Discussion Questions 1 - The Enlightenment Are the laws that govern us an Enlightenment idea? Why or why not? When you make a decision about whether or not to do something, do you think it through beforehand, or do you at on your feelings rather than your thoughts? Are there generalizations that are true about people at the national level? That is, can we generalize about, say, people from Italy to distinguish them from people from France? If you think these generalizations are true, how large or how small are they? That is, can we say the same things about people from northern Italy as we can about people from southern Italy? Or can we make general statements about all Europeans? Discussion Questions 2 - Candide I Why is Voltaire making fun of the philosophical concept of Optimism in the character of Pangloss (see “Voltaire, Candide, and Optimism” at the teaching site)? Does Optimism accurately reflect the world you live in? Why do both the Bulgars and the Abares think they won the war? How does the street preacher treat Candide? Why are his actions ironic? How do the residents of Lisbon react to the earthquake? Is this a Christian reaction? With so many characters coming back from what appears to be a sure death, why doesn’t Jacques survive? What was the Inquisition? How is Voltaire commenting on it? How does the Old Woman react to all the terrible things that happened to her? What advice does the Old Woman give to Cunegonde? Discussion Questions 3 - Candide 2 Who are the Jesuits? What real-life project of theirs does Voltaire base El Dorado on? What keeps Candide from living forever in El Dorado? Why does Candide take so much with him when he leaves El Dorado? Why is Pococurante so unhappy? What is a dervish? Why are they considered so wise? Why does the dervish respond as he does to Pangloss’ questions? What do you make of the fact that happiness for Candide is only possible outside of Europe? Is Voltaire saying that thinking will always make you unhappy? Discussion Questions 4 - Life of a Sensuous Woman Could you call this a text which empowers women? Why or why not? What does the old woman’s tale tell you about the “adaptability” of women, or of people in general? With the publication of this text, Saikaku gained national readership. What is it about this text that makes it so appealing? How do you reconcile this text with Saikaku’s time as a wandering religious beggar? Discussion Questions 5 - Romanticism Are there rules that apply only to you, and it's OK if no one else follows them? Are "artists" something special? Do they have some kind of spiritual connection that the rest of us don't have? Are you a fun drunk, a melancholy drunk, an angry drunk, or a nostalgic drunk? And why would I ask such a question under the heading of Romanticism? If everyone lived by their own individual laws, would it be paradise or chaos? Discussion Questions 6 - Blake Compare and contrast Blake's illustrations for "The Lamb" and "The Tiger" at the course site. What do “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” have to say about God? This nexus of church and state is a problem for Blake. How would the god of “The Tyger” fix the society Blake rails about? What comments is Blake making about English society in the two “Chimney Sweeper” poems? Discussion Questions 7 - Keats What does La Belle Dame represent? Why are there overtones of possession or enchantment in “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”? In what scenes does Keats present Autumn during the second stanza of “To Autumn”? Give one example of an appeal to each of the senses in “To Autumn.” Discussion Questions 8 - Whitman When Whitman says “myself,” who does he mean besides himself? What does Whitman have to say about America, and the connections between Americans? Whitman says, “Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / I am large, I contain multitudes.” How does he contradict himself in this poem? How does Whitman privilege poetry and the poet in "Song of Myself"? “Out of the Cradle . . .” begins with a mockingbird. How is this bird representative of American culture? Who is Whitman mourning in “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”? What does the cry of the bird awaken in Whitman? Is it an awareness of life itself, or of his desire to be a poet, or an awareness of death? Why would the ocean whisper “death,” when it has such life within and around it? Discussion Questions 9 - Douglass 1 Who is Douglass’ audience for this piece? What does the beating of his aunt show Douglass? Who gives Douglass reading lessons? Why did she do so? Why did she stop? How does Douglass demonstrate that slavery dehumanizes both slaves and slaveholders? Discussion Questions 10 - Douglass 2 How does Douglass know how his grandmother died? What does this scene illustrate? What is the pivotal event that makes Douglass realize the way out of slavery? What object does Douglass carry with him to protect himself from harm? How do you reconcile this with his profession of Christianity? What irony does Douglass point out about religious slaveholders? Discussion Questions 11 - Tagore What is the relationship between Chidam and Chandara like? Why is Chandara willing to die? How does this story comment on the position of women in Indian society? How is this a commentary on the Indian struggle for independence? Discussion Questions 12 - Yeats “When You Are Old” has been called a seduction poem. Would you agree? Why? How does Yeats contrast the modern world and a romanticized past in “Easter 1916”? How does Yeats feel about the rebels in “Easter 1916”? Is merely “murmur[ing] name upon name” enough of a memorial for these rebels? Is Leda powerful in “Leda and the Swan”? Why or why not? How does the poetic form of “Leda and the Swan” give you information about the story it tells? Yeats’ original title for “Leda and the Swan” was “The Annunciation.” How does that title connect the poem with “The Second Coming”? Where do you see the influence of World War I in “The Second Coming”? Discussion Questions 13 - Modernism If you and four friends all see the same incident happen, will you all tell the same story about it? If you and your friends above can't agree on what happened, who is right? Do you automatically trust anyone who tells you a story? How do you learn to verify the "facts" of a situation when you hear about them from someone? Can you tell the target demographic for any commercial you watch or ad you read? Can you give some examples of ads or commercials that are pitched directly at you? Is it harder to figure out the target demographic of a commercial/ad if you're the target demographic? Discussion Questions 14 - Eliot Are you, the reader, the “you” of the first line? Or is there someone else here? Who are the women in the room who come and go? How old