MAJORSHIP
Area: ENGLISH
Focus:
Afro-Asian Literature
Competencies:
1.
be familiar
with the literary history, philosophy,
religious beliefs, and culture of the Afro-Asian nations
2.
point out the universal themes, issues, and subject
matter that dominate Afro-Asian literature
3.
interpret the
significance and meaning of selected literary pieces
4.
identify
outstanding writers and their major works
|
INDIA
1. Literary Periods. The Indus Valley civilization flourished in
northern India between 2500 and 1500 B.C.
The Aryans, a group of nomadic warriors and herders, were the earliest
known migrants into India. They brought
with them a well-developed language and literature and a set of religious
beliefs.
a) Vedic Period
(1500 B.C. –500 B.C.). This period
is named for the Vedas, a set of hymns that formed the
cornerstone of Aryan culture. Hindus
consider the Vedas, which were transmitted orally by priests, to be the most
sacred of all literature for they believe these to have been revealed to humans
directly by the gods.
·
The Rigveda which has come to mean “hymns of supreme sacred
knowledge,” is the foremost collection or
Samhita made up of 1,028 hymns.
The oldest of the Vedas, it contains strong, energetic, non-speculative
hymns, often comparable to the psalms in the Old Testament. The Hindus regard these hymns as divinely
inspired or ‘heard’ directly from the gods.
The
Song of Creation
Then was not
non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond
it.
What covered
it and where? And what gave
shelter? Was water there,
unfathomedmdepth
of water?
Death was not
then nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day’s
and night’s divider.
That one thing, breathless, breathed by
its own nature: apart from it was nothing
whatsoever.
Darkness
there was: at first concealed in darkness, this All was indiscriminated
chaos.
All that
existed then was void and formless: by the great power of warmth was
born that unit.
b) Epic and Buddhist Age (500 B.C. – A.D.).
The period of composition of the two great epics, Mahabharata
and the Ramayana. This
time was also the growth of later Vedic literature, new Sanskrit literature,
and Buddhist literature in Pali. The Dhammapada
was also probably composed during this period.
The Maurya Empire (322-230 B.C.) ruled by Ashoka promoted
Buddhism and preached goodness, nonviolence, and ‘righteousness’ although this
period was known for warfare and iron-fisted rule. The Gupta Dynasty (320-467 B.C.) was the
next great political power. During this
time, Hinduism reached a full flowering and was evident in culture and the
arts.
·
The Mahabharata, traditionally ascribed to the
sage Vyasa, consists of a mass of legendary and didactic material that
tells of the struggle for supremacy between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas
and the Pandavas set sometime 3102 BC.
The poem is made up of almost 100,000 couplets divided into 18 parvans
or sections. It is an exposition on dharma
(codes of conduct), including the proper conduct of a king, of a warrior, of a
man living in times of calamity, and of a person seeking to attain emancipation
from rebirth.
·
The Bhagavad
Gita (The Blessed Lord’s Song) is one of the greatest and most beautiful of
the Hindu scriptures. It is regarded by
the Hindus in somewhat the same way as the Gospels are by Christians. It forms part of Book IV and is written in
the form of a dialogue between the warrior Prince Arjuna and his friend and
charioteer, Krishna, who is also an earthly incarnation of the god Vishnu.
From
the Bhagavad-Gita
Arjuna: Krishna, what defines a man/ deep in
contemplation whose insight/ and thought are sure? How would he speak?/ How would he sit? How would he move?
Lord
Krishna: When he gives
up desires in his mind,/ is content with the self within himself,/ then he is
said to be a man/ whose insight is sure, Arjuna. When suffering does not disturb his mind,/
when his craving for pleasures has vanished,/ when attraction, fear, and anger
are gone,/ he is called a sage whose thought is sure.
·
The Ramayana
was composed in Sanskrit, probably not before 300 BC, by the poet Valmiki
and consists of some 24,000 couplets divided into seven books. It reflects the Hindu values and forms of
social organization, the theory of karma, the ideals of wifehood, and feelings
about caste, honor and promises.
