WORLD LITERATURE

GRAZL T. BARIA, EdD

2020

ST 413 – Special Topics 3 G.

1ST Semester 2020-2021 BARIA
Preliminaries

Course Title: World Literature

Course Number: Lit 422

Course Description:
Continuation of the study of literary forms or
genres, exemplified this time by selected literary
pieces from various countries, written at different
periods in history.

Total Learning Time: 3 hours / 18 weeks

Pre-requisites: None

Course Learning
Outcomes: 1. Exhibit an understanding of and appreciation
for key works in world literature.
2. Students will demonstrate an understanding of
periodization in world literature. Students will
demonstrate an understanding that historical,
cultural, spiritual, and ethical issues, among
others, shape human experiences and impact
motivations.
3. Students will read literature with increased
critical acumen.
4. Students will be able to respond to literature
with facility, both in written of oral form, on
important thematic considerations having to do
with literary and historical milieu, culture,
human responsibility, morality, ethics, and the
manner and causes by which humans interact
with one another.

Indicative Content:

Module 1: Introduction to Literature

Module 2: Literary Critical Theories

Module 3: Literatures Across Continents

3.1 Literatures of Europe

3.2Literatures of North America
3.3Literatures of Latin America
3.4 Literatures of Asia
3.5Literatures of Africa
 MODULE 3

LITERATURES ACROSS
CONTINENTS
Weeks 11-18
LESSON 5
LITERATURES OF AFRICA

Overview
Defined by their unique literary substance, African writers such as
Gordimer in South Africa, Dinesen in Kenya, and Soyinka in Nigeria are
known and read throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. Timeless
and compelling as they now appear, their masterpieces stand amidst all forms
of crisis to assert the value of perseverance. Yet it is only in the twentieth
century, especially its last half, that African literature became an
institutionalized subject of study and debate in the institutions of education
and interpretation. Thus, African literature has the sense of being
simultaneously old, almost timeless in its themes and forms, and new, the
latest addition to global literary culture. Written and oral literature in Africa is
now associated with the continent's drive for freedom from foreign domination
and the search for a common identity. Yet the most powerful and compelling
literary texts are associated with some of the most catastrophic events in the
history of the continent, most notably slavery and colonialism.
Indeed, in all countries of the world, selections of African writing are
found on outlines in literature courses in secondary school, colleges, and
universities. Killam (x) has observed African literature taught in the United
States, England,
Canada, South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Island, Western
and Eastern Europe, and Russia. For some readers, the writing brings news
of foreign parts of the world; for others, it elaborates and deepens whatever
understanding they have of Africa, its peoples, and cultures.

1. SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE

Elleke Boehmer (cf. Cullhed, 2006: 79) writes, "Nationalism, like
patriarchy, favors singleness—one identity, one growth pattern, one birth and
blood for all ... [and] will promote specifically unitary or 'one-eyed' forms of
consciousness:' The first problem any student of South African literature is
confronted with, is the diversity of the literary systems. Gerrit Olivier notes,
"While it is not unusual to hear academics and politicians talk about a 'South
African literature; the situation at ground level is characterised by diversity
and even fragmentation". Robert Mossman adds that "One of the enduring
and saddest legacies of the apartheid system may be that no one - White,
Black, Coloured (meaning of mixed-race in South Africa), or Asian - can ever
speak as a "South African." The problem, however, pre-dates Apartheid
significantly, as South Africa is a country made up of communities that have
always been linguistically and culturally diverse. These cultures have all retained
autonomy to some extent, making a compilation such as the controversial
Southern African Literatures by Michael Chapman, difficult. Chapman raises
the question:

[W]hose language, culture, or story can be said to have authority in

South Africa when the end of apartheid has raised challenging questions as to
what it is to be a South African, what it is to live in a new South Africa,
whether South Africa is a nation, and, if so, what its mythos is, what requires
to be forgotten and what remembered as we scour the past in order to
understand the present and seek a path forward into an unknown future.

South Africa has 11 national languages: Afrikaans, English, Zulu,

Xhosa, Sotho, Pedi, Tswana, Venda, SiSwati, Tsonga, and Ndebele. Any
definitive literary history of South Africa should, it could be argued, discuss
literature produced in all eleven languages. But the only literature ever to
adopt characteristics that can be said to be "national" is Afrikaans. Olivier
argues: "Of all the literatures in South Africa, Afrikaans literature has been the
only one to have become a national literature in the sense that it developed a
clear image of itself as a separate entity, and that by way of institutional
entrenchment through teaching, distribution, a review culture, journals, etc. it
could ensure the continuation of that concept." Part of the problem is that
English literature has been seen within the greater context of English writing
in the world, and has, because of English's global position as lingua franca,
not been seen as autonomous or indigenous to South Africa — in Olivier's
words: "English literature in South Africa continues to be a sort of extension of
British or international English literature." The African languages, on the other
hand, are spoken across the borders of Southern Africa - for example,
Tswana is spoken in Botswana, and Tsonga in Zimbabwe, and Sotho
in Lesotho. South Africa's borders were drawn up by the British Empire and,
as with all other colonies, these borders were drawn without regard for the
people living within them. Therefore: in a history of South African literature, do
we include all Tswana writers, or only the ones with South African
citizenship? Chapman bypasses this problem by including "Southern" African
literatures. The second problem with the African languages is accessibility,
because since the African languages are regional languages, none of them
can claim the readership on a national scale comparable to Afrikaans and
English. Sotho, for instance, while transgressing the national borders of the
RSA, is on the other hand mainly spoken in the Free State, and bears a great
amount of relation to the language of Natal for example, Zulu. So the
language cannot claim a national readership, while on the other hand being
"international" in the sense that it transgresses the national borders. Olivier
argues that "There is no obvious reason why it should be unhealthy or
abnormal for different literatures to co-exist in one country, each possessing
its own infrastructure and allowing theoreticians to develop impressive
theories about polysystems". Yet political idealism proposing a unified "South
Africa" (a remnant of the colonial British approach) has seeped into literary
discourse and demands a unified national literature, which does not exist and
has to be fabricated. It is unrealistic to ever think of South Africa and South
African literature as homogenous, now or in the near or distant future, since
the only reason it is a country at all is the interference of European colonial
powers. This is not a racial issue, but rather has to do with culture, heritage
and tradition (and indeed the constitution celebrates diversity). Rather, it
seems more sensible to discuss South African literature as literature produced
within the national borders by the different cultures and language groups
inhabiting these borders. Otherwise, the danger is emphasising one literary
system at the expense of another, and more often than not, the beneficiary is
English, with the African languages being ignored. The distinction "black" and
"white" literature is further a remnant of colonialism that should be replaced by
drawing distinctions between literary systems based on language affiliation
rather than race (wikipedia.org).

