In the Spotlight: "Things Fall Apart"

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) tells the story of a small Igbo village’s first encounter with white Europeans, in the latter half of the 19th century. The first half of the novel paints a vivid portrait of the religion, economy, oral storytelling traditions, and social framework of pre-contact Igbo society; the second half explores the effects of the arrival of Christian missionaries and colonial European rulers.

Below we offer leads into your next FOA, IOP, WT assignments. Use these ideas to inspire your own topic or take them just as they are.

"[I]n its classical purity of line and economical beauty it provides us with a powerful fable about the immemorial conflict between the individual and society."

FOA / IOP

• Analysis of a key passage or extract. Choose a key passage. Explain its meaning and significance in the relation to the rest of the work. For example, how does the opening stanza of William Butler Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming,” (from which the title of the novel is taken), act as an epigraph to the novel?

• A presentation on the role of weather in the novel. How does it work, symbolically or otherwise, in relation to important elements of the novel such as religion? Are rain and draught significant? Explore the ways in which weather affects the emotional and spiritual realms of the novel as well as the physical world.

• Interview with Achebe (radio). Make sure you have a clear focus of discussion. For example: “Is Okonkwo a hero?”; “How relevant is Things Fall Apart to our times?”; “What contributes most to things falling apart in Umuofia?” Use the BBC World Bookclub podcast, below, as a model for the format. Include interesting questions from the audience.

• Class Discussion: Animal imagery abounds in the folktales and proverbs circulated among the clan members. What is the significance of some of the animals they discuss? What does the prominence of animal figures suggest about Igbo culture and about Achebe’s larger goals?

• Presentation. The role and significance of music. Throughout the novel, drums, music, and the town crier’s voice punctuate the narrative at key moments. What are the implications, for example, of Unoka’s taking his flute with him to the Evil Forest when he dies?

• Watch and listen to sample student IOPs for this novel.

WT1

• Tabloid sensationalizing Okonkwo’s suicide or the cold-blooded murder of his adopted son or marriage to several women (polygamy). The rationale can explain how the language and content of the tabloid propagates stereotypes of Africans and African culture.

• Report. How would the Commissioner’s report (in full) have looked had it been empathic?

• Advertisement. Base your ad on the Igbo concept of chi.

• Diary entry. A diary entry in which reveals his thoughts and feelings about another character or any aspects of the action of a literary text. This could be one of the missionaries describing his understanding of the source and nature of resistance to conversion.

WT2

• Power and Privilege: "How and why is a social group portrayed in a particular way?" Women suffer great losses in this novel but also, in certain circumstances, hold tremendous power. What role do women play in Things Fall Apart and how is their particular power portrayed?

• Text and Genre: "How has the text borrowed from other texts, and with what effects?"  Achebe includes stories from Igbo culture and tradition, proverbs, and parables. What is the significance of Achebe’s integration of African (oral) literary forms with that of Western literary forms?  How does the novel counter Western stereotypes of Africa and Africans? How effectively does it achieve this aim? Check out Achebe’s lecture “An Image of Africa” (included above).

• Reader, Culture, and Text: "How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?" This novel would be a source of positive reinforcement for many young African (-American) readers whereas for many White European readers it could challenge their values and beliefs (imagine a Victorian reader of the 1870s … Inspiration from Achebe’s famous lecture “An Image of Africa”

Need more ideas? Need help with starting or completing your assignment? Contact your tutor or, if you don’t have a tutor yet, contact us.

Resources:

• An Interview With Chinua Achebe (podcast) – the renowned author talks about optimism, activism and the meaning of life.
• BBC interview (podcast)
• “An Image of Africa” (transcription)– a famous lecture given by Achebe that explains the problems with the way Africa has often been represented in Western literature (including a scathing attack on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness)

Need help with your project? Contact us.

In the Spotlight: Persepolis

Our Spotlight series features a well-known work or author and offers you a wealth of ideas for your next assignment or research topic.

Below are ideas for the EE, IOP, FOA or WT1 or WT2. If you need more help with developing your own topic, contact us.

Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

WT1

• Radio transcript – Write a transcript for a radio Book-Club interview/brodcast, with Satrapi or literary critic as guest. What explains the overwhelming success of this work? Be sure to use an appropriate model for this genre.

• Manifesto – an excellent way to expose the values, beliefs and attitudes of the young Marjane and/or her family members which are implied in the novel. See the defining characteristics of manifestos here.

