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Humanities 211 |
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Humanities 211 |
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DISCUSSION #1 Reports & Responses
Online Hum 211 Discussion Forum Assignment
Short Cuts: Report Directions &
Topic Choices | Response Directions |
| Web Posting Reports
and Responses to the HUM 211 Discussion
#1 forum |
See HUM 211 COURSE PLAN for deadlines: Weeks #2
& #3
Discussion #1 Report Directions &
Topics
Class
Preparation & Participation Assignment - 10 points possible.
(in the Hum 211 Online Course Pack), which features the opinions of African and other commentators on the often negative or inaccurate Western images of Africa, and the reasons why these images of Africa have developed in the West.Everyone is required to prepare a Discussion #1 Report and post it to the Hum 211 Discussion Board. However, four different options or topic choices for your Discussion #1 Report are described below. Cora will assign individual Discussion #1 Report topics on Thurs., Jan. 17 (via E-mail and online announcement). However, you have the opportunity to influence the Report topic you are assigned--if you E-mail Cora your first and second topic choices by Wed., Jan 16.
Once you have been assigned a Discussion #1 Report Topic, follow the directions given below and prepare your Report. Please follow citation guidelines when you cite (quote, paraphrase, summarize) online course materials and/or other "outside" sources--not only to avoid plagiarism but also to enable other Hum 211 students to find and review your sources for themselves.
Cite Your Sources & Avoid Plagiarism:
URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/assignments/cite.htmDISCUSSION #1 REPORT TOPIC CHOICES
TOPIC 1: Images of Africa
A. (Re)Read "Images of Africa"
AllAfrica.com: http://allafrica.com
E. Identify two news sources on contemporary Africa that you reviewed (for 1.D), state whether you recommend each of these two sources, and explain why you do or do not recommend each news source.
TOPIC 2:
Cross-Cultural Study
A.
(Re)Read "Cross-Cultural
Study: Some Considerations" (in the Hum 211 Online Course Pack),
which features recommendations by several sources on how students and teachers
should approach the study of cultures other than their own. Select the
advice that seems most valuable to you. Cross-Cultural
Study: Some Considerations:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/crossculture.htm
B.
Write a list of at least three pieces of valuable advice for how we in Hum 211
might most productively approach cross-cultural study of Africa (its
cultures, history, oral arts, literature, film) derived from the advice and
comments given by these sources. Feel free to add any additional
advice you would recommend, not from necessarily from the above sources,
but from your own ideas, cross-cultural experiences and/or other
sources.
C. Consider your own experience of reading
English-language subtitles while viewing the film Keita (in Jula
and French) and (re)read these Hum 211 Course Pack materials that raise issues
of translation:
In
Praise of the Word: Traditional African Oral Arts
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/oralarts.htm
"What's
in an African Name?" & "Ambara, The Interpreter,"
in African Praise Songs:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/praisesongs.htm
"On
Translating Orature into Literature," in The
Epic of Sundjata:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/sundjata.htm
D. Describe two or three Translation Issues, drawing upon 2.C above, that you believe are important for Hum 211 students to keep in mind when studying African "texts" (i.e. written-down "orature," literature, and/or film)
TOPIC 3:
Traditional Arts of Africa
A.
(Re)Read the following Hum 211 Online Course Pack
webpages, which feature commentary and examples of traditional and
contemporary African Oral Arts:
In
Praise of the Word: Traditional African Oral Arts
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/oralarts.htm
African
Praise Songs
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/praisesongs.htm
Student
Praise Songs
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/studentpraise.htm
B. Write an African Praise Song for yourself, and write a line-by-line interpretation of your praise song, using the guidelines and examples offered by "What's in an African Name?" (including the line-by-line interpretation of the Dogon praise song "Ambara, The Interpreter") and Student Praise Songs (from Hum 211, Fall 2000)
C. Explore/Review some of these web sites & directories:
African Spirituality and Philosophy:
African
Proverbs, Sayings, and Stories:
http://www.afriprov.org/index.htm
Moderator Rev. Joseph G. Healey, M.M., Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
Urban Ministries Support Group (UMSG) in Nairobi, Kenya
including African Stories: http://www.afriprov.org/resources/stories.htm
Art and Life in Africa Online, including information on more than 100 African peoples, cultures, countries: http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart
HUM 211 African
Links:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/links.htm
including:
African Arts & Cultures Links:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/linksart_culture.htm
African Orature & Literature Links:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/linkslit.htm
D. Cite at least two African cultural websites that you have reviewed (for 3.C) and can recommend as valuable; then explain why you recommend each web source as valuable.
TOPIC 4: Keita, The Heritage of the Griot
A & B. If you are assigned Topic 4: Keita, select one or two of the following discussion topics for your Discussion #1 Report. Use Hum 211 online Course Pack background readings on Keita as relevant (see below).
