Discussion #3 Directions & Topics

Humanities 211
Culture(s) & Literature of Africa
(Oral Arts & Film)
Prof. Cora Agatucci

6 October 1998: Learning Resources
http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/SocSci/1998/ss-981006.html

DISCUSSION #3 Literary Journal on Things Fall Apart
Online Hum 211 Discussion Forum Assignment
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Short Cuts: Directions & Topics for Discussion #3 Literary Journal |
Topic #1 | Topic #2 | Topic #3 | Topic #4

Go to DISCUSSION #3 FORUM
when you are ready to webpost your Literary Journal report:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/discussions/disc3_frm.htm

Go to HUM 211 COURSE PLAN for Discussion #3 deadlines:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/courseplan.htm

Directions & Topics for
Discussion #3 Literary Journal
Class Preparation & Participation Assignment - 20 points possible.

The Discussion #3 Literary Journal is different from previous Hum 211 Discussion Forum assignments. In the first two Discussion assignments, you have been developing and exercising some important Hum 211 course competencies; Discussion #3 Literary Journal targets specific Hum 211 Course Competencies that you may or may not have exercised on previous assignments, and it is intended to (further) prepare you to succeed on the upcoming Discussion Paper assignment (see Course Plan Weeks #6 - #8): For example:

Competency 1. Identify distinctive characteristics, genres, periods, themes of traditional and modern African...literature....
Competency 7. Formulate responses and interpretations using varied strategies and resources (e.g., active reading/viewing skills; self-reflection, critical and empathetic thinking...
Competency 8. Create a persuasive cross-cultural interpretation of an African text that integrates ethnorelative perspectives and analytical criteria appropriate to African language arts and their cultural contexts.
Competency 9. Communicate one’s interpretations in informal and formal writing, using relevant, well-selected evidence from African texts and their cultural contexts to support one’s points.

The Literary Journal assignment requires:

attentive reading of Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe's influential African novel;

close (re)reading and interpretation of selected aspects of Things Fall Apart,
with the help of the Study Guide;

MLA-style parenthetical citations whenever you quote or paraphrase passages
from Things Fall Apart and from any other sources; and

application of contextual background information on Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart,
the African novel and/or its literary-historical contexts, relevant to your interpretations.

However, like previous Discussion forum assignments, you will be given Topic choices (described below).

Note well that Discussion #3 is worth more points...and that you may prepare your Discussion #3 Literary Journal report individually OR collaborate with another Hum 211 student in preparing your Discussion #3 Literary Journal report. [If you decide to collaborate with another Hum 211 student, please let Cora know!!]

If you (working individually or collaboratively with another Hum 211 student) want to earn all the points possible, please

read these directions carefully,

ask Cora questions if you are confused,

address both tasks (A & B) for your chosen Topic as thoughtfully and clearly as you can,

be selective and focus your energy on identifying and developing a limited number of main points
that you consider most important to your chosen Topic'

illustrate/support your main points with specific examples and explanations, keeping in mind that
your audience (i.e. the rest of us in Hum 211) will not necessarily read and interpret Things Fall Apart the same way that you do; and

cite your source(s) of quotations, paraphrases, summaries--not only to avoid plagiarism but also
so that your Hum 211 readers can find and read your source(s) for themselves and, thus, get on
the train of thought that you are on. Cite specific passages from Things Fall Apart like this:
Uchendu states, "'There is no story that is not true'" (Part II, ch. 15, p. 99).

See also Cite Your Sources & Avoid Plagiarism:
URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/assignments/cite.htm

TOPIC CHOICES FOR DISCUSSION #3 LITERARY JOURNAL

Choose one of the following Topics for your Discussion #3 Literary Journal. In preparing your report, be sure to:
    --complete all tasks (A and B) within your chosen Topic, and
    --cite specific passages from Things Fall Apart to illustrate your points--like this:

Uchendu states, "'There is no story that is not true'" (Part II, ch. 15, p. 99).

