Short Stories:

"The Prophetess"

　 南非
作者
  Njabulo Ndebele
故事摘要
本篇故事介紹一個小男孩為母親（一個護士）取找女巫師求靈水的故事。
故事顯示南非鄉村對巫術的半信半疑，以及小男孩的領悟。
角色名字    
  • the boy and his mother;
  • the people on the bus: the man with a balaclava, the young man with an immaculate dress, the big woman with washing on her lap and the other women.   
    　
    　
Warm Up

問題
  • How do you distinguish between folk belief and superstition?  (Can they be set apart from each other?)
  • In Taiwan, do we have any spiritual medium who enlightens people the way the sangoma does in the story? 
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課後作業

請由以下問題選擇回答

  1. 1.On what is the boy’s attention focused when he visits the prophetess? Are they signs of her spirituality? (e.g. dog; darkness, vine, his own sensations, memory, doek [African headscarf, 11]; camphor [12]; her coughing), or signs that make her human? 
  2. The people on the bus – How do they relate to each other?  And to the prophetess?  How are they different from each other?

    What has the boy learned from the prophetess?   Does the story confirms the "sangoma" or criticize her?