effect do they have?

3. Define and illustrate inequality in the roles of the sexes here. Is there any difference between inequality, and inequity? Or equality and identity? [Look them up!]

4. Determine Torvald's perspective on the alleged injustice done to Nora.

5. Define the role of audience in a dramatic conflict of beliefs, or a social crisis, such as Ibsen's clarification of the human and particularly female experience.

6. Contrast the dramatic method of Ibsen with those of Sophocles and Everyman. What is the impact of the demand for realistic points of view, especially in drama, on the author's narrative? The role of psychological realism on characterization?

7. Describe the structure of authority and responsibility, the division of labor, and the tension between affection and sacrifice, in the conventional marriage in Ibsen. Is modern marriage at all similar?

8. What is Krogstad's relation to Nora? Identify the literary device.

9. Why is Dr. Rank's health "bankrupt"? What is Helmer's occupation? Explain the figure of speech used here.

Methodological and Epistemological Factors in the Modern Drama, as in The Doll's House

The Modern era is in many ways quite different from the ancient world, and from medieval culture or the Renaissance, as we saw in the last module. Ibsen helps to usher in the modernist era, in the late 19th century. This modernism has certain typical characteristics that come into focus with him and others like Dostoyevsky and Chekhov. We will examine one of the modernist subjects momentarily, but I wish to draw your attention to some underlying issues of method.

Realism: Realism requires that what is represented be like ordinary "real" experience. Of course, the question must arise, what sort of experience would that be? It is sometimes asserted to be sensible, material, practical "stuff," what normal people might encounter in ordinary living: such as watching the laundry turn in the laundromat, or feeling gravity propell a speeding car off the cliff. Of course, sensation, matter, and the laws of physics do not tell us what we feel or think, or what to make of what we experience, or what to do and why.

More to the point, different points of view are the key to different kinds of experience, and in modernism the creative or critical trick is to illuminate a particular angle of vision. Ibsen does this with each major character, but especially Nora, and except for the business of deception and one particular disagreement on values, they all seem to have compatible points of view, which is why the drama seems "realistic," and also why Nora is so affective with the audience. Each one knows no more than his or her eyes can tell, and every one has his or her own agenda, which ultimately is to serve the self. Others are obstacles or aids to one's self-serving course of action. (Consider Doctor Rank, and of course, Krogstad, pushed past decent behavior by need, or revenge).

Compare this individual knowing and acting with the sentry making report of the unburied body to Creon. There is plenty of tension, but the point of their communication is to pass information and to have it accepted. The knowledge, though due to a possibly suspect angle of vision, is the basis for common ground, once truly shared. This scene (calling attention to contending over knowing) actually gives us our first sense that Creon as tyrant is arrogant and dangerous. Information becomes a precious, perhaps scarce commodity to be fought over. The individual's possession of certain facts (as much as social position, or money) in Ibsen gives power, even character, to the characters.

So, in the strongest currents of modernism (if not in the broadest part of the popular stream), realism has more to do with the perception of what is true or important, than with the reality being represented. The given condition or context of an individual will be important, but the important business of a truly modernist story will be how the context or condition is perceived by one or by several characters. Plot tension comes thus in part or whole from deceptions, revelations and conflicts over what is true or good. Psychological realism (narrating from a particular, often flawed point of view, with the appropriate interests and methods of speaking, thinking and acting), as Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky did, is not a big leap. Yet the external realities are potentially unreliable: it is the point of view that counts. So Ambrose Bierce fools the reader in "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge": the hanged man imagines the whole escape.

Consider Nora's point of view. It is our dramatic focus. Thus her perceptions tend to rule ours. (In The Mousetrap, Agatha Christie uses the unconscious audience sympathies with the "point of view" character to set us up for the surprise ending of the mystery.) We sympathize, bristling at Thorvald's manner of referring to his wife as a little bird, yet forgiving Nora her lies and her focus on money. What niggling doubts we have (which are given voice by the superior Thorvald) are usually translated out of mind by the key revelation that her actions are all part of a grand sacrifice, for her ungrateful husband. Even her eventual traumatic departure is set up as a noble gesture to spare her children from a lying, dishonorable mother, and her husband from bearing the burden of dishonor on his own broad shoulders alone.

We therefore ignore the niggling fact that Thorvald did not know about the sacrifice, or even the purpose of the trip to Italy. We forget his bankerly warning

· that lies, like forgery, rob one of the substance of character (like a bankable commodity in the unforgiving eyes of society), and

· that the condition of lying will also affect one internally, in motivation and responsibility (like a moral slippery slope) --

· or that he could be right on both accounts.

We can likewise ignore the less than noble indebtedness of Nora's historical model (in Ibsen's notes).

We finally may ignore the direct contradiction of the value of self-sacrifice, in Nora's departure from the man for whom she has just devoted apparently many happy but hard years, and even from her children, who cannot be said to have done any harm to her. Ibsen sets this up. Act I ends with her worry about the children, and her husband's brusque evaluation of her character, in the person of Krogstad. Is she sacrificing her self for their sake? That is not the impression most people have at the end. Her husband's strict moral standard on lies and such is seen to drive her away. The very emphasis on perception that informs this play makes interpreting it (by a simple, plot-supported theme like the "rejection of patriarchal marriage") a difficult task.

Pertinent Elements of Plot

Note Torvald's "mysterious" preoccupation with business, endless papers in the study: the conventional man's world. Yet it is such a paper that threatens Nora's life, and had saved Torvald's life. Nora complains of not being able to manage affairs (but rejects Mrs. Linden's scolding imputation of a woman's affair, as her means of raising money). Money seems key: it is, socially as well as economically, the medium of exchange -- what makes social relationships work, under the surface, ignorable by the Noras of the world, until a Krogstad brings it out. Of course, he was also compelled to forge for a "good reason," like her.

Indeed, Ibsen could be said to be indicting society's lack of a medical safety net. He is also indicting a representative Norseman's obsession with the appearance of honor, and key to that is the absence of forgiveness. He runs against the Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"), when rejecting Krogstad from polite society, including his home. It is noteworthy that social positions are reversed: Torvald has the social capital now -- but fortunes change, as Krogstad illustrates. This stiff honor actually weakens the businessman's ability to surmount misfortune, at least when his character is not as rock hard as Torvald's. Business qua business is by its nature unforgiving.

We see Torvald playing at love, with his words and his conventional role as husband and father, but he takes his business home. Does he really love them? How would you know? One key is to determine where love (a.k.a. charity) stands in his priorities. It is below honor and will remain so, if his character cannot change (as Nora assumes). The other key is representative language and action: he is the source of money; he belittles her even as he praises her; and she has defined love in terms of sacrifice. In the latter sense, Krogstad at first stands above Torvald, though his revenge is to send Nora into the gutter as his moral and social equal. Nora embraces her fate, in that sense, rather resist it as her husband suggests. (Yet the Helmers did survive many lean years and maintained their honor and love -- but Ibsen does not show us that other life.)

Historical Perspective

Although written by a Norwegian author, the struggle and conflict of this play is a part of each country's development and is as appropriate a topic for social discussion today as back in the 1880s. Nora is a woman of her 19th century times, and, today, many women are still fighting for socio-economic independence and legal equality. Today, some women struggle against what is termed the glass ceiling, or choose to fight the stereotypical roles of women. In the late 19th century, a middle-class woman's place was generally in the home, as the manager of the house, the middle-class version of the estate or farm. Wage-earning career opportunities for women who wanted or needed to work were largely limited to those of seamstress, teacher, nurse, or in some instances clerical worker or shop salesperson. A girl was traditionally raised to be a good wife and mother. She was often not expected to be educated (considered a waste of time and money, as in Charles Dickens' Hard Times) or to have a career (considered unnecessary, since they would be dependent upon their husbands). The division of labor, though in the city, is modelled on that of farm-life, but the roles are less clearly determined. Girls were instructed to marry well by attracting a husband who would be a good provider as well as a loving mate (in that order). Her husband would earn and manage the family finances, giving her an annual stipend for meals, household expenses and clothing. What we may not understand, then, is what Nora is rejecting -- or gaining -- socially or economically. She has had a role, and she no longer will have one. Perhaps she has savings or marketable skills, but what safety net does she have outside her family? (She has not feared indebitedness before.) There is no particular future for her out that door. She has sacrificed, finally, for herself, to give up comfort and conventionality for freedom, freedom from Torvald and freedom to have experience all her own. A room of one's own must be a scarce commodity to be so precious.