The
poem describes the royal birth of Rama, his tutelage under the sage Visvamitra,
and his success in bending Siva’s mighty bow, thus winning Sita, the
daughter of King Janaka, for his wife.
After Rama is banished from his position as heir by an intrigue, he
retreats to the forest with his wife and his half brother, Laksmana. There Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka,
carries off Sita, who resolutely rejects his attentions. After numerous adventures Rama slays Ravana
and rescues Sita. When they return to
his kingdom, however, Rama learns that the people question the queen’s
chastity, and he banishes her to the forest where she gives birth to Rama’s two
sons. The family is reunited when the
sons come of age, but Sita, after again protesting her innocence, asks to be
received by the earth, which swallows her up.
From
the Ramayana: “Brother’s Faithfulness”
If my elder and his lady to the pathless
forests wend,
Armed with bow and ample quiver Lakshman
will on them attend,
Where the wild deer range the forest and
the lordly tuskers roam,
And the bird of gorgeous plumage nestles
in its jungle home,
Dearer far to me those woodlands where
perennial bliss prevails!
Grant me then thy sweet permission, -
faithful to thy glorious star,
Lakshman, shall not wait and tarry when
his Rama wanders far,
Grant me then thy loving mandate, -
Lakshman hath no wish to stay,
None shall bar the faithful younger when
the elder leads the way!
c) Classical Period (A.D. – 1000 A.D.). The main
literary language of northern India during this period was Sanskrit,
in contrast with the Dravidian languages of southern India. Sanskrit, which means ‘perfect speech’ is
considered a sacred language, the language spoken by the gods and
goddesses. As such, Sanskrit was seen as
the only appropriate language for the noblest literary works. Poetry and drama peaked during this period. Beast fables such as the Panchatantra
were popular and often used by religious teachers to illustrate moral points.
·
The Panchatantra
is a collection of Indian beast fables originally written in Sanskrit. In Europe, the work was known under the title
The Fables of Bidpai after the narrator, and Indian sage named Bidpai,
(called Vidyapati in Sanskrit). It is
intended as a textbook of artha (worldly wisdom); the aphorisms tend to
glorify shrewdness and cleverness more than helping of others. The original text is a mixture of Sanskrit
prose and stanzas of verse, with the stories contained within one of five frame stories. The introduction, which acts as an enclosing
frame for the entire work, attributes the stories to a learned Brahman named
Vishnusarman, who used the form of animal fables to instruct the three
dull-witted sons of a king.
From
the Panchatantra: “Right-Mind and
Wrong-Mind”
The good and bad of given schemes/ wise thought must
first reveal: the stupid heron saw his chicks/ provide a mongoose meal.
·
Sakuntala, a Sanskrit drama by Kalidasa, tells of the love between Sakuntala and King Dushyanta. What begins as a physical attraction for both
of them becomes spiritual in the end as their love endures and surpasses all
difficulties. King Dushyanta is a noble
and pious king who upholds his duties above personal desire. Sakuntala, on the other hand, is a young girl
who matures beautifully because of her kindness, courage, and strength of will. After a period of suffering, the two are eventually
reunited. Emotion or rasa dominates every scene in
Sanskrit drama. These emotions vary from
love to anger, heroism to cowardice, joy to terror and allows the audience to
take part in the play and be one with the characters.
Excerpt from Sakuntala:
King.
You are too modest. I feel
honoured by the mere sight of you.
Shakuntala. Anusuya, my foot is cut on a sharp blade of
grass, and my dress is caught on an amaranth twig. Wait for me while I loosen it. (She casts a lingering glance at the king,
and goes out with her two friends.)
King.
(sighing). They are gone. And I must go. The sight of Shakuntala has made me dread the
return to the city. I will make my men
camp at a distance from the pious grove.
But I cannot turn my own thoughts from Shakuntala.
It is my body leaves my love, not I;/ My
body moves away, but not my mind;
For back to her struggling fancies fly/ Like silken banners borne
against the
wind. (Exit.)
