English 8

Work Plan
Oct. 9, 2020
Work Plan
● Group Presentation
● Telephone Conversation
● Histo-Biographical Approach in
Literary Analysis
● Wrap Up
Collaborative Activity
 Task
● Discuss your answers to the given questions last
Friday on the poem “Telephone Conversation” by
Wole Soyinka.
● Create a slide presentation that will sum up your
answers in each question.
 Questions:
1. Who is the persona of the poem? What attitude or
characteristic is seen from the persona? What lines from the
poem support your answer?
2. What is the theme of the poem? Cite at least three
proofs from the poem and explain.
3. Get to know the poet, Wole Soyinka. Provide a brief
background about him.
4. At what year did the poet write the poem? What
connection does the author’s life have to the written poem?
 Group
Presentat
ion
Wole
Soyinka ● born in Isara, Nigeria on July
13, 1934
● A member of the Yoruba tribe
● His mother was a convert to
Christianity and his father
was headmaster at the local
British-model school
● Soyinka took up writing
very early in his life.
Wole
Soyinka ● He left to attend the
University of Leeds in
England.
● He returned to Nigeria in
1960, the same year that
the country declared its
independence from
colonial rule.
● "Telephone Conversation"
appeared in the 1963
collection Modern Poetry
from Africa.
Wole
Soyinka ● Colonial Nigeria: era in
the History of Nigeria
when the region of West
Africa was ruled by
Great Britain in from the
mid-nineteenth century
until 1960
Conversatio
n The price seemed
reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady
swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing
remained
But self-confession.
"Madam," I warned,
"I hate a wasted journey--I
am African."
Conversatio
n Silence. Silenced
transmission of
Pressurized good-
breeding. Voice, when it
came,
Lipstick coated, long gold-
rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped.
Caught I was foully.
Conversatio
n "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
double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was
real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfounded to beg
simplification.
Conversatio
n Considerate she was, varying the
emphasis--
"ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?"
Revelation came.
"You mean--like plain or milk chocolate?"
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." Silence for
spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness clanged her
accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. "WHAT'S THAT?"
conceding
Conversatio "DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS." "Like
n 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
Are a peroxide blond. Friction, caused--
Foolishly, madam--by sitting down, has
turned
My bottom raven black--One moment,
madam!"--sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears--"Madam," I pleaded,
"wouldn't you rather
See for yourself?"
 Histo-
“This is a quote, words full of

Biographical
wisdom that someone important
said and can make the reader get

Approach
inspired.”

—Someone
Famous
Histo-biographical
approach
● sees works as the reflection of the
author’s life and times (or of the
characters’ life and times)
● deems it necessary to know about the
author and the political, economical,
and sociological context of his times in
order to truly understand the work(s).
Questions asked in the
analysis
● When was the work written?
● When was it published?
● What influences—people, ideas, movements,
events—evident in the writer’s life does the
work reflect?
● What has the author revealed in the work
about his/her characteristic modes of thought,
perception, or emotion?
● What are the effects of the differences
between actual events and their literary
transformation in the poem, story, play, or
essay?