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Intro to English Studies


Week 16: 5/6 to 5/10

 

If your desk looks anything like this, that may mean:

[a] the last day of class is around the corner, and

[b] you're doing something right.

 

We're almost to the end, folks! Week 16 brings one final assignment: a reflective essay.  This essay serves as both a personal reflection and a peer group assessment.  

 

Also this week, I've got one more study session on Monday. Click here to sign up for all or part of the session. 

 

Lastly, please please please fill out a course evaluation.  I know that a link in your inbox is easy to ignore, but please don't ignore it. You have until May 15 to complete the course evaluation. 

 

 


 

Week 15: 4/28 to 5/4

 

I really enjoyed meeting with you in week 14 and discussing your ideas. I always learn so much from your interpretations.

 

Week 15 is devoted to your fourth and final paper: a comparative analysis of two texts that we've read/viewed this semester. By now (or not long from now), you should have met with me for an individual conference and submitted an essay draft to the Essay 4 DRAFT dropbox on D2L.

 

I have a few activities planned that will help us work towards improving your draft. Please check out the Assignments page, week 15, for more specific directions.  

 

Also, I'll be hosting optional informal study group sessions on Thursday 5/3 and Monday 5/7. Sign up here. If you are not from the area or if you cannot participate for some other reason, feel free to set up a phone or chat meeting with me to discuss your paper anytime before Thursday May 10.

 

w/re: weekly grades (or the lack of weekly grades) --> I will calculate those this weekend and send you an email so that you can properly estimate your final grade in the course. This might help you figure out if it is worth completing a paper rewrite or revision.

 

have a good weekend!

 


 

Week 14: 4/21 to 4/27

Please sign up for a (required) conference in week 14!

 

I have a few important notes and updates this week:

 

1. If you submitted your third paper by the deadline, you should have received comments from me by now.  I know in my email I say "please let me know if you have any questions, etc." but I REALLY DO mean that. Just email me. Or chat with me online. Or visit me in office hours if possible. Or ask for my phone number and call me. Or sign up for two week 14 conference slots.

 

2. At this point, I'd like to announce the rewrite option. I don't announce this at the beginning of the semester because students will take advantage of it and treat it like a "free pass" to slack off on one paper. There are some very specific guidelines and requirements related to this. The rewrite policy is detailed in this document, so please read it carefully to see if the rewrite option is for you: Rewrite Option Policy.doc

 

3. Week 14 conferences start on Monday April April 23 -- soon!  These are required conferences, and it's important that I have the chance to talk with you one-on-one about your fourth essay. This paper accounts for 20% of your final grade, so we'll be spending more time on it than the previous three papers. Please go to the conference sign-up page and sign up now.

 

4. A first draft of your fourth essay is due on Friday April 27--equally soon! I explain more about this draft on the assignments page. 

 

5. On a related note, I am continuing to update the paper topic ideas page. I anticipate that one potentially confusing/annoying aspect of this fourth paper is my request that you choose a "critical lens" (i.e. a school of literary criticism) to guide your analysis. However, whether you know it or not, many of our assignments and discussion questions have already been guiding us down different critical roads. The first paper was oriented towards New Criticism.  We've also had many discussion topics related to feminist criticism and New Criticism, and some topics related to psychological criticism, Marxist criticism, and postcolonial criticism. On the paper topic ideas page, I will try to assign different paper topic ideas to different critical lenses so that you can see how a lens and a topic align. The important thing to note here is that each critical lens has different expectations, priorities, and commitments. For New Criticism, outside research would not be appropriate--you are working closely with the primary texts themselves. For feminism, personal response/experience may be appropriate, whereas it would most likely not be appropriate for postcolonial criticism and New Criticism. For postcolonial and Marxist criticism, you would likely need to do a bit of research to outline the historical context surrounding each text--however that would mean less close reading is expected. As you can see, each critical school enables a different kind of critical work. It's important that you become aware of these approaches, since it will help you articulate what is at stake in your paper and what methods of analysis best fit your purpose.   Obviously, the topics I list are not the only options. 