·
The Little
Clay Cart (Mrcchakatika) is
attributed to Shudraka, a king.
The characters in this play include a Brahman merchant who has lost his
money through liberality, a rich courtesan in love with a poor young man, much
description of resplendent palaces, and both comic and tragic or near-tragic
emotional situations.
PROLOGUE (Benediction upon the audience)
May His, may Shiva's meditation be
Your strong defense; on the Great Self thinks he,
Knowing full well the world's vacuity.
And again:
May Shiva's neck shield you from every harm,
That seems a threatening thunder-cloud, whereon,
Bright as the lightning-flash, lies Gauri's arm.
d) Medieval and Modern Age (A.D. 1000 – present). Persian influence on literature was
considerable during this period. Persian
was the court language of the Moslem rulers.
In the 18th century India was directly under the British
Crown and remained so until its Independence in 1947. British influence was strong and modern-day
Indians are primarily educated in English.
Many have been brought into the world of Western learning at the expense
of learning about their own culture.
·
Gitanjali: Song Offerings was
originally published in India in 1910 and it s translation followed in
1912. In these prose translations, Rabindranath
Tagore uses imagery from nature to express the themes of love and the
internal conflict between spiritual longings and earthly desires.
Moment’s Indulgence
I ask for a
moment's indulgence to sit by thy side.
The works
that I have in hand I will finish afterwards.
Away from the
sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite,
and my work
becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil.
·
The Taj Mahal, a poem
by Sahir Ludhianvi, is
about the mausoleum in North India built by the Mogul emperor Shah Jahan for
his wife Mumtaz-i-Mahal. The façade of
this grandiose structure is made of white marble and is surrounded by water
gardens, gateways, and walks. The tomb
at the center of the dome stands on a square block with towers at each corner. The construction of the building took twenty
years to complete involving some 20, 000 workers.
Excerpt from the Taj Mahal
Do dead
king’s tombs delight you?
If so, look
into your own dark home.
In this
world, countless people have loved.
Who says
their passions weren’t true?
They just
couldn’t afford a public display like this.
·
On Learning to be an Indian an essay by Santha
Rama Rau illustrates the telling effects of colonization on the lives of the
people particularly the younger generation.
The writer humorously narrates the conflicts that arise between her
grandmother's traditional Indian values and the author’s own British
upbringing.
Because Mother had to fight against the
old standards, and because she was brought up to believe in them, she has an
emotional understanding of them which my sister I will never have. Brought up in Europe and educated in
preparatory and public schools in England, we felt that the conventions were
not only retrogressive and socially crippling to the country but also a little
ridiculous.
2. Religions. Indian creativity is evident in religion as
the country is the birthplace of two important faiths: Hinduism, the dominant
religion, and Buddhism, which ironically became extinct in India but spread
throughout Asia.
a) Hinduism,
literally “the belief of the people of India,” is the predominant faith of
India and of no other nation. The Hindus
are deeply absorbed with God and the creation of the universe.
The Purusarthas are the three ends of
man: dharma – virtue, duty, righteousness, moral law; artha
– wealth; and kama – love or pleasure. A fourth end is moksha – the
renunciation of duty, wealth and love in order to seek spiritual
perfection. It is achieved after the
release from samsara, the cycle of births and deaths. The Hindus believe that all reality is one
and spiritual, and that each individual soul is identical with this reality and
shares its characteristics: pure being, intelligence, and bliss. Everything that seems to divide the soul from
this reality is maya or illusion.
Life is viewed as an upward development through four
stages of effort called the four asramas: a) the student stage
– applies to the rite of initiation into the study of the Vedas; b) the householder
stage – marries and fulfills the duties as head of the family where he begets
sons and earns a living; c) the stage of the forest dweller – departs
from home and renounces the social world; and d) ascetic – stops
performing any of the rituals or social duties of life in the world and devotes
time for reflection and meditation.