TOPIC 1: Okonkwo & His Story
Remember to complete both tasks (A and B) for your chosen Topic, and to cite specific passages from Things Fall Apart to illustrate your points--like this: Uchendu states, "'There is no story that is not true'" (Part II, ch. 15, p. 99).

Task A. Write a character analysis of Okonkwo, focusing on identifying keys to understanding who he is and why he acts as he does (esp. in Part I).
(e.g. consider some of the following: his formative experiences growing up, his driving motivations and ambitions, his current status/position in Umuofia society and how he has gained that position, his relationships with other characters, the cultural taboos that he breaks--and why you think he breaks them--in Part I, and which ultimately result in his banishment at the end of Part I).

Things Fall Apart Study Guide Resources: Part I: Questions #2, #3, #10, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #18, #24, #25; Part II: Questions #1, 2

Task B. Explain why you think that Okonkwo commits suicide at the end of the novel--or, stated another way, why/how did "things fall apart" for Okonkwo?

Things Fall Apart Study Guide Resources: Part III: Questions #2, #3, #4, #6, #8, #9, #11

TOPIC 2: Igbo Culture / Society
Remember to complete both tasks (A and B) for your chosen Topic, and to cite specific passages from Things Fall Apart to illustrate your points--like this: Uchendu states, "'There is no story that is not true'" (Part II, ch. 15, p. 99).

Literary critic and teacher Paul Brians asserts that, in Things Fall Apart (esp. Part I), author Chinua Achebe represents "a complex and sympathetic portrait of a traditional [Igbo] village in Africa....not only to inform the outside world about Igbo cultural traditions, but to remind his own people of their past and to assert that it contained much of value. All too many Africans in his time were ready to accept the European judgment that African had no history or culture worth considering." Chinua Achebe states that one important purpose of Things Fall Apart is "to help my society regain belief in itself and put away the complexes of years of denigration and self-abasement" ("Novelist as Teacher" qtd.in Chinua Achebe In His Own Words). At the same time, Achebe refused to romanticize traditional Igbo culture as a perfect "golden age"; Things Fall Apart also depicts morally questionable customs and inflexible attitudes in traditional, pre-colonial Igbo society, and voices perspectives (e.g. through Obierika and Nwoye) critical of these customs and attitudes.
Task A. Based on your reading of Things Fall Apart, identify and explain aspects of traditional Igbo society/culture presented as more complex, positive, and/or valuable than is suggested by negative images of African cultures as "primitive," simple, and backward.

Things Fall Apart Study Guide Resources: Part I: Questions #4, #6, #7, #9, #11, #12, #13, #15, #16, #17, #20, #22, #24, #26; Part III: Question #5

Task B. What aspects of pre-colonial Igbo culture are questioned and criticized in Things Fall Apart? Attend also to those aspects of traditional Igbo culture that contibute to its "falling apart" after the "white man" comes.

Things Fall Apart Study Guide Resources: Part I: Questions #14, #15, #17, #18, #19, #22, #25, #27; Part II: Questions #4, #6; Part III: Questions #4, #5, #6, #7

TOPIC 3: Impact of European Colonialism
Remember to complete both tasks (A and B) for your chosen Topic, and to cite specific passages from Things Fall Apart to illustrate your points--like this: Uchendu states, "'There is no story that is not true'" (Part II, ch. 15, p. 99).

     Task A. Summarize Igbo initial attitudes toward "the white man" based on Achebe's depiction of their early cross-cultural contacts.

Things Fall Apart Study Guide Resources: Part I: Question #21; Part II: Questions #3, #4, #5, #6

      Task B. Explain your understanding of the impact of the British colonization on Igboland as dramatized in Part III of Things Fall Apart.

Things Fall Apart Study Guide Resources: Part III: Questions #1, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9

TOPIC 4: Achebe's Achievement in Things Fall Apart
Remember to complete both tasks (A and B) for your chosen Topic, and to cite specific passages from Things Fall Apart and/or other sources to illustrate your points--e.g.: Uchendu states, "'There is no story that is not true'" (Part II, ch. 15, p. 99).

