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Haiku ( haikai verse?

) plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:

The essence of haiku is "cutting" (kiru).[1] This is often represented by the juxt aposition of two images or ideas[2] and a kireji ("cutting word") between them, a kind of verbal punctuation mark which signals the moment of separation and colours the manner in which the juxtaposed elements are related.[3]

Traditional haiku consist of 17 on (also known as morae), in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 on respectively.[4] Any one of the three phrases may end with the kireji.[5] Although haiku are often stated to have 17 syllables,[6] this is incorrect as syllables and on are not the same.

A kigo (seasonal reference), usually drawn from a saijiki, an extensive but defined list of such words. The majority of kigo, but not all, are drawn from the natural world. This, combined with the origins of haiku in pre-industrial Japan, has led to the inaccurate impression that haiku are necessarily nature poems. In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line while haiku in English often appear in three lines to parallel the three phrases of Japanese haiku.[8] Tanka Tanka consists of five units (often treated as separate lines when Romanized or translated) usually with the following pattern of onji:5-7-5-7-7.The 5-7-5 is called the kami-no-ku ("upper phrase"), and the 7-7 is called the shimo-no-ku ("lower phrase"). Tanka is a much older form of Japanese poetry than haiku. The term waka originally encompassed a number of differing forms, principally tanka ( "short poem") and chka "long poem"), but also including bussokusekika, sedka ("memorized [head repeated] poem"[4]) and katauta ( "poem fragment"). These last three forms, however, fell into disuse at the beginning of the Heian period, and chka vanished soon afterwards. Thus, the term waka came in time to refer only to tanka.[2][5] The Tanaga is a type of Filipino poem, consisting of four lines with seven syllables each with the same rhyme at the end of each line --- that is to say a 7-7-7-7 Syllabic verse, with an AABB rhyme scheme as in this example Like the Japanese haiku, Tanagas traditionally do not have any titles. They are poetic forms that should speak for themselves. Most are handed down by oral history, and contain proverbial forms, moral lessons, and snippets of a code of ethics. The modern Tanaga still uses the 7777 syllable count, but rhymes range from dual rhyme forms: AABB, ABAB, ABBA; to freestyle forms such as AAAB, BAAA, or ABCD. Tanagas do not have titles traditionally because the Tanaga should speak for itself. However, moderns can opt to give them titles. [2] Matsuo Bash (?, 1644 November 28, 1694), born Matsuo Kinsaku , thenMatsuo Chemon Munafusa ,[1][2] was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bash was recognized for his works in the collaborativehaikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku. His poetry is internationally renowned, and within Japan many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Bash was introduced to poetry at a young age, and after integrating himself into the intellectual scene of Edo he quickly became well-known throughout Japan. He made a living as a teacher, but renounced the social, urban life of the literary circles and was inclined to wander throughout the country, heading west, east, and far into the northern wilderness to gain inspiration for his writing. His poems were influenced by his firsthand experience of the world around him, often encapsulating the feeling of a scene in a few simple elements. Bash was born in 1644, near Ueno, in Iga Province.[3] His father may have been a lowrankingsamurai, which would have promised Bash a career in the military, but not much chance of a notable life. It was traditionally claimed by biographers that he worked in the kitchens.[4]However, as a child, Bash became a servant to Td Yoshitada ( ?), who shared with Bash a love for haikai no renga, a form of collaborative poetry composition. The sequences were opened with a verse in 5-7-5 mora format; this verse was named a hokku, and would later be renamed haiku when presented as a stand-alone work. The hokku would be

followed by a related 7-7 mora verse by another poet. Both Bash and Yoshitada gave themselves haig ( ?), orhaikai pen names; Bash's was Sb ( ?), which was simply the on'yomi reading of his adult name ofMatsuo Munefusa ( ?). In 1662 the first extant poem by Bash was published; in 1664 two of his hokku were printed in a compilation, and in 1665 Bash and Yoshitada composed a one-hundred-verse renku with some acquaintances. The Tale of Genji: Introduction Murasaki Shikibu's epic-length novel, The Tale of Genji, probes the psychological, romantic and political workings of mid-Heian Japan. The novel earned Murasaki Shikibu notoriety even in the early 11th century, some six hundred years before the printing press made it available to the masses. Court society, which served as the subject of the novel, sought out chapters. Ladies-in-waiting and courtiers even pilfered unrevised copies, according to legend. Some thousand years later, Murasaki Shikibu and her novel continue to delight an enthusiastic audience. Stamps, scrolls, comic books, museums, shower gel, movies, parades, puppet plays, CD-ROMS: Murasaki Shikibu and her creation Genji have achieved National Treasure status in Japan and admiration all over the world. The tale spreads across four generations, splashed with poetry and romance and heightened awareness to the fleeting quality of life. Murasaki Shikibu's tale of love, sex, and politics explores a complex web of human and spiritual relationships. This focus on characters and their emotional experience, as compared to plot, makes the novel easily accessible to the modern reader. It explains, in part, why many scholars consider Genji to be the world's first great novel. Readers through the ages have especially admired Murasaki Shikibu's depiction of the Heian court society's deep aesthetic sense. Beautyin flesh flowers, sunsets, musical notesmoved and influenced the society. The title character, Genji, flourishes in this atmosphere. He is a master of speech, poetry, music, manners, dress. Many Japanese scholars cite as an influence Chinese poet Po-Ch-I's classic narrative poem, The Song of Unending Sorrow. Murasaki Shikibu writes in her diary of reading the poet's work to the empress. She also refers to it several times in The Tale of Genji. Importantly, the novel also marked Japan's liberation from Chinese influence. According to Richard Bowring in Landmarks of World Literature: The Tale of Genji, "Japan had just emerged from a time of substantial Chinese influence and was going through one of its periodic stages of readjustment, during which alien concepts were successfully naturalized. The Genji is thus the product of a native culture finding a truly sophisticated form of self-expression in prose for the first time." The Tale of Genji has had a pervasive influence on later Japanese and world-wide art. It has inspired Noh theater, waka poetry, scroll paintings, pop music and dances. It has had an especially profound influence on Japanese literature. Court fiction for hundreds of years after openly modeled itself after Genji. Present-day writers, including Kawabata Yasunari in his 1968 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, still cite The Tale of Genji as a great influence. The Tale of Genji Summary The Emperor and Kiritsubo give birth to the novel's hero, Genji, in 11th-century Japan. Kiritsubo, the Emperor's true love, is of the lower ranks of court. The slander and petty jealousy of the other palace wives contribute to the mental anguish which results in her early death, when Genji is but three-years-old.