Kama
refers to one of the proper pursuits of man in his role as householder, that of
pleasure and love. The Kama-sutra
is a classic textbook on erotics and other forms of pleasure and love, which is
attributed to the sage Vatsyayana.
The Hindus regard Purusha, the Universal Spirit,
as the soul and original source of the universe. As the universal soul, Purusha is the
life-giving principle in all animated beings.
As a personified human being, Purusha's body is the source of all
creation. The four Varnas
serve as the theoretical basis for the organization of the Hindu society. These were thought to have been created from
Purusha’s body:
-
The Brahman
(priest) was Purusha’s mouth. Their
duty is to perform sacrifices, to study and to teach the Vedas, and to guard
the rules of dharma.
Because of their sacred work, they are supreme in purity and rank.
-
The Ksatriyas
(warriors) are the arms. From this class
arose the kings who are the protectors of society.
-
The Vaisyas
(peasants) are the thighs. They live by
trading, herding, and farming.
-
The Sudras
(serfs) are the feet. They engage in
handicrafts and manual occupation and they are to serve meekly the three
classes above them. They are strictly
forbidden to mate with persons of a higher varna.
· The Upanishads form a highly sophisticated
commentary on the religious thought suggested by the poetic hymns of the
Rigveda. The name implies, according to
some traditions, ‘sitting at the feet of the teacher.’ The most important philosophical doctrine is
the concept of a single supreme being, the Brahman, and
knowledge is directed toward reunion with it by the human soul, the Atman
or Self. The nature of eternal life
is discussed and such themes as the transmigration of souls and causality in
creation.
b) Buddhism
originated in India in the 6th century B.C. This religion is based on the teachings of Siddhartha
Gautama, called Buddha, or
the ‘Enlightened One.’ Much of
Buddha’s teaching is focused on self-awareness and self-development in order to
attain nirvana or enlightenment.
According to Buddhist
beliefs, human beings are bound to the wheel of life which is a continual cycle
of birth, death, and suffering. This
cycle is an effect of karma in which a person’s present life and
experiences are the result of past thoughts and actions, and these present
thoughts and actions likewise create those of the future. The Buddhist scriptures uphold the Four Noble
Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. The
Four Noble Truths are: 1) life is suffering; 2) the cause of suffering
is desire; 3) the removal of desire is the removal of suffering; and 4) the
Noble Eightfold Path leads to the end of suffering. The Noble Eightfold Path consists of:
1) right understanding; 2) right thought; 3) right speech; 4) right action; 5)
right means of livelihood; 6) right effort; 7) right concentration; and 8)
right meditation. The Buddhist truth
states that bad actions and bad feelings such as selfishness, greed, hostility,
hate are evil not because they harm others but because of their negative
influence on the mental state of the doer.
It is in this sense that evil returns to punish the doer
· The Dhammapada (Way of Truth) is an anthology
of basic Buddhist teaching in a simple aphoristic style. One of the best known books of the Pali
Buddhist canon, it contains 423 stanzas arranged in 26 chapters. These verses are compared with the Letters of
St. Paul in the Bible or that of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.
.
Thought
As a fletcher makes straight his arrow,
a wise man makes straight his trembling and unsteady thought which is difficult
to guard, difficult to hold back.
As a fish taken from his watery home and
thrown on the dry ground, our thought trembles all over in order to escape the
dominion of Mara, the tempter.
It is good to tame the mind, which is
difficult to hold in and flighty, rushing wherever it listeth; a tamed mind
brings happiness.
Let the wise man guard his thoughts, for
they are difficult to perceive, very artful, and they rush wherever they list:
thoughts well guarded bring happiness.
Those who bridle their mind which
travels far, moves about alone, is without a body, and hides in the chamber of
the heart, will be free from the bonds of Mara, the tempter
3. Major Writers.
a)
Kalidasa a Sanskrit poet and dramatist is probably the greatest
Indian writer of all time. As with most
classical Indian authors, little is known about Kalidasa’s person or his
historical relationships. His poems
suggest that he was a Brahman (priest).
