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LITR 5831
Seminar in World / Multicultural Literature: |
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Monday, 7 March 2016:
Readings:
begin Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
(1957)
Discussion Questions for Part I
Things Fall Apart
1
Things Fall Apart
is
taught in high schools and colleges across the United States. If someone has
read only one novel written by an African, that novel is usually Things Fall
Apart. How many of you read it before? For which courses, with what lessons,
themes, emphases?
2. What about African people qualifies as “traditional”? 8 What attractions (50)
and risks (69) to tradition? What ranges to women’s status in traditional
societies? Traditional culture as gendered culture? 13,20,23,64,73,75,88 109-10
3.
Tragedy shows individuals as both good and bad—in fact, an individual's most
impressive characteristic may be what brings his or her downfall. If Okonkwo is
a mixed character, what are his virtues? 4,8,13,63,86 His
flaws?13,26,28,29,31,38,61
4.
How may the Oedipal Complex appear in
Things Fall Apart, particularly in the relationship of Okonkwo and his son
Nwoye? 53 Electra Complex? 44 Is the Oedipal Complex unique to the western
culture of modernization, or common to the West and Africa?
5.
What connections might be made between
Things Fall Apart and the previous texts read in this class?
11,12,26,30,36,42,67