1. Parallel Stories: Dani Kouyate’s film Keita presents two parallel stories: the contemporary story of Mabo Keita seeking the “meaning of his name” and the early story of Sundjata, Mabo’s illustrious ancestor. Compare/contrast Mabo Keita and Sundjata Keita. How do these characters and their stories seem to comment on each other?
2. The Griot Past &
Present: Describe and compare past
and present roles of the Griot in Mande society, using Djeliba Kouyate of the
present*, Doua and Bella Fasseke (AKA Balla Fasseke) of the past, and Keita
Background materials
· You might also approach the filmmaker Dani Kouyate and his father Sogui Kouyate (who plays the character of Djeliba in the film and is a real-life griot as well as celebrated international actor) as modern-day griots using the modern medium of film to dramatize the griot’s difficult mission in today’s Africa.
3. Themes and Conflicts: Identify what you consider to be one or more major themes and conflicts dramatized in Keita. For example, you might focus on one of the following suggestions:
· Conflicts: Djeliba and Mr. Fofano come into direct conflict over the education of Mabo Keita. Mabo is torn between these two: “I want to go to school, but I want the story to continue." Contrast the different types of knowledge and education offered by Djeliba and Mr. Fofano.
· Tradition vs. Modernity: Film director Dani Kouyate has stated that modernity and tradition constitute “two parallel realities, and we are in between. And this is the problem. Sometimes we are traditional and sometimes we are modern without ever having achieved to integrate the two in an intelligent way.” Does the filmmaker Dani Kouyate seem to offer any hope of reconciling or integrating the conflict?
4. Character Study: Analyze one or more of the characters in Keita that interest you. For example, you might focus on:
· Re-trace the scenes in which the mysterious Hunter of Do appears in Dani Kouyate’s film, and describe the Hunter’s roles in these scenes. The eternal Hunter is the only character who appears in both present and past stories. Why?
· Analyze the portrayal of women—for example, Sitan Keita, Sogolon, and/or Sassouma Berete--in Keita.
Online Keita Materials:
Check Online Course Pack Table of Contents for more
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/
African Oral Epics: An Introduction
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/oralepics.htm
Keita: Film Notes
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/keita.htm
Film Plot Summary
Film Sequence & Scene Notes
The Epic of Sundjata
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/sundjata.htm
On Translating Orature into Literature
Summary of the Epic Story of Sundjata
The Mali Empire & Griot Traditions
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/maligriot.htm
Discussion #1 Response Directions
Class
Preparation & Participation Assignment - 5 points possible.
Read all the webposted Discussion #1 Reports after the posting deadline (Sun., Jan 20). Choose 2 or 3 Reports that interest you as the stimuli for your Discussion #1 Response. Or you may respond to several Reports on a particular Topic of interest to you.
What should you write in your Response? First of all, there are no "right" or "wrong" responses. There are only your honest and thoughtful responses--personal and/or analytical--to others' Reports and topics, and what they and you have made of HUM 211 learning materials experiences so far.
In your "Response," I invite you to offer open-ended, earnest inquiries and productive reactions to one or more Reports, or specific points and questions raised in two or more Reports that elicit strong responses from you, that provoke your curiosity and interest, and/or that in some (other) way provoke your comment and further discussion.Whatever topics you address and reactions you describe in your Response, I would like you to try to specify what you are reacting to, and explain how and/or why you are reacting as you are.
In seeking what to respond to as you read other students' Reports, information, perspectives and opinions, you may wish to look for those that . .
stimulate your curiosity
provoke questions that you'd like to discuss, investigate, research further;
suggest a means to understand yourself and/or others in a deeper, broader, and/or different way;
evoke a strong emotional reaction in you--positive or negative or other?;
surprise or shock you--and prompt you to question why;
make you think harder and deeper, or broader and/or in new and different ways than
you are used to;
suggest connections or similarities to your own or others' personal experiences, and/or
subjects and "texts" that you've studied in other contexts;
constitute a telling cross-cultural encounter with differences that seem strange, unusual, provocative or ...?
tempt you to judge--perhaps prematurely?--or activate preconceptions and stereotypes;
stimulate an imaginative experience of "travel" or understanding in a different cultural "contact zone";
trigger a valuable insight or theory worth sharing with others.
WEB POSTING to HUM 211 DISCUSSION Forum
When you are ready to post your Discussion #1 Report and/or Response, follow the Posting Directions given at the online Hum 211 Discussion #1 forum:
URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/discussions/disc1_frm.htmQuestions or Problems? Please contact Cora:
cagatucci@cocc.edu
HUM 211
Open
Campus Course Information
- Winter 2002
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URL of this webpage:
http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/assignments/Discussion1.htm
Last Updated: 31 March 2005
This webpage is maintained by Cora
Agatucci, Professor of English,
Humanities Department, Central
Oregon Community College
I welcome comments: cagatucci@cocc.edu
© Cora Agatucci, 1997-2002
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