A Deeper Understanding Through Literature

I never knew what a key and revolutionary figure Wole Soyinka has been in Nigeria until I watched the documentary in class. In the documentary, many Nigerian revolutionary figures were mentioned that I had never learned at school. I like to think that I have a pretty good perspective on past world events and history, but this documentary made me realize that I do not have a deep understanding of the world events that have occurred. I had only learned specifically of English colonialism and the effects, but have never learned (in depth) about the cultures, and what exactly happened before the colonialism in the country that was colonized. I know how English colonialism impacted Nigeria on a religious, economic, political, and social scale, but I do not have an emotional understanding of the colonialism, nor do I know specific historical figures. I think that the history courses I have taken do not focus on the deeper understanding that I have found through my English classes and reading more literature.

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 18, 2017 at 5:09 PM

    I agree! I wish I knew more about the world outside of Europe and America. I feel like I am missing a huge perspective, and therefore cannot get the most out of novels from other continents. I wish we at least had AP World at Severn! I have only learned history as a reaction to or as it affects Europeans or people of European decent. I can't wait to take more history classes in college.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Clarissa: A Peculiar Protagonist

Clarissa Dalloway is an interesting protagonist because she does not have many redeeming qualities and is not made to be completely loved by the readers. Although she is not made to be lovable, she does trigger compassion in the reader. Clarissa struggles to fit in with the social standard she is held to as an upper-class individual in England. Although Clarissa detests most upper-class culture, she finds herself identifying with some of the upper-class ways of life. For example, she obsesses over her dinner party, doing everything in her power to ensure it is a success. She also is very materialistic, which can be seen in her high concern of material things while walking the streets of London and peaking in shop windows. Perhaps pretending to fit in with the all of the social class elites has caused her to become part of what she despises. She triggers sympathy in the reader because she struggles internally and never acts on her complex thoughts that the reader is exposed to. After re
Read more

Elesin in Death and the King's Horseman

Elesin seems to be a very ironic character in the sense that he is very confident and self-centered, yet he is completing a very selfless act by sacrificing himself for the better of his tribe. Perhaps this is because his suicide has been set into his culture and because to Elesin killing himself is not his choice because it is something he must do: his duty to his tribe. Elesin demands to have another beautiful wife before he commits suicide, despite the fact that she is already promised to Iyaloja's son. This shows that Elesin cares little about other people and how his actions affect other people, but him committing suicide shows that he does care for other people (his tribe). Elesin is known to be very noble in his tribe and the praise-singer refers to him as an honorable man, perhaps because of how well people refer to him, he has gotten overly confident. It seems as though Elesin is mainly selfish, with the exception of one, very large selfless act he is meant to commit. The
Read more

Prospera vs. Prospero

In the Disney movie adaptation of The Tempest , Prospero is replaced by a woman, Prospera. For my school of literary criticism, I studied the feminist approach and examined Prospero, the most powerful character in the play, and his relationship with the other characters in the play, specifically Ariel and Miranda. Prospero becoming Prospera changes my approach and lense of the movie through the feminist approach. First, the argument of a patriarchal society being reflected within the Prospero's manipulative and controlling position between Ariel, Caliban, and Miranda is not valid. A patriarchal society is when men are predominately in power positions, but in the movie a woman, for once, is finally put in the ultimate power position. However, Prospera's actions do not suddenly become ethical just because of her gender. For example, putting Miranda to sleep, manipulating her marriage to Ferdinand, and the enslavement of Caliban and Ariel. The actual story and plot do not change j
Read more