Many works are traditionally ascribed to the poet, but scholars have
identified only six as genuine.
b)
Rabindranath
Tagore (1861-1941). The
son of a Great Sage, Tagore is a Bengali poet and mystic who won the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1913. Tagore
managed his father's estates and lived in close contact with the villagers. His sympathy for their poverty and
backwardness was later reflected in his works.
The death of his wife and two children brought him years of sadness but
this also inspired some of his best poety.
Tagore is also a gifted composer and a painter.
c)
Prem Chand pseudonym of Dhanpat
Rai Srivastava (1880-1936). Indian
author of numerous novels and short
stories in Hindi and Urdu who pioneered in adapting Indian themes to Western
literary styles. He worked as a teacher
before joining Mahatma Gandhi’s anticolonial Noncooperation Movement.
· Sevasadana (House of Service). His first major novel deals with the problems
of prostitution and moral corruption among the Indian middle class.
· Manasarovar
(The Holy Lake). A collection of 250 or
so short stories which contains most of Prem Chand’s best works.
· Godan
(The Gift of a Cow). This last novel was
Prem Chand’s masterpiece and it deals with his favorite theme – the hard and
unrewarding life of the village peasant.
d)
Kamala
Markandaya (1924). Her works concern the struggles of contemporary
Indians with conflicting Eastern and Western values. A Brahman, she studied at Madras University
then settled in England and married an Englishman. In her fiction, Western values typically are
viewed as modern and materialistic, and Indian values as spiritual and
traditional.
· Nectar in a Sieve. Her first
novel and most popular work is about an Indian peasant’s narrative of her
difficult life.
e)
R. K. Narayan (1906). One of
the finest Indian authors of his generation writing in English. He briefly worked as a teacher before
deciding to devote himself full-time to writing. All of Narayan’s works are set in the
fictitious South Indian town of Malgudi.
They typically portray the peculiarities of human relationships and the
ironies of Indian daily life, in which modern urban existence clashes with
ancient tradition. His style is
graceful, marked by genial humor, elegance, and simplicity.
· Swami and Friends. His first
novel is an episodic narrative recounting the adventures of a group of
schoolboys.
· Novels: The English Teacher (1945), Waiting for
the Mahatma (1955), The Guide (1958), The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961), The
Vendor of Sweets (1967), A Tiger for Malgudi (1983), and The
World of Nagaraj (1990).
· Collection of Short Stories: Lawley Road (1956),
A Horse and Two Goats and Other Stories (1970), Under the Banyan Tree and Other
Stories (1985), and Grandmother’s Tale (1992).
f)
Anita Desai (1937). An
English-language Indian novelist and author of children’s books, she is
considered India’s premier imagist writer.
She excelled in evoking character and mood through visual images. Most of her works reflect Desei’s tragic view
of life.
· Cry, the Peacock. Her first novel addresses the
theme of the suppression and oppression of Indian women.
· Clear Light of Day. Considered
the author’s most successful work, this is a highly evocative portrait of two
sisters caught in the lassitude of Indian life.
This was shortlisted for the 1980 Booker Prize.
· Fire on the Mountain. This work was criticized as relying too heavily on
imagery at the expense of plot and characterization, but it was praised for its
poetic symbolism and use of sounds. This
won for her the Royal Society of Literature’s Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize.
g)
Vir Singh (1872-1957). A
Sikh writer and theologian, he wrote at a time when Sikh religion and politics
and the Punjabi language were under heavy attack by the English and
Hindus. He extolled Sikh courage,
philosophy, and ideals, earning respect for the Punjabi language as a literary
vehicle.
·
Kalghi Dhar
Chamatkar. This novel is about the life of the 17th
century guru Gobind Singh.
·
Other novels on
Sikh philosophy and martial excellence include Sundri (1898) and Bijai Singh (1899).
h)
Arundhati Roy. A young
female writer whose first book The God of Small Things won for
her a Booker Prize.
A.
CHINA
1.