 


 

Week 13: 4/14 to 4/20 | Metropolis

 

"Rotwang, give the Machine-Man the likeness of that girl." (Metropolis)

 

 

"Metropolis, you know, was born from my first sight of the skyscrapers of  New York in October 1924 [...] while visiting New York, I thought that it was the crossroads of multiple and confused human forces, blinded and knocking into one another, in an irresistible desire for exploitation, and living in perpetual anxiety. I spent an  entire day walking the streets. The buildings seemed to be a vertical sail, scintillating  and very light, a luxurious backdrop, suspended in the dark sky to dazzle, distract  and hypnotise. At night, the city did not simply give the impression of living: it lived as illusions live. I knew I should make a film of all these impressions." - Fritz Lang, director

 

This week, we turn to a classic German silent film: Metropolis. I hope that by the time you read this, you have in your possession the complete version or the authorized version from Kino (the "special edition" is not what you need). Despite any negative associations you have with “silent film” or “science fiction," Metropolis actually deals with many of the issues we’ve been discussing this semester: representations of women, the relationship between humans and technology, slavery, the tragedy of a power-hungry father (or obsessed creator), and madness.

 

Below, I’ll outline some context and some important pointers you should take into account before watching the film. In short: you must watch actively. See more information below.

 

Historical context

In the year 2026, the futuristic city-state called “Metropolis” is sharply divided between two classes. The upper class lives in the “Club of the Sons” and enjoys classical pursuits like art, reading, and athletics. The labor class lives in an intricate underground slum-city where life completely revolves around working 10-hour shifts at a massive power-producing factory.

 

This film is very much grounded in the historical context of Germany in the 1920s. The Germany that exists today did not exist when Fritz Lang directed the film in 1927. Metropolis was filmed during the Weimar era. Established in 1919, the Weimar Republic was Germany’s first attempt to create a democracy in the difficult years following World War I (which ended in 1918). Although the notion of a democracy evokes ideals of equality, many groups in Germany saw this government as oppressive and there was widespread inflation and labor unrest. The Weimar leaders struggled to put down workers’ strikes inspired partly by the communist revolution in Russia in 1917.

 

To understand the imagery and symbolism in Metropolis, it’s important to know what values and concerns the film is speaking to. While industrialism was overhauling Western society and promising progress through machines, the tanks and guns of World War I proved that machines were also something to be feared. According to Anton Kaes, “It was precisely the war, however, that also showed the destructive potential of modern technology, and it was the experience of bombing raids, machine-gun fire, and poison gas (invented and first used by Germans in 1917) that informed the deep split in the 1920s between technology and humanity” (4).

 

The rise of factory work meant the rise of “the masses” who came to work in those factories owned by a few powerful men. Thus, the average person worked hard all day but had produced nothing that he or she owned or identified with. (Quite a change from agricultural life, which generally supported a connection between land, labor, and product.) Many people saw early-20th-century capitalism as a process of taking the means of production out of the hands of the people. The German Karl Marx famously argued that a proletariat revolution would mean putting the means of production back into the hands of the masses. Metropolis tunes into these issues and communicates an important political message about inequality in society and the future of modern capitalism. Metropolis at times seems to expose the “machine” of capitalism, from the laboring masses at the bottom to the powerful elite at the top. If you were aware of the protests in Madison last year, then the class struggle shown in the film is all too familiar.