The Tale of Genji: Characters


Lady Akashi Daughter of a provincial governor turned priest, Genji woos her during his exile. She is daunted by his elevated position and refinement, but eventually succumbs and becomes one of Genji's secondary wives. Her daughter is adopted by Murasaki and eventually becomes empress.Akikonomu Akikonomu is the daughter of Prince Zembo and the Lady of Rokujo. She serves as high priestess of the Ise shrine and later, with Genji's backing, becomes the Reizei Emperor's (Genji's son) wife. She eventually becomes Empress. Genji inappropriately tries to seduce... Genji from the start impresses everybody with his unparalleled beauty. He is exceptional in every way. He is raised in the court. Despite his father's unflinching devotion, indeed because of it, the boy receives the name Genji, which classifies him as a commoner. The Emperor knows that without influential maternal relatives, Genji's position as a crown prince (or a son picked to become future Emperor) would be tentative, especially after his own death. Since the Kokiden faction will most certainly cause his son problems, it seems more practical to secure for him a court ranking (a political but not royal position) and to encourage his studies.

A Korean soothsayer's prediction that the boy will never become emperor plays a part in this decision. Genji, or Minamoto, roughly translated means ''commoner.'' It carries negative connotations, that the bearer of the name has been dispossessed of a potential birthright because of an embarrassment or scandal. But the name Hikaru Genji, by which he becomes known, means "the shining prince." The Emperor's grief over Kiritsubo is eased when he meets her look-alike, Fujitsubo. She becomes the Emperor's official consort, and Genji grows up in her presence. Genji is drawn to Fujitsubo for much the same reasons as his father. The Emperor seeks a substitute for his wife, and Genji seeks a mother. Right after Genji's coming-of-age ceremony, at the age of twelve, Genji is married-off to the Minister of the Left's daughter, Aoi. She is a Fujiwara. Aoi turns out to be cold and unsympathetic, and Genji spends most of his time at the Palace in his mother's apartments (though he is now denied access to her). His inattentiveness to his wife inspires resentment from his father-in-law. Aoi's brother, To no Chujo, becomes both Genji's close friend and bitter rival. Five years pass between the first and second chapters. At the age of seventeen, Genji is already an experienced lover. His countless affairs occupy much of his time and energy. He seems to have a penchant for difficult situations, that or he is too weak to avoid them. Genji seduces Yugao, a former mistress of To no Chujo's, and she dies of a mysterious ailment shortly after. Lady Rukujo's living ghost seems to be responsible. Though this is Lady Rukujo's first appearance, it is understood that her jealousy (she is one of Genji's many partners) is the root cause. Genji, now eighteen, discovers Murasaki in the hills north of Kyoto. He is there seeking a cure for a persistent illness. Though just a girl of ten, Murasaki looks hauntingly like Fujitsubo. She turns out to be her niece. A series of negotiations in which Genji tries to adopt her fail. He won't be denied, though, and before her father, Prince Hyobu, can make his proper claim, Genji spirits her away to his household. He begins her education, grooming her to be his future romantic partner. Meanwhile, Genji's persistent efforts to be with Fujitsubo finally come to fruition. She becomes pregnant as a result of their one sexual encounter, but the son's real heritage must remain secret. Fujitsubo resolves not to allow Genji even the slightest access to her in the future, though the Emperor, unaware of the clandestine relationship, sometimes brings the two together. Everybody assumes the son, who eventually will be... Complete The Tale of Genji Summary The Tale of Genji: Author Biograph Murasaki Shikibu wrote the long novel The Tale of Genji, a diary, a collection of short lyric poems, and assorted poems found only in royally commissioned anthologies. Very little is known for certain about her life. Much of her biography is gleaned from Murasaki Shikibu Diary and a set of autobiographical poems she left behind. She may have been born as early as 973, but possibly as many as five years later. She died some time between 1013 and 1031. Accepted wisdom has it that Murasaki Shikibu died around her fortieth year. Murasaki Shikibu was born in the... (The entire page is 579 words.) Buddhism (Pali/Sanskrit: Buddha Dharma) is a religionand philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha (Pli/Sanskrit "the awakened one"). The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE.[2] He is recognized by Buddhists as anawakened or enlightened teacher who shared his insights to helpsentient beings end suffering (or dukkha), achieve nirvana, and escape what is seen as a cycle of suffering and rebirth. Two major branches of Buddhism are recognized: Theravada("The School of the Elders") and Mahayana ("The Great Vehicle"). Theravadathe oldest surviving branchhas a widespread following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and Mahayana is found throughout East Asia and includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Shingon, Tendai and Shinnyo-en. In some classificationsVajrayanaa subcategory of Mahayana practiced in Tibet and Mongoliais recognized as a third branch. While Buddhism remains most popular within Asia, both branches are now found throughout the world. Estimates of Buddhists worldwide vary significantly depending on the way Buddhist adherence is defined. Lower estimates are between 350500 million.[3] However, when including Chinese religion which has traditionally consisted of forms of Mahayana Buddhism alongside Chinese folk religion the number would range from 11.6 billion.[4][5][6] The subjectivity of reality and Magical Realism

Critics often cite certain works by Garca Mrquez, such as A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and One Hundred Years of Solitude, as exemplary of magical realism, a style of writing in which the supernatural is presented as mundane, and the mundane as supernatural or extraordinary. The term was coined by German art critic Franz Roh in 1925. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien aos de soledad, 1967), by Gabriel Garca Mrquez, is a novel which tells the multi-generational story of the Buenda Family, whosepatriarch, Jos Arcadio Buenda, founds the town of Macondo, the metaphoric Colombia. The non-linear story is narrated via different time frames, a technique derived from the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (as in The Garden of Forking Paths). The widely acclaimed story, considered to be the author's masterpiece, was first published in Spanish in 1967, and subsequently has been translated into thirty-seven languages, selling more than 20 million copies.[1][2] The magical realist style and thematic substance of One Hundred Years of Solitude established it as an important, representative novel of the literaryLatin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s,[3]that was stylistically influenced by Modernism(European and North American), and the CubanVanguardia (Vanguard) literary movement. First edition Author(s) Original title Translator Country Language Genre(s) Plot One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) is the story of seven generations of the Buenda Family in the town of Macondo. The founding patriarch of Macondo, Jos Arcadio Buenda, and rsula, his wife (and first cousin), leave Riohacha, Colombia, to find a better life and a new home. One night of their emigration journey, whilst camping on a riverbank, Jos Arcadio Buenda dreams of Macondo, a city of mirrors that reflected the world in and about it. Upon awakening, he decides to found Macondo at the river side; after days of wandering the jungle, Jos Arcadio Buendas founding of Macondo is utopic.[1] Founding patriarch Jos Arcadio Buenda believes Macondo to be surrounded by water, and from that island, he invents the world according to his perceptions.[1] Soon after its foundation, Macondo becomes a town frequented by unusual and extraordinary events that involve the generations of the Buenda family, who are unable or unwilling to escape their periodic (mostly) self-inflicted misfortunes. Ultimately, a hurricane destroys Macondo, the city of mirrors; just the cyclical turmoil inherent to Macondo. At the end of the story, a Buenda man deciphers an encrypted cipher that generations of Buenda family men had failed to decipher. The secret message informed the recipient of every fortune and misfortune lived by the Buenda Family generations.[6] Historical context The critical interpretation of Colombian history that is the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude draws from the nationally agreed-upon history to establish the world of Macondo, where a man's will to power allows him to invent the world according to his perceptions. El Conquistador: Vasco Nez de Balboa Before the Spanish colonisation of the Americas by right of conquest, the northern region of South America that is contemporary Colombia had no culture akin to that of the (Peruvian) Incas, the (Central American) Mayas, or the (Mexican) Aztecs.[7] That region was populated by the Tairona and ChibchaIndian tribes, who were organised as clans, from which Gabriel Garca Mrquez Cien aos de soledad Gregory Rabassa Colombia Spanish Novel