Historical
Background. Chinese
literature reflects the political and social history of China and the impact of
powerful religions that came from within and outside the country. Its tradition goes back thousand of years and
has often been inspired by philosophical questions about the meaning of life,
how to live ethically in society, and how to live in spiritual harmony with the
natural order of the universe.
a) Shang Dynasty
(1600 B.C.). During this time, the
people practiced a religion based on the belief that nature was inhabited by
many powerful gods and spirits. Among
the significant advances of this period were bronze working, decimal system, a
twelve-month calendar and a system of writing consisting of 3,000 characters.
b) Chou Dynasty
(1100 B.C. – 221 B.C.). This was the
longest of all the dynasties and throughout most of this period China suffered
from severe political disunity and upheaval.
This era was also known as the Hundred Schools period because of the
many competing philosophers and teachers who emerged the most influential among
them being Lao Tzu, the proponent of Taoism, and Confucius, the founder of
Confucianism. Lao Tzu stressed freedom,
simplicity, and the mystical contemplation of nature whereas Confucius
emphasized a code of social conduct and stressed the importance of discipline,
morality, and knowledge.
The Book of Songs, (Shih Ching) first
compiled in the 6th century B.C., is the oldest collection of
Chinese poetry and is considered a model of poetic expression and moral
insight. The poems include court songs
that entertained the aristocracy, story songs that recounted Chou dynasty
legends, hymns that were sung in the temples accompanied by dance and brief
folk songs and ballads. Although these
poems were originally meant to be sung, their melodies have long been lost.
O
Oriole, Yellow Bird
O oriole, yellow bird,/ Do not settle on
the corn,
Do not peck at my millet./ The people of
this land
Are not minded to nurture me./ I must go
back, go home
To my own land and kin.
The
Parables of the Ancient Philosophers illustrate
the Taoist belief and the humanism of the Chinese thought. In them can be seen the relativity of all
things as they pass through man’s judgment, the virtues of flexibility, and the
drawbacks of material progress.
The
Missing Axe by Lieh Tzu
A man whose axe was missing suspected
his neighbor’s son. The boy walked like
a thief, looked like a thief, and spoke like a thief. But the man found his axe while he was
digging in the valley, and the next time he saw his neighbor’s son, the boy
walked, looked, and spoke like any other child.
c) Ch’in Dynasty
(221 B.C. – 207 B.C.). This period saw the unification of China and the
strengthening of central government. Roads connecting all parts of the empire were
built and the existing walls on the northern borders were connected to form the
Great Wall of China.
d) Han Dynasty
(207 B.C. – A.D. 220). This period was
one of the most glorious eras of Chinese history and was marked by the
introduction of Buddhism from India.
e) T’ang Dynasty
(A.D. 618-960). Fine arts and literature
flourished during this era which is viewed as the Golden Age of Chinese
civilization. Among the technological
advances of this time were the invention of gunpowder and the block printing.
The T’ang Poets. Chinese lyrical poetry reached its height
during the T’ang Dynasty. Inspired by
scenes of natural beauty, T’ang poets wrote about the fragile blossoms in
spring, the falling of leaves in autumn, or the changing shape of the moon.
Conversation
in the Mountains by Li Po
If you were to
ask me why I dwell among green mountains,
I should laugh
silently; my soul is serene.
The peach blossom follows the
moving water;
There is another heaven and earth beyond the world of
men.
A Meeting by Tu Fu
We were often separated How
long does youth last?
Like the Dipper and the morning star. Now we are all gray-haired.
What night is tonight? Half of our friends are dead,
We are together in the candlelight. And both of us were surprised
when we met.
f) Sung Dynasty
(A.D. 960 – 1279). This period was
characterized by delicacy and refinement although inferior in terms of literary
arts but great in learning. Professional
poets were replaced by amateur writers.
The practice of Neo-Confucianism grew
g) Later Dynasties
(A.D. 1260-1912). During the late 12th
and early 13th centuries, northern China was overrun by Mongol
invaders led by Genghis Khan whose grandson Kublai Khan completed the Mongol
conquest of China and established the Yuan dynasty, the first foreign dynasty
in China’s history. It was during this
time that Marco Polo visited China.
