We chose to work with A Concert of Voices
for a few reasons. It is one that we are familiar with and we have
some experience with the content. This is important when teaching
a first year class that is going to involve a lot of discussion. It
contains a wide range of genres (poetry, short stories and essays)
and is a fairly comprehensive representation of the geographical areas
of International Literature.
The reason why we decided to begin with an anthology is related
to the reasons why we chose to use one. It will give students a
good sense of the scope of what they are studying in the
course more so than beginning with a novel. We also thought that since we are teaching
the theory in the first semester, it would be easier to show
how these theories apply on short works rather than longer ones.
By concentrating on several shorter works it is easier and
less time consuming to apply the theory several times.
We picked this essay because it communicates, in a highly accessible
way, a sense of some of the major things that colonization wanted
to and did achieve. For example, it makes clear that the English
were intent on replacing the speaker's culture and cultural loyalties. This
domonstrates just how invasive colonization was. This is an
important thing to emphasize because previous education and the passage
of time will have distanced students from the colonial history.
This essay is also useful because it presents a very strong and negative reactionof
the colonized. This not only presents a view point that the students may not have encountered
before, and it demonstrates the power that coloisation exerted over the colonised.
Since much of International Literature/Postcolonial Literature
is about this very issue, this essay is particularly useful.
This is also an essay which will make the students think
about their own ideas regarding colonization. To this end, we would ask the students to think about
and write down their own ideas about colonization and
where they think they came from prior to reading the essay.
Their responses would form the basis of class discussion.
Finally, this essay introduces the idea of different perspectives (ie.
the two different views of England), and therefore introduces the notion of
different ways of viewing the world. This can be kept in
mind for subsequent reading. We are studying this essay first
because it does give such a good overview of some of the
major issues related to International/Postcolonial Literature.
This is a good essay to study as we start on Postcolonial Theory because it introduces
many of the ambigiuities and problems that exist in the field. Issues
about both the classification of literature and theory are addressed, thus creating an awareness that the
boundries in this field are blurred.
This essay also introduces questions and issues about language. It
talkes bout English being used as tool for dominance and about other issues
surrounding the classification of writing in English and other languages.
The issue of language is vey important to ideas surrounding Internation/Postcolonial Literature and
this esay provides an accessible account of most of the major ones.
"Commonwealth Literature Does Not Exist", addresses the problem of the classification
of International/Postcolonial Literature in general. For example, the lumping
together of authors who seem to have more differences than similarities. A good class
discussion could be had regarding where, and if, boundries should be drawn.
This is related to the fact that the essay makes the reader start questioning assumptions
they may have about the dominance of English language, other cultures, and the commonwealth. All this will help to
demonstrate how we have carefulyy questioned all that we assume when dealing with International/Postcolonial
Literature. A question we would ask the class to consider before reading the essay would be:
Class discussion could revolve around how their perceptions did or did not change after reading
the essay.
We put this reading at the beginning because it introduces so many key
concepts for the course. It is placed immediately after Kincaid's essay
because it is far less negative. This contrast will hopefully reinforce
ideas about different perspectives and reactions to colonisation.
We chose this poem because it touches on issues of language, race and gender. We think that there are important links between
themes in Postcolonial and Feminist Theory. Issues of race are important to the study of
Internation Literature also.
Das' poem is placed third because it is a literary application of much of what is
said in Rushdie's essay. The poem is also effective because the speaker draws the reader in. This is important
because many of the students will probably feel excluded from the realm of the colonial. This poem also establishes many
of the themes that will be touched on in later prose examples and therefore serves as an introductory piece of prose.
Due to the fact that the speaker in this story is a white woman, and a representative of
the colonizer, it provides a good contrast to what we have already studied. It can
be a source of discussion regarding how it fits into the category
of International/Postcolonial Literature. For example, do we need
various divisions of the field in order to allow diverse groups to fit in? The presence of huge
assumptions based on race introduces another issue for possible class discussion.
We chose to study this poem because it brings the issue of colonisation home to Canada, and therefore will prevent students
from distancing themselves from issues. By studying this poem we can also
address some of the further ambiguities surrounding colonisation. For example, can Japanese
Canadians be colonised by other Canadians? It also brings to light questions about the authour's position. Is she
Japanese Canadian? Does it really matter? This is a good selection
to finish the semester because it addresses some of the issues we have
already discussed and brings them home to Canada. For example, it raises the question of
Canadians as colonizers and this should make students question some of their
cultural assumptions.
"On Seeing England for the First Time" by Jamaica Kincaid"Commonwealth Literature Does Not Exist" by Salmon Rushdie
"An Introduction" by Kamala Das
"Is There Nowhere Else Where We Can Meet?" by Nadine Gordimer
"What Do I Remember of the Evacuation?" by Joy Kogawa