To tell the truth, apart from her deceptions, she has in the course of the play already demonstrated character. What will leaving gain her, if she is already her own person within the given confines of her society? The play is notably based upon deception. Nora, in order to please her husband and pretend to play the role society has prepared for her, must conceal whatever independent actions she takes. Some are trivial, such as eating sweets, but one action is crucial to the development of the plot. Nora has borrowed money in order to finance a year in Italy for Torvald's health, and she must repay the loan. As a woman, she is not prepared for responsibilities she faces. She lacks training, experience, and opportunity in financial matters. She even lacks the legal status to negotiate the loan in her own name. However, her ingenuity in developing a secret life to negotiate and conceal the loan reveals strength of character, strong imagination, moral convictions, and courageous initiative to launch into uncharted waters.

By the end of the play, Nora brushes aside social norms of the day and has the courage to face public condemnation for leaving her husband and children (in order, she says, to discover who she really is). The facts are claimed that she and Torvald are incompatible, and that she no longer loves him, and that these are sufficient reasons for her to leave him. The cost of leaving her children is much higher, but she seems to believe that greater self-knowledge will be worth the cost of leaving her children. (I do not actually see this justification being developed in the body of the play.) In fact, the message of the play seems to be that learning who one is and becoming that person are worth any price.

Psychological Perspective

The individual clearly dominates society in the play. Yet, it is a typical pattern of character development, whereby one character plays the opposite or double of another. Nora and Mrs. Linden are such opposites, and they help develop our understanding of potential female perspectives. They may represent the possible dual nature found within all women. Mrs. Linden is Nora's double or doppelganger, in that she represents what Nora secretly admires and wants to become, an autonomous woman who is free to take risks and to assume the responsibilities and consequences of her actions. Nora wants the freedom she sees in Mrs. Linden, while the irony is that Mrs. Linden wants the loving husband and family that Nora has. Mrs. Linden represents Nora's alter ego (the other self). Ibsen thus does not truly endorse Nora's revolt, at least not in a vacuum, because there is another point of view. Mediating the two views of women's roles probably allows us to discover Ibsen's nuanced vision of women's personal and social potential. The trick is for the audience to remember Christina.

Nora is not pleased to be Torvald's dearest treasure. She has been forced to leave the dance before she was ready to go, and she is annoyed at Torvald as well as worried about how soon he will read Krogstad's letter. Additionally, Nora resents Torvald's objectification of her ("his little bird" in dozens of phrases), and his appropriation of her as something belonging to him. The latter is most precisely what leaving demolishes. All of these emotions mean that she is not receptive to Torvald's ill-timed attempts at romance.

Social Perspective

Nora's problem is caused both by her and Torvald's personalities and/or the values created by the society in which they live. Their society supports dominating men, rather than liberated women, a fact that makes Nora the unusual partner in the marriage and gives Torvald little motivation to change his attitudes. On the other hand, in any society, a woman would have to be very insecure and needy to be happy with a husband who cares more about what other people think of him than he cares about his wife. At least, the trigger event is his valuing honor over love. But what does he mean by honor, and what does she mean by love? Could both values be defined in terms of sacrifice, including self-sacrifice?

By the end of the play, Nora has exchanged one set of problems with another. She has cut herself off from the traditional support of a family, and she needs to find a job so that she can be financially independent. It might be possible, in time, for her to find both emotional and financial security, but she will have to do it spite of social opposition.

Nora wrestles with the social pressure of the good of the family prevailing over the needs of the individual. Nora must consider how much value she will be to her children and they to her. She must answer the question: Should she continue to treat them like dolls, as Torvald treats her? If that is how you treat someone you love, what does it mean to love? to be a puppet-master, or a kind of voyeur? If that is love, it might be better not to inflict yourself on those you say you love -- and become silent and alone, like Dr. Rank. To her, the price for independence is therefore (I infer) worth the loss of the family. Note that Mrs. Linden does not balance Nora on this issue, by the end of the play.

Ibsen portrays Nora as important in that she rebels against the inequitable values of society. Torvald is very important in that he epitomizes the self-satisfied attitudes that Ibsen is criticizing in contemporary life.

Ibsen's Themes:

1) A marriage based upon misperceptions, deceptions, and inequality is not a true marriage, which would display unity (not inequity) and be a vehicle compassion (not honor);

2) In Ibsen's view, a person's primary obligation is to self while everyone else (even the closest family members) comes second;

3) The most important goal for a person in life is, as the Greek oracle at Delphi instructed the petitioner, know thyself;

4) The development of an individual's personality and the fulfillment of personal goals are just as important for a woman as they are for a man. So even though Torvald's commitment to honor (at the expense of wife and family) is suspect, Nora's commitment to self-respect (a.k.a. honor ) is dramatically the last word.

Ideology, Moral Agency, and Utopianism

The easy reading of The Doll's House, following the point of view characer and the critical metaphor of the title, is a feminist attack on patriarchal institutions and male arrogance. These things may need criticism, but there is a danger in universalizing a particular angle of vision, such as Nora's revolt, or indeed either gender's entitlement. Modernism, in fact, has often been guilty of this transformation: the particularly interesting point of view becomes convincing and absolute (in its own view); think of racism, fascism, jingoistic patriotism, the perhaps benevolent dictator or boss, et cetera,.

Nora's departure is a leap into utopia -- an idealized picture of what she thinks she wants. Many of us do the utopian gamble. The problem with utopia is indicated by the word: (e- or o-)topia, "a good place" -- or "no place at all." Political utopianism in the 20th century is famous for being terribly destructive: thus, communism was the purification of society; Hitler always wanted to improve things, and then he got the power. On a more personal scale, feminist glorification of Nora is such a false move.

Against this absolutizing the single point of view is the Golden Mean. Mix Nora and Mrs. Linden together. Eschew extremes. The play may not encourage us here, but there are clues that Ibsen could agree. A related notion is that the often derided status quo may not be so bad. The grass may not be greener. The devil you know is better than the devils you don't. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. So Nora could change her world without destroying it. She could throw out the bathwater but (literally) keep the baby.

Moreover, there is the Golden Rule, which is at the heart of Greek and Christian notions of moral agency. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Act charitably. Do not act toward others merely out of expectation of personal gain. Nora was expecting Torvald's sacrifice of honor, like the payment due on a bond. Moral agency is about how one acts especially toward others. Nora turns inward (a common modern, and ancient, mistake).

What should she make of the distasteful husband and the inequitable status of women in society? Make the best of the situation. Better yet, turn a bad into a good. Namely, change Torvald, or compromise with him. That is a specifically Christian answer. If it is hard to do, given the complexities of the particular situation, then the important struggle (for the literature to work out) ought to be to figure out how. We do not quite get that from Ibsen, or most modernists, in fact. A fundamental tendency in modernist literature is to strive for significance by choosing to represent bad things like war, starvation or sexism. The plot, it is assumed, should not have a truly happy ending, because then it would resemble wishful thinking and not be serious literature anymore.

Personally, one reason I read literature is to figure out how to solve important issues. Modernist works of literature often stop short of solving the very problems it points out. One of the three defining purposes of literature, besides pleasing and moving people to act, is to teach. The job of the reader -- of us -- is to learn.