In Bill Moyers' televised interview with Chinua Achebe, Achebe describes himself as a writer positioned between or across African Igbo and Western European cultural traditions. In "Chinua Achebe and the Invention of African Literature," an introductory essay in our text Things Fall Apart (ix-xvii), Simon Gikandi explains the many ways in which he believes that Chinua Achebe invented African literature when he published Things Fall Apart in 1958. Achebe set out to appropriate and transform Western literary traditions (e.g. genres of the realistic novel and Tragedy) and the colonizer's English language to make them serve African purposes--to tell an African story from his African perspective in Things Fall Apart.
     Task A. Characterize the narrator (the storyteller) telling us the story of Things Fall Apart--e.g., how would you describe this "voice," point of view or perspective, values, goals?--and examine significant examples of Achebe's use of African oral art forms and "African English."

Things Fall Apart Study Guide Resources: Part I: Questions #1, #4, #5, #8, #23, Boxed Question at end of Study Guide Part I; Part II: Question #4 [boxed definition of Western Tragedy]; Part III: Questions #9, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15.
Other Resources:
(1) "Ikemefuna's Song" in In Praise of the Word: African Oral Arts:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/oralarts.htm
(2) African Storytelling: Oral Traditions
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/afrstory.htm

     Task B. Draw upon background resources and select points that explain how Achebe envisions the role and value of African storytellers and storytelling, in order to help us all better understand Things Fall Apart.

Background Resources:
(1) Achebe on the Value and Functions of Literature and Story Telling, in Chinua Achebe in His Own Words:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebe2.htm
(2) Baker, Rob, and Ellen Draper. “'If One Thing Stands, Another Will Stand Beside It': An Interview with Chinua Achebe.” Parabola 17.3 (Fall 1992): 19-27. (Interview conducted with Achebe at Bard College, New York, 1992) - Excerpts Rpt.:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/achebe1992.htm
(3) Relevant Excerpts from Interview with Achebe (2000) from:
Bacon, Katie. "An African Voice. Atlantic Monthly 2 Aug. 2000.
reprinted in Hum 211 online Course Pack:
Cross-Cultural Study: Some Considerations
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/crossculture.htm
Images of Africa
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/images.htm
(4) Reviews of Chinua Achebe's Essay Collections:
Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975) | Hopes and Impediments (1988):
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/coursepack/achebereview.htm

HUM 211 DISCUSSION #3 FORUM
When you are ready to web post your Discussion #3 Literary Journal
go to Discussion #3 Forum:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/discussions/disc3_frm.htm
See HUM 211 COURSE PLAN for Discussion #3 deadlines:
http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/courseplan.htm

Questions or Problems? Please contact Cora: cagatucci@cocc.edu

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Last Updated: 31 March 2005

This webpage is maintained by Cora Agatucci, Professor of English,
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I welcome comments: cagatucci@cocc.edu
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		attentive reading of Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe's influential African novel;
		close (re)reading and interpretation of selected aspects of Things Fall Apart, with the help of the Study Guide;
		MLA-style parenthetical citations whenever you quote or paraphrase passages from Things Fall Apart and from any other sources; and
		application of contextual background information on Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, the African novel and/or its literary-historical contexts, relevant to your interpretations.

		read these directions carefully,
		ask Cora questions if you are confused,
		address both tasks (A & B) for your chosen Topic as thoughtfully and clearly as you can,
		be selective and focus your energy on identifying and developing a limited number of main points that you consider most important to your chosen Topic'
		illustrate/support your main points with specific examples and explanations, keeping in mind that your audience (i.e. the rest of us in Hum 211) will not necessarily read and interpret Things Fall Apart the same way that you do; and
		cite your source(s) of quotations, paraphrases, summaries--not only to avoid plagiarism but also so that your Hum 211 readers can find and read your source(s) for themselves and, thus, get on the train of thought that you are on. Cite specific passages from Things Fall Apart like this: Uchendu states, "'There is no story that is not true'" (Part II, ch. 15, p. 99).

For problems with this web, contact webmaster@cocc.edu