Item Number 000380 - Original Query
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 1994

> From: Phil Mueller
> hi23ahg@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu

> Well, Its time to order outside readings for the Spring > semester. My class is mostly freshmen and I find it difficult > to keep their interest. Novels have been my most successful > ploy. Does anyone on h-world have any suggestions for short > historical novels about Africa, Asia, or the Pacific Rim? > This will be for World Civ from 1500.

Like many others, I have used Chinua Achebe's *Things Fall Apart* to cover "new imperialism" from a non-European viewpoint. It has weaknesses (e.g. the portrayal of pre-colonial Igbo society as "static"), but students tend to get very engaged with it.

And now a query of my own. I usually assign two novels in my post-1500 survey. Lately I have been using Graham Greene's *The Quiet American* to situate the U.S. in post-war world history. For a number of reasons, I am looking for something new. I would like to find a novel written by a Latin American, Asian or Arab WOMAN which speaks to issues of decolonization and/or issues of cultural identity and transformation in the past half century. Also, it must be appropriate for students at an urban commuter university, with many non-traditional students, and many for whom English is a second language; i.e. it must be brief and simply written!! Thanks for your suggestions.

Kenneth R. Curtis
kcurtis@csulb.edu

Item Number 000381 - Reply #1
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 1994

Since the question was put regarding novels on Africa, Asia, etc, let me suggest (although immodestly, I suppose): M.E. Page and C.L. Beahan, "Some African & Asian Fiction for Teaching Modern World History," TEACHING HISTORY (U.K.--The Historical Association of Great Britain), 44(1986): 26-29. This surveys ten novels, five each from Africa and Asia, and has a brief description of each with a consideration of how it might be taught.

Since that was published, I have two other African novels to recommend. One is Sir Abubakar T. Balewa, SHAIHU UMAR: A NOVEL ABOUT SLAVERY IN AFRICA (trans-Saharan!); a bit turgid in translation (from Hausa), but short and with introductory material in the Markus Wiener edition. Also, a newer novel by Rose Zwi, THE UMBRELLA TREE (Penguin 1990) about the youth uprisings in 1970s South Africa.

Since the general question about suppliments/readings came up, let me reiterate what I have written elsewhere (and maybe here too!): the collection of short, comparative biographies by Ken Wolf, PERSONALITIES & PROBLEMS, vols I & II (McGraw-Hill, 1994) are **very good** and I have found that students get into them and are willing to discuss the implications of the essays on how they see world history. More on this privately if anyone is interested.

Mel Page
East Tennessee State University
PAGEM@ETSUSERV.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU

Item Number 000382 - Reply #2
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 1994

In my course on modern China I assign *The Family* by Pa Chin [Ba Jin], about generational conflict in a Chinese family in the 1920s. It gives a very good sense of cultural and political change at that time.
For early modern Japan, you might use *Silence* or *The Samurai* by Endo Shusaku. Endo, a Japanese Catholic, examines the Japanese response to Christianity in the early 17th century.

Robert Entenmann
St. Olaf College
entenman@stolaf.edu

Item Number 000383 - Reply #3
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 1994

> From: "Kenneth R. Curtis" <kcurtis@csulb.edu> >
> Like many others, I have used Chinua Achebe's *Things Fall Apart* to > cover "new imperialism" from a non-European viewpoint. It has > weaknesses (e.g. the portrayal of pre-colonial Igbo society as > "static"), but students tend to get very engaged with it. >
> And now a query of my own. I usually assign two novels in my > post-1500 survey. Lately I have been using Graham Greene's *The > Quiet American* to situate the U.S. in post-war world history. For a > number of reasons, I am looking for something new. I would like to > find a novel written by a Latin American, Asian or Arab WOMAN which > speaks to issues of decolonization and/or issues of cultural identity > and transformation in the past half century. Also, it must be > appropriate for students at an urban commuter university, with many > non-traditional students, and many for whom English is a second > language; i.e. it must be brief and simply written!! Thanks for your > suggestions.

A book I would recommend written by a Palestinian woman is Raymonda Hawa Tawil's book: My Home, My Prison (about life Palestinians under occupation in 1983, prior to the Intifada). It is 265 pages of relatively easy reading (an instructor could reduce the chaptersassigned, also). It was published by Zed Publishers. I think that students would be interested in a book written by Yasser Arafat's mother-in-law.