derived the local monarchy who governed preHispanic Colombia.[7] In 1509, Vasco Nez de Balboaestablished the first settlement and is now named the first city of Colombia, as an advanced guard of the Spanish invasion and conquest.[7] The founding of Macondo by the patriarchal Buenda Family is metaphor of the colonisation of the future Colombia. Symbolism and metaphors A dominant theme in One Hundred Years of Solitude is the inevitable and inescapable repetition of history in Macondo. The protagonists are controlled by their pasts and the complexity of time. Throughout the novel the characters are visited by ghosts. "The ghosts are symbols of the past and the haunting nature it has over Macondo. The ghosts and the displaced repetition that they evoke are, in fact, firmly grounded in the particular development of Latin American history".[17] "Ideological transfiguration ensured that Macondo and the Buendas always were ghosts to some extent, alienated and estranged from their own history, not only victims of the harsh reality of dependence and underdevelopment but also of the ideological illusions that haunt and reinforce such social conditions.[17] The fate of Macondo is both doomed and predetermined from its very existence. "Fatalism is a metaphor for the particular part that ideology has played in maintaining historical dependence, by locking the interpretation of Latin American history into certain patterns that deny alternative possibilities.The narrative seemingly confirms fatalism in order to illustrate the feeling of entrapment that ideology can performatively create.[17] Characters First generation Jos Arcadio Buenda Jose Arcadio Buenda is the patriarch of the Buenda family and the founder of Macondo. [20] Buenda leaves Riohacha, Colombia with his wife, rsula Iguarn, after murdering Prudencio Aguilar in a duel.[20] One night camping at the side of a river, Buenda dreams of a city of mirrors named Macondo and decides to establish the town in this location. Jose Arcadio is an introspective, inquisitive man of massive strength and energy who spends more time on his scientific pursuits than with his family. He flirts with alchemy and astronomy and becomes increasingly withdrawn from his family and community. Marquez uses carefully chosen diction, imagery and biblical references to portray this wonderfully unique character to the reader. rsula Iguarn rsula Iguarn is one of the two matriarchs of the Buenda family and is wife to Jos Arcadio Buenda. She lives to be over 130 years old and she oversees the Buenda household through six of the seven generations documented in the novel. She exhibits a very strong character and often succeeds where the men of her family fail, for example finding a route to the outside world from Macondo. [edit]Second generation Jos Arcadio Jos Arcadio Buenda's firstborn son, Jos Arcadio seems to have inherited his father's headstrong, impulsive mannerisms.[20] He eventually leaves the family to chase a Gypsy girl and unexpectedly returns many years later as an enormous man covered in tattoos, claiming that he's sailed the seas of the world. He marries his adopted sister Rebeca, causing his banishment from the mansion, and he dies from a mysterious gunshot wound, days after saving his brother from execution. Colonel Aureliano Buenda Jos Arcadio Buenda's second son and the first person to be born in Macondo.[20] He was thought to have premonitions because everything he said came true.[20] He represents not only a warrior figure but also an artist due to his ability to write poetry and create finely crafted golden fish. During the wars he fathered 17 sons by unknown women.[20] Remedios Moscote Remedios was the youngest daughter of the town's Conservative administrator, Don Apolinar Moscote. Her most striking physical features are her beautiful skin and her emerald-green eyes. The future Colonel Aureliano falls in love with her, despite her extreme youth. She dies shortly after the marriage from a blood poisoning illness during her pregnancy. Amaranta The third child of Jos Arcadio Buenda, Amaranta grows up as a companion of her adopted sister Rebeca. However, her feelings toward Rebeca turn sour over Pietro Crespi, whom both

sisters intensely desire in their teenage years. Amaranta dies a lonely and virginalspinster, but comfortable in her existence after having finally accepted what she had become. Rebeca Rebeca is the orphaned daughter of Ursula Iguaran's second cousins. At first she is extremely timid, refuses to speak, and has the habits of eating earth and whitewash from the walls of the house, a condition known as pica. She arrives carrying a canvas bag containing her parents' bones and seems not to understand or speak Spanish. However, she responds to questions asked by Visitacion and Cataure in the Guajiro or Wayuu language. She falls in love with and marries her adoptive brother Jos Arcadio after his return from traveling the world. After his mysterious and untimely death, she lives in seclusion for the rest of her life. [edit]Third generation Arcadio Arcadio is Jos Arcadio's illegitimate son by Pilar Ternera. He is a schoolteacher who assumes leadership of Macondo after Colonel Aureliano Buenda leaves. He becomes a tyrannical dictator and uses his schoolchildren as his personal army and Macondo soon becomes subject to his whims. When the Liberal forces in Macondo fall, Arcadio is shot by a Conservative firing squad. Aureliano Jos Aureliano Jos is the illegitimate son of Colonel Aureliano Buenda and Pilar Ternera. He joins his father in several wars before deserting to return to Macondo. He deserted because he is obsessed with his aunt, Amaranta, who raised him since his birth. He is eventually shot to death by a Conservative captain midway through the wars. Santa Sofa de la Piedad Santa Sofa is a beautiful virgin girl and the daughter of a shopkeeper. She is hired by Pilar Ternera to have sex with her son Arcadio, her eventual husband. She is taken in along with her children by the Buendas after Arcadio's execution. After rsula's death she leaves unexpectedly, not knowing her destination. 17 Aurelianos During his 32 civil war campaigns, Colonel Aureliano Buenda has 17 sons by 17 different women, each named after their father. Four of these Aurelianos (A. Triste, A. Serrador, A. Arcaya and A. Centeno) stay in Macondo and become a permanent part of the family. Eventually, as revenge against the Colonel, all are assassinated by the government, which identified them by the mysteriously permanent Ash Wednesday cross on their foreheads. The only survivor of the massacre is A. Amador, who escapes into the jungle only to be assassinated at the doorstep of his father's house many years later. Fourth generation Remedios the Beauty Remedios the Beauty is Arcadio and Santa Sofa's first child. It is said she is the most beautiful woman ever seen in Macondo, and unintentionally causes the deaths of several men who love or lust over her. She appears to most of the town as naively innocent, and some come to think that she is mentally retarded. However, Colonel Aureliano Buenda believes she has inherited great lucidity: "It is as if she's come back from twenty years of war," he said. She rejects clothing and beauty. Too beautiful and, arguably, too wise for the world, Remedios ascends into the sky one afternoon in the 4pm sun, while folding Amaranta's white sheet. Jos Arcadio Segundo Jos Arcadio Segundo is the twin brother of Aureliano Segundo, the children of Arcadio and Santa Sofa. rsula believes that the two were switched in their childhood, as Jos Arcadio begins to show the characteristics of the family's Aurelianos, growing up to be pensive and quiet. He plays a major role in the banana worker strike, and is the only survivor when the company massacres the striking workers. Afterward, he spends the rest of his days studying the parchments of Melquiades, and tutoring the young Aureliano. He dies at the exact instant that his twin does. Aureliano Segundo Of the two brothers, Aureliano Segundo is the more boisterous and impulsive, much like the Jos Arcadios of the family. He takes his first girlfriend Petra Cotes as his mistress during his marriage to the beautiful and bitter Fernanda del Carpio. When living with Petra, his livestock propagate wildly, and he indulges in unrestrained revelry. After the long rains, his fortune dries up, and the Buendas are left almost penniless. He turns to search for a buried treasure,

