READ THIS: PRESENTATIONS

PRESENTATIONS: please take these seriously: they are an important part of your participation in the class. Your job when you present is to lead the discussion on the reading for that day. You may bring in some research, but most of all, you should be very well-prepared with insights, interpretations, and questions about the reading at hand. You may want to begin by summarizing the progress of the plot represented by the excerpt assigned on that day. Then you should have passages picked out for the class to discuss. You may want to be ready, also, with the posts for the day (you can copy and paste them and print them out). The purpose of the presentation is to give more responsibility to the classmembers and de-center the discussion a little bit (although I will still chime in). Here are your assignments, mostly random. 1. Wed. 3/30 Small Things, 84-147, Eidia. 2. 4/4 Small Things, 148-225, Hannah. 3. 4/6 Small Things, ending, Anna. 4. 4/11 Ondaatje, Dan. 5. 4/13 Mukherjee, Michael. 6. 4/18 Poppies, 3-87, Karol. 7. 4/20 Poppies, 88-156, Jason. 8. 4/25 Poppies, 157-226, Joe. 9. 4/27, Poppies, 227-342, Will. 10. 5/2 Poppies, 343-446, Rachel. 11. 5/4 Poppies, finish, Jane.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Karol - Bend in The River -02/07

I wanted to post again because so much of this text deals with economics. Especially, in the framework of hyperinflation in decolonized Africa. "That was two hundred Francs, nearly six hundred dollars..." (For a cofee and piece cheese on bread. "Prices have dropped twenty-five percent, and interest rates have risen from twelve percent to twenty and even twenty -four percent." (235) Naipul does provides a very ground level vantage point of post-colonial Africa but I'm not sure its fair to presented in this limited light because at times it infers that this is the end result of poor uneducated Affrican leadership. The truth is these problems come as a result of inter-generational disenfranchisement over what we call colonialism but could be called an occupation. Here are some articles on African hyper-inflation:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4665854.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/world/africa/02zimbabwe.html
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)