Unit 7: Africa I: Fantasy and History - Research Links
To read Diop, "Africa," and Dadie, "Dry Your Tears, Africa," read below first. If you would like information about Aladdin, read below second. If you would like information about Sinbad, read below third.

If you would like more information and comments regarding Negritude, read below fourth.

Module 7: Africa--Lecture on Tall Tales and Short Stories, and the Historical Contexts

OBJECTIVES

We begin to lay the groundwork for our appreciation of literature in Africa, which begins with the recognition that is a gigantic geographical region, with diverse peoples, cultures and histories. The very word "Africa" designates a place more on the maps of European traders and colonizers than in the minds of its inhabitants. Our first readings are out of medieval Islamic culture, in part to point up this limitation on our vocabulary.

Two of our selections wrestle with that word, which itself is a sign that those poems are mid- to late twentieth century in perspective. Africa becomes mythologized, in a way like and yet unlike the imagery of William Blake's "Tyger, tyger, burning bright in the forests of the night," or Rudyard Kipling's savage background to the "white man's burden" of civilizing the uncivil natives. De-colonizing Africa has had as much to do with building up the identity of the freed lands, as with losing a layer of colonial bureaucracy or military.

Our other two selections also wrestle with this issue of a "modern" identity for Africans, though not in overtly political ways. In fact, in these two stories it is clear that it is the Africans who must wrestle free of a sometimes dark and clouded heritage. We will see this again in Wole Soyinka's play next week, and Chinua Achebe's novel in two weeks. De-colonization itself has proven a mixed blessing.

In addition to our geographical focus, we also have a mix of literary modes and genres. The adventurous tale, heroic perhaps but perhaps impossible, stands over against the realistic short stories that represent aspects of a particular cultural history. We need to see how these are alike but different, and to evaluate their respective advantages and disadvantages, for there are two branches of literature here.

Competencies

1. What is a tall tale?

2. What is a short story?

3. Which stories are like a fable? Explain how so.

4. What is realistic about one story? Does this add to the validity of the story? Explain both answers.

5. What is physically impossible in one story? Explain whether this hurts the validity of the story.

6. What is merely implausible in one story? Explain its function in the plot.

7. Which poem gives you a stronger appreciation, or a more complete understanding, of Africa? Explain, with details from both the poems.

8. What is a rite of passage? Illustrate.

9. What is a fertility rite? Why does one exist? What is the meaning of opposing romantic love to the trade-off of life and death in the fertility rite (in Ogot, as in Greek myth and Arthurian legend)?

The Middle East

Aladdin

The king of India, Shahyrar, having been betrayed once, vows never to be fooled again, so he marries a new wife each day and beheads her the next (for three years). Scheherezade tells him a suspenseful story each night, when she becomes queen, so that he postpones the execution each time. Indeed, she chooses to become his wife to stop the slaughter. One thousand and one nights later, so the frame story goes, the barbaric rule is erased. In truth, the stories were collected over many years in many places, as a medieval anthology of short fiction (like our own), before being compiled in one printing c.1500.

"Aladdin" is one of her tales. This is not your Disney film! Many tales are racy or bloodthirsty, not what we would think of as children's literature. The betrayal of women in the frame story is an example.

The lamp can stand for wish fulfillment, a common enough element in day-dreams. A poor boy wishes to alter his circumstances. This is a motivation we can sympathize with. There is a danger in lamps: wishing for too much, not having the character to handle good fortune (which may be implicit in how one handles bad fortune too), and doing the wrong thing with the advantages one has. Here the hero needs to be a sympathetic figure, to be a good role model for other people who may have wish-fulfillment fantasies, like children (and their parents!). Can we take either magician seriously as a figure of evil?

Sindbad

This tale has the most developed plot, short of the frame story of the Arabian Nights itself. Sinbad even has its own frame story. The seven voyages emphasize adventure, seeing the world, which is a bit like what we are doing in this course. Each trip involves excitement, which is, metaphorically or really, magic. Tales of adventure tend to be entertaining, thus, but these tales often use magic to propel the plot, which has been anathema to modernist writers (except for an element of the fantastic in Latin American magical realism)..

The frame story suggests a moral angle missing from Aladdin. Wealth and social status, however desireable, can be questioned. Desires do not justify themselves here. So magic is less a matter of wish fulfillment, more an aspect of nature or of narrative. Adventure while inescpable and often enoyable is not an end in itself. Sindbad donates profits to the poor.

Note that the "magic" in the first tale is a mattter of mistaken identity. The wonder is quite natural. The second wonder is quasi-natural. Both tricks of the imaginative narrative are familiar in science fiction. Dangers moreover carry rewards.

The third voyage is adapted from classical Greek literature (the Odyssey). The fourth voyage is a window on strange -- but plausible -- social customs. The fifth voyage sets out tactical problems. The sixth voyage is a matter of finding opportunities wherever and whenever they appear (and even when they hide!) Finally, the seventh voyage shows us Sindbad no longer in command, commanded, then enslaved; he is a mighty hunter, yet he discovers the point of view of the hunted and is mightily rewarded.

Even Hindbad who provokes the telling of the tales is rewarded. Note that here, as in the larger frame story of Scheherazade, the tale itself is the real prize, and the reader is the true sailor.

Western, Eastern and Southern Africa

Dry Your Tears, Africa! by Bernard Dadie

This poem can be interpreted as a return from a journey that is either real or symbolic, or as both. The persona of the poem appears to be speaking for all returning Africans.

Historic Perspective: The poem's publication in the 1950s could recall Africans returning to the continent following the events of World War II. During WWII, some African troops fought alongside French forces on the European continent. The African countries would have been brought into the war based upon the colonization activities taking place in Africa by the European nations.

In this light, the reader might interpret the discrimination and prejudice experienced by the African troops in the lines "storm and squalls of fruitless journeys" and "the springs of ill fortune and or glory". Even though the African troops fought on the Allied side during the war, the persona clearly names the fruitlessness of their efforts, presumably because it was not "their" fight.

Archetypal Perspective: On a symbolic level, the persona may be referring to the tendency of human nature to want to return home to native roots. This could symbolize the "tie that binds" and the national pride in the sense of motherland or fatherland. The returning children may refer to the many Africans whom the Europeans assimilated by educating them in systems that taught foreign values, languages, and culture. As a result, many became more European than African, yet as in Dadie's Negritude movement, there was the desire to return home.

The poem reflects the values of the Negritude movement (the goal of which was to bring Africans back into African culture by showing them the unique and appealing aspects of their own traditions and values that would make them proud to be an African) in its personification of Africa as the loving mother, and those who have left, as her children (very archetypal)

A Sunrise on the Veld, by Doris Lessing

This is a powerful, yet typical, rite-of-passage story, a journey of initiation. Rites-of-passage stories are archetypal in nature. Every culture has traditions which signify passage from one phase of life to another: from childhood to adulthood, from one educational level to another, etc. The rites (rituals) are not necessarily the same for males and females. In this story the rite-of-passage involves moving from adolescence to adulthood.

The protagonist of the story leaves home at dawn on a hunting expedition, feeling exuberantly omnipotent. His euphoria is shattered when he discovers an injured buck in the process of being eaten to the bone by hordes of voracious ants.

This sight serves as an epiphany for the boy. He suddenly becomes aware of the fact that death is an inherent part of life and that, like the fate of the buck, the circumstances of his own mortality are beyond his ability to predict or control (rather fatalistic)times when he has injured a wild animal and left it to its fate in order to be home in time for breakfast, and he suddenly feels the guilt of acting selfishly and irresponsibly. He knows that this incident with its accompanying insights has irrevocably changed the course of his life, and he plans to take the time to ponder its significance. However, he crosses the threshold into adulthood reluctantly, nostalgic for his lost innocence and not quite ready for the pain, loss, and guilt that are part of the adult world.

