Upcoming Events for English majors

EVENTS

Short-Term Study Abroad Info Session: Spring 2013, The England of Elizabeth and Shakespeare

TOMORROW, Tuesday, September 18th, 1:00 – 2:00 PM, 311 Denney Hall

Come hear English Professor Chris Highley talk about his Spring 2013 English 4400: Literary Locations course, which will include a trip to London and Stratford-Upon-Avon over the Spring Break period. Find out if this course and short-term study abroad experience are of interest to you! Ask questions and find out how to apply for this study abroad program. The deadline to apply is November 1, 2012. Students who enroll in Professor Highley’s Spring 2013 English 4400 course will learn about the lives, writings, and representations of Elizabeth I and Shakespeare (earning 3 credit hours of English 4400). Over the Spring Break, students will travel to London and Stratford-Upon-Avon with Professor Highley, where they will visit the Globe Theatre and museum, Westminster Abbey, the National Portrait Gallery, and much, much more. Students will receive additional course credits for their trip abroad. 

 

Senior English Majors! Job Hunt Workshop!

THIS WEDNESDAY September 19th, 5:30 – 7:00 PM, 311 Denney Hall

Are you an English Major graduating this Fall 2012, Spring 2013, or Summer 2013? Have you started thinking about the process of finding a job? Do you know what you’re looking for and how to find it? Got questions? Come to this workshop for senior English majors and learn about the job hunt process—what kinds of jobs to look at, where to look, how to know if you’re qualified, etc. We’ll also have some recent grads on hand to talk about their experiences and to give you tips on keeping the process as stress-free as possible. Please send Ruth Friedman, English Undergraduate Studies Manager, a quick email at friedman.194@osu.edu letting her know you plan to attend.

 

Internship Workshop for All English Majors

Wednesday, September 26th, 5:30 – 7:00 PM, 311 Denney Hall

All English majors and other interested students are encouraged to attend this Internship Workshop. In addition to talking about the importance of internships to English majors and their post-graduation career plans, we will discuss how to find an internship, how to prepare cover letters and resumes, how to approach organizations that don’t have internship positions posted, how to prepare for your internship interview, and how you can receive credit for  your internship. Please send Ruth Friedman, English Undergraduate Studies Manager, a quick email atfriedman.194@osu.edu if you plan to attend.

 

English Dept Greenwich Summer Study Abroad Program: Info Session for Summer 2013 Program

Friday, September 28th, Presentation Times: 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM, 311 Denney Hall

Would you like to spend six weeks of Summer 2013 living in Greenwich, a borough of London located on the River Thames, and taking a course titled “The Literature of London”? Come to this info session to find out more about this exciting program and how to apply! You’ll also get information on scholarships to support this study abroad experience! Participants in the 2013 Greenwich Summer Program will earn 9 semester hours of upper-level credit from the OSU Department of English and will spend their mornings engaged in discussions about and listening to lectures on the literature of London and their afternoons touring exciting and important literary and cultural spots around London. Evenings and weekends are available to the students for their own explorations and travel. The application deadline for the 2013 summer program is February 1, 2013.

 

BEAM Program

The B.E.A.M. (Buckeye English Alumni Mentoring) Program is a new initiative designed to connect Columbus campus English and English Pre-Education majors with OSU English alumni living and working around the world. Developed by English Professor Koritha Mitchell in collaboration with the Department of English’s Communications, Outreach, and Development Committee, the program pairs current English and English Pre-Education majors at all stages of their undergraduate careers with alumni willing to serve as mentors, role models, and resources for at least one year. Participating alumni are matched with one student annually, unless otherwise requested, and are expected to contact their mentees on a monthly basis. Communication between mentors and mentees can take place in person, by phone, or via e-mail, enabling alumni from across the globe to stay actively involved in the program and the larger departmental community. If you are a current English or English Pre-Education major and are interested in participating as a mentee in the B.E.A.M. program, contact Ruth Friedman at friedman.194@osu.edu.

Students’ Agency and Education: Nervous Conditions and the Chicago Teachers Union Strike

Reading about the Chicago Teachers Union strike in the New York Times and on the Chicago Tribune website, I realized that the education of the students was foregrounded often by parents and politicians who were against the strike, but also by teachers and supporters of the strike. The lack of self-agency that students have within the education system became apparent to me and reminded me of Tambu’s lack of agency in Nervous Conditions.

