1 Summarizing and Analyzing DSA Objective: Collaborate to create viable, electronic review materials discussing both Mphahlele’s content and the techniques he uses to communicate that content in autobiography.
2 Summarizing and Analyzing DSAEach student has been assigned one chapter (TBA) Re-read the chapter, and locate the online Google form where you will submit your work before class tomorrow Review the examples Matheny has provided on the coming slides Distill your chapter’s content/plot into 3-6 analytical sentences List the literary conventions and techniques of autobiography that Mphahlele uses to convey that plot Evaluate the novel as prompted on the Google Form Your work will be published online on our IOC/IOD Review page with your name, so know you have a broad, appreciative audience for your thoughtful work! That motivation doesn’t mean you should write a lot—write a valuable little about your chapter
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5 Chapter 21: “Church Shillings” p 187-193Mphahlele’s inability to tithe foreshadows his admission that he now forgoes prayer for thought, showing his belief that the Anglican church “represent[s] the institution of white oppression” (189). Religion for Rebecca is now a “custom, not a conviction,” revealed through a disparaging traffic metaphor when poverty initially precludes the rite of baptism. (190) Mphahlele uses personal anecdotes to illuminate the dehumanizing corruption of the criminal justice system under apartheid, revealing his futile wish to “hate all whites” (189). Mphahlele uses parallelism, showing how his peacefully subversive missionary-style Artists’ Syndicate facilitates multi-racial audiences, allowing him to “resolve [his religious crisis] himself”; theater and music now replace “the aesthetic experience of church worship” (189-90).
6 Chapter 21: “Church Shillings” p 187-193Anecdote Reflection Juxtaposition of two anecdotes--parallelism Metaphor of traffic Literary Allusions: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Hopkins, Dickens, Keats’ “Isabella,” Handel, Venda tales Historical Allusions: Father Trevor Huddleston, African School Feeding Scheme
7 Interlude: p 213-219 Mphahlele uses the metaphor of aclosed-up room to reflect on “how sordid [South African Black] life is” as he waits for a passport to Nigeria (214). Mphahlele reveals his anxiety about abandoning the “ulcers” South Africa, now using education to indoctrinate children as “slaves” (214). Mphahlele plays with light imagery, pondering whether lights look lovelier when they’re “more distant” (213). Mphahlele introduces Sasha, a Jewish friend, to show his hesitance to do what the Jews are doing in Israel: to “seek a new little dominion elsewhere where you can sow your seed” (216).
8 Interlude: p 213-219 Comparison to chapter 41—parallelwith light/darkness imagery Effect of metaphorical distance Organic and inorganic light metaphors Disease imagery Motif of imprisonment Shift to 2nd person for the Sasha/Jewish anecdote comparison Allusion to Gerald Manly Hopkins “Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend”
9 Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918. ‘Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend’ THOU art indeed just, Lord, if I contend With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just. Why do sinners’ ways prosper? and why must Disappointment all I endeavour end? Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend, How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend, Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes Now leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes Them; birds build—but not I build; no, but strain, Time’s eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes. Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.
10 Chapter 23: “Ticket to Nigeria” p 221-230Mphahlele reveals omissions in his own political activism while explaining why his passport request was initially denied. The SA government reveals their fear that Africans would turn “more bitter”—and more educated--and become communist, revealing fears of communism’s equality-based principles. Mphahlele makes a rare reference to his sister, whose life is “on the rocks” foreshadowing a sad existence for her five children (225). Mphahlele provides resolution, detailing the state of both his grandmothers, Aunt Dora, Rebecca’s mother, Zeph Mothopeng, Isaac Matlare, Arthur and Florence Blaxhall, various political leaders, Adams College, the Syndicate of African Artists
11 Chapter 23: “Ticket to Nigeria” p 221-230Bird imagery— “bird of power” Allusion to Chekhov’s “On the Harmfulness of Tobacco” (О вреде табака) A one act play with only one character (Ivan Ivanovich Nyukhin) Originally published in 1886, Chekhov revised it later into the better-known 1902 version What began as an actual critique of tobacco was gradually transformed into a tragic-comic expose of the tragic private life of a pathetic hen-picked husband and a critique of the hollow man in society
12 Autobiography: DEFENSE MECHANISMS tactics that reduce or redirect anxiety in various ways, but by distorting reality. Where do you perceive Mphahlele’s unconscious enhancing or avoiding aspects of his life as he creates this autobiographical literary memoir? Repression Regression Projection Rationalization Displacement banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts and feelings from consciousness retreating to an earlier, more infantile stage of development Attributing one’s own unacceptable threatening impulses to others offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions shifts impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet