issues

World Literatures in English
Final Exam, Spring 2001

Part II
Choose 2 from the following questions and write for each an essay of at least 4 paragraphs.

II. Mapping 2. Relate these different worlds and their "in-between" worlds.

A. Colonization and De-Colonization,
B. Children's Growth and Gender Relationships in (Post-)Colonial society
C. Diaspora Identity and Gender

A. Colonization and De-Colonization

a. Colonization and Gender--
1) How is colonial or political power--and its control of family and women--presented differently in "Children of the Sea" and The Handmaid's Tale?

2) Analyze the roles the white people (including both newly arrived whites and creoles) play in two of the following text: Sugar Cane Alley, Wide Sargasso Sea, the hunting episode in Abeng, and "Rain Child."

3) Choose 2-3 characters from the texts below and analyze how they are colonized mentally (or white-washed)--partly or completely: The God of Small Things (excerpts), Sugar Cane Alley, "Bright Thursday," and "Rain Child."

Suggestions:

--1) One of these texts ("Children of the Sea") is supposed to be realistic and the other, an dystopic fiction. However, there are similarties and differences in their forms of colonial/political control.
-- 2) Be careful not to simplify the roles: there is a distinction between rich and poor whites; also, there is a difference between the white teacher, the white master and the white female master in Sugar. You may also choose to compare the two whilte teachers, one in Sugar and the other in "Rain Child."

b. Patriarchal Society, National Movements and Gender --
Women can suffer both in traditional society or when a nation tries to de-colonize and modernize itself.

4) Use two examples from below to analyze how women can be doubly victimized in gender hierarchy and political/racial conflicts: "Honour," Earth, Salaam Bombay, Wide Sargasso Sea and "Children of the Sea."

II. Children's Growth and Gender Relationships in (Post-)Colonial society

5) How are children (their education, gendering process and/or family relations) affected in a colonial or post-colonial society (e.g. Wide Sargasso Sea, Salaam Bombay, Sugar Cane Alley, The Hunting episode in Abeng, Annie John, "Rain Child", etc.)? Choose two to analyze and compare.

6) How does marriage, or sex/nakedness, mean differently or similarly to the girls in the following texts: "Gainda," Abeng and "The Found Boat." Choose two to answer this question. What do they do and play which reveal their respective cultural and social backgrounds? Do you find similar kind of sexual or class inequality in them? (In answering this question, you also need to consider the different messages each text conveys and their social contexts.)

7). Discuss the theme of mother-daughter relationship in three of the texts we have studied. (e.g. "Her Mother," "Bright Thursdays," Wide Sargasso Sea and Annie John.)

Suggestions:

-- 5) Generally, children are the most unaware of and thus vulnerable to the social prejudices and control. How do these children deal with the unequal and unfair views and treatment of them? Do they assert themselves, or withdraw into a corner of fear and self-protection?
-- 6) The issue of marriage will not be relevant to "Found Boat," just as nakedness, to "Gainda."
-- 7) How does the mother teaches the daughter? If the mother-daughter relationship gets broken, what are the reasons? How does the daughter establish her sense of identity in relation to the mother?

C. Diaspora Identity and Gender

8). Discuss the issue of self-identity for the Caribbean women writers we have studied. For example: What are the meanings of writing to them? How do they categorize and characterize their writings?

9) How do the immigrant writers/directors/characters deal with their culture of origins or their "past"? Rejecting, keeping or transforming it? How--with what symbols--do they represent this cultural past and their relations with the past? Choose two from ""Imaginary Homeland," Rude, Annie John, "Blossom" and The Adjuster,

Good luck!