Chinese rule was reestablished after the Mongols were driven out of
China and the Ming dynasty was established.
There was a growth of drama in colloquial language and a decline of the
language of learning. A second foreign
dynasty, the Ch’ing was established and China prospered as its population
rapidly increased causing major problems for its government.
h) Traditional Chinese Government. The imperial
rule lasted in China for over 2,000 years leading to a pyramid-shaped hierarchy
in the government. The emperor, known as
the Son of Heaven, was a hereditary ruler and beneath him were bureaucratic
officials. An official government career
was considered prestigious and the selection was by means of government
examinations. The civil service
examinations tested on the major Chinese works of philosophy and poetry
requiring the composition for verse.
Most government officials were well-versed in literature and philosophy
and many famous Chinese poets also served in the government.
2.
Philosophy
and Religion. Chinese
literature and all of Chinese culture has been profoundly influenced by three
great schools of thought: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Unlike Western religions, Chinese religions
are based on the perception of life as a process of continual change in which
opposing forces, such as heaven and earth or light and dark, balance one
another. These opposites are symbolized
by the Yin and Yang. Yin, the passive and feminine
force, counterbalances yang, the active and masculine force, each
contains a ‘seed’ of the other, as represented in the traditional yin-yang
symbol.
a) Confucianism provides
the Chinese with both a moral order and an order for the universe. It is not a religion but it makes individuals
aware of their place in the world and the behavior appropriate to it. It also provides a political and social
philosophy.
Confucius
was China’s most famous teacher,
philosopher, and political theorist, whose ideas have influenced all
civilizations of East Asia. According to
tradition, Confucius came from an impoverished family of the lower nobility. He became a minor government bureaucrat but
was never give a position of high office.
He criticized government policies and spent the greater part of his life
educating a group of disciples.
Confucius was not a religious leader in the ordinary sense, for his
teaching was essentially a social ethic.
Confucian politics is hierarchical but not absolute and the political
system is described by analogy with the family.
There are five key Confucian relationships: emperor and subject, father
and son, husband and wife, older brother and younger brother, friend and friend.
Confucian
ethics is humanist. The following are
Confucian tenets: a) jen or human heartedness are qualities or
forms of behavior that set men above the rest of the life on earth. It is the unique goodness of man which
animals cannot aspire to. Also known as ren,
it is the measure of individual character and such, is the goal of
self-cultivation. The ideal individual
results from acting according to li, b) li refers to
ritual, custom, propriety, and manner. Li
is thought to be the means by which life should be regulated. A person of li is a good person and a
state ordered by li is a harmonious and peaceful state. Li or de as a
virtue is best understood as a sacred power inherent in the very presence of
the sage. The sage was the inspiration
for proper conduct and the model of behavior.
The Analects (Lun Yu) is one of the four Confucian texts. The sayings range from brief statements to
more extended dialogues between Confucius and his students. Confucius believes that people should
cultivate the inherent goodness within themselves –unselfishness, courage, and
honor – as an ideal of universal moral and social harmony. The Analects instructs on moderation in all
things through moral education, the building of a harmonious family life, and
the development of virtues such as loyalty, obedience, and a sense of
justice. It also emphasizes filial piety
and concern with social and religious rituals.
To Confucius, a person’s inner virtues can be fully realized only
through concrete acts of ‘ritual propriety’ or proper behavior toward other
human beings.
From
The Analects (II.1)
The Master said, “He who exercises government by means
of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place
and all the stars turn towards it.”
The
Book of Changes (I Ching) is
one of the Five Classics
of Confucian philosophy and has been primarily used for divination. This book is based on the concept of change –
the one constant of the universe.
Although change is never-ending, it too proceeds according to certain
universal and observable patterns.
b) Taoism, was
expounded by Lao Tzu during the Chou Dynasty.