• Diary – A mother or father writes an entry revealing concern for his/her daughter’s safety as she increasingly defies the regime through her outspoken manner. The diary can show knowledge and understanding of Marjane’s character, her upbringing, the political/social/cultural context which Satrapi brings out through her work.

• Pastiche -- Mimic Satrapi’s simple drawing style to address similar themes and issues (injustice, freedom and confinement, religion) from another context. Or insert a missing chapter or section.

WT2

• Q. 3 ”Which social groups are marginalized, excluded or silenced within the text?”You could demonstrate how the Marjane Satrapi uses various conventions of the graphic novel to show how children, secularists, nationalists and even Muslims were silenced in Iran during the 1980 Islamic revolution.

IOP / FOA

• Interview/roundtable/seminar/lecture: Focus: ”What accounts for the success and immense popularity of this memoir?” Respond as cultural or literary critic in a seminar/roundtable or book-show. Similarly, this question could be the focus for an Oprah Winfrey interview with the author. Either way, the question invites an exploration of context (or reception and production).

• Presentation / Discussion: Persepolis is, essentially, a comic book. But what (if it at all — there is still some debate) makes it literature? Are all comic books potentially literature? This is an excellent way to explore questions of genre and cultural context. You can easily turn this into a live debate.

Resources

• Podcast - Book Talk - reactions (23 min)
• Podcast - Interview with author npr (20 min)

• Article -

• Site - Discussion of genre & stylistics + offers links. The Graphic Novel. 

• Video - Satrapi interviewed
• Video - "How to read a graphic novel" TEDx
• Video - overview of stylistic choices in Persepolis

Spotlight: Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day

Our Spotlight series regularly features an author or work studied in English and gives you prompts and ideas for your EE, IOP/FOA, WT1&2 or WA.

Ishiguro's novel offers excellent opportunities for exploring narrator (un)reliability, point of view, and dramatic irony in your next assignment. 

"... a subtle masterpiece of quiet desperation" 

FOA/IOP

Presentation: Stevens is adamant that ‘a butler of any quality must be seen to inhabit his role, utterly and fully’ as, to him it is much more than a ‘pantomime costume’ (p. 178). Discuss Stevens’ belief and how it is satirised by Ishiguro through the course of the novel.

Passage analysis: During his conversation with Stevens over the matter of ‘dignity’ (pp. 193-199), Mr Harry Smith observes trenchantly that ‘there is no dignity to be had in being a slave’ (p. 196). Discuss the irony of this statement in light of the novel as a whole.

Debate: Is Stevens a foolish dupe or a tragic hero?

Class Discussion: How far, and how effectively does the ending of the novel beginning on p. 252 ‘The pier lights…’ seem to bring the novel to a close? Separate the class into small groups of 3-5 students, with each answering a different prompt (8-10 min) . Each prompt serves to help answer the final question. Bring together for a final discussion (8-10 min).

Passage analysis: Look at the episode on pages 67-70 beginning ‘I rarely had reason to enter my father’s room…’ and ending ‘…some precious jewel he had dropped there.’ What does this passage reveal about Ishiguro’s narrative technique and how important the episode is to our understanding of Stevens?

Presentation /class discussion: Why is the novel entitled “The Remains of the Day”? If you opt for class discussion, break up the class into small groups. 3-4 minutes group discussion; 4-5 minutes whole group discussion; 2-4 minutes summing up of key ideas by you.

Debate: Does the narrative ultimately condemn Stevens for the choices he has made?

Radio interview / Oprah Winfrey: “Is the ending hopeful?” If you opt for radio interview, include 2-3 classmates. Each will serve to challenge the others in their interpretations. If you alone are being assessed for the IOP/FOA, then give your 2 classmates written prompts which challenge your position.

Presentation: How do the historical events, which underpin the novel, give a shaping power to the meaning of Stevens’ reflections? (One historical event: the story takes place in July 1956, the same month and year as the Suez Crisis).

Presentation: How effective and reliable is Stevens as a narrator? Discuss this question, paying particular attention to Ishiguro’s role in crafting his character.

WT1

Pastiche: Mimic the style and perspective that Ishiguro uses to create dramatic irony.

Editorial: Was Lord Darlington’s fall from grace aided and abetted by the blind sense of propriety and duty found in pre-war England — a country of stark class differences?

Diary: Miss Kenton records her love but also frustration with Stevens.

Tabloid: ”Butler Claims 'No Regrets' after Serving Nazi Master”-

WT2

Q. 1 "How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?"

Consider how the novel might be interpreted differently by a Marxist critic and a Post-Colonial critic? Review the different schools of interpretation in another article.