Task 1
READING AND DISSECTING THE LITERARY WORK

1. What is your idea about apartheid?

 Apartheid is Africans “apartness” policy that governed relations

between South Africa’s white minority and nonwhite majority and
sanctioned racial segregation and political and economical
discrimination against nonwhites.
2. How will you compare apartheid to racism? How does apartheid differ
from racism?

 Apartheid word means apartness. Party invented apartheid as a means

to cement their controls over the economic and social system. While the
racism is discrimination at the skin tone of a person and when two
people of different races are arguing.
 3. Read the story.

The Moment Before the Gun Went Off

Nadine Gordimer (South Africa)

NADINE GORDIMER was born on November 20, 1923 in Springs,

Transvaal, South Africa. She is a novelist and a short story writer whose major
themes are exile and alienation. In 1991, she won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
"The Moment Before the Gin Went Off" and "Comrades" are among her best
short stories found in the collection Jump and Other Stories that concern the
devastating effects of apartheid on the lives of South Africans.

(1)Marais Van der Vyver shot one of his farm labourers, dead, An
accident, there are accidents with guns every day of the week-children playing
a fatal game with a father's revolver in the cities where guns are domestic
objects, nowadays, hunting mishaps like this one, in the country-but these
won't be reported all over the world. Van der Vyver knows his will be. He
knows that the story of the Afrikaner farmer-regional Party leader and
Commandant of the local security commando-shooting a black man who
worked for him will fit exactly their version of South Africa, it's made of them.
They'll be able to use it in their boycott and divestment campaigns, it'll be
another piece of evidence in their truth about the country. The papers at home
will quote the story as it has appeared in the overseas press, and in the black-
and-forth he and the black man will become those crudely-drawn figures on
anti-apartheid banners, units in statistics of white brutality against the black
quoted at the United Nations-he, whom they will gleefully be able to call 'a
leading member' of the ruling Party.

(2) People in the farming community understand how he must feel.

Bad enough to have killed a man without helping the Party's, the
government's the country's enemies, as well. They see the truth of that.
They know, reading the Sunday papers, that when Van der Vyver is quoted
saying he is ' terribly shocked', he will 'look after the wife and children', none
of those Americans and English, and none of those people at home who
want to destroy the white man's power will believe him. And how they will
sneer when he says of the farm boy (according to one paper, if you can trust
any of those reporters), 'He was my friend, I always took him hunting with
me.' Those cities and overseas people don't know it's true: farmers usually
have one particular black boy they like to take along with them in the lands;
you could call it a kind of friend, yes, friends are not only your own white
people, like yourself, you take into your house, pray within the church and
work with on the Party committee. But how can those others know that? They
don't want to know it. They think all blacks are like the big-mouth agitators
in town. And Van der Vyver's face, in the photographs strangely open by
distress- everyone in the district remembers Marais Van der Vyver as a little
boy who would go away and hide himself if he caught you smiling him, and
everyone knows him now as a man who hides any change of expression
round his mouth behind a thick, soft moustache, and in his eyes by always
looking some objects in hand, leaf
of crop fingered, pen or stone picked up, while concentrating on what he is
saying, or while listening to you. It just goes to show what shock can do; when
you look at the newspaper photographs you feel like apologizing, as if you
had stared in on some room where you should not be.

(3) There will be an inquiry; there had better be, to stop the assumption
of yet another case of brutality against farm workers, although there's nothing
in doubt-an accident, and all the facts fully admitted by Van der Vyver. He
made a statement when he arrived at the police station with the dead man in
his bakkie. Captain Beetge knows him well, of course; he gave him brandy.
He was shaking, this big calm, clever son of Willem Van der Vyver, who
inherited the old man's best farm. The black was stone dead, nothing to be
done for him. Beetge will not tell anyone that after the brandy Van der Vyver
wept. He sobbed, snot running onto his hands, like a dirty kid. The Captain
was ashamed, for him, and walked out to give him a chance to recover
himself.

(4) Marais Van der Vyver left his house at three in the afternoon to cull
a buck from the family of kudu he protects in the bush areas of his farm. He is
interested in wildlife and sees it as the farmers' sacred duty to raise game as
well as cattle. As usual, he called at his shed workshop to pick up Lucas, a
twenty-year- old farm hand who had shown mechanical aptitude and whom
Van der Vyver himself had taught to maintain tractors and other farm
machinery. He hooted, and Lucas followed the familiar routine, jumping onto
the black of the truck. He liked to travel standing up there, spotting game
before his employer did. He would lean forward, braced against the cab below
him.

