World Literatures in English
Final Exam, Spring 2005

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, Systems of Inequality and Post-Colonial Resistance

 a. Colonization and Gender--
1) How is colonial mentality (its inner lack and its views of the Other) analyzed and presented in terms of gender relations in  the following two texts? Foe, Wide Sargasso Sea.

2) Analyze the different roles the white masters (including both Creoles and Afrikans) play in three of the following text: Sugar Cane Alley, Wide Sargasso Sea, the hunting episode in Abeng, "The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses" and "Six Feet of the Country"

b. Systems of Inequality in colonial society--

3) Use two examples from below to a) analyze how women can be doubly victimized in gender and racial hierarchy in a (post-)colonial society; b) and compare their different responses to the experiences of victimization. Earth, Salaam Bombay, Wide Sargasso Sea, Abeng (exerpt), "Amnesty" and "Children of the Sea."

4) How is social hierarchy presented in two of the following texts? Explain their differences in terms of their social contexts. "Gainda," "The Day of the Riots" and "Bright Thursday."

c. Post-colonial Revision and Languages:

5) How are the endings of Foe and Wide Sargasso Sea different from or similar to each other? In their postcolonial revision of canonical texts, who gets to speak and who don't?

6). Postcolonial cultural syncretism: In many postcolonial texts, we see the English revised and turned into 'englishes.' Choose two texts (the group reports' texts included) to comment on their different mixture of standard English with another english, or their appropriation and revision of canonical text in their own. 

 

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, "Bright Thursday," "The Prophetess," "The Music of the Violin," etc.)?  Choose two to analyze and compare. (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? If they assert themselves, how do they do so?)

6) 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.) (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 and Connecting to the Big Wide World

8). How do the immigrants (including English colonizers), or the diasporic groups, serve to link together the three areas we cover in class, as well as the other parts in the world?  Choose 2-3 texts to discuss what these diasporic connections mean in the texts' themes and styles, and whether people of the same race have different social statuses in different societies.   (Use at least one text we deal with in class, and then you are free to choose whatever relevant texts you know as examples.)

Enjoy!