 

Also, the film’s imagery of machine parts, factory routines, and repeated actions might be responding to Taylorist ideology. Taylorism was originally an American model of labor that attempted to suck maximum efficiency out of factory workers by standardizing their work process. The model developed by Frederick Taylor tried to break down the labor of workers into individual movements that could be scientifically studied and improved. The goal was to make workers faster and more productive (and thus bring more profit to the company). Taylorism existed in Germany years before Metropolis, explains Ansin Rabenbach: “In Germany, the Taylor system arrived a few years before the First World War as an ‘Americanizing’ and rationalizing ideology, a new ingredient in Germany’s effort to maintain its industrial supremacy” (253). There was a great deal of unease about the rise of capitalism and the inheritance of American values and fashions in Germany.

 

The status of women was also in flux during this time. When the Weimar Republic took over Germany after World War I, women were granted new legal and political rights. Some important advances were the right to vote and the requirement of secondary education for women in 1920. In 1921, Lenin (speaking about Russia) said that women were liberated from “household bondage,” meaning they could have value outside the domestic sphere. However, in Germany, women were more reticent about their new rights. German women did not feel empowered to alter their circumstances through politics in a male-dominated political world that was not ready to relinquish its power (Craig163).

 

This angry quote from the German “Manifesto for International Women’s Day” (1921) expresses some of the frustration women felt in a capitalist society that gave them rights but not equality:

 

Since distant millionaires and billionaires cannot pit you against the men to suppress wages and salaries, you have the doors to the places of work and employment slammed in your faces. It is the family you should tend to, which you don’t have or for which you would need bread. Think of the mass graves in which flourishing male life lies moldering, the endless lines of war cripples and invalids. Of what concern is it to the factory owner, merchant, stock company, local government, state, or nation how you prolong your troubled existence? The spirit of mammon, of exploitative capitalism, is their master. That is why you are cast into the streets as prostitutes […]

 

Cinema in 1927

The gestures and movements of the characters will seem really silly and exaggerated (almost clownish) when you first watch this movie. Keep in mind, however, that a character’s body language and facial expressions had to do a lot of work to make up for the lack of voices, color, or the snazzy special effects in today’s movies. Silent films did not have synchronized sound for dialogue, so you’ll see onscreen “intertitles” or chunks of texts that narrate the story of give dialogue.

 

Metropolis is often considered a German expressionist film. Rather than represent reality faithfully, as the eye sees it, expressionist filmmakers offered a new perception of reality. They used abstract forms and motion to reflect inner sensations or underlying conflict. Their films are more interested in expressive interpretations of situations, characters, or events rather than recording them as they might have really happened. German expressionism was especially good at evoking mystery, alienation, disharmony, hallucination, dreams, extreme emotion, and destabilization. This aesthetic style might help explain some of the “trippy” montages, such as the opening machinery montage and the “spiraling” montage when Freder sees the evil twin version of Maria embracing his father.

 

How to watch the film

Most of us (including me) associate “movies” with a relaxing, passive activity. Go in to the theater or living room. Sit down. Press play. Get lost in the movie.

 

However, you need to approach Metropolis a little differently. Watch the movie actively. Pretend you are a film critic, and you know you’re going to have to write a review of this movie when you’re done. In fact, this article has some great tips for aspiring film critics. If you read it over, it might help us watch Metropolis in preparation to write about the film: “actively watch the movie, take copious notes, write a basic summary of the plot, critical analysis is key…” (though one key difference between literary scholars and movie critics is that we are not trying to evaluate/rate the film or make judgments about it on a simple good/bad scale.)

 

Here are some questions that might help you watch the film actively:

  • What does the film establish about its setting, characters, and plot within the first few minutes?
  • What are the key scenes or sequences in the film, and where do they occur?
  • How does the film open? How does the film end? Is the ending predictable, surprising, ambiguous?
  • What is the pacing of the film like? Slow? Quick? Frenetic? Lyrical?
  • How would you describe the cinematography? (“Cinematography” means the art of filmmaking, or the aesthetic and technical aspects of creating a film.) Is it a highly stylized film, or one aiming for a less intrusive and more “realistic” representation? Does the film make interesting use of color or lighting? If so, where in particular?
  • How did the music work with the action of the film?  (source)

 

 


 

 Week 12: 4/7 to 4/13 | Frankenstein (continued)

 

330px-John_Henry_Fuseli_-_The_Nightmare.JPG

The Nightmare (1781) oil painting by Henry Fuseli. The painting depicts an incubus, which is a demon that rapes women in their sleep. In her essay "Possessing Nature," Anne Mellor claims that "The monster, like Fuseli's incubus, leers over Elizabeth, enacting Victor's own repressed desire to rape, possess, and destroy the female" (281).