(5) Van der Vyver had a rifle and 300 ammunition beside him in the
cab. The rifle was one of his father's, because his own was at the gunsmith's
in town. Since his father died (Beetge's sergeant wrote 'passed on') no one
had used the rifle and so when he took it from a cupboard he was sure it was
not loaded. His father had never allowed a loaded gun in his house; he
himself had been taught since childhood never to ride with a loaded weapon
in a vehicle. But this gun was loaded. On a dirt track, Lucas thumped his fist
on the cab roof three times to signal: look left. Having seen the white-rifle-
marked flank of a kudu, and its fine horns raking through disguising bush, Van
der Vyver drove rather fast over a pot- hole. The jolt fired the rifle. Upright, it
was pointing straight through the cab roof at the head of Lucas. The bullet
pierced the roof and entered Lucas's brain by the way of his throat.

(6) That is the statement of what happened. Although a man of such

standing in the district, Van der Vyver had to go through the ritual of swearing
that it was the truth. It has gone on record, and will be there in the archive of
the local police station as long as Van der Vyver lives, and beyond that,
through the lives of his children, Magnus, Helena and Karel-unless things in
the country get worse, the example of the black mobs in the towns spreads to
the rural areas and the place it burned down as many urban police stations
have been. Because nothing satisfies them, in the cities: blacks can sit and
drink in white hotels, now,
the Immorality Act has gone, blacks can sleep with whites ... It's not even a
crime anymore.

(7) Van der Vyver has a high barbed security fence round his
farmhouse and garden which his wife, Alida, thinks spoils completely the
effect of her artificial steam with its tree-ferns beneath the jacarandas. There
is an aerial soaring like a flag-pole in the back yard. All his vehicles, including
the truck in which the black man died, have aerials that swing their whips
when the driver hits a pot-pole: they are part of the security system the
farmers in the district maintain, each farm in touch with every other by radio,
twenty-four hours out of twenty-four. It has already happened that infiltrators
from over the border have mined remote farm roads, killing white farmers and
their families out on their own property for a Sunday picnic. The pot-hole could
have set off a land-mine, and Van der Vyver might have died with his farm
boy. When neighbors use the communications system to call up and say they
are sorry about 'the business' with one of Van der Vyver's boys, there goes
unsaid: it could have been worse.

(8) It is obvious from the quality and fittings of the coffin that the farmer
has provided money for the funeral. And a elaborate funeral means a great to
blacks; look how they will deprive themselves of the little they have, in their
lifetime, keeping up payment to a burial society so they won't go in boxwood
to an unmarked grave. The young wife is pregnant (of course) and another
little one, wearing red shoes several sizes too large, leans under her jutting
belly. He is too young to understand what has happened, what he is
witnessing that day, but neither whines nor plays about; he is solemn without
knowing why. Black expose small children to everything, they don't protect
them from the sight of fear and pain the way the whites do theirs. It is the
young wife who rolls her head and cries like a child, sobbing on the breast of
this relative and that.

(9) All present work for Van der Vyver or are the families of those who
work, and in the weeding and harvest seasons, the women and children work
for him, too, carried-wrapped in their blackest, on a truck, singing-at sunrise to
the fields. The dead man's mother is a woman who can't be more than in her
late thirties (they start bearing children at puberty) but she is heavily mature in
a black dress between her own parents, who were already working for old
Van der Vyver when Marais, like their daughter, was a child. The parents hold
her as if she were a prison or a crazy woman to be restrained. But she says
nothing does nothing. She does not look up the grave. Nothing will make her
look up; there need be no fear that she will look up; at him. His wife, Alida, is
beside him. To show the proper respect, as for any white funeral, she is
wearing the navy-blue-and-cream hat she wears to church this summer. She
is always supportive, although he doesn't seem to notice it, this coldness and
reserved-his mother says he didn't mix well as a child-she accepts for herself
but regrets that it has prevented him from being nominated, as he should be,
to stand at the Party's parliamentary candidate for the district. He does not let
her clothing or that of anyone else gathered closely, make contact with him.
He, too, stares at the grave. The dead man's mother and
he stare at the grave in communication like that between the black man outside
and the white man inside the cab the moment before the gun went off.

(10) The moment before the gun went off was a moment of high
excitement shared through the roof of the cab, as the bullet was to pass,
between the young black man outside and the white farmer inside the vehicle.
There were such moments, without explanation, between them, although
often around the farm the farmer would pass the young man without returning
a greeting, as if he did not recognize him. When the bullet went off what Van
der Vyver saw was the kudu stumble in fright at the report and gallop away.
Then he heard the thud behind him, and past the window saw the young man
fall out of the vehicle. He was sure he had leapt up and toppled-in fright, like
the buck. The farmer was almost laughing with relief, ready to tease, as he
opened his door, it did not seem possible that a bullet passing through the
roof could have done harm.

(11) The young man did not laugh with him at his own fright. The
farmer carried him in his arms, to the truck. He was sure, he could not be
dead. But the young black man's blood was all over the farmer's clothes,
soaking against his flesh as he drove.

(12) How will they ever know, when they file newspaper clippings,
evidence, proof, when they look at the photographs and see his face-guilty!-
how will they know when the police stations burn with all the evidence of what
has happened now, and what the law made a crime in the past. How could
they know that they do not know. Anything. The young black callously shot
through the negligence of the white man was not the farmer's boy; he was his
son.

