So I griped vaguely about this on facebook, and a friend clued me into this wonderful TED talk by author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Adichie is Nigerian--and specifically Ibo--like Achebe, though she is of a different generation. She speaks eloquently to the African experience of western literature, although her talk is an explanation of why the term "African experience" is a problem. It's a great thing to watch at the end of this unit, when we're dealing with characters who do NOT fit perfectly into their cultural stereotypes, who are individuals struggling to find both a community and an identity. But it's also a good statement about stories more generally, as things we use to understand the people around us. Let's watch it:
So, I might have been vaguebooking about your Things Fall Apart essays yesterday. Disclaimer: As a group, they are insightful and extremely detailed. And the majority of them handled Okonkwo as a complex character with great finesse. But over and over again, I read that Okonkwo was a representative for his culture, a symbol. And he's not--he might think he is the perfect incarnation of Ibo values, but he's not. If he were, he wouldn't keep committing taboos.
So I griped vaguely about this on facebook, and a friend clued me into this wonderful TED talk by author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Adichie is Nigerian--and specifically Ibo--like Achebe, though she is of a different generation. She speaks eloquently to the African experience of western literature, although her talk is an explanation of why the term "African experience" is a problem. It's a great thing to watch at the end of this unit, when we're dealing with characters who do NOT fit perfectly into their cultural stereotypes, who are individuals struggling to find both a community and an identity. But it's also a good statement about stories more generally, as things we use to understand the people around us. Let's watch it:
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AuthorChristina Swan teaches AP English IV to seniors at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy, in Austin, Texas. In her free time, she likes to watch sci fi shows on netflix. Over the summer she wrote some articles and gave some presentations in a desperate attempt to get media badges to some science fiction conventions. She also taught herself how to sew pants and build bookcases. Archives
March 2020
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