 

This is a reading-heavy week, I know. It's actually the last week of reading in the whole class, since the following week is a film and the next weeks are just for working on essay 4.  We will be in the home stretch after Frankenstein! The Anne Mellor essay I assigned is not a difficult nor lengthy critical piece. I think it will be useful to look at an example of published feminist critcism (since we have looked at an example of postcolonial criticism via Ode Ogede's writing on Achebe.)  About feminist criticism, our textbook says: "feminist criticism developed three primary goals: (1) to recover the works of women writers from the past; (2) to provide a context for the creation and interpretation of new writing by women; and (3) to critique the representation of women in the literature of the past" (Appendix A-7).  Ask yourself, which of these goals does Mellor achieve with her essay? Do you think she has in mind more than one of these goals?

 

If you haven't read my introduction to the novel, it's in the update below. I hope you are enjoying the book so far.  (You should have already read the preface, Volume I, and introduction on page 169 by now.) Check out the Assignments page for more details about this week. 

 


Week 11: 3/31 to 4/6 | Frankenstein

 

  

Left: Photograph titled "Mer de Glace (sea of ice) from Montanvert" by William Henry Fox Talbot, taken in 1852 (original image here). Right: Portrait of Mary Shelley by Richard Rothwell.

 

From the Troy Davis / death penalty protests to “personhood” debates over cloning and abortion to the artificial intelligence of computers that can see and sense emotion, the question of what counts as a worthwhile “life” is very much a part of our society. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley takes up this question (and others) in Frankenstein. 

Below, I'll offer some brief contextual tidbits for the author and the novel. Please read these, but also be sure to check out the Assignments page for specific guidance on what you should do this week. As you already know, your third essay is due on Tuesday April 3. Please don't hesitate to email me with questions or topic ideas.  

 

The author

Mary Shelley wrote this novel when she was just 18 years old. Born in 1797 in England, she was the daughter of two intellectual radicals. Her father, William Godwin, was an influential political philosopher and novelist. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, was a pioneer in promoting women’s rights and education. Shelley never knew her mother, who died ten days after giving birth, but she was influenced throughout her life by her mother’s writings and reputation. Mary’s future husband, the famous poet Percy Blythe Shelley, was one of her father’s frequent visitors. When Mary was sixteen, she and Percy eloped to France. They married in 1816 and lived together for eight years, until Percy’s early death. While they were married, they traveled widely through Switzerland, Germany, and France—Percy was Mary’s biggest supporter, as you’ll read about in her comments on pages 169-173. Although her marriage was happy, her life during this period was filled with personal tragedy. She gave birth to four children in five years, three of whom died as infants. Some critics draw on Shelley’s life to observe themes of birth and death in Frankenstein.  I will ask you to read a little more about Shelley’s childhood and the origins of her novel, in her own words written in the introduction to the novel on pages 169-173 in the Norton Critical Edition (which you should have bought for class).