4. Say something about the elements with respect to the

story. Milieu
Time & Place November 20, 1923 in Springs, Transvaal,
South Africa.
Social Condition The people in the story has farming community.

Weather / Atmosphere The weather/ Atmosphere state in the story hot.

Conflict (internal and external)

Conflicts
Man vs. self (internal)
Man vs. man (external)
Man vs. society (external)
Provide and explanation based on the
event of the story
Just before the gun that kills Lucas goes off,
Van der Vyver and Lucas share a moment of
excitement born of their love for each other.
The young black callously shot through the
negligence of the white man was not the
farmer’s boy; he was his son.
He knows that the story of the Afrikaner farmer-
regional Party leader and command of the local

Man vs. circumstances (external)
security commando-shooting a black man who
worked for him will fit exactly their version of South
Africa, it’s made of them.
People in the farming community understand
how he must feel. Bad enough to have killed a
man without helping the Party the government’s
the country’s enemies as well.
 Plot Structure
Exposition The racial tension of the day.

Rising Action We find out a young black boy was

accidentally shot.
Conflict The way the media depicts the story leaves
stereotypes and biases.
The reader sees how the terrible accident
actually occurred.
Climax When the guns goes off and Lucas killed.
Lucas is Van de V. son
Falling Action Van de V. carries Lucas away
Reader sees there is a connection between
Lucas mom the protagonist.
End Gordimer reveals that Lucas is Van de Vyver
son. Van de Vyver evidently loved him deeply
and was emotionally shattered at his accidental
death. At the funeral, Van de Vyver and
Lucas’s mother share an unspoken bond of
grief. It is this moment that Gordimer refers to
in the title.

5. Write a critical essay on the issue of apartheid. Minimum of 250 words.

Although Apartheid ended 20 years ago, recovery from its systematic racial
discrimination is a difficult and on- going process. Apartheid literally means apartness and
was a system of government implemented in South Africa between 1948 and 1994 that
separated people according to race in every aspect of daily life, entrenching while minority
rule and discriminating against non- white population groups.

South Africa ‘s new constitution is founded on the values of human dignity and the
advancement of human rights and freedom. It’s Bill of Rights is the most far reaching
document of its kind in the world, incorporating both individual right and freedom of
expression and socio- economic rights. Yet on the ground , change happens slowly. For
example , although the average income of black household has increased by 169 percent in
the last 10 years , the average of white household still earns six times more than its black
equivalent . While South Africa’s democratic legislature is undoubtedly progressive and
efforts are being made to redress historical inequalities, there is till a long way to go.

One of the key developments of the past few years has been the creation of the
National Development Plan by the South African government, aimed at eliminating poverty
and reducing inequality by 2030 by drawing on the energies of the population, growing an
inclusive economy , building capabilities ,enhancing the capacity of the state, and promoting
leadership throughout society. Perhaps most importantly, the NDP calls for all South
Africans to play a role in building the country’s future through partnership and collaboration.
CSI is seen as a critical avenue to promote these goals. Grantees can use it as a tool to
communicate their impact to broader audiences. It also helps our team understand what
value the investment created without needing to read through detailed information about the
work.
 2. KENYAN LITERATURES
Kenyan literature significantly flourished from its oral lores and
written literary tradition which were primarily in English and Swahili
languages, being the two official languages of the country as what they are
known today. Evidently, there are a lot of authors of European background
who also wrote or based their books in Kenya, like in the case of Isak
Dinesen (the pen name of Karen Blixen who wrote Out of Africa and Tales
of Two Old Gentlemen).

Task 1
THE RELEVANT ISSUE

1. What is your ultimate philosophy of life?

My ultimate philosophy in life is I’m just a simple girl with a dreams that
wants to achieve. I’m living in the simple life that have a complete family. As
the years goes by I have a lots of plan in my life to help my parents someday.
I’m no wiser or smarter than anybody else. And I’m certainly no better. But I
am an individual. In my own person with my own personal preference and
personal experience.

2. How do you perceive love, marriage, family, faith and wealth?

Strong, positive relationship help us build trust and feel supported.

Having people around us who can share positive and difficult times can also
help us manage stress when things become tough. Children first learn about
relationships from their own families. Being loving, caring and respectful.
Being warm, supportive and positive. Communicating when disagreements
occur. Spending time doing things together to build strong bonds. Good
family relationship part of strong families. Strong families grow from love,
security, communication, connection and a few rules and routines too.

3. Read the following story.

Reading and Dissecting the Literary Work

Tales of Two Old
Gentlemen lsak Dinesen
(Kenya)
 ISAK DINESEN, pseudonym of Baroness Karen Christence
Blixen- Finecks, Née Dinesen (1885-1962), Danish writer, born in
Rungsted. She studied painting in various European cities. In 1914 she
married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, and went to live in
British East Africa (now Kenya) on a coffee plantation. After her
divorce in 1921 she remained in Africa, returning to Denmark in 1931. Her
first book of stories, Seven Gothic Tales (1934), dealt in highly polished
and subtle prose with the world of the supernatural, as did most of her
later fiction. Out of Africa (1937), which was made into a movie released
in 1985, was based on her experiences on the plantation. Her only novel,
The Angelic Avengers (1944; trans. 1947), was published under the same
Pierre Andrezel; it describes in allegorical terms the plight of Denmark
during the German occupation in World War
 Dinesen's later works include Winter's Tales (1943); Last Tales
(1957), another collection of stories of the supernatural; and Shadows on
the Grass (1960), sketches of African life. She wrote both the
Danish version and the English version of all her works.