Elizabeth Davis Barlow
bbarlow@umich.edu

Item Number 000385 - Reply #4
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 1994

You might consider Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North--a Sudanese "writing back" of Conrad, about 160 pages of a gripping tale about postcolonial meditation on colonial identity. It is also a brilliant literary rendering of Fanon's brilliant essay "The Fact of Blackness" in his Blck skin, White Masks. For the early 1900s, a very evocative text is "Sultana's Dream", about 85 pages incl. introduction etc. published by the Feminist Press of CUNY, 1988. It is a story written by a Bengali Muslim woman in 1905 about her dream of a world where gender roles are reversed--men cook, clean, and are veiled--and where science and technology enable a harmonious life. This text precedes the much-celebrated "Herland" by Charlotte Perkins. Good luck.

Gyan Prakash
PRAKASH@pucc.Princeton.EDU

Item Number 000386 - Reply #5
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 1994

One very good novel, which students seem to like, written by an Iranian woman, Simen Daneshvar, Persian Requiem, in paper, concerns an Iranian family in the midst of World War II, facing British control and nationalist desires--the woman in the family turns out to be the real leader of that unit. Daneshvar's novel has been reprinted several times in Iran; she is still a very popular writer there. My students have especially liked the fact that it was written for Iranian readers, and is available to them in translation.

Alan Fisher CIS - AH MSU
alan@ah2.cal.msu.edu
enter for Integrative Studies, Arts & Humanities Michigan State University

Item Number 000388 - Reply #6
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 1994

The novel that has gotten the best response from a large variety of students at three different universities is Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," as it really shows a very wide range of colonialist attitudes, and also stimulates a lot of good questions and discussions.

"T"
Terrance L. Lewis, PhD History Program Southern University at New Orleans
tlewis@new-orleans.Neosoft.com

Item Number 000389 - Reply #7
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 1994

It's not by a woman, but I urge Osmene Sembene's ALL GOD'S CHILDREN about a railroad strike in Senegal (I think) led by women. Better than the Achebe I think because there is nothing static about the picture presented. And again, not by a woman, but Memmi's Colonized and Colonizer is short, clear, moving and not so hot on women -- but that can become a discussion. A successor volume corrects the view on women. Not a novel, though.

M.Young
YOUNGMA@ACFcluster.NYU.EDU

Item Number 000392 - Reply #8
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994

For those planning to use Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS in world history courses, let me strongly recommend that you read Edward Said's treatment of Conrad's book in CULTURE AND IMPERIALISM. There is much about Conrad that is about Europe, and the effects of the book in Europe are also important; for world history, students should also be helped to see that aspect of the work.

Mel Page
East Tennessee State University
PAGEM@ETSUSERV.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU

Item Number 000393 - Reply #9
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994

I have used Oliver Statler's Japanese Inn and also Graham Green's The Quiet American.

Peter C Holloran
Pine Manor College
pch@world.std.com

Item Number 000396 - Reply #10
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994

Let me second the recommendation that those who want to use "Heart of Darkness" look at Said's discussion of Conrad in Culture and Imperialism. I also suggest looking at Michael Taussig's essay "Culture of Terror-Space of Death: Roger Casement's Putumayo Report and the Explanation of Torture" in N. Dirks, ed., Colonialism and Culture (michigan: 1992). I myself only use Conrad in this context in my Modern Europe Survey, since it tells much more about constructions of European Identity than it does about anything else.

Pieter Judson
Swarthmore College
pjudson1@cc.swarthmore.edu

Item Number 000397 - Reply #11
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994

Kenneth R. Curtis solicited recommendations to fill the need for a novel by a "Latin American, Asian or Arab WOMAN which speaks to issues of decolonization and/or issues of cultural identity and transformation in the past half century. Also, it must be . . . brief and simply written!!" It is not brief or simply written, but I have had great success with Isabel Allende's _House of the Spirits_ in my college introductory world history course. It takes a while to get my students past the green hair and moving salt shakers, but once that is put behind us, I find the novel very useful in addressing the very issues Curtis is interested in. I would be interested in the experience others have had using this novel in their world history courses.

Joel Cleland
Lander University, Greenwood, SC 29649
Cleland@Clemson.Clemson.edu

Item Number 000398 - Reply #12
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994

With regard to the recommendation of _Persian Requiem_, you should know that there are two translations currently available, both in paperback in this country (U.S.). The other one has a different title, _Savushun_, is published by Mage in Washington, D.C . They were released in the U.S. within months of each other. The former was first published in the U.K.

I imagine many people are familiar with _Ali & Nino_ (if you look it up in the library, note the ampersand in the formal title!), which deals with the Caucasus between 1916 and 1922. If not, you might find it complementary.