The particular connection was the issue of access to quality education for children of low income families.In Nervous Conditions, were it not for the influence and the money of Babamukuru, Tambu would not have been able to go to the mission and if not for the excellent educational environment of Babamukuru’s house, Nyasha’s book cache, and the mission’s training she would not have been able to go to Sacred Heart. Although, in the United States today, integrated pre-K-12 education is available for all children – male or female, black or white, rich or poor, the quality of education still varies in the way of exclusive access to high quality education reminiscent of Nervous Conditions. Children who would be in situations like Tambu’s (impoverished) in the U.S. are not guaranteed the best education and cannot attend most private schools due to high tuition costs and rarity of scholarships. Now that states face budget cuts, schools are actually becoming very unequal places.

A central issue of the Chicago strike according to the Chicago Tribune article (linked here) is that public schools, due to the limited budget of the Chicago government, are not receiving enough funding. Because of this, teachers are being laid off with no guarantee of rehire and the school day was lengthened without a significant raise for teachers. I heard from those for and against the strike, that the heart of the matter was about supporting the best interest of the students. What is that best interest?

There were no interviews with students in the articles and Continue reading “Students’ Agency and Education: Nervous Conditions and the Chicago Teachers Union Strike”

Language and the “Weight of Womanhood”

This isn’t a new discussion, I’m just moving my old post from the comments area into a new post.

Questions for discussion Fri. Sept. 7th:

1) Something that stuck out to me was the use of Tambu’s native language throughout the novel with little explanation of the meanings of these words. Tambu also expresses a lot of anger when she finds out that her cousins and her brother have forgotten Shona (pg. 42, 53). What role do English and Shona play in the novel? What is the significance of Tambu’s own story being narrated in both English and Shona?

2) Another quote that has stuck with me as we continue to read is from Tambu’s mother’s speech early on in the text about the “burden of being a woman” where she ends with “As these days it is worse, with the poverty of blackness on one side and the weight of womanhood on the other” (pg. 14) How does this tension play out in the lives of the other women in the novel? Even though Miaguru is kind of alienated from the rest of her family because of her education, is her situation (or Nyahsa’s) really better off or different from the other women?

Citizen Khan

I recently read an article at BBC about their new show Citizen Khan (probably an unexplored connection to the classic Welles’ film) about a “modern Asian family”. See Wikipedia for a plot synopsis. Here’s a clip from the show. Watch the clip. 

This clip is the first scene of the first episode. A careful viewer will notice a Pakistani flag, a hookah in the background. Needless to say this show may be using stereotypes of Muslims (or at least Pakistani Muslims). For instance, the first (bad) joke of the show is that Mr. Khan is cheap (a Muslim stereotype?). If you watch more of the first episode, there is a joke that has a punchline due to the fact that the new guy at the mosque is Somalian (lol Somalians). There has been an extensive outpouring of complaints from various Muslim communities across the UK (see this BBC article). 

As the BBC article suggests, the easiest defense of this show is that it is just another lazy family sitcom. This is a common sort of argument in the comic world, “it may be offensive, it may be racist, it may be sexist, but that’s ok because it wasn’t funny”. It’s as if the largest sin is that it’s not funny. I have been thinking about these issues a lot recently being deeply interested in the Daniel Tosh’s rape-joke controversy and recently being rebuked for my use of the word “nigger” in a satirical Facebook post (see this post for the spark that started the Tosh Rape-Joke discussion in comedy). I’m all about using comedy to point out the absurdities of power structures: “Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful” (see this article for the source of the quote and a discussion of feminism vs. comedy), so when shows like this scoot along because they’re benignly unfunny, I am bothered. 

But then, some Muslim’s like this show (after all, the target audience is British Muslims) just like some African American’s like The House of Payne (this might not be fair since I’ve never seen a single episode of the show). Is it ok then? What does it mean then, that shows like this are for Muslims? Do British Muslims not find Monty Python funny? I think the absurdity I’m trying to point out is portrayed better than I could ever put it in Albert Brook’s Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (see Wikipedia for plot synopsis). In the film, Brooks is approached about doing a sitcom “That Darn Jew” (the way the scene is cut here makes it seem not funny, but in the context of the whole film it’s hilarious) because there is nothing funnier for Muslims than Jew jokes. 

I guess then the question is: what does it mean that the synopsis of Khan is that the family is “asian” (Pakistani)? What does it mean that we have shows in the US like All-American Muslim? Is it ok? Are Muslims cheap? Do they hate Jews? I hope you enjoyed laughing (ironic laughter?) at Citizen Khan. 

Discussion 9/14

Chapters 8-10

Womanhood – dependence and independence

Tambu struggles between being just a woman and being an educated woman.  We see a transformation in her from being determined to become successful (153-154) to being more or less just another face in the crowd (157).  However, she begins to assert some independent way of thinking when she defies Babamukuru by not coming home on time and refusing to attend her parent’s wedding.  The biggest shift from dependence to independence for Tambu comes when she leaves for Sacred Heart despite what everyone else has to say about it.