(1) Two old gentlemen, both of them widowers, played piquet in a small
salon next to a ballroom. When they had finished their game, they had their
chairs turned round, so that through the open doors they could watch the
dancers. They sat on contentedly, sipping their wine, their delicate noses
turned up a little and taking in, with the melancholic superiority of age, the
fragrance of youth before them. They talked of ancient scandals in high
society-for they had known each other as boys and young men-and of the sad
fate of common friends, then of political and dynastic matters, and at last of
the complexity of the universe in general. When they got there, there was a
pause.

(2) "My grandfather, the one old gentlemen said at the end of it, "who
was a very happy man and particularly happy in his married life, had built up a
philosophy of his own, which in the course of my life from time to time has
been brought back to me."

(3) "I remember your grandfather quite well, my good Mateo," said the
other, "a highly corpulent, but still graceful figure, wish a smooth rose face. He
did not speak much"

(4) "He did not speak much, my good Taddeo," Mateo agreed, "for he
did, in accordance with his philosophy, admit the futility of argumentation. It is
from my brilliant grandmother, his wife that I have inherited my taste for a
discussion. Yet one evening. While I was still quite a young boy, he benignly
condescended to develop his theory to me. It happened, I remember, at a ball
like this, and I myself was all the time longing to get away from the lecture.
But my grandfather, his mind once opened upon the matter, did not dismiss
his youthful listener till he had set forth to him his entire train of ideas. He said:

(5) "We suffer much. We go through, many dark hours of doubt, dread
and despair, because we cannot reconcile our idea of divinity with the state of
things in the universe round us. I myself as a young man brooded a good deal
over the problem. Later on I arrived at the conviction that we should, more
easily and more thoroughly than we now do or ever have done, understand
the nature and the laws of the Cosmos if we would from the beginning
recognize its originator and upholder as being of the female sex.

(6) "We speak about Providence and announce: The Lord is my

shepherd, He will provide. But in our hearts we know that we should demand
from our own shepherds-'

(7) "-for my grandfather," the narrator here interrupted himself, "drew

most of his wealth from his vast sheep farms in the province of Marcho.
 (8) "'-a providential care of our sheep very different from the one to
which we are ourselves submitted, and which appears mainly to provide us
with blood and tears.

(9) "But say instead, of Providence; "She is my shepherdess"-and you

will at once realize in what way you may expect to be provided for.

(10)"For the shepherdess tears are convenient and precious, like rain-
as in the old song it pleut, it pleut, bergere-like pearls, or like falling stars
running over the firmament-all phenomena in themselves divine, and symbolic
of the highest and the deepest spheres of human knowledge. And as to the
shedding of blood, this to our shepherdess-as to any lady-is a high privilege
and is inseparably united with the sublimest moments of existence, with
promotion and beatification. What little girl will not joyously shed her blood in
order to become a virgin, what bride not hers in order to become a wife, what
young wife not hers to become a mother?

(11) "Man, troubled and perplexed about the relation between

divinity and humanity, is ever striving to find a foothold in the matter by
drawing on his own normal experience. He will view it in the light of relations
between tutors and pupil, or of commander and soldier, and he will lose
breath-and heart-in search and investigation. The ladies, whose nature is
nearer to the nature of the deity, take no such trouble; they see the relation
between the Cosmos and the Creator quite plainly as a love affair. And in a
love affair search and investigation in an absurdity, and unseemly. There are,
thus, no genuine female atheists. If a lady tells you that she is an atheist, she
is either, still, an adorable person, and it is coquetry, or she is a depraved
creature, and it is a lie. Woman even wonders at man's perseverance in
questioning, for they are aware that he will never get any other kind of answer
than the kind which King Alexander the Great got from the Sibylla of Babylon.
You may forgotten the tale, I shall recount it to you.

(12) 'King Alexander, on his triumph return from the Indies, in Babylon
heard of a young Sibylla who was able to foretell the future, and had her
brought before him. When the black-eyed woman demanded a price to part
with her knowledge, he let a soldier bring up a box filled with precious stones
which had been collected over half the world. The Sibylla rummage in the box
and picked out two emeralds and a pearl; then she gave in to the King's wish
and promised to tell him what till now she had told anybody.

(13) "'Very slowly and conscientiously, all the time holding up one finger
and begging him-since she must never speak any word of hers over again-to
give his utmost attention to her words, she explained to him with what rare
woods to build up the sacred pile, with what incantations to kindle it, and what
parts of a cat and crocodile to place upon it. After that she was silent for a
long time. "Now, King Alexander," she at last said, "I am coming to the core of
my secret. But I shall not speak more word unless you give me the big ruby
which, before your soldier brought up the box, you told him to lay aside."
Alexander was loath to part with
the ruby, for he had meant to give it to his mistress Thais at home, but by this
time he felt that he could not live without having been told the final part of the
spell, so had it brought and handed over to her.

(14) "—Listen the, Alexander," the woman said, laying her finger on the
King's lips. "At the moment when you gaze into the smoke, you must not think
of the left eye of a camel. To think of its right eye is dangerous enough. But to
think of the left is perdition."

(15) "So much for my grandfather's philosophy," said Matteo.

(16)Taddeo smiled a little at the account of his friend.

(17) "It was," Matteo went on after a while, "this time brought back
to me by the sight of the young ladies before us, moving with such perfect
freedom in such severely regulated figures. Almost all of them, you will know,
have been brought up in convents, and have been taken out from there to be
married a few years, a year-or perhaps a week-ago.