which nearly drives him to insanity. He dies of throat cancer at the same moment as his twin. During the confusion at the funeral, the bodies are switched, and each is buried in the other's grave (highlighting Ursula's earlier comment that they had been switched at birth). Aureliano Segundo represents Colombia's economy: gaining and losing weight according to the situation at the time. Fernanda del Carpio Fernanda del Carpio is the only major character (except for Rebeca and the First generation) not from Macondo. She comes from a ruined, aristocratic family that kept her isolated from the world. She was chosen as the most beautiful of 5000 girls. Fernanda is brought to Macondo to compete with Remedios for the title of Queen of the carnival after her father promises her she will be the Queen of Madagascar. After the fiasco, she marries Aureliano Segundo and soon takes the leadership of the family away from the now-frail rsula. She manages the Buenda affairs with an iron fist. She has three children by Aureliano Segundo: Jos Arcadio, Renata Remedios, a.k.a. Meme, and Amaranta rsula. She remains in the house after he dies, taking care of the household until her death. Fernanda is never accepted by anyone in the Buenda household who regard her as an outsider, although none of the Buendas rebel against her inflexible conservatism. Her mental and emotional instability is revealed through her paranoia, her correspondence with the 'invisible doctors', and her irrational behavior towards Aureliano, whom she tries to isolate from the whole world. [Fifth generation Renata Remedios (a.k.a. Meme) Renata Remedios, or Meme is the second child and first daughter of Fernanda and Aureliano Segundo. While she doesn't inherit Fernanda's beauty, she does have Aureliano Segundo's love of life and natural charisma. After her mother declares that she is to do nothing but play the clavichord, she is sent to school where she receives her performance degree as well as academic recognition. While she pursues the clavichord with 'an inflexible discipline', to placate Fernanda, she also enjoys partying and exhibits the same tendency towards excess as her father. Meme meets and falls in love with Mauricio Babilonia, but when Fernanda discovers their affair, she arranges for Mauricio to be shot, claiming that he was a chicken thief. She then takes Meme to a convent. Meme remains mute for the rest of her life, partially because of the trauma, but also as a sign of rebellion. Several months later she gives birth to a son, Aureliano, at the convent. He is sent to live with the Buendas. Aureliano arrives in a basket and Fernanda is tempted to kill the child in order to avoid shame, but instead claims he is a orphan in order to cover up her daughter's promiscuity and is forced to "tolerate him against her will for the rest of her life because at the moment of truth she lacked the courage to go through with her inner determination to drown him..." Meme dies of old age in a hospital in Krakow. Jos Arcadio (II) Jos Arcadio II, named after his ancestors in the Buenda tradition, follows the trend of previous Arcadios.[20] He is raised by rsula, who intends for him to become Pope. He returns from Rome without having become a priest. Eventually, he discovers buried treasure, which he wastes on lavish parties and escapades with adolescent boys. Later, he begins a tentative friendship with Aureliano Babilonia, his nephew. Jos Arcadio plans to set Aureliano up in a business and return to Rome, but is murdered in his bath by four of the adolescent boys who ransack his house and steal his gold. Amaranta rsula Amaranta rsula is the third child of Fernanda and Aureliano.[20] She displays the same characteristics as her namesake who dies when she is only a child.[20] She never knows that the child sent to the Buenda home is her nephew, the illegitimate son of Meme. He becomes her best friend in childhood. She returns home from Europe with an elder husband, Gastn, who leaves her when she informs him of her passionate affair with her nephew, Aureliano. She dies of hemorragia, after she has given birth to the last of the Buenda line.[20] [edit]Sixth generation Aureliano Babilonia (Aureliano II) Aureliano Babilonia, or Aureliano II, is the illegitimate child of Meme. He is hidden from everyone by his grandmother, Fernanda. He is strikingly similar to his namesake, the Colonel, and has the same character patterns as well. He is taciturn, silent, and emotionally charged.