The archetypal perspective continues from the story's two major themes involving the nature of the universe and the relationship of human beings to that universe. The issues of control over one's life and the extent to which one's fate is unpredictable and inescapable are serious subjects contemplated by each generation of human beings. Lessing's third-person limited (meaning the narrator is not all-knowing) narrative perspective dramatizes the contrast between the boy's feelings of control and power in a benign universe before seeing the dying buck and, afterwards, his feelings of fatalism in a cruel and uncaring universe.

The second theme involves a different, but equally important, conception of the universe and the relationship of human beings to it. In Lessing's hands, nature becomes a living entity (personification) that is the essence of the universe. Both animals and humans are part of that totality, neither more nor less than the other. Once nature is understood in this way, the responsibility of human beings to the plant and animal kingdoms becomes clear. The boy's feelings and perceptions are described in figurative and sensory language that enables the reader to experience the environment as directly as if he or she were actually accompanying the boy on the journey. Thus, in this respect, a crucial issue in the story becomes the reader's response on an empathetic level.

Africa! by David Mandessi Diop

This is another example of literature in the spirit of Negritude. Specifically, the poem opposes (colonial) oppression to the (forgotten) glories of free Africa. The repeated opening line, "Africa, my Africa," is an almost patriotic chant.

Some of the language invokes ancestral inhabitation of the land. The figure of ancestral Africa personifies the sufferings of the people, to the poet's voice. She answers when he asks, then, of the spirit of the land. It is a living tree, young and growing, amid the white and faded flowers (symbols of the old and colonial Africa, soon to be surpassed), not to be oppressed by minor suffering. The fruit of this new cultivation will eventually be liberty. The poem thus is about the transformation of culture.

Of course, it is Diop's hoped-for acculturation here. De-colonization may be under way, though not too far along at this point, but what would need to happen to make this vision of liberty is a strong culture. Africa is too big to be one society. Diop registers the incipient problem with the word "bitter" in the last line. That liberty can be bitter will be a surprise to those who think that freedom is like dessert, all sweets and no pain. Diop phrases the bitter taste of liberty as a kind of growing pain, necessary to the overcoming of colonialism and to the building of a new society. The problem with this political vision is that it smacks of wish-fulfillment (a poem to be rubbed like Aladdin's lamp). We know that few nations established strong cultures in Africa in the last forty years, and that Africa is torn with fighting. Some Africans even blame the very de-colonization which Diop is praying for.

The Rain Came, by Grace A. Ogot

This story has many different levels of meaning, depending upon your point of view and your desired critical approach. Some readers will give it romantic appeal (meaning good triumphs, a happy ending, etc., romanticism in literature does not mean emotional love, even though the subject matter might deal with love), while others give it intellectual power. The story's romantic appeal is based on its satisfying conclusion, where love conquers adversity. Stories of beautiful maidens in distress, like Oganda, who are rescued by handsome and courageous young men, like Osinda, are the subject of many romantic folktales and myths. Because it ends with a feeling (although not an actuality) of "happily ever after," the story satisfies the human need for love, security, and justice, almost like a fairy tale.

The story gains intellectual appeal from its examination of the role of tradition in society. The story contains the archetypal fertility myth, where the sacrifice of a valued and beautiful young virgin is necessary in order to bring rain for the growth of the crops. Ogot dramatizes the intense emotion with which individuals respond to the traditional demands of their society under circumstances where "love it or leave it" are the only options. Labong'o experiences heartrending conflict between his responsibility to his people and his responsibility to his family, but, as chief, he does not have the freedom to choose. Oganda experiences anguish and terror at being the sacrificial victim; she would prefer a normal life to eternal fame, but, as princess, she does not have the freedom to choose. Meanwhile, the villagers celebrate because, with the exception of Osinda, they have everything to gain and nothing personal to lose from the sacrifice of Oganda. Fortunately for Oganda, Osinda has both the motivation and the freedom to choose the course of his life. Valuing Oganda more than family, friends, and the safety of conformity, he leaves the village and rescues the woman he loves.

The fact that it rains despite Oganda's rescue means different things to different people. The villagers presumably are unaware of Oganda's fate and remain committed to their traditions. Oganda and Osinda learn that they have achieved personal happiness and freedom without cause for guilt since "the Almighty" does not punish their community for their rebellion.

The conflict between people's responsibility to their society and their personal desires and the conflict between tradition and innovation have universal application. People in every society are called upon to sacrifice their personal desires for the needs of their community., particularly in the time of social crisis. Moreover, as young people become young adults, they often find that new circumstances cause them to question traditional patterns of behavior. Though the social forms may change, however, the need for individual sacrifice does not. Managing social demands and personal desires is necessary for a happy ending. That is a plot which many of us have faced also, when we made the choices that helped to make us who we are. So, this story too can be seen archetypically as a rite-of-passage story as well.

(1) Diop

Africa (by David Diop)
Africa, my Africa Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs Africa of whom my grandmother sings On the banks of the distant river I have never known you But your blood flows in my veins Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields The blood of your sweat The sweat of your work The work of your slavery Africa, tell me Africa Is this you, this back that is bent This back that breaks Under the weight of humiliation This back trembling with red scars And saying yes to the whip under the midday sun But a grave voice answers me Impetuous child that tree, young and strong That tree over there Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers That is your Africa springing up anew Springing up patiently, obstinately Whose fruit bit by bit acquires The bitter taste of liberty.

_______________________

Afrique / Africa

by David Diop (1927-1960)

A frique mon Afrique Afrique des fiers guerriers dans les savanes ancestrales Afrique que me chantait ma grand-mère Au bord de son fleuve lointain Je ne t’ai jamais connue Mais mon regard est plein de ton sang Ton beau sang noir à travers les champs répandu Le sang de ta sueur La sueur de ton travail Le travail de l’esclavage L’esclavage de tes enfants Afrique dis-moi Afrique Est-ce donc toi ce dos qui se courbe Et se couche sous le poids de l’humilité Ce dos tremblant à zébrures rouges Qui dit oui au fouet sur les routes de midi Alors gravement une voix me répondit Fils impétueux cet arbre robuste et jeune Cet arbre là-bas Splendidement seul au milieu de fleurs blanches et fanées C’est l’Afrique ton Afrique qui repousse Qui repousse patiemment obstinément Et dont les fruits ont peu à peu L’amère saveur de la liberté.

A frica my Africa Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs Africa of whom my grandmother sings On the banks of the distant river I have never known you But your blood flows in my veins Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields The blood of your sweat The sweat of your work The work of your slavery Africa, tell me Africa Is this your back that is unbent This back that never breaks under the weight of humiliation This back trembling with red scars And saying no to the whip under the midday sun But a grave voice answers me Impetuous child that tree, young and strong That tree over there Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers That is your Africa springing up anew Springing up patiently, obstinately Whose fruit bit by bit acquires The bitter taste of liberty.

Dry Your Tears Africa

Bernard Dadie

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pH65Yza9fkw/UPc_SVHbVeI/AAAAAAAAACg/GA2VKWpFsvI/s400/crying+child.gif

(Photo from: google.com)

Dry your tears, Africa!

Your Children come back to you

Out of the storm and squalls of fruitless journeys

Through the crest of the waves and the bubbling of the breeze,

Over the gold of the East

and the Purple of the setting Sun,

the peaks of the proud mountains

and the grasslands drenched with light

They return to you

out of the storm and squalls of fruitless journeys

Dry your tears, Africa!

We have drunk

From all the springs of ill fortune and of glory

And our senses are now opened

To the splendour of your beauty

To the smell of your forests

To the charm of your waters

To the clearness of your skies

To the cares of your sun

And to the charm of your foliage pearled by the dew

Dry your tears, Africa!