(18) "How, now, is the Cosmos made to look to a girl in a convent

school? From my cousin, who is Mother Superior of the matter. You will not,
find a mirror in the whole building, and a girl may spend ten years in it and
com out not knowing whether she be plain or pretty. The little cells are
whitewashed, the nuns are dressed in black and white, and the young pupils
are put in gray smocks, as if there were in the whole world but the two colors,
and the cheerless mixture of them. The old gardener in charge of the convent
garden has a small bed tied round his leg, so that by the thinking of it the
maidens may be warned of the approach of the man and may absent
themselves like fawns before the huntsman. Any little sisterly kisses or
caresses between school friends-light and innocent butterflies of Eros-by the
alarmed nuns are chased off the grounds with fly-flaps, as if they were wasps.

(19)"From this stronghold of unworldliness our blossoming virginal

ascetic is fetched out into the world and is married. What is now, from the very
first day, the object of her existence? To make herself desirable to all men
and the incarnation of desire to one. The mirror is given her as chief
instructress and confidante; the knowledge of fashion, of silks, laces and fans,
becomes her chief study; the care if her fair body, from the brushing and
curling of the hair to the polishing of toenails, the occupation of her day; and
the embrace and caresses of an ardent young husband is to prize for her
education.

(20) "My friend-a boy brought up for his task in life in an equally
incongruous manner would protest and argue, and storm against his tutor-as,
alas, all men do protest, argue and storm against the Almighty! But a young
girl
agrees with her mother, with her mother's mother and with the common,
divine Mother of the Universe, that the only method of turning out of dazzling
and adorable woman of the world is a convent education.

(21)"I might," he said after a panse, "tell you a story which goes to
prove in what good understanding a young girl is with the Paradox."

(22)"A nobleman married a girl fresh from the convent, with whom he
was deeply in love, and on the evening of their wedding drove with her to his
villa. In the coach he said to her: 'My beloved, I am this evening going to make
some alternations in my household, and to hand over to you a proportion of
my property. But I must tell you beforehand that there is in my house one
object which I am keeping to myself, and to the ownership of which you must
never make any claim I beg you: ask me no questions, and make no
investigation in the matter."

(23) "In the frescoed room within which he sat down sup with his wife
he called before him the matter of his stables and said to him: 'Listen to my
order and marked it well. From this hour my stables, and everything in them,
are the property of the Princess my wife. None of my horses or coaches, none
of my saddler or harness, down to the coachman's whips, in the future
belongs to me myself"

(24) "He next called up his steward and said to him: 'Mark my words
well. From this hour all objects of value in my house, all gold and silver, all
pictures and statue are the property of the Princess my wife, and I myself
shall have nothing to say over them'

(25) In the same way he had the housekeeper of the villa called and
told her: 'From today all linen and silk bedding, all lace and satin curtains
within my house belong to the Princess my wife an I myself renounce all right
or property in them. Be not forgetful of my bidding, but behave according to it.'

(26) "In the end he called in the old woman who had been maid to his
mother and grandmother, and informed her: 'My faithful Gelsomina, hear me.
All jewelry, which has before belonged to my mother, my grandmother, or to
any former mistress of the house, from tonight belongs solely to the Princess
my wife- who will wear it with the same grace as my mama and grandma-to
do with what she likes'

(27)"He here kissed her wife's hand and offered her his arm. 'You will
now, dear heart,' he said, 'come with me, in order that I may show you the
precious object which, alone of all my belongings, I am keeping to myself.'
 (28) "With these words he led her upstairs to her bedroom and set her,
all puzzled, in the middle of the floor. He lifted the bridal veil from her head
and removed her pearls and diamonds. He undid her heavy bridal gown with
its long train and made her step out of it, and one by one he took her off her
petticoats, stays and shifts, until she stood before him, blushing and confused,
as lovely as Eve in Paradise in her first hour with Adan. Very gently he turned
her round to the tall mirror on the wall.

(29) "'There, 'he said, ' is the one thing of my estate solely reserved
for me myself.'

(30) "My friend," Matteo said, "a soldier receiving from his commander-
in- chief corresponding instructions would shake his head at them and protest
that surely this was no strategy to adopt and that if he could, he would desert.
But a young woman, faced with instructions nods her head."

(31) "But," Taddeo asked, "did the nobleman of your tale, good Matteo,
succeed in making his wife happy?"

(32)"It is always, good Taddeo," Matteo answered, "difficult for a

husband to know whether he is making his wife happy or not. But as to the
husband and wife of my tale, the lady, on the twentieth anniversary of their
weeding, took her husband's hand, gazed archly into his eyes and asked him
whether he still remembered this first evening of their married life. 'My God,'
she said, 'how terrified was I not then for half an hour, how did I now tremble.
Why! She exclaimed, throwing herself into his arms, 'if you had not included in
your directions that last clause of yours, I should have felt disdained and
betrayed! My God, I should have been lost!' "

(33) The contradance before the two old gentlemen changed into a
waltz, and the whole ballroom waved and swayed like a garden under a
summer breeze. The seductive Viennese rune then again died away.

(34) "I should like to tell you," Taddeo said, "another tale. It may go
to support your grandfather's theology, or it may not."