Q. 3 "How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?" 

Consider Ishiguro’s choice of main character — a Butler. To what purpose does Ishiguro reproduce and complicate some of the stereotypes of the English butler?

EE

Exploration of motif: Ishiguro’s characterisation of Stevens’ through the use of the ‘laugh’.

Discuss and analyse the use of English landscape as a symbol in the novel.

Explore notions of “Englishness” as defined and conveyed by Ishiguro. What is the overall message?

Exploration of theme: A dominant, yet subtle theme that is played out in the novel is the concept of ‘seeing and blindness’, both literally and metaphorically.

Discuss how the contrast of light and darkness in the novel contributes to theme.

Applying (post-colonial) literary theory: In what ways is Stevens the ideal colonial subject?

“Ideals, Ishiguro shows us, can corrupt as thoroughly as cynicism. ” Salman Rushdie. Show how this is true in the novel.

Resources

- Article:  Salman Rushdie discusses major themes (The Guardian)
- Podcast: The author himself. (Guardian Book Club Podcast)
- Podcast: Ishiguro speaks with Harriet Gilbert on BBC World Book Club

If you need help with any aspect of your assignment, contact us for a free session.

In the Spotlight: Running in The Family

This imaginative reconstruction of the author’s family history offers rich opportunities for exploration of cultural contexts, identity, gender, race and community.

Our Spotlight series offers a range of possible ideas for your next major assignment -- IOP/FOA, WT, EE etc... If you need more help developing or refining your ideas, contact us.

ExemplarsIOC sample commentary

"A lushly-written work, offering an intriguing mix of fact and fiction and a panoply of different voices and perspectives."

IOP /FOA

• Presentation: A close discussion/analysis of Ondaatje's style, using by way of illustration one or more extracts from the book.

• Presentation: Exploration of a theme - EX: The Vulnerability of History to Time and Perspective - Throughout Running in the Family, this theme is evident, especially in chapters, "Tropical Gossip" and "Lunch Conversation".

• Discussion: A number of motifs run through the memoir - for example, insects, maps,  and cinnamon. You could discuss any of these as a class, using a number of illustrative extracts and
  getting classmates to decide on purpose and effect of each motif.

• Exploration of a symbol: The Tea Estate. In the chapter, “Tea Country”, the magnitude of the tea fields surrounding the old Ondaatje family is used to emphasize the sense of isolation D seems to feel when living there. The vast expanse of these fields, although tranquil, creates a sense of imprisonment with its uniformity and silence.

• Exploration of a motif: Identity. In earlier chapters, the idea of identity revolves around the identity of Ceylon, but later Ondaatje’s own identity is more in focus. In one chapter he seems to question his connection with his family and his own role in the scheme of things. He draws upon the feeling of wanting to meet his father and to discuss the past with him to reveal that he is trying to develop a greater understanding of his father and is perhaps in need of a guide.

• Presentation / Radio book-club interview: Ondaatje once famously said: ”A literary work is a communal act. [...] I must confess that the book is not a history but a portrait or ‘gesture’. [...] In Sri Lanka a well-told lie is worth a thousand facts.” Discuss. This can be best done as a presentation or an animated book interview or roundtable in the same style as BBC4 In Our Time or CBC

• Presentation / interview: Discuss the use and significance of magic realism in this work.

• Other motifs worth investigating: maps, nature and money

WT1

• An obvious — indeed excellent — idea for a WT1 is pastiche. Write in the style of of Ondaatje (point of view, tone, syntax, diction, register, narrative interplay) drawing on your own multicultural self. If you are from a primarily monocultural/lingual background you can also rewrite a passage from a totally different work, substituting Ondaatje’s written style for the original.

• A radio interview (CBC Writers & Company, BBC World Book Club, CBC Ideas or ABC The HUB on Books, The Guardian podcast) where Ondaatje discusses with the host the relation between memory and identity, or his book's contribution to post-colonial literature, or his purpose for writing the book.

• One or more diary entries by a character / person in the memoir, reflecting on the significance of an event.

• Choose any dramatic episode or incident in the work and rework it into a tabloid article

• Book review. Models for book reviews are TLS, Atlantic, London Review of Books, NPR, Guardian Books.

WT2

Q. 5: "How does the text conform to, or deviate from, the conventions of a particular genre, and for what purpose?" 
Is it autobiography? novel? memoir? fictionalised history? This work is classified as memoir, and yet in many respects it plays with the conventions of this text-type.