Maiguru finally claims some independence when she expresses her true feelings to her husband and decides to leave even though they did not think she would.  However, her new found independence was taken away when she returned home with Babamukura after only a few days. 175-176

The rise and fall of Babamukuru

Babamukuru is constantly challenged in the closing of the novel by various characters.  Tambu defies him, his wife decides to leave, Tambu’s mother blames him for her daughter’s education choices, and Lucia puts him in his place.  Despite his authority being put into question, Tambu says again her uncle is like God.

Questions to ponder

  1. Are the changes in Tambu’s behavior a result of influence from Nyasha or a result of her growing up and being more aware of things?
  2. Did Maiguru make the right choice by coming home with Babamukura, or is it conforming to the ideals of a patriarchal society?
  3. What are your overall opinions of Babamukura at the end of the novel? Does he really have everyone’s best interest at heart or does he want to be in complete control?

The Book of Not (a sequel to Nervous Conditions)

As I had previously read Nervous Conditions, I decided to dive into Dangarembga’s sequel to the novel, The Book of Not. This book picks up (more or less) where Tambu’s story leaves off. It not only details her experience at The Young Ladies’ College of the Sacred Heart, but it also deals with her nation’s transition into independence.

Since most of you probably have not read this novel, I will approach my presentation with questions regarding Nervous Conditions- what major issues are missing, or perhaps secondary in the first novel, and how are they encountered in the sequel? Why do these issues become more prevalent as Tambu grows older, or perhaps as time progresses? There are several major themes, or issues dealt with in the novel which I wish to dissect.

1. War- This novel explicitly addresses Zimbabwe’s intensifying war for independence. The novel begins with a revolutionary meeting of sorts, in which leaders known as “Big Brothers” attempt to gain support from the Africans. This war has countless effects on Tambu’s life. She is seemingly in a state of liminality, as she is resented at the Homestead for being so invested in white culture, but she is also resented by whites for her nationality and the growing tension with which it is associated. Tambu begins adamantly avoiding going home for the holidays (opting to go to the mission instead), but she is also in constant fear of her classmates or teachers finding out that her family is associated with revolutionaries. It is evident that this sense of fragmentation in nation is causing an innate fragmentation in self for Tambu.

A quote to look at deals with this issue in a quite literal way. In this scene, the head nun at Tambu’s school calls in the group of African girls to speak with them about the “security situation deteriorating.” She jokes, “Whatever memoranda they send us, we aren’t going to chop anyone in half, nor in any other portion.” Tambu appeases the nun by laughing at her joke, however she soon reacts bitterly toward the comment, narrating, “But how angry I was with Sister, talking to us like that, making jokes about our flesh and how some people thought it was divisible.” (p. 73)

This quote simply could be a literal comment on racism and the like. But could it also be a metaphoric representation of the emotional and mental fragmentation Tambu is dealing with as her nation becomes fragmented with its fight for independence?

2. “Concentrated Englishness”- At the end of Nervous Conditions we are left with Tambu’s growing guilt and her mother’s fear that her daughter will succumb to Sacred Heart’s more “concentrated Englishness.” However, while reading the novel’s sequel, it is clear that this is an issue that is not so black and white. In my opinion, it is difficult for Tambu to lose her African heritage, because she is treated so blatantly like an African. She, along with the other African girls she shares a dorm room with, are treated differently by their peers and their teachers. They are barred from using the same toilets, and are even forcibly discouraged from physical contact with whites. The intense prejudice and racism she encounters forces her to maintain at least some portion of her African identity, because she will never be accepted by these people as anything but African. However, this gets complicated when she grows to resent her heritage, so desperately wishing to be anyone else.

A quote to discuss that exemplifies this idea occurs after the ‘African dorm’ has been publicly shamed for flushing sanitary napkins down their toilet. Tambu states, “The situation was this: I was in two aspects a biologically blasphemous person…” The first way is that she is a woman, but she describes the second way, as being “the other type of gene that made me look different from the majority of pupils.” (p. 64)

Tambu’s experience of gut-wrenching shame and self-hatred is evident as the novel progresses. Furthermore, blatant racism is not an issue dealt with so explicitly in Nervous Conditions. Do you feel as though this repeated racism would potentially steer her away from the “Englishness” she so desired in the first novel, or do you believe it will only cause her to resent herself and her own heritage even more?

(By the way, I apologize for this being posted so late- I was having issues with WordPress. When I tried to do the ‘quick post,’ is sat there loading for an hour. By some miracle, I happened upon how to do the not-quick post. Anyone have any suggestions, or the same problem?)