(35) "A nobleman of an ambitious nature, and with a brilliant carrier

behind him, when he was no longer quite young decided to marry and looked
round for a wife. On a visit to the town of Bergamo he made the acquaintance
of a family of an ancient, great name but a modest means. There were at the
time seven daughters in the tall gloomy palazzo, and at the end of the pretty
row and only son, who was still a child. The seven young sisters were fully
aware that their individual existence might with reason be disputed or denied,
since they had come into the world as failures in the attempt at acquiring an
heir to the name,
and were-so to say-blanks drawn by their ancient house in its lottery on life
and death. But their family arrogance was fierce enough to make them bear
their sad lot high-handedly, as a privilege out of reach to the common people.

(36) "It so happened that the youngest sister, the one whose arrival, he
felt, to the poor Prince and Princess would have been the hardest blow of all,
caught our nobleman's eye, so that he returned to the house, and again
returned.

(37) "The girl, who was then but seventeen years old, was far from
being the prettiest of the group. But the visitor was a connoisseur of feminine
loveliness, and spied in her youthful face and form the promise of coming
unusual beauty. Yet much more than by this, he was attracted by a particular
trait in her. He guessed behind her demure and disciplined bearing the fruit of
an excellent education, an ambition kindred to his own, but more powerful
because less blasé, a longing-and an energy to satisfy the longing-a long way
out of the ordinary. It would be, he reflected, a pleasant, an entertaining
experience to encourage this youthful ambition, still but faintly conscious of
itself, to fledge the cygnet and watch it soaring. At the same time, he thought,
a young wife of high birth and brought out in Spartan simplicity, with a
nostalgia for glory, would be an asset in hi future career. He applied for the
girl's hand, and her father and mother, surprised and delighted at having their
daughter make such a splendid match, handed her over to him.
(38) "Out nobleman had every reason to congratulate himself on his
decision. The flight feathers of his young bird grew with surprising quickness,
soon in his brilliant circle one would not find a lady of greater beauty and finer
grace, of more exquisite and dignified comportment, or of more punctilious
fact. She wore the heavy ornaments that he gave her with as much ease as a
rosebush its roses, and had he, he thought been able to set a crown on her
head, the world would have felt her to be born with it. And she was still
soaring, inspired by, as well as enraptured with, her success. He himself,
within the first two years of their married life, acquired two supreme
decorations at his native and at a foreign court.
(39) "But when he and his wife had been married for three years he
observed a change in her. She became pensive, as if stirred by some new
mightily emotion, obscure to him. At times she did not hear what he spoke to
her. It also seemed to him that she would now prefer to show herself in the
world on such occasions where he was not with her, and to excuse herself
from others where she would have to appear by his side. 'I have spoilt her,' he
reflected. 'Is it indeed possible that, against the very order of things, her
ambition and her vanity now make her aspire to outshine her lord, to whom
she owes all?' His feelings were naturally badly hurt at the idea of so much
ingratitude, and at last, on an evening when they were almost alone together,
he resolved to take her to account.
 (40) " ' Surely, my dear,' he said to her, 'you will realize that I am not
going to play the part of that husband in the fairy tale who, owing to his
connection
 with higher powers, raised his wife to the rank of queen and empress, only to
hear her in the end, demanding to have the sun rise at her word. Recall to
yourself the place from which I took you, and remember that the response of
higher powers to the too indulgent husband forwarding his wife's claim was
this: "Return, and find her back in her hovel."
(41)"His wife for a long time did not answer him; in the end she rose
from her chain as if about to leave the room. She was tall and willowy, her
ample skirts at each of her movements made a little chirping sound.
(42) "'My husband,' she said her low, sonorous voice. 'Surely you will
realize that to an ambitious woman it comes hard, in entering a ballroom, to
know that she is entering it on the arm of a cuckold' (43) "As, very quietly and
without another word, she had gone out of the door, the nobleman sat on,
wondering as till now he had never done, at the complexity of the Universe."

4. List down the philosophies you have about the following:

Man / Love Marriage Family Faith Wealth

Woman
The human Philosophy of A successful The philosophy Philosophy can For the sake of
perception of love of wisdom marriage of families affect your gaining
nature, being in because you ingredient roles looks at the faith because knowledge. Just
the world with tend to subject are love, beliefs, values, studying like breathing
each other and yourself from respect, care, ideals of philosophy will doesn’t make
the different loyalty, children, make gain anyone happy
environment, teachings, and cooperation, adolescent and more or wealthy,
equality, understanding. growth, families and knowledge and there is a
intersubjectivit involvement, acknowledges change your necessity to
y, sociality, sharing and that everyone beliefs. learn and man
should be to giving, deserves to is
death are topics communication reach their full fundamentally
to also be . potential designed to be
addressed. through curious.
education and
support.
 Explain the philosophy of Matteo’s grandfather as stated on:
Paragraph 5 Paragraph 6
I myself as a young man brooded a good deal We speak about Providence and announce. The
over the problem. Later on I arrived at the Lord is my shepherd, He will provide. But in our
conviction that we should, more easily and hearts we know that we should demand from our
more thoroughly than we now do or ever own shepherds.
have done, understand the nature and the
laws of the Cosmos if we would from the
beginning recognize its originator and
upholder as being of the female sex.
 5. Does Taddeo’s last tale support the philosophy of Matteo’s grandfather?
Why? Why not?
Yes, Taddeos last support the Philosopy of
Matteo’s Grandfather because did the noble
tale succeed in wanting for his wife happy.
Matteo’s grandfather wants the best for her
grandson.

6. Develop a poem or essay (your choice) using any of the topics: man /
woman, love, marriage, family, faith and wealth.

FAMILY

It’s sometimes hard to put in words,

Just what I’d like to say.
But always know you’re thought of,
In a very special way.
Though the distance in between us,
Keeps us miles apart.
There’ll always be special place,
For you within my heart….

