For Friday: Lahiri, "The Interpreter of Maladies" (pp.43-69)

The "Egypt" group should answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: The Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, once wrote “All happy families are alike but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion.” Why do you think happiness is universal but unhappiness is singular? How does this story seem to shed illustrate this idea?

Q2: Mr. Kapasi observes early on that Mr. Das “looked exactly like a magnified version of Ronny. He had a sapphire blue visor, and was dressed in shorts, sneakers, and a T-shirt. The camera slung around his neck...was the only complicated thing he wore” (44). Why does Mr. Kapasi disapprove of the family, and the parents in particular? What makes them strange and “alien” to him?

Q3: When Mr. Kapasi dismisses his day job as "a job like any other," Mrs. Das exclaims, "But so romantic" (50). Why does she find it romantic, and why does she suddenly decide to make him her confidant? How does she also change for him in this instant? 

Q4: How is this also a story about the clash between East and West, and why ‘translation’ is so difficult? Why is culture more than language and custom? What is Mr. Kapasi unable to translate for Mrs. Das and for himself?

For Wednesday: Lahiri, "A Temporary Matter" and "When Mr. Pirzada Came To Dine" (from The Interpreter of Maladies)

The "Africa" group (or whoever wants to!) should answer TWO of the following:

Q1: In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” the narrator writes, “Most of all I remeber the three of them operating during that time as if they were a single person, sharing a single meal, a single body, a single silence, a single fear” (41). What does this memory of his parents and Mr. Pirzada as a child say about the immigrant experience? Why did the three of them become “one”?

Q2: The narrators of both stories are the second generation, “Indians” but also “Americans.” What does being “Indian” mean to them, and do you feel it’s even how they seem themselves? What makes it difficult to maintain their identity in the new world?

Q3: Why do you think the power outage allows Shukumar and Shoba to finally stop avoiding each other and tell teach other the truth? Ironically, what about darkness helps them to ‘see’ each other after all this time?

Q4: Why do you think the narrator remembers Mr. Pirzada after all this time, especially since he was only part of their lives for a short time? What does he come to represent about her heritage, but also her childhood?

For Friday: Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, Part Two (the remainder) and Part Three

The "Japan" group and anyone who hasn't answered questions should tackle TWO of the following...

Q1: Antoinette accuses Rochester of using his own "obeah" against her: what is this, and how does he try to "curse" her in his own way? How does this slowly make her a stranger on her own island?

Q2: In many ways, this book echoes the plot of Shakespeare's Othello, which is about a Moor (a North African) who falls in love with a young Italian noblewoman, and how Iago, another Italian, poisons Othello against his new bride with suspicions of infidelity. Why does Daniel play the "Iago" role in this book--what grievance does he have against Antoinette and her family? What does he hope to achieve from her downfall?

Q3: What does Rochester mean at the end of Part Two, when he says, "Above all I hated her. For she belonged to the magic and the loveliness. She had left me thirsty and all my life would be thirst and longing for what I had lost before I found it." If she could quench his thirst, why didn't he love her and 'belong' to her? Why does he feel she betrayed him and took away his life?

Q4: How has Antoinette changed by Part Three, when she is the "madwoman in the Attic" in Rochester's England?  Why does she decide to take the action she does against him?

For Monday: Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, Part Two (read to page 107 or 118, depending on edition)

 

Background for Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea

Important Dates for Jamaica and the Caribbean:

• 1789: Publication of Olaudah Equiano’s Narrative, first important slave narrative written by an ex-slave

• 1808: British abolition of the slave trade
• 1814: Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (acknowledges the slave trade that supports the aristocracy)
• 1831: Jamaican slave revolt
• 1834-38: Abolition of slavery begins in British occupied territory
• [1839-1845]: The events of Wide Sargasso Sea  
• 1847: Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre
• 1865: Rebellion in Jamaica
• 1907: Self-governing “white” colonies are declared Dominions
• 1937: Nationalist revolts in Jamaica and Trinidad, inspired to some extent by Gandhi’s non-violent protests in India which lead to self-rule
• 1944: Jamaica achieves self government
• 1958: Race riots in Notting Hill (a neighborhood composed largely of Caribbean immigrants in London)
• 1962: Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago achieve independence
• 1966: Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea published

The "India" group should answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: Why does Rochester insist on calling Antoinette “Bertha” in the story?  What might this change signal for him, especially in a novel where, as Antoinette herself says, “names are important”?

Q2: Do you feel Rochester is a reliable or an unreliable narrator?  Is he supposed to be sympathetic or unsympathetic?  Is anything he records or presents to the reader “true”?  How do we know?  Cite a specific passage. 

Q3: Christophine says to Rochester that “You young but already you hard.  You fool the girl.  You make her think you can’t see the sun for looking at her” (Norton, 92).  Was it Rochester’s plan to destroy her—to punish her?  And if so, for what reason?

Q4: Is Antoinette “mad”?  Does she suffer from a family illness, as evidenced in her mother and brother…or is her madness merely Rochester’s inability to accept her ‘Non-Western’ ideas and character?  Use a passage to discuss this. 

For Wednesday: Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, Part One

The "China" group should answer TWO of the following...