is Prufrock? How does he see himself? List all the body parts that Prufrock offers instead of talking about a whole woman. Why does he do this? In stanzas 10 and 11 (set off by asterisks), what is Prufrock practicing? How well does he perform? Why does Prufrock compare himself to John the Baptist, then say that’s he’s not John? Why is Prufrock’s reference to Hamlet appropriate for him? Where do the mermaids of the final stanzas exist? Is their silence the most pathetic image in the poem? Discussion Questions 15 - Akhmatova Why does the woman in the preface ask the narrator, “Can you describe this?” How does the narrator change throughout the cycle of poems? What preceding images in the poem prepare you for the crucifixion scene in number 10? What does the narrator ask for, if she were to be honored by her country? Why? Discussion Questions 16 - Negritude In the U.S., would you say that we have one standard for what is both beautiful and good? Are there certain things that all people would agree are significant or perfect or beautiful, like specific works of art? Do you think a group of people with power would willingly give up their power? Why or why not? Replace the word "power" in the question above with the words "domination and control." Now do you think people would give it up? Why or why not? Discussion Questions 17 - Senghor How does “Black Woman” express Senghor’s philosophy of Negritude? What attributes does Senghor say that the black woman possesses in “Black Woman”? What is the speaker communicating to the masks in “Prayer to the Masks”? How and where does the narrator perform his own religious rituals in “Prayer to the Masks”? Discussion Questions 18 - Existentialism Is there such a thing as too much freedom? why or why not? what's the difference between knowing something and believing something? Are they both from the same part of us? That is, knowing is an act of the mind -- what is believing an act of? Are you ever really fully yourself if you do things because other people tell you that you have to do them? How, at your age, can you live an authentic life when you've got things like school and job training and family responsibilities to get through? Discussion Questions 19 - Borowski What gives people power in the camp? Why do you think that the narrator goes along to the “Canada”? Why do the German guards call the prisoners Ladies and Gentlemen? Why do they expect politeness in this environment? Why don’t the prisoners in the Canada detail tell the new arrivals what's going to happen to them? Why do you think the narrator focuses so much on the women’s hair? What might the different hair styles represent? Discussion Questions 20 - Marquez How does the political campaign operate? How is this similar to real political campaigns? What is the difference between what the Senator tells the townspeople and what he tells the business leaders? The style of this story is called “magical realism.” Show two instances of something magical happening. The title is a reversal of the title of a famous poem: “Love Constant beyond Death.” How does the reversal fit the story? Discussion Questions 21 - Mahfouz From what disease is the narrator suffering? What evidence do you have to support your answer? Why does the narrator’s search proceed in this manner? Law → Commerce → Politics → Art? What does the narrator’s drunkenness represent? Pay close attention to the effects of the alcohol upon him. Connect the elements of the narrator’s drunken dream with the hortus mentis and the hortus conclusis. Discussion Questions 22 - Walcott In “As John To Patmos,” is Walcott claiming that John was writing about the Caribbean in the Book of Revelation? Why or why not? In “As John To Patmos,” pick two images that present the Earth as something alive. Explain how Walcott uses them in this poem. How does Walcott make connections between “Salvation History” and the cultural history of the Caribbean in “The Sea Is History”? Why does Walcott use animal imagery to describe human in the final stanzas of “The Sea Is History”? Discussion Questions 23 - Soyinka What is the Praise Singer telling Elesin at the beginning of the play? What is Elesin saying about himself? What is the meaning of the conversation? When Elesin says, “Memory is the Master of Death,” what does he mean? Why does Elesin want to have sex and impregnate the young woman who is betrothed to Iyaloja’s son? Why does Iyaloja respond as she does? Is Elesin’s choice of the market as his “wedding bed” a comment on the nature of this act, or a statement about his desire? Why do you think so? Simon Pilkings and his wife Jane wear the ceremonial garb of Death to a costume ball. What does that garb mean to the Yoruba? What does it mean to the Pilkings? Why must Elesin commit ritual suicide? How do the townspeople feel about it? Why? What does Simon as the representative of the colonial government think about it? Why? How do the girls in the marketplace make fun of Amusa? What does this say about the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized? Why does Olunde return from England? What was his relationship with his father like when he left? When Elesin is caught and imprisoned by Pilkings, how does Iyaloja’s tone toward him change? What does Olunde do when Elesin is imprisoned? How does Elesin react to his son’s action? Elesin, speaking about Olunde, tells Pilkings, “He will avenge my shame, white one. His spirit will destroy you and yours." How do Olunde’s actions do that? Is Olunde a scapegoat here? That is, does he try to take the blame for and rectify the faults of others even though he doesn’t have to? Discussion Questions 24 - Heaney In “Digging,” does Heaney show the skill and dignity of the work his father and grandfather did? According to “Digging,” how does Heaney plan to do his own work? What does he mean by that? Besides the requiem in “Requiem for the Croppies,” what other religious imagery do you see in the poem? How does Heaney address the “seeds of rebellion” in “Requiem for the Croppies”? What pilgrimage does Heaney promise to make in “The Tollund Man”? Why will he do so? How does Heaney juxtapose Pagan and Christian images in the second section of “The Tollund Man”? What biblical scene is Heaney referring to in “Punishment”? Why does he do so? What quasi-sexual images are present in “The Tollund Man” and “Punishment”? How does Heaney talk about his own guilt concerning the violence in Ireland in “The Tollund Man” and “Punishment”? How do “Clearances 1” and “Clearances 2” use the same technique Heaney uses in “Requiem for the Croppies”? How is “Clearances 3” both a celebration and a regretful memory of Heaney’s relationship with his mother? What happens at the moment of death in “Clearances 7”? How are the memories of the past changed in the present in “Keeping Going”?