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Week 8: Cultural Identity Explored in Global Literature

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 Cultural Identity Explored in Global Literature  This week's literature focused on literature by authors who can be described as global citizens. The literature we read reflected their perspectives on how historical events helped shape cultural expectations and identities.  The Perforated Sheet  by Salman Rushdie is the short story of a man who identifies as Indian and living in Bombay.  The man identifies more with Western culture because he received a German education. While praying the man hurts his nose; this is important because he seems to evaluate the world through the senses he feels through his nose. The man is also a doctor, and he is called to tend to a sick woman; when he meets her, his nose begins to itch, which he understands to mean he should run away. However, he stays but is frustrated that he can not examine the sick woman’s entire body because she is covered by a perforated sheet only displaying the area where she needs treatment. The sheet is there because the
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Week 7: Disconnection Explored In Post- Holocaust Jewish Literature

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Disconnection Explored in Post-Holocaust Jewish Literature This week's readings all shared disconnection as a common theme; the short stories we read this week had characters that turned to substances to disconnect and cope with the unhappy and unbearable situations they found themselves in. Moreover, the poetry included in this week's readings also highlighted how racial tensions and the holocaust disconnected people. But in exploring disconnection as a theme in literature this week, we can also see that poetry, art, and literature can serve as an escape or way to cope for many creatives.  This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen  by Tadeusz Borowski is the story of how a man survives at a concentration camp by unloading people off of the boxcar at the train stop. The man describes having to clean the boxcar of dead infants that did not survive the inhumane train trip to the concentration camp. He also describes knowing that the healthy Jews who came out of the trip alive wou
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Week 6: Fate Explored in Latin American Literature

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Fate Explored in Latin American Literature  This week's readings all shared fate as the common theme highlighted in each story. The stories all had the protagonist sharing details of their lives such as where the cities they live in or grappling with traumatic childhood experiences, but each story highlighted the different choices a person may take or the options they exhaust in the end "Que sera, sera"; translation: what will be, will be; fate will always have its way.  In  "The Garden of Forking Paths"  by Jorge Luis Borges, the protagonist Yu Tsin, a spy for the German Reich, is in the midst of a desperate attempt to avoid being captured. In his attempt to escape, Yu Tsin encounters Stephen Albert, a sinologist and an expert on the antique book "The Garden of Forking Paths" Yu Tsin journeys to a parallel universe where his choices may render different outcomes. Still, in this one, he is fated to die.  In  "Death Constant Beyond Love"   by
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Week 5 : Identity Explored in African and African American Literature

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  Identity Explored on African and African American Literature  In this week's literature, the unifying theme was identity. All works pointed to how culture, ancestors, and names are important signifiers to identify who we are to ourselves and others.    In James Baldwin's   Notes of a Native Son , he shares how on the day that his father was buried, his sister was born, and riots breakout. The events tie together because they lead Baldwin to understand that his father's anger and frustration about racial discrimination did not define his own life. Baldwin concludes that injustice is everywhere and that every person must fight hate in their own hearts. In the end, Balwin realizes his identity does not need to be like that of his fathers. In  Chike's School Days  by Chin Achebe, Chike talks about having a double identity, one is the child of an Igbo father and Osu mother, and the other is a Christian in a Igbo village. Chike was a Christian in an Igbo village meant tha
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Week 4: Nature Explored in Native American Literature

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  Nature Explored in Native American Literature  This week's literature works all share a common theme of nature.  Yellow Woman  by Leslie Silko,   The Night Chant  from Navajo Ceremony, and  The Conquest of Mexico  are all works that highlight the deep spiritual connection Native American's have with nature.   Yellow Woman By Leslie Silko depicts the story of a woman who is kidnapped by a man named Silva. The woman is taken deep into the mountains to his home, but the deeper the woman goes into the mountains, she begins to believe that Silva is a mountain spirit and has become the "yellow woman."  The yellow woman is a legend of how women are taken away by the mountain spirit and go to live with him for a time. Then, after some time, the women reappear in their hometowns, and everyone accepts that she was taken by the mountain spirit.   The relationship between the Yellow Woman and silva is deep, as she believes she loves him. When he leaves her for the day, she stru
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Week 3: Theme Explored in Contemporary Eastern Literature: Moving Away from Tradition

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Theme Explored in Contemporary Eastern Literature: Moving Away from Tradition  Through literature works like  Diary of a Madman , Sealed Off , and Man of La Mancha , we notice a marked unifying theme in the literature, which depicts a frustration with old customs and a new school of thought moving away from traditional ways of thinking and social customs.  The  Diary of a Madman is a short story in which the narrator journals how his entire community is secretly practicing cannibalism. The narrator believes this because there is literature and traditions that support cannibalism. When he asks his brother and doctor about it, his suspicions are confirmed as they defend the practice. In the end, the narrator states that it's too late for him, but maybe the children can be saved from succumbing to the ancient practice and tradition of cannibalism.  Sealed Off is a short love story of two strangers who meet on a tram when the city is on lockdown due to an air raid. Lu Zongzhen and Wu C
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