He barely knows rsula, who dies during his childhood. He is a friend of Jos Arcadio Segundo, who explains to him the true story of the banana worker massacre. While other members of the family leave and return, Aureliano stays in the Buenda home. He only ventures into the empty town after the death of Fernanda. He works to decipher the parchments of Melquades but stops to have an affair with his childhood partner and the love of his life, Amaranta rsula, not knowing that she is his aunt. When both she and her child die, he is able to decipher the parchments. "...Melquades' final keys were revealed to him and he saw the epigraph of the parchments perfectly placed in the order of man's time and space: 'The first in line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by ants'." It is assumed he dies in the great wind that destroys Macondo the moment he finishes reading Mequiades' parchments. [Seventh generation Aureliano (III) Aureliano III is the child of Aureliano and his aunt, Amaranta rsula.[20] He is born with a pig's tail, as the eldest and long dead rsula had always feared would happen (the parents of the child had never heard of the omen).[20] His mother dies after giving birth to him, and, due to his grief-stricken father's negligence, he is devoured by ants.[20] [edit]Others Melquades Melquades is one of a band of gypsies who visit Macondo every year in March, displaying amazing items from around the world.[20] Melquades sells Jos Arcadio Buenda several new inventions including a pair of magnets and an alchemist's lab. Later, the gypsies report that Melquades died in Singapore, but he, nonetheless, returns to live with the Buenda family. [20] stating he could not bear the solitude of death. He stays with the Buendas and begins to write the mysterious parchments, which are eventually translated by Aureliano Babilonia. Melquades then dies a second time from drowning in the river near Macondo and, following a grand ceremony organized by the Buendas, is the first individual buried in Macondo. Pilar Ternera Pilar is a local woman who sleeps with the brothers Aureliano and Jos Arcadio.[20] She becomes mother of their sons, Aureliano Jos and Arcadio.[20] Pilar reads the future with cards, and every so often makes an accurate, though vague, prediction.[20] She has close ties with the Buendias throughout the whole novel, helping them with her card predictions. She dies some time after she turns 145 years old (she had eventually stopped counting),[20]surviving until the very last days of Macondo. The word "Ternera" in Spanish signifies veal or calf, which is fitting considering the way she is treated by Aureliano, Jose Arcadio, and Arcadio. Also, it could be a play on the word "Ternura", which in Spanish means "Tenderness". Pilar is always presented as a very loving figure, and the author often uses names in a similar fashion. Pietro Crespi Pietro is a very handsome and polite Italian musician who runs a music school.[20] He installs the pianola in the Buenda house. He becomes engaged to Rebeca, but Amaranta, who also loves him, manages to delay the wedding for years. When Jos Arcadio and Rebeca agree to be married, Pietro begins to woo Amaranta, who is so embittered that she cruelly rejects him. Despondent over the loss of both sisters, he kills himself. Petra Cotes Petra is a dark-skinned woman with gold-brown eyes similar to those of a panther. She is Aureliano Segundo's mistress and the love of his life. She arrives in Macondo as a teenager with her first husband. After her husband dies, she begins a relationship with Jos Arcadio Segundo. When she meets Aureliano Segundo, believing him to be his brother, she begins a relationship with him as well, not knowing they are two different men. After Jos Arcadio decides to leave her, Aureliano Segundo gets her forgiveness and remains by her side. He continues to see her, even after his marriage. He eventually lives with her, which greatly embitters his wife, Fernanda del Carpio. When Aureliano and Petra make love, their animals reproduce at an amazing rate, but their livestock is wiped out during the four years of rain. Petra makes money by keeping the lottery alive and provides food baskets for Fernanda and her family after the death of Aureliano Segundo. Mr. Herbert and Mr. Brown Mr. Herbert is a gringo who showed up at the Buenda house for lunch one day. After tasting the local bananas for the first time, he arranges for a banana company to set up a plantation

in Macondo. The plantation is run by the dictatorial Mr. Brown. When Jos Arcadio Segundo helps arrange a workers' strike on the plantation, the company traps the more than three thousand strikers and machine guns them down in the town square. The banana company and the government completely cover up the event. Jos Arcadio is the only one who remembers the slaughter. The company arranges for the army to kill off any resistance, then leaves Macondo for good. That event is likely based on the Banana massacre, that took place in Santa Marta, Colombia in 1928. Mauricio Babilonia Mauricio is a brutally honest, generous and handsome mechanic for the banana company. [20] He is said to be a descendant of the gypsies who visit Macondo in the early days. He has the unusual characteristic of being constantly swarmed by yellow butterflies, which follow even his lover for a time. Mauricio begins a romantic affair with Meme until Fernanda discovers them and tries to end it. When Mauricio continues to sneak into the house to see her, Fernanda has him shot, claiming he is a chicken thief. Paralyzed and bedridden, he spends the rest of his long life in solitude. Gastn Gastn is Amaranta rsula's wealthy, Belgian husband. She marries him in Europe and returns to Macondo leading him on a silk leash. Gastn is about fifteen years older than his wife. He is an aviator and an adventurer. When he moves with Amaranta Ursula to Macondo he thinks it is only a matter of time before she realizes that her European ways out of place, causing her to want to move back to Europe. However, when he realizes his wife intends to stay in Macondo, he arranges for his airplane to be shipped over so he can start an airmail service. The plane is shipped to Africa by mistake. When he travels there to claim it, Amaranta writes him of her love for Aureliano Babilonia Buenda. Gastn takes the news in stride, only asking that they ship him his velocipede. Gabriel Garca Mrquez Gabriel Garca Mrquez is only a minor character in the novel but he has the distinction of bearing the same name as the author. He is the great-great-grandson of Colonel Gerineldo Mrquez. He and Aureliano Babilonia are close friends because they know the history of the town, which no one else believes. He leaves for Paris after winning a contest and decides to stay there, selling old newspapers and empty bottles. He is one of the few who is able to leave Macondo before the town is wiped out entirely. Solitude Perhaps the most dominant theme in the book is that of solitude. Macondo was founded in the remote jungles of the Colombian rainforest. The solitude of the town is representative of the colonial period in Latin American history, where outposts and colonies were, for all intents and purposes, not interconnected.[1] Isolated from the rest of the world, the Buendas grow to be increasingly solitary and selfish. With every member of the family living only for him or her self, the Buendas become representative of the aristocratic, land-owning elite who came to dominate Latin America in keeping with the sense of Latin American history symbolized in the novel.[1] This egocentricity is embodied, especially, in the characters of Aureliano, who lives in a private world of his own, and Remedios, who destroys the lives of four men enamored by her beauty.[1] Throughout the novel it seems as if no character can find true love or escape the destructiveness of their own egocentricity.[1] The selfishness of the Buenda family is eventually broken by the once superficial Aureliano Segundo and Petra Cotes, who discover a sense of mutual solidarity and the joy of helping others in need during Macondo's economic crisis.[1] This pair even finds love, and their pattern is repeated by Aureliano Babilonia and Amaranta rsula.[1] Eventually, Aureliano and Amaranta decide to have a child, and the latter is convinced that it will represent a fresh start for the once-conceited Buenda family.[1] However, the child turns out to be the perpetually feared monster with the pig's tail. Nonetheless, the appearance of love represents a shift in Macondo, albeit one that leads to its destruction. "The emergence of love in the novel to displace the traditional egoism of the Buendas reflects the emergence of socialist values as a political force in Latin America, a force that will sweep away the Buendas and the order they represent."[1] The ending toOne Hundred Years of Solitude could be a wishful prediction by Garca Mrquez, a well-known socialist, regarding the future of Latin America.[1] Desmond Tutu From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu Province See Enthroned Anglican Church of Southern Africa Cape Town (retired) 7 September 1986

Reign ended 1996 Predecessor Successor Other posts P.W.R. Russell Njongonkulu Ndungane Bishop of Lesotho Bishop of Johannesburg Archbishop of Cape Town Orders Ordination 1960 as Priest Personal details Born 7 October 1931 (age 79) Klerksdorp, Western Transvaal, South Africa

Desmond Mpilo Tutu (born 7 October 1931) is a South African activist and retiredAnglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent ofapartheid. He was the first black South African Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa and primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now theAnglican Church of Southern Africa). Tutu has been active in the defence of human rights and uses his high profile to campaign for the oppressed. He has campaigned to fight AIDS, tuberculosis,homophobia, transphobia, poverty and racism. Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prizein 1984, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1986, the Pacem in Terris Award in 1987, the Sydney Peace Prize (1999) the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2005,[1] and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Tutu has also compiled several books of his speeches and sayings Tutu warned of corruption shortly after the re-election of the African National Congressgovernment of South Africa, saying that they "stopped the gravy train just long enough to get on themselves."[25] In August 2006 Tutu publicly urged Jacob Zuma, the South African politician (now President) who had been accused of sexual crimes and corruption, to drop out of the ANC's presidential succession race. He said in a public lecture that he would not be able to hold his "head high" if Zuma became leader after being accused both of rape and corruption. In September 2006, Tutu repeated his opposition to Zuma's candidacy as ANC leader due to Zuma's "moral failings"."[26]
]

