Modernism ENG 406 Final Exam

Magical Realism

blends fantastical elements with real world themes and ordinary life

The Palm Wine Drinkard, by amos tutuola

• draws from folklore from yoruba, integrating myths and magical creatures into a story

• the main character travels to the afterlife and it is a literal place one can travel to.

• talking trees, shape shifting creatures, babies that come out of thumbs…. magical things coexist with regular human characters

• the narrator is very matter of fact and none of this seems outlandish to him

Oral Tradition

Verbal transmission of stories, histories, and cultural knowledge from one person to another. Reflect societal norms and lessons on morality.

Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

• the unnamed narrator is orally told a story by Mustafa Sa’eed about is life… passing down his history to another person. here mustafa reflects on his past mistakes in a moral lesson type of manner, of his escapades with women and how the narrator can be learn from him.

• presents a counter narrative to the western histories by providing one from a migrant’s perspective acclimating from sudanese to english culture

The Palm Wine Drinkard

• Narrative style is within the lines of a yuruba folktale, traditionally an oral medium

• proverbs and myths convey traditional cultural values within the story, a hallmark of the style of oral storytelling

• characters reflect

Quest Narrative

a protagonists journey and trials where they learn moral lessons along the way.

The Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola

• the main character goes on a quest through the afterlife in order to meet his wine tapper who died falling from a tree…

• journeys through strange realms while outwitting and surviving obstacles. Archetypal hero’s trials found in quests.

  • meeting his wife, getting past the perfect gentleman, finding his wine tapper, the looming thread of death

Petromagic Realism

Petro-magic realism is a literary term, coined by Jennifer Wenzel, for a subgenre of magical realism that specifically addresses the environmental, political, and social impacts of the oil industry/greed in resource-rich nations, especially in postcolonial contexts like Nigeria.

The Palm Wine Drinkard By Amos Tutuola

• its a work of magical realism

• critiques that impacts of colonialism and rich western influence on Yoruba.

• concept of the perfect gentleman being an amalgamation of greed for other’s property… or body parts

Ethical Reciprocity

Refers to how characters, narrators, treat others the way they would want to be treated.

A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid

• calls the reader to act within a dignified manner while as a tourist, to consider the greater implications of their actions on a local population

• there is failure of ethical reciprocity on colonial and personal levels through the abandonment of the individuals living within these spaces that have been taken over by neocolonialism (tourism)

• call to empathy and accountability on the case of the reader

Lonely Londoners, by Sam Selvon

• characters like moses have created a community of immigrants, sharing housing, money and advice in a manner similar to his namesake…

• ethical reciprocity in the novel ensures survival in a racist world

• moses provides guides to younger immigrants about finding working and avoiding harassment form authorities

Kitchen Sink Approach

when a work includes an over abundance of themes, plot lines, characters, commentaries.

Season of Migration to the North, by Tayeb Salih

1. Many overlapping themes: Colonialism, orientalism, post colonial reflection, neocolonialism, migration, sexual violence, masculinity, national identity, economics….

2. its also like… less than 200 pages and trying to do all that

Breaking the Fourth Wall

when the audience is directly acknowledged

Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place

• directly acknowledges the reader as “you” when discussing stories of tourism and neocolonialism

• calling the reader out is apart of her argument. she makes YOU complicit in the problems of neocolonialism in these tourist destination countries.

Consciousness of the Absurd

Refers to the moment a person becomes fully aware of the fundamental conflicts between a desire for meaning and purpose against the universes inherent lack of it.

The Guest

• Daru faces impossible moral choices, between turning in the Arab prisoner or letting him go. Both choices are wrong. Its absurd to give agency to a person who cant use it.

• Daru wants to do the right things, but there is no right answer… meaning and purpose are not inherent

• A world which does not explain itself.

Absurd Hero

A protagonist who grapples with the absurdity of a meaningless universe.

The Guest by Camus

• Daru has a lack of moral guidence in reflecting whether he should turn the arab in or let him go. he grapples with his own experiences of being an arab himself and existing within french society. There is no right or wrong for letting him free or turning him in.

• Daruis a school teacher who lives in isolation, alone in a meaningless world while trying to give meaning to others through teaching.