Week 09: Dystopian literature, Black Voices and postcolonialism

Today
Recap Modernism / Postmodernism
Check understanding Dystopian literature
Introduction Literature of Black voices
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volgende
Slide 1: Tekstslide
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In deze les zitten 53 slides, met interactieve quizzen, tekstslides en 3 videos.

time-iconLesduur is: 50 min

Onderdelen in deze les

Today
Recap Modernism / Postmodernism
Check understanding Dystopian literature
Introduction Literature of Black voices

Slide 1 - Tekstslide

Slide 2 - Tekstslide

Let's review:
Modernism is....

Slide 3 - Woordweb

Modernism:
Rejection of Realism & reaction to WW1
Focus on the writer

Focus on interiority (what goes on in the person) 
Subjectivity (no all-knowing narrator)
Interested in psychology
Rejection of literary conventions
Refusal of meaning
Unreliable narrator 
Stream of consciousness






















Slide 4 - Tekstslide

Let's review:
Postmodernism is....

Slide 5 - Woordweb

Postmodernism
Focus on the reader

Focus on exteriority (outside looking in)
Intertextuality (refering to other texts and itself)
Literature is open 
Parody & pastiche
Acceptance and use of literary conventions
"Everything has been done before"
Search for/denial of meaning
Irony and dark humour


















Slide 6 - Tekstslide

Dystopian literature

Slide 7 - Woordweb

What is a dystopia

Slide 8 - Open vraag

Dystopian literature

Slide 9 - Tekstslide

Utopia vs Dystopia
Dystopia: an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. 
Utopia: an imagined place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions.

Slide 10 - Tekstslide

Genre of variety
As you can see, there is a great variety of dystopian worlds
and stories in our popular culture, from books to games. 
A lot of them focus on:
  • oppression (religion, government, capitalism)
  • (self-)destruction of humanity (nuclear, scientific, alien invasion)
  • technology run amok (robot overlords, life is a simulation)
  • pandemic catastrophe (incurable diseases, experimentation)
  • wasteland post-apocalypse (survivalist, scarcity of resources)

Slide 11 - Tekstslide

Assignment: The Pedestrian - Ray Bradbury
In your reader you can find the short story The Pedestrian. For next lesson, read the story and answer these 7 questions about it. Use the audiobook on the next slide to support your reading:

  1. Describe the setting of the story (year, type of community, etc.).
  2. What does Mr. Mead “whisper to every house”? Why do you think he’s whispering these certain phrases to the houses?
  3. Do you think Mr. Mead fits into this society? Why or why not? Explain the possible reasons. 
  4. Explain why the police car might state “no profession” after Mr. Mead says that he is a writer.
  5. Mr. Mead is taken to the “Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies.” What do you think this place is for? Why would he be taken there just for walking down the street?
  6. What might have happened to this society that there would be no crime, but that walking would be considered criminal behavior?
  7. What do you think Bradbury’s purpose was in writing this story? How does he achieve this purpose through his writing? Cite details from the story to support your answer. 

Slide 12 - Tekstslide

0

Slide 13 - Video

What book are you reading?

Slide 14 - Open vraag

Literature of Black Voices




Pages: 20-27

Slide 15 - Tekstslide

Slide 16 - Tekstslide

Slide 17 - Tekstslide

The American whites used education as a tool
to suppress black people. How are
literacy and freedom related?

Slide 18 - Woordweb

"Especially the Southern states had tried to control slaves and free people of colour by denying them education. They knew the power of writing and reading and feared literate slaves could use these new means of communication that would make it easier to plan revolts and escapes. Also allowing people of colour to write and read would make it harder to ‘justify’ slavery or treating them as inferior, since one of the arguments to do so was that these people would be unable to write and read, because they were not smart enough. Finally, literacy gives way to expanding knowledge, spreading new ideas, taking part of society in which writing was essential with regard to recording a new-born or marriage, raising literate children with a brighter future, developing critical thinking and so much more. An important example of critical thinking is that black people got to read the bible themselves and found that it even opposes slavery ‘”From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth (…)” (Acts)  "

Make sure you remember this part of the Reader!

Slide 19 - Tekstslide

Slide 20 - Tekstslide

What do you know about Jim Crow Laws
& racial segregation in the US?

Slide 21 - Woordweb

Jim Crow laws
Used to segregate blacks and keep the white South happy after the civil war.
"Separate but equal" (Plessy vs. Ferguson 1897)
Voter restriction laws:
  • Poll taxes
  • literacy and comprehension tests
  • residency and record-keeping requirements

Slide 22 - Tekstslide

Birth of a Nation

Slide 23 - Tekstslide

Slide 24 - Tekstslide

Slide 25 - Tekstslide

Slide 26 - Tekstslide

Have you ever thought about the position of Black soldiers in the American Army? 

Slide 27 - Tekstslide

Slide 28 - Tekstslide

Slide 29 - Tekstslide

Slide 30 - Tekstslide

Black American Literature
                                    
  1. William Du Bois (essay writer)
  2. Harlem renaissance (Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen)
  3. Civil rights movement 
  4. Modern black literature / women's literature

Slide 31 - Tekstslide

Slide 32 - Tekstslide

Slide 33 - Tekstslide

Slide 34 - Tekstslide

Extra reading:
For some extra background on what life was like for African-American soldiers, read the article: "Are We Not American Soldiers?’ When the U.S. Military Treated German POWs Better Than Black Troops"

Slide 35 - Tekstslide

What does the writer of this poem want to share here?

Slide 36 - Open vraag

Heritage

Slide 37 - Tekstslide

What does the writer of this poem want to share here?

Slide 38 - Open vraag

Slide 39 - Tekstslide

Listen to the poem and read along
Think about the following questions: 
  • We have discussed how Hughes attempted to show black lives as they were, flaws and all.
    Where do you see that in this poem? 
  • What do you notice about the rythm of the poem?


Slide 40 - Tekstslide

Two lines with flaws

Slide 41 - Open vraag

What do you notice about the rythm of the poem?

Slide 42 - Open vraag

Zora Neale Hurston 
(1891-1960)
"At times I have no race, I am just me"

How it feels to be Colored me

Slide 43 - Tekstslide

Slide 44 - Tekstslide

"I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me" 

Slide 45 - Tekstslide

Strange Fruit
You will hear popular blues and jazz singer Billie Holiday sing the song Strange Fruit. It was based on a poem written by Abel Meeropol in the 1920s about a lynching. 

As the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum, Billie's song became
THE protest song of the movement. 

As you listen, focus on what she is saying and note down which words
or parts of the song have an impact on you.

Slide 46 - Tekstslide

Slide 47 - Video

Which words or parts of the song
had an impact on you?

Slide 48 - Woordweb

Slide 49 - Tekstslide

Slide 50 - Tekstslide

But there is hope

Slide 51 - Tekstslide

Slide 52 - Video

Slide 53 - Tekstslide