Albert Chinalmg Achebe (born 16 November 1930) popularly known as Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian[2] novelist, poet, professor, andcritic. He is best known for his first novel and magnum opus,[3] Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature.[4] Raised by Christian parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated with world

religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service and soon moved to the metropolis ofLagos. He gained worldwide attention forThings Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960),Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People(1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe writes his novels in English and has defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" became the focus of controversy, for its criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a bloody racist". In 2011, The Guardian of London named An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"one of the 100 greatest non-fiction books ever written. Arrow of God Achebe's third book, Arrow of God, was published in 1964. Like its predecessors, it explores the intersections of Igbo tradition and European Christianity. Set in the village of Umuaro at the start of the twentieth century, the novel tells the story of Ezeulu, a Chief Priest of Ulu. Shocked by the power of British intervention in the area, he orders his son to learn the foreigners' secret. As with Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart and Obi in No Longer at Ease, Ezeulu is consumed by the resulting tragedy. A Man of the People A Man of the People was published in 1966. A bleak satire set in an unnamed African state which has just attained independence, the novel follows a teacher named Odili Samalu from the village of Anata who opposes a corrupt Minister of Culture named Nanga for his Parliament seat. Upon reading an advance copy of the novel, Achebe's friend John Pepper Clark declared: "Chinua, I know you are a prophet. Everything in this book has happened except a military coup!"[86] Civil War In May 1967, the southeastern region of Nigeria broke away to form the Republic ofBiafra; in July the Nigerian military attacked to suppress what it considered an unlawful rebellion. Achebe's partner, Christopher Okigbo, who had become a close friend of the family (especially of Achebe's son, young Ikechukwu), volunteered to join the secessionist army while simultaneously working at the press. Achebe's house was bombed one afternoon; Christie had taken the children to visit her sick mother, so the only victims were his books and papers. The Achebe family narrowly escaped disaster several times during the war. Five days later, Christopher Okigbo was killed on the war's front line.[91] Achebe was shaken considerably by the loss; in 1971 he wrote "Dirge for Okigbo", originally in the Igbo language but later translated to English.[92] As the war intensified, the Achebe family was forced to leave Enugu for the Biafran capital of Aba. As the turmoil closed in, he continued to write, but most of his creative work during the war took the form of poetry. The shorter format was a consequence of living in a war zone. "I can write poetry," he said, "something short, intense more in keeping with my mood ... All this is creating in the context of our struggle."[93] Many of these poems were collected in his 1971 book Beware, Soul Brother. One of his most famous, "Refugee Mother and Child", spoke to the suffering and loss that surrounded him. Dedicated to the promise of Biafra, he accepted a request to serve as foreign ambassador, refusing an invitation from the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University in the US. Achebe traveled to many cities in Europe, including London, where he continued his work with the African Writers Series project at Heinemann.[94] Postwar academia After the war, Achebe helped start two magazines: the literary journal Okike, a forum for African art, fiction, and poetry; and Nsukkascope, an internal publication of the University (motto: "Devastating, Fearless, Brutal and True").[104] Achebe and the Okike committee later established another cultural magazine, Uwa Ndi Igbo, to showcase the indigenous stories and oral traditions of the Igbo community.[105] In February 1972 he released Girls at War, a collection of short stories ranging in time from his undergraduate days to the recent bloodshed. It was the 100th book in Heinemann's African Writers Series Themes Achebe's novels approach a variety of themes. In his early writing, a depiction of the Igboculture itself is paramount. Critic Nahem Yousaf highlights the importance of these depictions: "Around the tragic stories of Okonkwo and Ezeulu, Achebe sets about textualising Igbo cultural identity".[156] The portrayal of indigenous life is not simply a matter of literary background, he adds: "Achebe seeks to produce the effect of a precolonial reality as an Igbocentric response to a Eurocentrically constructed imperial 'reality' ".[157] Certain elements of

Achebe's depiction of Igbo life in Things Fall Apart match those in Oloudah Equiano's autobiographical Narrative. Responding to charges that Equiano was not actually born in Africa, Achebe wrote in 1975: "Equiano was an Ibo, I believe, from the village of Iseke in the Orlu division of Nigeria".[158] Masculinity and femininity The gender roles of men and women, as well as societies' conceptions of the associated concepts, are frequent themes in Achebe's writing. He has been criticised as a sexist author, in response to what many call the uncritical depiction of traditionally patriarchal Igbo society, where the most masculine men take numerous wives, and women are beaten regularly. [168] Others suggest that Achebe is merely representing the limited gendered vision of the characters, and they note that in his later works, he tries to demonstrate the inherent dangers of excluding women from society.[169] In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo's furious manhood overpowers everything "feminine" in his life, including his own conscience. For example, when he feels bad after killing his adopted son, he asks himself: "When did you become a shivering old woman?"[170] He views all things feminine as distasteful, in part because they remind him of his father's laziness and cowardice.[171] The women in the novel, meanwhile, are obedient, quiet, and absent from positions of authority despite the fact that Igbo women were traditionally involved in village leadership. [172] Nevertheless, the need for feminine balance is highlighted by Ani, the earth goddess, and the extended discussion of "Nneka" ("Mother is supreme") in chapter fourteen.[173] Okonkwo's defeat is seen by some as a vindication of the need for a balancing feminine ethos.[171] [174] Achebe has expressed frustration at frequently being misunderstood on this point, saying that "I want to sort of scream that Things Fall Apart is on the side of women...And that Okonkwo is paying the penalty for his treatment of women; that all his problems, all the things he did wrong, can be seen as offenses against the feminine."[175] Achebe's first central female character in a novel is Beatrice Nwanyibuife in Anthills of the Savannah. As an independent woman in the city, Beatrice strives for the balance that Okonkwo lacked so severely. She refutes the notion that she needs a man, and slowly learns about Idemili, a goddess balancing the aggression of male power.[176] Although the final stages of the novel show her functioning in a nurturing mother-type role, Beatrice remains firm in her conviction that women should not be limited to such capacities.[177] Gabriel Garca Mrquez From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Gabriel Garca Mrquez Born Gabriel Jos de la Concordia Garca Mrquez March 6, 1927 (age 84) elmos house. Latin American Boom Magic realism One Hundred Years of Solitude, Autumn of the Patriarch, In Evil Hour Nobel Prize in Literature 1982 Mercedes Barcha Pardo Rodrigo Garca Barcha, Gonzalo Garca Barcha