3. NIGERIAN LITERATURE

Nigerian Literature Nigeria has produced many prolific writers. Many

have won accolades for their works, including Daniel 0. Fagunwa, Chinua
Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Femi Osofisan, Ken Sarowiwa, Cyprian Ekwensi, Buchi
Emecheta, Elechi Amadi and Ben Okri. Critically acclaimed writers of a
younger generation include Chris Abani, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Sefi Atta,
Helon Habila, Helen Oyeyemi, Nnedi Okorafor, Kachi A. Ozumba, Sarah Ladipo
Manyika, Chika Unigwe, Ayo Soguno, and Wol-vriey.

Task 1
THE VOICE FROM WITHIN

1. Is racial discrimination still prevalent in the postmodern society?

Yes, discrimination exist today. It may not be have separate sides

of towns for different races to live, but it is locking you door when a
colored person walks by, calling them racial slurs. It is walking on
the other side of the side walk when a person of different races,
religion or sexuality walks by.
 2. What has this issue brought to the global village?

The concept of the Global village has been brought about by the rapid development
of information technology, the global media and faster lower cost travel. We now know what
is happening on the other side of the world. There are few shared values and limited
intercultural understanding in today’s business world. One of the challenges confronting
business is how to succeed in a culturally diverse, interdependent business environment.
 3. Read and study the following story.

WOLE SOYINKA (1934- ), Nigerian playwright, poet, novelist, lecturer, and

Nobel laureate, whose writings draw on tribal myths and traditions while
employing Western literary forms. Born Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka near
Abeokuta, Nigeria, he studied at the University Collage of Ibadan (now
the University of Ibadan) and graduated from the University of Leeds in Great
Britain in 1958. He then returned to Nigeria, where he established the 1960
Masks drama troupe (later the Orisun Theatre) and produced his own plays and
those of other African playwrights. During the Nigerian civil war (1967-
1970), Soyinka was arrested by the government and held in solitary
confinement from 1967 to 1969. A collection of his verse, Poems from Prison
(1969; republished as A Shuttle in the Crypt, 1972), and the prose work The Man
Died (1972) were both inspired by his incarceration.
Soyinka often wrote about the need for individual freedom. His
plays include A Dance of the Forest (1960), written to celebrate the
achievement in 1960 of Nigeria's independence; Kongi's Harvest (1965), a
political satire; Death and the King's Horseman (1975); A Play of Giants (1984);
and From Zia, with Love (1992). His other writings include the novels The
Interpreters (1965), about a group of young Nigerian intellectuals, and Season
of Anomy (1973); the poetry collections Idanre (1967) and Mandela's Earth
(1988); the work of criticism Myth, Literature, and the African World (1976);
the autobiographical works Ake: The Years of Childhood (1981) and Isara
(1989); and the essay collection The Credo of Being and Nothingness (1991).
IN 1986 Soyinka became both the first African writer and the first black to
writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature.

Telephone Conversation
Wole Soyinka (Nigeria)

1 The price seemed reasonable,

location Indifferent. The landlady
swore she lived Off premises. Nothing
remained
But self-confession. "Madam," I warned,
5 "I hate a wasted journey-I am
African." Silence. Silenced
transmission of
Pressurized good breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
Cigarette-holder piped. Caught I was, foully.
10 "HOW DARK?". . . I had not misheard. "ARE YOU
LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?" Button B. Button A.
Stench Of rancid breath of public-hide-
and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red-doubled tiered
 Omnibus squelching tar. It was real!
Shamed.
15 By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumb founded to beg
simplification. Considerate she was,
varying the emphasis-
 "ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?" Revelation
came. "You mean-like plain or milk chocolate?"
20 Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length
adjusted,
I chose. "West African sepia"-and as
afterthought, "Down in my passport." Silent
spectroscopic Flight of fancy, till truthfulness
clanged her accent
25 Hard on the mouthpiece. "WHAT'S THAT?"
conceding "DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS." Like
brunette."
"THAT'S DARK, ISN'T IT?" Not altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but madam, you should
see The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of
my feet
30 Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused —
Foolishly madam-by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black-One moment madam!"-sensing
Her receiver nearing on the thunderclap
About my ears-"Madam," I pleaded, "wouldn't you rather
35 See for yourself?"

4. Persona-addressee Relation
Describe the persona Describe the addressee
The poem describes a phone call The speaker seems to be making an
between a landlady and the speaker, telephone conversation with a man
who is black, about renting apartment. looking for place to stayed and the two
In the response, the speaker cleverly strangers are talking in the phone.
mocks and landlady’s ignorance and
prejudice, demonstrating that
characteristic people by their skin color
diminishes their humanity.

5. Say something about the following:

The persona / The poem’s The poem’s diction
speaker’s tone (5-9. structure (Look into (Focus on to the
Regret, resentment, the lines, stanzas, choice of words)
delight, etc.) etc.)
To conclude, the poet The structure of the poem The poet has placed
brought out the message telephone conversation is before his audience a
that there shouldn’t have a dialogue involving a telephonic conversation
racial Telephone black man and white between a white
Conversation poet woman. The two are landlady and a African
conveyed his feelings on indulged in a phone call man, with latter looking
racism through a telephone throughout the poem. for place to rent.
conversation with a
landlady. The tone of the
poem was satirical and
playful.
 Check this out!

Pilapil, Edwin A., et. al. World Literatures: New Texts, New Voices, New Perspectives.
2015. Mutya Publishing House, Inc. Malabon City

African Literature pic. Google.com