 

The novel

Frankenstein is an example of a gothic novel. This type of novel was popular between 1760 and 1820, and its features are mystery, horror, and the supernatural. The word "gothic" itself has several meanings. It can mean harsh or cruel, referring to the barbaric Gothic tribes of the Middle Ages. It can also mean “medieval." In literature, the term applies to works with a brooding atmosphere that emphasize the unknown and inspire fear. Gothic novels typically feature wild and remote settings, such as haunted castles or rugged landscapes, and their plots involve violent or mysterious events.  Read the entry on gothic novels in your MH Abrams glossary, also available as a PDF here: abrams_gothic.pdf

 

The time period

In addition to questions about gender and the body, identity, selfhood, and what it means to be a "person," Shelley poses questions about the generative and destructive faces of human nature. These questions resonated with Shelley’s readers in the early 1800s, a time when breakthroughs in science and technology fueled faith in the power of science to improve human life. One such breakthrough was the discovery of electricity in organic tissue. In the 18th c., scientists knew about static electricity and electricity produced by lightning. In the 1780s, Luigi Galvani, a professor of anatomy in Bologna, Italy, conducted experiments on animal tissue using a machine that could produce electrical sparks. Galvani’s theory of “animal electricity” (called galvinism) was shown to be incorrect, but his research opened the way to new discoveries about the operation of nerves and muscles and showed that electrical forces exist in living tissue. Tim Armstrong uses Frankenstein to show that new discoveries about energy reflected new views of the body: "In Frankenstein, the body becomes more mechanical, more of a 'constructed' rather than an 'organic creation'" (306). May Shelley mentions galvinism in her introductory comments: "Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated; galvinism had given token of such things" (171-172).

 

The setting

The novel takes place in the late 1700s in various parts of Europe, especially Switzerland and Germany, and in the Arctic. (You can view a map of places in Frankenstein here.  Double-click on the map to enlarge its points.) Frankenstein was written at the height of the Romantic movement (ca. 1798-1832).  This movement in art and literature was based in part on the feeling of optimism about human possibilities that pervaded Western culture after the American and French revolutions.  The Romantic movement is often understood in contrast to a period known as the Enlightenment, which emphasized reason and logic. English writers of the Romantic period believed in the importance of the individual. They valued subjectivity, imagination, and the expression of emotions over rational thought. Like many Romantic works of literature, Frankenstein exhibits a strong connection to the landscape as a reflection of human struggle and emotion. Pay attention to the lengthy descriptions of the outside world and environment, like this one: “The sea, or rather the vast river of ice, wound among its dependent mountains, whose aerial summits hung over its recesses” (65).  (The narrator describing his view of the Mer de Glace at Chamounix, pictured below. This is a groove carved by a glacier. The image below is a good visual representation of the place where Victor Frankenstein has his fateful encounter with the suffering creature in Volume II.)

 

 


Week 10: 3/24 to 3/30 | Antigonê

 

   

Painting titled "Antigonê" by Mark Rothko (1940) and a view of the ruins of the theater at Delphi in Greece. The circular space in the middle is called the "orchestra"--the place where the chorus would dance.

 

In week 10, we’ll be discussing the ancient Greek tragedy Antigonê by Sophocles. This play raises many questions about how people make decisions, what qualities define men and women, how we distribute civil, family, and religious loyalties in ethical dilemmas, and who is “mad” vs. who is “reasonable.” This play assumes the audience will already know a lot about the protagonist's complicated family history and will be familiar with the form of Greek plays, specifically tragedies.  Since that might not be the case for you, some background information is important to understanding the play. Below, I’ll give some context for the play. I will also direct you to some links which provide a plot summary. Please read what I write in these weekly introductions.  

 

According to this biography, Sophocles was “born in 495 B.C. about a mile northwest of Athens [and he was] one of the great playwrights of the golden age.” He began his career in his late 20s when he defeated the famous Aeschylus in a playwright’s competition. Sophocles went on to write over 120 plays, although we have the text of just seven. An accomplished actor, Sophocles performed in many of his own plays until his voice became weak and he devoted himself to writing. 