Answer TWO of the following…

Q1: How does Rhys depict Jamaican society in the 1840’s (which is less than a decade after the Emancipation Act of 1833, which abolished slavery in Britain)?  In what ways has life changed since the Act, particularly for Antoinette and her family? 

Q2: Is Antoinette English?  Jamaican?  White?  Mulatto?  Non-Western?  Why is her identity an issue in this novel, and how does she understand who she is in relation to other white people and the islanders? 

Q3: What is “obeah” and how does it function in Caribbean society?  How does Antoinette understand it as a child?  Is it similar to superstition or karma? If so, in what ways? 

Q4: Why do the natives burn Coulbiri Esate?  What might this represent about the relationship between Europeans and non-Europeans in the Caribbean? Also, why is the image of the parrot so haunting and possibly, symbolic?

For Friday: Last Akutagawa Stories, “The Story of a Head That Fell Off” and “Horse Legs”

The “Egypt” group should answer TWO of these questions, as well as members of the “China” group that haven’t answered any questions for Akutagawa yet.

Q1: How does Japanese society respond to Hanzaburō’s disappearance and his strange diaries? Consider, especially, the newspaper articles written about his “insanity” and his brief reappearance at his wife’s home.

Q2: What do you think Major Kimura means in “The story of a Head That Fell Off,” when he says, “It is important—even necessary—for us to become acutely aware of the fact that we can’t trust ourselves” (119)? Is this the true moral of the story? Or yet another unreliable narrator imposing his view on the reader?

Q3: Despite the level of satire, “Horse Legs” is also a kind of modern-day fable or fairy-tale. What might be the metaphorical significance of a normal man, in a normal job, who suddenly dies and returns to life with horse legs? How might this represent something ‘real’ in our own world—or a condition someone might actually have or feel?

Q4: When the Chinese soldier, Xiao-er, looks back on his life on the moment of death, “he recognized all too well the ugliness that had filled it” (116). What ugliness do you think he (and Akutagawa) is referring to, and how might this connect with previous stories we’ve discussed?

For Wednesday: Comprehension Exam #5

If you missed class (or just forgot), we'll have Comprehension Exam #5 over Akutagawa's stories on Wednesday. Be sure to bring your book! You'll need to quote from one or more of the stories to get full credit on the exam. 

If you missed class, I left your paper in the box on my door to pick up. Otherwise, I'll give them ones left over on Wednesday. I apologize for those students whose papers I neglected to bring to class--they're also in the box on my door. 

See you on Wednesday...

For Monday: Akutagawa, "Dr. Ogata Ryosai," "O-Gin," and "Loyalty"

The "Africa" group should answer TWO of the following. Remember that on Wednesday we'll have Comprehension Exam #5, so be sure you're reading these stories and bring your book to class!

Q1: Two of these stories are unique for their mixing of East and West, Buddhism and Christianity. What side does Akutagawa seem to be on in each one (or in different ones)? Are these anti-Western stories, or does he use the West to criticize Eastern values and ideas? How can we tell?

Q2: “Loyalty” is a very Japanese story, as it concerns the elaborate ceremonial rites of etiquette that bind the various classes of society. Even death, in these stories, has to follow the proper procedure! Based on this, why might a madman be particularly troubling to members of this society? Do you feel Shuri is doing this on purpose? Does he know what he’s doing?

Q3: Akutagawa’s narrators are one of his trademarks, particularly someone like Dr. Ogata Ryosai, who doesn’t really “get” the big picture. How do the narrators in one or more works inadvertently see ideas we might otherwise miss, or place a satirical spin on the characters or events?  

Q4: A very ‘non-Western’ attribute of each of these stories is the ending. Nothing necessarily dramatic or surprising happens at the end, and some of the stories lack what we would consider a compelling plot. Why do you think these stories are so minimalistic, more anecdotes than true stories? And why might the endings, which frustrate Western readers, actually be important to the story as a whole?

For Friday: Akutagawa, "Hell Screen" (pp.42-73)

NOTE: The "India" group should answer TWO of the following:

Q1: How does “Hell Screen” share with stories like “Rashomon” and “In a Bamboo Grove” a very cynical view of human nature? According to these stories, why is there no fundamental difference between a thief, a painter, and a lord? Why might the moral of “Rashomon,” that “All I can do is become a thief” be the moral for all of these stories?

Q2: The painter, Yoshihide, claims that he can only paint what he has personally observed with his own eyes—and nothing else. This often leads him to observe rather gruesome spectacles, such as rotting corpses and chained prisoners (and at the end of the story, something even worse). Responding to criticisms of this practice, he responds, “Other painters are such mediocrities, they cannot appreciate the beauty of ugliness” (48). Despite his depraved character, why might this be a very “non-Western” sentiment, and a valid philosophy of art itself?

Q3: “Hell Screen” contains a curious doubling: both the painter and the monkey are named Yoshihide. Even though the monkey is named after him as a joke, in the story itself, it serves a larger purpose. What role does the monkey serve in the story, and how might it help us ‘see’ the true character of the painter?

Q4: The narrator of this story has a character all his own, as he tells the story in fits and starts, and makes commentary throughout. Why do you think he is so captivated by this story, and how might his manner of telling the story color how we read and understand it?