Education Literary movement Notable work(s) Notable award(s) Spouse(s) Children

Influences[show]

Influenced[show] Gabriel Jos de la Concordia Garca Mrquez (Spanish pronunciation: [ajel asia makes]; born March 6, 1927[1]) is aColombian novelist, shortstory writer,screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literaturein 1982, and is the earliest winner of this prize to be still alive. He pursued a self-directed education that resulted in his leaving law school for a career in journalism. From early on, he showed no inhibitions in his criticism of Colombian and foreign politics. In 1958, he married Mercedes Barcha; they have two sons,Rodrigo and Gonzalo. He started as a journalist, and has written many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best-known for hisnovels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have achieved significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for popularizing a literary style labeled asmagical realism, which uses magical elements and events in otherwise ordinary and realistic situations. Some of his works are set in a fictional village called Macondo(the town mainly inspired by his birthplace Aracataca), and most of them express the theme of solitude. When his parents fell in love, their relationship met with resistance from Luisa Santiaga Marquez's father, the Colonel. Gabriel Eligio Garca was not the man the Colonel had envisioned winning the heart of his daughter: he (Gabriel Eligio) was a Conservative, and had the reputation of being a womanizer.[9][10] Gabriel Eligio wooed Luisa with violin serenades, love poems, countless letters, and even telegraph messages after her father sent her away with the intention of separating the young couple. Her parents tried everything to get rid of the man, but he kept coming back, and it was obvious their daughter was committed to him. [9] Her family finally capitulated and gave her permission to marry him.[11][12] (The tragicomic story of their courtship would later be adapted and recast as Love in the Time of Cholera).[10][13] Since Garca Mrquez's parents were more or less strangers to him for the first few years of his life,[4] his grandparents influenced his early development very strongly.[14][15] His grandfather, whom he called "Papalelo",[14] was a Liberal veteran of the Thousand Days War. [16] The Colonel was considered a hero by Colombian Liberals and was highly respected.[17] He was well-known for his refusal to remain silent about the banana massacres that took place the year Garca Mrquez was born.[18] The Colonel, whom Garca Mrquez has described as his "umbilical cord with history and reality",[5] was also an excellent storyteller.[19] He taught Garca Mrquez lessons from the dictionary, took him to the circus each year, and was the first to introduce his grandson to icea "miracle" found at the United Fruit Company store.[20] He would also occasionally tell his young grandson "You can't imagine how much a dead man weighs",[21][22] reminding him that there was no greater burden than to have killed a man, a lesson that Garca Mrquez would later integrate into his novels. Garca Mrquez's political and ideological views were shaped by his grandfather's stories.[21] In an interview, Garca Mrquez told his friend Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, "my grandfather the Colonel was a Liberal. My political ideas probably came from him to begin with because, instead of telling me fairy tales when I was young, he would regale me with horrifying accounts of the last civil war that free-thinkers and anti-clerics waged against the Conservative government."[23][24] This influenced his political views and his literary technique so that "in the same way that his writing career initially took shape in conscious opposition to the Colombian literary status quo, Garca Mrquez's socialist and anti-imperialist views are in principled opposition to the global status quo dominated by the United States".[25] Garca Mrquez's grandmother, Doa Tranquilina Iguarn Cotes, played an equally influential role in his upbringing. He was inspired by the way she "treated the extraordinary as something perfectly natural."[7] The house was filled with stories of ghosts and premonitions, omens and portents,[26] all of which were studiously ignored by her husband.[14] According to Garca Mrquez she was "the source of the magical, superstitious and supernatural view of reality".[5] He enjoyed his grandmother's unique way of telling stories. No matter how fantastic or improbable her statements, she always delivered them as if they were the irrefutable truth. It was a deadpan style that, some thirty years later, heavily influenced her grandson's most popular novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude.[27] Ernesto Sabato (June 24, 1911 April 30, 2011), was an Argentine writer, painter andphysicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary world throughout Latin America".[2] Upon his death El Pasdubbed him the "last classic writer in Argentine literature".[3] Sabato was distinguished by his bald pateand brush moustache and wore tinted spectacles and open-necked shirts.[4] He was born in Rojas, a small town in Buenos Aires Province. Sabato began his studies at the Colegio Nacional de La Plata. He then studied physics at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, where he earned a Ph.D. He then attended

the Sorbonne in Paris and worked at the Curie Institute. After World War II, he lost faith in science and started writing. Sabato's oeuvre includes three novels: El Tnel (1948), Sobre hroes y tumbas (1961) and Abaddn el exterminador (1974). The first of these received critical acclaim upon its publication from, among others, fellow writers Albert Camus and Thomas Mann.[1]The second is regarded as his masterpiece, though he nearly burnt it like many of his other works.[2] Sabato's essays cover topics as diverse as metaphysics, politics andtango.[2] His writings led him to receive many international prizes, including the Legion of Honour (France), the Prix Mdicis (Italy) and the Miguel de Cervantes Prize (Spain).[1] Writing career In 1941, Sabato published his first literary work, an article about La invencin de Morel byAdolfo Bioy Casares, in the magazine Teseo from La Plata. Also, in concert with Pedro Henrquez Urea, he published a collaboration in the renown Sur magazine. In 1942, working for Sur magazine reviewing books, he was put in charge of the "Calendario" section and participated in "Desagravio a Borges" in Sur n 94. He also published articles for La Nacin, and his translation of The Birth and Death of the Sun byGeorge Gamow was published. The next year he published the translation for The ABC of Relativity by Bertrand Russell. In 1945, his first book, Uno y el Universo, a series of essays criticizing the apparent moral neutrality of science and warning about dehumanization processes in technological societies, was published; with time he would turn towards a libertarian and humaniststanding. That same year he was awarded a prize by the municipality of Buenos Aires for his book and the honor wand of the Sociedad Argentina de Escritores. In 1948, after being rejected by several Buenos Aires' editors, Sabato published in Sur his first novel, El tnel, a psychological novel narrated in first-person. Framed in existentialism, it was met with enthusiastic reviews by Albert Camus, who had the book translated byGallimard into French. It has been further translated to more than 10 languages.[13] Others to enjoy the book included Thomas Mann.[1][4] France's literary industry named his book Abaddon el Exterminador (The Angel of Darkness) as 1976's best foreign book.[1] In 1998 his wife passed away.In 1999 he acquired the Italian citizenship, in addition to his original Argentine one.[15] Sabato died in Santos Lugares, on April 30, 2011, two months short of his 100th birthday.[His death was as a result of bronchitis according to his companion and collaborator Elvira Gonzalez Fraga.[18] World reaction to his death said he had "surpassed the world of literature to gain a more iconic status".[3] El Mundo of Spain said he was "the last survivor of Argentine writers with a capital letter".[3] Julio Cortzar, born Jules Florencio Cortzar,[1] (August 26, 1914 February 12, 1984) was an Argentine writer. Cortzar, known as one of the founders of the Latin American Literary Boom, influenced an entire generation of Spanish speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe. Cortzar's parents, Julio Jos Cortzar and Mara Herminia Descotte, moved from Argentina in 1913 to Brussels, Belgium, where Cortzar was born on August 26, 1914.[2] At the time of his birth Belgium was occupied by the German troops of KaiserWilhelm II. Shortly thereafter the family moved to Zrich where Mara Herminia's parents, Victoria Gabel and Louis Descotte (a French National) were waiting in neutral territory. The family group spent the next two years in Switzerland, first in Zurich, then in Geneva, before moving for short period to Barcelona. The Cortzars settled in Buenos Aires by the end of 1919.[3] Once in Argentina, his parents divorced a few years later.[2] Cortzar spent most of his childhood in Banfield, a suburb south of Buenos Aires, with his mother and younger sister. The home in Banfield, with its backyard, was a source of inspiration for some of his stories. [4] Despite this, he wrote a letter to Graciela M. de Sol on December 4, 1963 describing this period of his life as "full of servitude, excessive touchiness, terrible and frequent sadness." He was a sickly child and spent much of his childhood in bed reading.[5] His mother selected what he read[citation needed], introducing her son most notably to the works of Jules Verne, whom Cortzar admired for the rest of his life. In the magazine Plural (issue 44, Mexico City, May