Brian Spooner
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6398
(215) 898-5207
FAX 573-2003
brian@mec.sas.upenn.edu

Item Number 000399 - Reply #13
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994

Those who use Conrad's *Heart of Darkness* or Achebe's *Things Fall Apart* or both--as I have--might have students read Achebe's essay "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness"--pretty scathing. It's included in the Norton Critical Edition of Conrad. Also, I inadvertently zapped yesterday's post regarding an Iranian woman novelist. Could someone provide that title again? Thanks.

Howard Wach
hwach@craft.camp.clarkson.edu

Item Number 000406 - Reply #14
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994

With the current discussion of novels in modern world history I wonder what people are using for the pre-1500 period (or pre-1800 period for that matter).

For late antique and medieval Europe I've used Apuleius _the Golden Ass_ and Marie de France _Lais_ that offer nice opportunities to look at "common" people. I've also used Rabelais _Gargantua and Pantagruel_ for the early modern period, and was surprised that so many undergraduates were upset by the graphic humor.

Does anyone have similar sources for India, China, Japan, etc. that throw some light on commoners and/or show different standards of humor? Something accessible that also captures the "otherness" of these places and times -- quite a tall order!

Jim Everett
Eastern Illinois University
cfjee1@eiu.edu

Item Number 000412 - Reply #15
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994

One "novel" [though one should be careful to use that term for a period prior to the invention of the novel] from 12th c Arab and Iranian world which works very well for students is the _1001 Nights_--in various English versions, though I prefer the Penguin edition, as more complete. It is full of humor, contains stories that were common among the "common folk" of the Islamic urban centers; it also provides a good opportunity to compare with all sorts of stereotypes current about these stories.

Alan Fisher
Center for Integrative Studies, Arts & Humanities Michigan State University
alan@ah2.cal.msu.edu

Item Number 000413 - Reply #16
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994

For pre-1800 fiction from Japan that shows life of commoners and also shows a sense of humor, try the short stories of Ihara Saikaku (usually known as Saikaku, although Ihara was his family name). He wrote in the late 17th century, and his stories were popular among Japan's urban dwellers. They remind me a little of Boccaccio's _Decameron_. William Theodore DeBary has translated _Five Women Who Loved Love_ and some of Saikaku's stories are included in Donald Keene's _Anthology of Japanese Literature_.

Robert Entenmann
St. Olaf College
entenman@stolaf.edu

Item Number 000416 - Reply #17
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994

I can't help with African or Asian perspectives from their own side, at least not in the pre-1800 period, but maybe Montesquieu's _Persian Letters_ or the extant journals of Marco Polo would be a way to get at it? As to a post-1900 vision of things, do you know _Les Petit Bouts du Bois de Dieu_? (whose author, I'm afraid, slips my mind).

Chris Garton-Zavesky
GARTONCJ@HCL.CHASS.NCSU.EDU

(note from moderator)

_Les Bouts de bois de Dieu_, by Ousmane Sembene (listed in many catalogs as Sembene Ousmane) chronicles a 1947 railroad strike in Senegal and Mali, in which a women's march to the capital brings about a settlement. In English translation it is _God's Bits of Wood_ (rather than _All God's Children_, as in an earlier posting). It's long but excellent.

Pat Manning, Co-moderator
Northeastern University
manning@neu.edu

Item Number 000420 - Reply #18
Date: Sun, 4 Dec 1994

On Japan, I have had good response from my students with Oliver Statler's Japanese Inn (University of Hawaii paper). But I would like to find some good fiction on China, suitable for undergraduates and a non-specialist professor teaching World Civ.

Peter Holloran
Pine Manor College
pch@world.std.com

Item Number 000433 - Reply #19
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 1994

Another novel that might be useful in depicting social relations in Arabic society is Nawal el-Saadawi's God dies by the Nile, translated by Sherif Hetata, London, Zed, 1985. This short, powerful novel explores the situation of women in Egyptian society.

David Kessler
University of California, Berkeley
dkessler@library.berkeley.edu

Item Number 000663 - Reply #20
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995

Some months ago there was a thread about novels in the teaching of world history. I excavated some of my print outs for ideas to consider in my text order (needed 3 April). I welcome any additional suggestions. For me Latin America is especially a problem since the novels that I am most familiar with seem too challenging for beginning students. Also, may I ask for reactions to a book that is not a novel: Amitav Ghosh, IN AN ANTIQUE LAND (1992; Vintage paperback)?