 

Greek tragedy, as it was performed in Sophocles’ time, was minimalistic and left a lot up to the imagination of the audience. This is hard for us to comprehend, since many forms of entertainment today (blockbuster movies, music concerts, amusement parks) intentionally try to over-stimulate the audience and give them more detail and special effects than they can handle.  Greek theater used only a few actors who played multiple roles. In fact, Sophocles was the first playwright to add a third actor (previously, only two actors were needed). The actors were all men, and they wore masks, which allowed actors to play more than one part, to play a female role, or to change the emotion of a given part. Mark Rothko’s painting above captures the many faces of Creon, all of which might have required a different mask. The actors also wore costumes, which signaled something about the character, like gender, class, or occupation. Masks and costumes allowed the audience to know who the actor was trying to portray. Greek plays were performed in outdoor theaters, like the one in the image above: “Early Greek theaters were probably little more than open areas in city centers or next to hillsides where the audience, standing or sitting, could watch and listen to the chorus singing about the exploits of a god or hero” (Englert). 

 

To understand Antigonê, you need to know something about complicated history of her family. The LWW textbook explains a little bit about this on pg. 465 in the footnote, but there is a much more complete explanation here.  This is really interesting to read, but CAUTION! Stop reading when you get to the end of the summary if you want to avoid a spoiler. There is also a good plot summary here, but of course it will spoil the ending if you read it now. I would recommend not reading the full plot summary before reading the play, since the summary will ruin the suspense. Instead, try to read the play first and then fill in the gaps with a plot summary. Or read one scene and then the summary, read another scene and then the summary, etc. If you're interested, you can also watch the entire movie version of Antigonê on YouTube here. You might watch this while following along in the book (even though our book version and the movie script won't match exactly).

 

Also, one component of Greek plays that might be confusing is the chorus. It is involved in the action but still distanced from it.  The chorus had the important role of narrating and reflecting on the action. Without them, the audience would have trouble following the play, and they wouldn’t have background information about what’s going on. The chorus used a circular dancing area (called the “orchestra”) at the base of a gently sloping hill. The tragic form has some specific characteristics that I will ask you to read about on the Assignments page. The tragic situation is often marked by a character’s dilemma of being stuck with conflicting obligations. The idea of choice is important to tragedy. Both Antigonê (whose name means “unbending”) and Creon (whose name means “ruler”) make reckless choices when faced with difficult (or impossible, really) ethical dilemmas. 

 


  

Week 8: 3/10 to 3/16

  

photo of an Igbo mask and photo of Mmau Masquerade, Amuda village

 

Changing gears this week, the readings will be quite a shift from Joseph Conrad. We'll focus on a Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. Do you remember reading the Achebe short story "Dead Men's Path" earlier this semester (page 44)? "Dead Men's Path" is from the same collection of short stories -- his only collection of short stories. Most of the readings are PDF files -- you should let me know right away if you have trouble opening any of these files. I thought PDFs would be cheaper than buying books. :)

 

The readings will give us a glimpse of what colonialism looks like from the African perspective.  Although, these readings are useful not only for the window they open onto Conrad, but also for the way they capture the rich culture and traditions of Africa, even if those traditions have been disrupted by outside forces. You'll notice that there is a list of items on the Assignments page for week 8. Don't be discouraged. Each item is not very long. It's possible that you might become annoyed with Achebe's short stories because of their (seeming) simplicity or stubborn hidden meanings. Our textbook has a nice two-page introduction to African literature that you should read. There is a quote that might help you: "As in many writings of the late twentieth-century, it may be clear that there is a second level of meaning in these stories, but it is not so easy to pinpoint that meaning” (LWW 488). Take that search for a "second level" as your challenge or opportunity--not your stumbling block. 

 

Please do make sure that you read the critical pieces. Achebe's critical commentary is actually published in the front of Heart of Darkness. Read this with a discerning and careful eye, looking for weak and strong points in his argument. Do the same for Ode Ogede's writings, which offer some context and perspective on Achebe's short stories. Remember that Ogede is practicing a particular brand of literary criticism: postcolonial criticism. Read more about this in LWW on page A-6 in Appendix A at the back of the book. I'd like you to learn about Achebe from Ogede's essays, but I'd also like you to approach them as artifacts and examples of a particular way of reading. Keep in mind that Ogede's publisher is Africa World Press. 