As a post modern work Ondaatje’s Running in the Family includes the use of pastiche (multiple genres and styles), intertextuality (acknowledgement and use of other literary works); metafiction (writing about writing, and the self-conscious presence of the writer); nonlinear narrative; ironic and humorous tone (even treating difficult subjects from a position of dislocation and humor); and magical realism (fantastical elements incorporated into realism, and treated as part of reality).

Q. 3 "How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?”

Focus on how the native inhabitants of Ceylon are portrayed. Alternatively, you could focus on how the European colonizers are described in this multilayered memoir.

Q.6 “How has the text borrowed from other texts, and with what effects?” Here again, the question applies itself very nicely to this work. Some borrowings include D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and Shakespeare. Ask one of our tutors to help you get started on this question.

EE

"To what extent can Running in the Family be called a postmodern work?"  The post-modern idea of the fractured narrative and the impossibility of obtaining an objective truth is evident in both the “Bone” and “Dialogue” sections where we are given stories from different perspectives.

"For what purpose and to what effect does Ondaatje use magical realism in Running in the Family?"... 
OR
"In what ways and to what purposes is magical realism used in Running in the Family and in X (work in translation, for example: Marquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude)?"   (Lang A: cat.2 EE) 

• Investigate 
• Inspiration for a similar EE topic: Memory, Identity and Empire.

Resources

For more on style in this work.

For more on issues of empire (Memory, Identity, Empire)

Academic journal essays

• Zivkovié:  "Memory and Place..." 

In the Spotlight: Seamus Heaney

New to our Series: "Famous Seamus", popular Irish poet and Nobel Prize winner for Literature! His best known collection of poems are from Death of a Naturalist (1966) which are largely concerned with childhood experiences and the formulation of adult identities, family relationships, and rural life. 

Our Spotlight series offers ideas for assignments on a featured author or work. Use these as prompts - or take them straight as they are. Need some advice? Contact us.  

“Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.”

FOA / IOP

Presentation: Heaney's relationship with members of his family as portrayed in "Digging", "Follower" and "Mid-Term Break" from the collection (Death of a Naturalist).

Presentation: Choose any three poems and discuss the contradictions that are an essential part of Heaney's poetry.

Presentation: Comment on Heaney's treatment of viking corpses and the bodies found in the bogs of Ireland and how he relates their history to his own time. "Bog Queen", "Punishment", "Viking Dublin: Trial Pieces".

WT1

Rework some of the poems into a passage from a memoir. This is a particularly suitable form, as it allows you to identify and focus on what is are key or memorable aspects of Heaney's early life in Ireland.

Using the form diary, you can not only demonstrate your understanding of this text-type, but also reproduce the tone, perspective, and reflection in some of Heaney's poems.

WT2

Q.1 How could  the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?

Many of Heaney's poems lend themselves very well to a Marxist critical interpretation which could be contrasted with a psycho-analytical reading of the same poems.


Q. 3 How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

You could explore the representation of childhood in this collection of poems, looking in particular at narration, point of view and imagery.

Heaney makes frequent reference to labourers and those working the land. How are these figures treated in his poetry? Do they have any special significance?

Q.5  How does the text conform to, or deviate from, the conventions of a particular genre, and for what purpose?

Investigate Heaney's use of elegy and the pastoral in his poems.

EE

In The Redress of Poetry (1995), Heaney wrote: "[The] redressing effect of poetry comes from its being a glimpsed alternative, a revelation of potential that is denied or constantly threatened by circumstances." Investigate how his own writings conform to this idea.

Though never assuming an overtly political voice, Heaney’s work was never apolitical, and as an artist he kept an unbreakable faith in the ability of poetry to speak truth to power. To what extent can Heaney be called a voice of conscience (Irish, environmental, social)?

To what purpose(s) does Heaney draw on the pastoral in his poetry?

Compare and contrast Seamus Heaney and Robert Frost's use of nature in their poetry. You may decide to offer an evaluation of which poet is the more effective in this respect. *Note, this topic will conform to a cat. 1 (not cat.2) Language A essay. Category 2 is a comparison made between two works, one of which is translated.

IOC (exemplars)

1) student poem, performance 
2) Teacher exemplar "Digging"

Resources

Digging (Critical analysis)
Death of a Naturalist (analysis)
Death of a Naturalist (critical discussion)
Blackberry Picking (annotation)