Your children come back to you

Their hand full of playthings

And their heart full of love

They return to clothe you

In their dreams in their hopes

"Aladdin" and Sinbad" Wikipedia articles first, Negritude article second.

(2) Aladdin "Aladdin" From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin, April 8, 2010) This article is about the original Middle-Eastern folk tale. For the Disney animated movie adaptation, see Aladdin (1992 film). For other modern use of the characters and storyline, see Aladdin (disambiguation). For other people of the same name, see Ala-ud-din. Aladdin in the Magic Garden, an illustration by Max Liebert from Ludwig Fulda's Aladin und die Wunderlampe[1] Aladdin (an Anglicisation of the Arabic name ʻAlāʼ ad-Dīn, Arabic: علاء الدين literally "nobility of the faith") is one of the tales of medieval Arabian origin in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland (see sources and setting).[1] Contents * 1 Synopsis * 2 Sources and setting * 3 In literature, the stage, film, and games * 4 See also * 5 External links * 6 Notes Synopsis The original story of Aladdin is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It concerns an impoverished young ne'er-do-well named Aladdin, in a Chinese city, who is recruited by a sorcerer from the Maghreb (who passes himself off as the brother of Aladdin's late father) to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave. After the sorcerer attempts to double-cross him, Aladdin finds himself trapped in the cave. Fortunately, Aladdin retains a magic ring lent to him by the sorcerer. When he rubs his hands in despair, he inadvertently rubs the ring, and a djinni appears, who takes him home to his mother. Aladdin is still carrying the lamp, and when his mother tries to clean it, a second, far more powerful djinni appears, who is bound to do the bidding of the person holding the lamp. With the aid of the djinni of the lamp, Aladdin becomes rich and powerful and marries princess Badroulbadour, the Emperor's daughter. The djinni builds Aladdin a wonderful palace - far more magnificent than that of the Emperor himself. [Illustration of "Aladdin Saluted Her with Joy", Arabian Nights, the illustration by Virginia Frances Sterret, 1928, shows the Chinese-esque setting of the original tale.] The sorcerer returns and is able to get his hands on the lamp by tricking Aladdin's wife, who is unaware of the lamp's importance, by offering to exchange "new lamps for old". He orders the djinni of the lamp to take the palace to his home in the Maghreb. Fortunately, Aladdin retains the magic ring and is able to summon the lesser djinni. Although the djinni of the ring cannot directly undo any of the magic of the djinni of the lamp, he is able to transport Aladdin to Maghreb, and help him recover his wife and the lamp and defeat the sorcerer. Sources and setting [Illustration of New Crowns for Old, a 19th Century British cartoon based on the Aladdin story (Disraeli as Abanazer from the pantomime version of Aladdin offering Queen Victoria an Imperial crown (of India) in exchange for a Royal one).] No medieval Arabic source has been traced for the tale, which was incorporated into the book One Thousand and One Nights by its French translator, Antoine Galland, who heard it from an Arab Syrian storyteller from Aleppo. Galland's diary (March 25, 1709) records that he met the Maronite scholar, by name Youhenna Diab ("Hanna"), who had been brought from Aleppo to Paris by Paul Lucas, a celebrated French traveller. Galland's diary also tells that his translation of "Aladdin" was made in the winter of 1709–10. It was included in his volumes ix and x of the Nights, published in 1710. John Payne, Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp and Other Stories, (London 1901) gives details of Galland's encounter with the man he referred to as "Hanna" and the discovery in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris of two Arabic manuscripts containing Aladdin (with two more of the "interpolated" tales). One is a jumbled late 18th century Syrian version. The more interesting one, in a manuscript that belonged to the scholar M. Caussin de Perceval, is a copy of a manuscript made in Baghdad in 1703. It was purchased by the Bibliothèque Nationale at the end of the nineteenth century. Although Aladdin is a Middle-Eastern tale, the story is set in China, and Aladdin is explicitly Chinese.[2] However, the "China" of the story is an Islamic country, where most people are Muslims; there is a Jewish merchant who buys Aladdin's wares (and incidentally cheats him), but there is no mention of Buddhists or Confucians. Everybody in this country bears an Arabic name and its monarch seems much more like a Muslim ruler than a Chinese emperor. Some commentators believe that this suggests that the story might be set in Turkestan (encompassing Central Asia and the modern Chinese province of Xinjiang).[3] It has to be said that this speculation depends on a knowledge of China that the teller of a folk tale (as opposed to a geographic expert) might well not possess - compare "Cathay".[4] For a narrator unaware of the existence of America, Aladdin's "China" would represent "the Utter East" while the sorcerer's homeland in the Maghreb (Morocco) represented "the Utter West". In the beginning of the tale, the sorcerer's taking the effort to make such a long journey, the longest conceivable in the narrator's (and his listeners') perception of the world, underlines the sorcerer's determination to gain the lamp and hence the lamp's great value. In the later episodes, the instantaneous transitions from the east to the west and back, performed effortlessly by the Djinn, make their power all the more marvellous. In literature, the stage, film, and games Adam Oehlenschläger wrote his verse drama Aladdin in 1805. Carl Nielsen wrote incidental music for this play. Ferruccio Busoni set some verses from the last scene of Oehlenschläger's Aladdin in the last movement of his Piano Concerto, Op. 39. In the United Kingdom, the story of Aladdin was first published in England between 1704–14; and was dramatised in 1788 by John O'Keefe for the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.[5] It has been a popular subject for pantomime for over 200 years.[6] The traditional Aladdin pantomime is the source of the well-known pantomime character Widow Twankey (Aladdin's mother). In pantomime versions of the story, changes in the setting and plot are often made to fit it better into "China" (albeit a China situated in the East End of London rather than Medieval Baghdad). One version of the "pantomime Aladdin" is Sandy Wilson's musical Aladdin, from 1979. Since the early 1990s Aladdin pantos tend to be influenced by the Disney animation - for instance the 2007/2008 Birmingham version, which starred John Barrowman, and featured a variety of songs from the Disney movies Aladdin and Mulan. In the 1960s Bollywood produced Aladdin and Sinbad, very loosely based on the original, in which the two named heroes get to meet and share in each other's adventures. In this version, the lamp's djinni (genie) is female and Aladdin marries her rather than the princess (she becomes a mortal woman for his sake). The tale has been adapted to animated film a number of times, including Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, the 1939 Popeye the Sailor cartoon. In 1962 the Italian branch of the Walt Disney Company published the story Paperino e la grotta di Aladino (Donald and Aladdin's Cave), written by Osvaldo Pavese and drawn by Pier Lorenzo De Vita. In it, Uncle Scrooge leads Donald Duck and their nephews on an expedition to find the treasure of Aladdin and they encounter the Middle Eastern counterparts of the Beagle Boys. Scrooge describes Aladdin as a brigand who used the legend of the lamp to cover the origins of his ill-gotten gains. They find the cave holding the treasure which is blocked by a huge rock and it requires a variation of "Open Sesame" to open it, thus providing a link to Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.[2] A Soviet film Volshebnaia Lampa Aladdina ("Aladdin's Magic Lamp") was released in 1966. In 1979 kollywood produced "Allaudinaum Arputha Vilakkum" starring big Tamil actors such as Kamal Haasan as Aladdin, Rajinikanth,and many big stars In 1982 Media Home Entertainment released Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp. Gary Wong and Rob Robson produced Aladdin the Rock Panto in 1985. The GSODA Junior Players recently staged the production at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre.Adam Oehlenschläger wrote his drama Aladdin in 1805. Carl Nielsen wrote incidental music for this play. In 1986, the program Faerie Tale Theatre based an episode based on the story called "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp". In 1986, an Italian-American co-production (under supervision of Golan-Globus) of a modern-day Aladdin was filmed in Miami under the title Superfantagenio, starring actor Bud Spencer as the genie and his daughter Diamante as the daughter of a police sergeant. Currently the form in which the medieval tale is best known, especially to the very young, is Aladdin, the 1992 animated feature by Walt Disney Feature Animation. In this version several characters are renamed and/or amalgamated (for instance the Sorcerer and the Sultan's vizier become the same person, while the Princess becomes "Jasmine"), have new motivations for their actions (the Lamp Genie now desires freedom from his role) or are simply replaced (the Ring Genie disappears, but a magic carpet fills his place in the plot). The setting is moved from China to the fictional Arabian city of Agrabah, and the structure of the plot is simplified. Broadway Junior has released Aladdin Junior, a children's musical based on the music and screenplay of the Disney animation. One of the many retellings of the tale appears in A Book of Wizards and A Choice of Magic, by Ruth Manning-Sanders. There was also a hotel and casino in Las Vegas named Aladdin from 1963 to 2007. The game Sonic and the Secret Rings is heavily based on the story of Aladdin, and the main villain, known in the game as the Erazor Djinn, is the genie from the story as well. While only featured for a short segment of the film, the story of Aladdin was used as a metaphor for the Law of Attraction in the 2006 self-development film The Secret. The 2009 Bollywood movie Aladin, starring Amitabh Bachchan as the genie, Ritesh Deshmukh as Aladin, and Jacqueline Fernandez as Jasmine, borrows from aspects of the plot. See also * The Bronze Ring * Jack and His Golden Snuff-Box * The Tinder Box * One Thousand and One Nights * Arabian mythology External links * "Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp", in John Payne, Oriental Tales vol. 13 * Alaeddin, by Sir Richard Francis Burton. (in HTML and annotated) * The Thousand Nights and a Night in several classic translations, with additional material, including Payne's introduction [3] and quotes from Galland's diary. * The Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang at Project Gutenberg * Aladdin Junior, the Broadway Junior Musical Notes 1. ^ John Payne, Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp and Other Stories, (London 1901) gives details of Galland's encounter with 'Hanna' in 1709 and of the discovery in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris of two Arabic manuscripts containing Aladdin and two more of the 'interpolated' tales. Text of "Alaeddin and the enchanted lamp" 2. ^ Plotz, Judith Ann (2001). Romanticism and the vocation of childhood. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 148–149. ISBN 0312227353. 3. ^ Moon, Krystyn (2005). Yellowface. Rutgers University Press. pp. 23. ISBN 0813535077. 4. ^ Hugh Honour, Chinoiserie: The Vision of Cathay (1961). Section I "The Imaginary Continent". 5. ^ Pantomime Guided Tour: Aladdin (PeoplePlay – Theatre Museum) accessed 10 July 2008 6. ^ "Aladdin". http://www.its-behind-you.com/aladdin.html. Retrieved 2008-01-22.