David Fahey (Miami University)
dfahey@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu

Item Number 000669 - Reply #21
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 1995

Amitav Ghosh's "In an Antique Land" is superb. I am planning on using it next fall in a seminar on the "Origins of the Global System". It combines several disciplines, geographical regions, and time periods and does it in a very elegant way. Especially in a Graduate Seminar it should work very well.

Resat Kasaba
University of Washington
kasaba@u.washington.edu

Item Number 000671 - Reply #22
Date: Sun, 19 Mar 1995

I didn't see the earlier discussion, so this may be redundant, but I have used Azuela's "The Underdogs" about the Mexican Revolution with reasonable success, although it needs considerable background information.

Jenny Lloyd
SUNY at Brockport
JLLOYD@ACSPR1.acs.brockport.edu

Item Number 000673 - Reply #23
Date: Sun, 19 Mar 1995

For David Fahey. Ghosh's IN AN ANTIQUE LAND is a wonderful book which combines the best of anthropology and fiction. However, it will be very demanding for novice students.

Don Johnson
New York University
JOHNSOND@ACFcluster.NYU.edu

Item Number 000676 - Reply #24
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995

Trying to locate some novels from various parts of the globe for my world history course has made me think a bit about the phenomenon of translation as a theme for world history, as encounter, etc. I further began to speculate about the effect of acquiring a reading knowledge of a second (or third) language as a supplement to reading translations or an alternative to translations. What suggestions might H-World subscribers make about the scholarly literature on these two related topics that might have application in teaching world history?

David Fahey (Miami Univ.)
dfahey@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu

Item Number 000949 - Reply #25
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995

If you are looking for a short story try Khushwant Singh's "Karma." If is short and very much to the point.

Don Johnson
New York University
JOHNSOND@ACFcluster.NYU.edu

Item Number 000952 - Reply #26
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 1995

I have used Tagore's HOME AND THE WORLD very successfully for several years now. It is short, and they can see the Satayajit Ray film. It incorporates gender, and does not require too much contextualizing set-up on India to have students engage with it successfully. It works well with Benedict Anderson's IMAGINED COMMUNITIES, and it dehomogenizes nationalism, and makes one reflect on differing strategies and conceptionsof the nation. Slower students still get something out of the exercize, while more sophisticated ones cannot easily exhaust it.

Terry Burke
University of California, Santa Cruz

Item Number 000953 - Reply #27
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 1995

I was sure there would be a plethora of suggestions in response to Gyan Prakash's query for novels on colonial societies which Mary Martin posted. To start the ball rolling, I could recommend Tahar Ben Jelloun's *With Downcast Eyes*. *With Downcast Eyes*, trans. Joachim Neugroschel Little, Brown and Co., 1993 ($19.95) ISBN 0-316-46059-1 (originally published as: Yeux Baiss!s, Editions de Seuil, 1991) Ben Jelloun, a Moroccan, writes in French, and won the Goncourt pr ize for his earlier novel, *the Sand Child.* The novel is about a Berber girl in Morocco whose grandfather prognosticates on his deathbed that she will be the one salvation of her village. She goes to Paris, where she grapples with questions of village vs. city life, Arab vs. French immigrant identity, deracination, and exile.

There must be many more examples others could think of.

Frank Lewis
University of Chicago

Item Number 001211 - Reply #28
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995

Regarding editions of _Things FAll Apart_

There is a very useful edition of Achebe's work titled _The African Triology_. I picked up a copy of it this summer in South Africa where it has been available for years -- it was first published in 1988. It contains _Things Fall Apart_, _No Longer At Ease_, and _Arrow of God_. I especially like it because it allows those students who want to read more of Achebe after _Things Fall Apart_ to have two more novels readily at hand at no extra expense.

The citation is:

Chinua Achebe, _The African Triology. Things Fall Apart, No Longer At Ease, Arrow of God_, London: Picador in association

with Heinemann, 1988. ISBN 0330303317

It cost R60.95 in RSA and on the back cover the prices given are UK 8.99 pounds sterling and CAN 18.99 Canadian dollars. No US prices given so one may have to order through Canada, UK, etc.

Roger Beck

Roger B. Beck                     Telephone: (217) 581-5529
Coleman Hall 216D                 Fax:       (217) 581-2722
Department of History             E-Mail:    CFRBB@EIU.EDU
Eastern Illinois University       Home phone:(217) 345-2022

Charleston, IL 61920
U.S.A.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]