by Chinua Achebe. Find a useful study guide here, composed by Dr. Paul Brians. The students of Dr. Allen Carey-Webb at Western Michigan University have put the results of their research on the web; find them here. If you have you become interested in postcolonial literature studies, look here. Achebe’s response to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a novel to which allusions are made in myriad postcolonial novels, is here.
by George Orwell. For a s site with reviews, articles and images, as well as a great number of links, click here.
We will read his essay ‘A Hanging’, and ’Shooting an Elephant’. Other essays you might want to read in addition are ‘Looking back on the Spanish War’, re-examining his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, and ‘Notes on Nationalism’. Then there’s the classic ‘Politics and the English Language’, a bit dated here and there but still worthwhile, especially for the language and Culture option, and for TOK.
In ‘Why I Write’, Orwell says: “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.”
Mislaid your copy or forgot to bring it? Read the novel online.
By Henry Miller. For revision, you may wish to consult the Sparknotes Guide, or the MonkeyNotes Guide. For depth and background, there’s the Famous American trials page, the National Geographic interactive site, the “world behind the hysteria”, and the extensive research guide, Understanding The Crucible, with links to McCarthyism, Puritanism, and the Salem trials.
by Robert Bolt.
Sparknotes for this play are here.
A fairly extensive site for browsing is maintained by G. Smith, in Brisbane, Australia. Worth checking are the links and the answers to students’ questions about the play.
tig’s student site
power of the state:
nineteen eighty-four
english a2
power of the church/state: the crucible
power of empire:
things fall apart
LITERATURE OPTIONS
For a site with background on setting, Jews, law, love, money, and music, go here. For more information Jews in Elizabethan England, Shakespeare and Shylock, go to this PBS site.
For revision, you could use the Sparknotes guide.
Read the play online. For extensive general sites on Shakespeare and his times, go to links.
Shylock has captured audiences to the extent that he has become the protagonist in the play, rather than Antonio, the merchant.
Michael Radford’s interpretation makes Shylock (Al Pacino) the tragic hero, and Jessica the daughter uncomfortable at her betrayal of her father.
Valuable resource: John Gross— Shylock: A Legend and Its Legacy (library) and The Shakespeare Case
Background on:
· History: The Jewish ghetto in Venice (wikipedia) and Jewish Venice.com
· Venice and the Jewish ghetto today (virtual tour)
· Shakespeare in Kerala—education pack with much background material
· Love and Money in Radford’s Merchant of Venice
· Elizabethan currency
Find material on the A1 page by clicking on the
link
Short Stories:
Langston Hughes’ short story “Cora Unashamed”
Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
Gloria Naylor’s “Kiswana Browne” (The story proper starts on page 4)
Monica Ali “Dinner with Dr Azad”, a chapter from her novel Brick Lane
Read an essay by the author here
Salman Rushdie’s “Good advice Is Rarer than Rubies”
Poems:
Langston Hughes’ “Dream Deferred”, “Cross”,and “Ballad of the Landlord”
Countee Cullen’s “Incident”
Wole Soyinka’, “Telephone Conversation” with a thorough discussion
identity: race & gender
the merchant of venice
identity: caste & gender
identity: race & gender short stories and poems
need writing help?
power of the church/state: a man for all seasons
Library resources