(3) Sinbad _________________________________________________________________ Sinbad the Sailor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinbad_the_Sailor, April 8, 2010) Sinbad the Sailor (also spelled Sindbad; Arabic السندباد البحري as-Sindibād al-Baḥri; Persian سندباد Sendbād) is a fictional sailor from Basrah, living during the Abbasid Caliphate - the hero of a story-cycle of Middle Eastern origin. During his voyages throughout the seas east of Africa and south of Asia, he has fantastic adventures going to magical places, meeting monsters, and encountering supernatural phenomena. Contents * 1 Origins and sources * 2 The tales o 2.1 Sinbad the Porter and Sinbad the Sailor o 2.2 The First Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor o 2.3 The Second Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor o 2.4 The Third Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor o 2.5 The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor o 2.6 The Fifth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor o 2.7 The Sixth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor o 2.8 The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor * 3 Sinbad in popular culture o 3.1 Films, TV, animation o 3.2 In high culture o 3.3 In pop culture o 3.4 In science * 4 Notes * 5 External links Origins and sources Sinbad is a Persian word[1] hinting at a Persian origin. In fact some scholars believe that the Book of Sindbad, as such, was originally compiled in Sassanid Persia, although its author was familiar with Indian narrative works, possibly in Middle Persian translations.[2] The oldest texts of the cycle are however in Arabic, and no ancient or medieval Persian version has survived. A variation of the name, Smbat, can also be found in Armenia, as well as the version Lempad of his father's name Lambad. The stories themselves are based partly on real experiences of sailors around the Indian Ocean, partly on ancient poetry (including Homer's Odyssey and Vishnu Sarma's Panchatantra), and partly upon Arab, Indian and Persian folklore and literature. The collection is tale 133 in Volume 6 of Sir Richard Burton's 1885 translation of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights)[3] (despite criticisms regarding the translation and the commentary of the Burton edition, it remains the most extensive collection of Arabian Nights tales in English and is hence often used for reference purposes[4][5]). While Burton and other Western translators have grouped the Sinbad stories within the tales of Scheherazade in the Arabian Nights, its origin appears to have been quite independent from that story cycle and modern translations by Arab scholars often do not include the stories of Sinbad[6] or several other of the Arabian Nights that have become familiar to Western audiences. The tales Sinbad the Porter and Sinbad the Sailor Like the 1001 Nights' the Sinbad story-cycle has a frame story, which goes as follows: in the days of Haroun al-Rashid, Caliph of Baghdad, a poor porter (one who carries goods for others in the market and throughout the city) pauses to rest on a bench outside the gate of a rich merchant's house, where he complains to Allah about the injustice of a world which allows the rich to live in ease while he must toil and yet remain poor. The owner of the house hears, and sends for the porter, and it is found they are both named Sinbad. The rich Sinbad tells the poor Sinbad that he became wealthy, "by Fortune and Fate", in the course of seven wondrous voyages, which he then proceeds to relate. The First Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor After dissipating the wealth left to him by his father, Sinbad goes to sea to repair his fortune. He sets ashore on what appears to be an island, but this island proves to be a gigantic sleeping whale on which trees have taken root ever since the world was young. Awakened by a fire kindled by the sailors, the whale dives into the depths, the ship departs without Sinbad, and Sinbad is saved by the chance of a passing wooden trough sent by the grace of Allah. He is washed ashore on a densely wooded island. While exploring the deserted island he comes across one of the king's grooms. When Sinbad helps save the King's mare from being drowned by a sea horse—not a seahorse as we know it, but a supernatural horse that lives underwater—the groom brings Sinbad to the king. The king befriends Sinbad and so he rises in the king's favour becoming a trusted courtier. One day, the very ship on which Sinbad set sail docks at the island, and he reclaims his goods (still in the ship's hold). Sinbad gives the king his goods and in return the king gives him rich presents. Sindbad sells these presents for a great profit. Sinbad returns to Baghdad where he resumes a life of ease and pleasure. With the ending of the tale, Sinbad the sailor makes Sinbad the porter a gift of a hundred gold pieces, and bids him return the next day to hear more about his adventures. The Second Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor On the second day of Sinbad's tale-telling—but the 549th night of Scheherazade's, for she has been breaking her tale each morning in order to arouse the interest of the homicidal king, and make him spare her life for one more night—Sinbad the sailor tells how he grew restless of his life of leisure, and set to sea again, "possessed with the thought of travelling about the world of men and seeing their cities and islands." Accidentally abandoned by his shipmates again, he finds himself stranded in an inaccessible valley of giant snakes which can swallow elephants, and a gigantic bird called the roc, which prey upon them. The floor of the valley is carpeted with diamonds, and merchants harvest these by throwing huge chunks of meat into the valley which the birds then carry back to their nests, where the men drive them away and collect the diamonds stuck to the meat. The wily Sinbad straps one of the pieces of meat to his back and is carried back to the nest along with a large sack full of precious gems. Rescued from the nest by the merchants, he returns to Baghdad with a fortune in diamonds, seeing many marvels along the way. The Third Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor Restless for travel and adventure, Sinbad sets sail again from Basra. But by ill chance he and his companions are cast up on an island where they are captured by a cyclops, "a huge creature in the likeness of a man, black of colour, ... with eyes like coals of fire and eye-teeth like boar's tusks and a vast big gape like the mouth of a well. Moreover, he had long loose lips like camel's, hanging down upon his breast and ears like two Jarms falling over his shoulder-blades and the nails of his hands were like the claws of a lion." This monster begins eating the crew, beginning with the Master, who is the fattest. (Burton notes that the giant "is distinctly Polyphemus"). Sinbad hatches a plan to blind the cyclops (again, obvious parallels with the story of Polyphemus in Homer's Odyssey), with the red-hot iron spits with which the monster has been kebabing and roasting the ship's company. He and the remaining men escape. After further adventures (including a gigantic python from which Sinbad escapes thanks to his quick wits), he returns to Baghdad, wealthier than ever, where "I gave alms and largesse and clad the widow and the orphan, by way of thanksgiving for my happy return, and fell to feasting and making merry with my companions and intimates and forgot, while eating well and drinking well and dressing well, everything that had befallen me and all the perils and hardships I had suffered." The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor Impelled by restlessness Sinbad takes to the seas again, and, as usual, is shipwrecked. The naked savages amongst whom he finds himself feed his companions a herb which robs them of their reason (Burton theorises that this might be bhang), prior to fattening them for the table. Sinbad realises what is happening, and refuses to eat the madness-inducing plant. When the cannibals have lost interest in him, he escapes. A party of itinerant pepper-gatherers transports him to their own island, where their king befriends him and gives him a beautiful and wealthy wife. Too late Sinbad learns of a peculiar custom of the land: on the death of one marriage partner, the other is buried alive with his or her spouse, both in their finest clothes and most costly jewels. Sinbad's wife falls ill and dies soon after, leaving Sinbad trapped in an underground cavern, a communal tomb, with a jug of water and seven pieces of bread. Just as these meagre supplies are almost exhausted, another couple—the husband dead, the wife alive—are dropped into the cavern. Sinbad bludgeons the wife to death and takes her rations. Such episodes continue; soon he has a sizable store of bread and water, as well as the gold and gems from the corpses, but is still unable to escape, until one day a wild animal shows him a passage to the outside, high above the sea. From here a passing ship rescues him and carries him back to Baghdad, where he gives alms to the poor and resumes his life of pleasure. (Burton's footnote comments: "This tale is evidently taken from the escape of Aristomenes the Messenian from the pit into which he had been thrown, a fox being his guide. The Arabs in an early day were eager students of Greek literature"). The Fifth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor Sindbad's fifth voyage "When I had been a while on shore after my fourth voyage; and when, in my comfort and pleasures and merry-makings and in my rejoicing over my large gains and profits, I had forgotten all I had endured of perils and sufferings, the carnal man was again seized with the longing to travel and to see foreign countries and islands." Soon at sea once more, while passing a desert island Sinbad's crew spots a gigantic egg that Sinbad recognizes as belonging to a roc. Out of curiosity the ship's passengers disembark to view the egg, only to end up breaking it and having the chick inside as a meal. Sinbad immediately recognizes the folly of their behavior and orders all back aboard ship. However, the infuriated parent rocs soon catch up with the vessel and destroy it by dropping giant boulders they have carried in their talons. Shipwrecked yet again, Sinbad is enslaved by the Old Man of the Sea, who rides on his shoulders with his legs twisted round Sinbad's neck and will not let go, riding him both day and night until Sinbad would welcome death. (Burton's footnote discusses possible origins for the old man—the orang-utan, the Greek triton—and favours the African custom of riding on slaves in this way. This is also reminiscent of an old Indian folktale, Vikram aur Betaal). Eventually, Sinbad makes wine and tricks the Old Man into drinking some, then Sinbad kills him after he has fallen off and escapes. A ship carries him to the City of the Apes, a place whose inhabitants spend each night in boats off-shore, while their town is abandoned to man-eating apes. Yet through the apes Sinbad recoups his fortune, and so eventually finds a ship which takes him home once more to Baghdad. The Sixth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor "My soul yearned for travel and traffic". Sinbad is shipwrecked yet again, this time quite