 

I also want to bring up something that Kimberly mentioned in the week 7 discussion forum. She wrote: "I usually read the introduction before I begin a novel, but sometimes I wonder if it compliments my experience with the story, or influences me to hold a certain view." That's a really interesting observation. Do you prefer to read the literature first, and then the commentary later? Or do you like to read the commentary first? It's really a matter of preference, but you should consciously choose the best method for you. You might want to read Achebe's bio, then the stories, and then the critical pieces.

 

Lastly, to help you out with Achebe's short stories, I put together this glossary of terms that he uses. You might want to keep it handy as you read "The Madman," "Chike's School Days," and "The Sacrificial Egg."

 

agegrade: Igbo village dancing societies or age-grade groups. The age-grades (or age groups) have masquerades in the village. Different masks are used for various age groups, and the variety of masks reflects the individuality and complexity of the spirit associated with the mask.  In the cults of the secret societies, the night spirits are represented by masks with elaborate coiffures made out of crests, horns etc that are superposed one on top of the other--like the example is the image above. “Night masquerades are some of the most powerful and dangerous among Igbo people. They often appear in order to search out transgressors or to warn the citizenry to improve their behavior. They also serve as powerful sentries who keep watch through the night. Night maskers use strange sounds, rattle window shutters, and break walls” (Reed).

Anambara: (Anambra) a state in south-eastern Nigeria. Its name is an anglicized version of the original ‘Oma Mbala’-- the native name of the Anambra River

ani-mmo: “The Igbo recognize two worlds—the spiritual unseen world (ani-mmo) and the human visible world (uwa). The unseen world is supreme, and the Igbo ascribe most serious occurrences in the visible world to the unseen beings that inhabit the spiritual world. In an attempt to understand this unseen spiritual world, individuals seek out the services of a diviner, who reads signs by casting or throwing divination seeds or cowries and then interpreting the codes that these objects reveal” (Nwatakili 54). 

calabash: a wooden bowl or gourd

CMS: Church Mission Society, founded in London in 1799 as the Society for Missions in Africa and the East

cowries: a type of valuable shell used for jewelry, currency, or divination rituals

Cudgel: short thick stick used as a weapon

dispensary: an office in a school, hospital or other organization that dispenses medications and medical supplies

faggot: branch or twig, or bundle of these

Grove of an alusi: “Alusi are deities that are worshiped and served in the religion of the Igbo people” (Wikipedia).

Ibo / Igbo: Ibo or Igbo people, an ethnic group based in West Africa; Ibo or Igbo language, the language of the Igbo people

kitikpa: god of smallpox

mai-mai: a traditional steamed bean dish

mammy-wota: river spirits

Ogili: an Igbo spice

olu: traditionally, the Igbo were considered the backwoods or forest people and the Igbo Olu were river dwellers and perceived to be non-original Igbo people. Incidentally, both groups are strangers in Umura.

Osu: Outcast. Having been dedicated to a god, the osu was taboo and was not allowed to mix with the freeborn in any way. 

Ozo men: The Ozo title is ancient and it constitutes a very important part in the administrative functions of the community because of the high religious position they occupy in ministering the spiritual needs of the people.

palm-wine: an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm tree such as the palmyra and coconut palms

Palm-oil, cola nuts, cassava: foods that come from plants or trees native to the tropical rainforests of Africa

Standard Six: In British and Commonwealth elementary schools, school children are classified by recognized degrees of proficiency (as tested by examination). In the 1950s, the sixth used to be the highest standard which children were ordinarily required to pass, the seventh being intended mainly for those who were to become teachers.

 

FOR WEEKLY UPDATES PRIOR TO WEEK 6, PLEASE SEE THE ARCHIVE

 

 

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