1975) he wrote: "I spent my childhood in a haze full of goblins and elves, with a sense of space and time that was different from everybody else's." Nadine Gordimer (born 20 November 1923) is a South African writer and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has in the words of Alfred Nobel been of very great benefit to humanity".[1] Her writing has long dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. She was active in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days when the organization was banned. She has recently been active in HIV/AIDS causes. Gordimer was born around Springs, Gauteng, an East Rand mining town outside Johannesburg, the daughter of Isidore and Nan Gordimer. Her parents were both Jewish immigrants, her father a watchmaker from Lithuania near the Latvian border,[2] and her mother from London. Gordimer's early interest in racial and economic inequality in South Africa was shaped in part by her parents. Her father's experience as a Jewish refugee in czarist Russia helped form Gordimer's political identity, but he was neither an activist nor particularly sympathetic toward the experiences of black people under apartheid.[3] Conversely, Gordimer saw activism by her mother, whose concern about the poverty and discrimination faced by black people in South Africa led her to found a crche for black children.[2] Gordimer also witnessed government repression firsthand, when as a teenager the police raided her family home, confiscating letters and diaries from a servant's room.[2] Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 September 23, 1973) was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet and politician Neftal Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name afterCzech poet Jan Neruda. Neruda wrote in a variety of styles such as erotically charged love poems as in his collection Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair, surrealist poems, historical epics, and overtly political manifestos. In 1971 Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Colombian novelistGabriel Garca Mrquez once called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language."[1] Neruda always wrote in green ink as it was his personal color of hope. On July 15, 1945, at Pacaembu Stadium inSo Paulo, Brazil, he read to 100,000 people in honor of Communist revolutionary leader Lus Carlos Prestes.[2] During his lifetime, Neruda occupied many diplomatic positions and served a stint as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party. When Conservative Chilean President Gonzlez Videla outlawed communism in Chile in 1948, a warrant was issued for Neruda's arrest. Friends hid him for months in a house basement in the Chilean port ofValparaso. Later, Neruda escaped into exile through a mountain pass near Maihue Lake into Argentina. Years later, Neruda was a close collaborator to socialistPresident Salvador Allende. When Neruda returned to Chile after his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Allende invited him to read at the Estadio Nacional before 70,000 people.[3] Neruda was hospitalized with cancer at the time of the Chilean coup d'tat led by Augusto Pinochet. Three days after being hospitalized, Neruda died of heart failure. Already a legend in life, Neruda's death reverberated around the world. Pinochet had denied permission to transform Neruda's funeral into a public event. However, thousands of grieving Chileans disobeyed the curfew and crowded the streets. David Mandessi Diop (July 9, 1927-1960)[1] was one of the most promising French West African poets known for his contribution to the Ngritude literary movement. His work reflects his hatred of colonial rulers and his hope for an independent Africa.[2] David Diop was born in Bordeaux, France of a Senegalesefather and a Cameroonian mother. He had his primary education in Senegal. He started writing poems while he was still in school, and his poems started appearing inPrsence Africaine since he was just 15.[3] Several of his poems were published in Lopold Senghor's famous anthology, which became a landmark of modern black writing in French.[4] He died in a plane crash in 1960.[1] David Mandessi Diop (1927 - 1960) was a revolutionary African poet born in France but with parents of West African descent. His poems highlighted problems of Africa brought about by colonialism and gave a message to Africans to bring about change and freedom. He was known for his involvement in the negritude movement in France, a movement started by Black writers and artists protesting against French colonialism and its effects of African culture and values. His views and feelings were published in "Presence Africaine" and in his book of poems "Coups de pillon" which was published in 1956. Diop died at the age of 33 in a plane crash.

Africa my Africa Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs Africa of whom my grandmother sings On the banks of the distant river The poem starts by Diop reminiscing about Africa, a land he has not seen but only heard about from his grandmother's songs. His choice of words like "distant" symbolise how far he is from his country, a feeling based on his real life as he lived in France throughout his childhood and only visited Africa in the 1950s. Despite this, he paints a vivid scene of Africa and the proud warriors who walk on its "ancestral savannahs" You can sense how much he misses his homeland by his stress on the word Africa, and he continues to call it "My Africa" to emphasise it is his land and his feelings of patriotism towards it. 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 He continues to say that he has never known Africa, but despite the distance he cannot deny how much it is a part of him. The "beautiful black blood" which flows in his veins describes his African descent and shows how much Africa is a part of him and his love for it and its people. The next verses are angry and accusatory as he stresses that it is the blood and sweat of his people which is irrigating the fields for the benefit of other people. By this he is pointing a finger at the colonialists who exploited Black people and used them as slaves to profit from their hard labour. 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 In these verses he urges the Black people to stand up to the pain and the humiliation that they are suffering in their own land. He reminds them of the strengthand pride they have in them and to say no to the whip of the colonialist which makes them work under the hot midday sun and leaves scars on their backs. Despite this suffering he urges them to be strong and remain unbent and not let this break them despite the weight of their suffering. 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. In these verses the wise voice of Africa chides him for thinking "impetuous" thoughts, and implies to him that a continent lies in wait for something to happen. It urges the Africans to be patient and not hasty like children as there is change on the horizon. The tree "young and strong" represents the young people of Africa who are patiently but "obstinately" waiting until they get the liberty they want. At the moment the tree is alone, meaning the African struggle is a lonely battle but they will achieve the freedom and liberty they want no matter how bitter the taste in getting it. It is among the "white and faded" flowers by which he means the colonialists who will fade in time while the youthful Africans grow in strength and wait for their moment of freedom.

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