violently as his ship is dashed to pieces on tall cliffs. There is no food to be had anywhere, and Sinbad's companions die of starvation until only he is left. He builds a raft and discovers a river running out of a cavern beneath the cliffs. The stream proves to be filled with precious stones and becomes apparent that the island's streams flow with ambergris. He falls asleep as he journeys through the darkness and awakens in the city of the king of Serendib (Ceylon, Sri Lanka), "diamonds are in its rivers and pearls are in its valleys". The king marvels at what Sinbad tells him of the great Haroun al-Rashid, and asks that he take a present back to Baghdad on his behalf, a cup carved from a single ruby, with other gifts including a bed made from the skin of the serpent that swallowed the elephant ("and whoso sitteth upon it never sickeneth"), and "a hundred thousand miskals of Sindh lign-aloesa", and a slave-girl "like a shining moon". And so Sinbad returns to Baghdad, where the Caliph wonders greatly at the reports Sinbad gives of the land of Ceylon. The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor The ever-restless Sinbad sets sail once more, with the usual result. Cast up on a desolate shore, Sinbad makes a raft and floats down a nearby river to a great city. Here the chief of the merchants weds Sinbad to his daughter, names him his heir, and conveniently dies. The inhabitants of this city are transformed once a month into birds, and Sinbad has one of the bird-people carry him to the uppermost reaches of the sky, where he hears the angels glorifying God, "whereat I wondered and exclaimed, "Praised be Allah! Extolled be the perfection of Allah!" But no sooner are the words out than there comes fire from heaven which all but consumes the bird-men. The bird-people are angry with Sinbad and set him down on a mountain-top, where he meets two youths who are the servants of Allah and who give him a golden staff; returning to the city, Sinbad learns from his wife that the bird-men are devils, although she and her father are not of their number. And so, at his wife's suggestion, Sinbad sells all his possessions and returns with her to Baghdad, where at last he resolves to live quietly in the enjoyment of his wealth, and to seek no more adventures. (Burton includes a variant of the seventh tale, in which Sinbad is asked by Haroun al-Rashid to carry a return gift to the king of Serendib. Sinbad replies, "By Allah the Omnipotent, O my lord, I have taken a loathing to wayfare, and when I hear the words 'Voyage' or 'Travel,' my limbs tremble". He then tells the Caliph of his misfortunate voyages; Haroun agrees that with such a history "thou dost only right never even to talk of travel". Nevertheless, a command of the Caliph is not to be gainsayed, and Sinbad sets forth on this, his uniquely diplomatic voyage. The king of Serendip is well pleased with the Caliph's gifts (which include, inter alia, the food tray of King Solomon) and showers Sinbad with his favour. On the return voyage the usual catastrophe strikes: Sinbad is captured and sold into slavery. His master sets him to shooting elephants with a bow and arrow, which he does until the king of the elephants carries him off to the elephants' graveyard. Sinbad's master is so pleased with the huge quantities of ivory in the graveyard that he sets Sinbad free, and Sinbad returns to Baghdad, rich with ivory and gold. "Here I went in to the Caliph and, after saluting him and kissing hands, informed him of all that had befallen me; whereupon he rejoiced in my safety and thanked Almighty Allah; and he made my story be written in letters of gold. I then entered my house and met my family and brethren: and such is the end of the history that happened to me during my seven voyages. Praise be to Allah, the One, the Creator, the Maker of all things in Heaven and Earth!"). In some versions we return to the frame story, in which Sinbad the Porter may receive a final generous gift from Sinbad the Sailor. In other versions the story cycle ends here, and there is no further mention of Sinbad the Porter. Sinbad in popular culture Sinbad's quasi-iconic status in Western culture has led to his name being appropriated for a wide range of uses in both serious and not-so-serious contexts, frequently with only a tenuous connection to the original tales. Films, TV, animation Many films, television series, animated cartoons, novels, and video games have been made, featuring Sinbad not as a merchant who happens to stumble into adventures, but as a dashing dare-devil adventure-seeker. * Sinbad the Sailor (1935) Directed by Ub Iwerks * Popeye the Sailorman (1936) Episode: Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor * Sinbad the Sailor (1947) * Son of Sinbad (1955) * The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) * Adventures of Sinbad (1962) * Captain Sindbad (1963) * Sinbad Jr. (1965) * Sindbad Alibaba Aladin (1965) * Sindbad (Szindbád, Hungarian movie version of the stories, 1971) * Sinbad and the Caliph of Baghdad (1973) * The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974) * Arabian Nights: Sinbad's Adventures (Arabian Naitsu: Shinbaddo No Bôken, 1975) * Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) * Sinbad of the Seven Seas (1989) * The Fantastic Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor (1996) * The Adventures of Sinbad (1996-98) * The Fantastic Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor (1998) * Alif Laila - A TV series by Sagar Films ( Pvt.Ltd.) for DD National. Also shown on SAB TV & Ary Digital tv channels * Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists (2000) * Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) * "Backyardigans" (2007) episode: Sinbad Sails Alone * Sinbad The Fifth Voyage In-Production: Giant Flick Films (2010) * The 7 Adventures of Sinbad (2010) film by The Asylum * Princess Dollie Aur Uska Magic Bag: Sinbad is a main character. Sadko (film) (1952), although unrelated to Sindbad and instead based on Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Sadko, was overdubbed and released in English as The Magic Voyage of Sinbad. In high culture * In Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's suite Scheherazade, the 1st, 2nd and 4th movement focus on portions of the Sinbad story. Various components of the story have identifiable themes in the work, including Rocs and the angry sea. In the climactic final movement, Sinbad's ship (6th voyage) is depicted as rushing rapidly toward cliffs and only the fortuitous discovery of the cavernous stream allows him to escape and make the passage to Serindib. * In The Count of Monte Cristo, "Sinbad the Sailor" is but one of many pseudonyms used by Edmond Dantès. * In his Ulysses, James Joyce uses "Sinbad the Sailor" as an alias for the character of W.B. Murphy and as an analogue to Odysseus. He also puns mercilessly on the name: Jinbad the Jailer, Tinbad the Tailor, Whinbad the Whaler, and so on. * Edgar Allan Poe wrote a tale called "The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade". It depicts the 8th and final voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, along with the various mysteries Sinbad and his crew encounter; the anomalies are then described as footnotes to the story. * Polish poet Bolesław Leśmian's Adventures of Sindbad the Sailor is a set of tales loosely based on the Arabian Nights. * Hungarian writer Gyula Krudy's Adventures of Sindbad is a set of short stories based on the Arabian Nights. * In John Barth's "The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor", "Sinbad the Sailor" and his traditional travels frame a series of 'travels' by the thinly anonymous 'Somebody the Sailor'. In pop culture * Sinbad appears in the comic book series Fables written by Bill Willingham, and as the teenaged Alsind in the comic book series Arak, Son of Thunder—which takes place in the 9th century AD—written by Roy Thomas. * "The Last Voyage of Sindbad" by Richard Corben and Jan Strnad originally appeared as "New Tales of the Arabian Nights" serialized in Heavy Metal (magazine) #15-28 (1978-79) and was later collected and reprinted as a trade paperback book. * In the Arabian Nights-themed video game Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sinbad looks almost exactly like Knuckles the Echidna. * In Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier Sinbad appears as the Immortal Orlando's lover of thirty years, until he leaves for his 8th Voyage and never returns. * Sinbad provides the theme for Sindbad's Storybook Voyage at Tokyo DisneySea, for a roller coaster at the Efteling theme park at Kaatsheuvel, Netherlands, and for an elaborate live-action stunt show, The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad, at the Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. * Sinbad The Sailor is a track in the Bollywood movie Rock On!! * "Nagisa no Sinbad" (渚のシンドバッド) was the 4th single released by Pink Lady, a popular Japanese duo in the late 1970s and early 1980s . The song has been covered by former idol group W (Double You) and by the Japanese super group Morning Musume. * In 1978, Gottlieb manufacturing released a pinball machine named "Sinbad", featuring characters in the artwork from the movie Eye of the Tiger. Also released, in a shorter run, was an Eye of the Tiger pinball. * Successful comedian David Adkins, uses the stage name Sinbad. * Sinbad plays an important role in the 2000 novel "The Amazing Voyage of Azzam" as the often mentioned but never seen rival of the glory seeking main character. * Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Milhauser has a story entitled "The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad" in his 1990 collection "The Barnam Museum In science * Copeland CS, Mann VH, Morales ME, Kalinna BH, Brindley PJ. "The Sinbad retrotransposon from the genome of the human blood fluke, Schistosoma mansoni, and the distribution of related Pao-like elements." BMC Evol Biol. 2005 Feb 23;5(1):20. PMID: 15725362 * Marcelli A, Burattini E, Mencuccini C, Calvani P, Nucara A, Lupi S, Sanchez Del Rio M. "SINBAD, a brilliant IR source from the DAPhiNE storage ring." J Synchrotron Radiat. 1998 May 1;5(Pt 3):575-7. Epub 1998 May 1. PMID: 15263583 * Favorov OV, Ryder D. "SINBAD: a neocortical mechanism for discovering environmental variables and regularities hidden in sensory input." Biol Cybern. 2004 Mar;90(3):191-202. Epub 2004 Mar 12. PMID: 15052482 Notes 1. ^ W. Eilers (1983), "Iran and Mesopotamia" in E. Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pg 497 2. ^ Scott Meisami, Julie; Starkey, Paul; Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, Taylor & Francis, 1998, ISBN 9780415185721; p. 24. 3. ^ Burton's translation on-line 4. ^ Marzolph, Ulrich and Richard van Leeuwen. 2004. The Arabian nights encyclopedia, Volume 1. P.506-508 5. ^ Irwin, Robert. 2004. The Arabian nights: a companion. 6. ^ Haddawy, Husain, The Arabian Nights V.1, London, W.W.Norton:1995 ISBN 9780393313673 External links * Story of Sindbad The Sailor * 21 Illustrations by the German cartoon pioneer Stefan Mart, from Tales of the Nations (1933) * Sindbad's Middle-European reincarnation * ' Listen it in Hindi' * circa 1960 Finnish matchboxlabel with advertisement for the 1955 Howard Hughes produced film, from the Richard Greene Collection of Popular Culture

(4) Overview of Negritude ==========================================================

For links on aspects of the movement, click on http://french.about.com/library/bl-negritude.htm or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negritude, and see the articles in Module 8.

Also, read this excellent MSN Encyclopedia article surveying African literature:

African Literature

I.

Introduction

African Literature, oral and written literature produced on the African continent. Africa has a long literary tradition, although very little of this literature was written down until the 20th century. In the absence of widespread literacy, African literature was primarily oral and passed from one generation to the next through memorization and recitation.

Most of Africa’s written literature is in European languages, owing to European colonization of the continent from the 16th century to the mid-20th century. During that period European languages supplanted African languages in government, education, business, and, to a great extent, in daily communication. By far the most widely used European language in African literature is English, followed by French and Portuguese, respectively. Works written in African languages and traditional oral texts went virtually unacknowledged until the late 20th century, but today they are receiving increased recognition. Many scholars prefer to speak of African literatures, rather than African literature, to emphasize the many different literary traditions the term encompasses.

This survey covers only African literatures south of the Sahara. The literatures of North Africa are not included because North African cultures share greater affinities with the Arab world than with sub-Saharan peoples and cultures (for more information, see Arabic Literature). The literature of white South Africa is similarly excluded, as it is more closely linked with the European literary heritage (see South Africa, Republic of: Literature).