Taoist beliefs and influences are an important part of classical Chinese
culture. “The Tao” or “The Way” means
the natural course that the world follows.
To follow the tao of to “go with the flow” is both wisdom
and happiness. For the Taoist,
unhappiness comes from parting from the tao or from trying to flout it.
The
Taoist political ideas are very passive: the good king does nothing, and by this
everything is done naturally. This idea
presents an interesting foil to Confucian theories of state, although the
Taoists never represented any political threat to the Confucianists. Whereas Confucianism stressed conformity and
reason in solving human problems, Taoism stressed the individual and the need
for human beings to conform to nature rather than to society.
Lao-tzu. Known as the
“old philosopher”, Lao-zi is credited as the founder of Taoism and an elder
contemporary of Confucius who once consulted with him. He was more pessimistic than Confucius was
about what can be accomplished in the world by human action. He counseled a far more passive approach to
the world and one’s fellows: one must be cautious and let things speak for
themselves. He favored a more direct
relationship between the individual self and the dao.
The Tao-Te
Ching (Classic of the Way of Power) is believed to have been written
between the 8th and 3rd centuries B.C. The basic concept of the dao is wu-wei or “non-action” which means no
unnatural action, rather than complete passivity. It implies spontaneity, non-interference,
letting things take their natural course i.e., “Do nothing and everything else
is done.” Chaos ceases, quarrels end,
and self-righteous feuding disappears because the dao is allowed to flow
unchallenged.
Realize the Simple Self
Banish
wisdom, discard knowledge,
And the
people shall profit a hundredfold;
Banish love, discard justice,
And the
people shall recover the love of their kin;
Banish cunning discard utility,
And the
thieves and brigands shall disappear.
As these three touch the externals and are
inadequate;
|
The people have need of what they can depend upon:
Reveal
thy Simple Self,
Embrace
the Original Nature,
Check thy selfishness,
Curtail
thy desires.
|
c) Buddhism was
imported from India during the Han dynasty.
Buddhist thought stresses the importance of ridding oneself of earthly
desires and of seeking ultimate peace and enlightenment through detachment. With its stress on living ethically and its
de-emphasis on material concerns, Buddhism appealed to both Confucians and
Taoists.
3. Genres in
Chinese Poetry has always
been highly valued in Chinese culture and was considered superior to
prose. Chief among its characteristics
are lucidity, brevity, subtlety, suggestiveness or understatement, and its
three-fold appeal to intellect, emotion, and calligraphy. There are five principle genres in Chinese
poetry:
b) shih was the
dominant Chinese poetic form from the 2nd through the 12th
century characterized by: i) an even number of lines; ii) the same number of
words in each line, in most cases five or seven; and iii) the occurrence of
rhymes at the end s of the even-numbered lines.
Shih poems often involve the use of parallelism, or couplets that
are similar in structure or meaning.
c) sao was
inspired by li sao or ‘encountering sorrow’, a poem of
lamentation and protest authored by China’s first known great poet, Chu Yuan
(332-295 B.C.). It was an unusually long
poem consisting of two parts: i) an autobiographical account that is Confucian
in overtones; and ii) a narration of an imaginary journey undertaken by the
persona. The sao enables the
poets to display their creativity of describing China’s flora and fauna, both
real and imaginary. It is also filled
with melancholia for unrewarded virtue
d) fu was a
poem partially expository and partly descriptive involving a single thought or
sentiment usually expressed in a reflective manner. Language ranges from the simple to the
rhetorical.
e) lu-shih or
‘regulation poetry’ was developed during the Tang dynasty but has remained
popular even in the present times. It is
an octave consisting of five or seven syllabic verses with a definite rhyming
scheme with all even lines rhyming together and the presence of the caesura in
every line. The first four lines of this
poem is the ching (scene) while the remaining four lines describe
the ch’ing (emotion).
Thus, emotion evolves from the setting or atmosphere and the two becomes
fused resulting in a highly focused reflection of the persona’s loneliness but
with determination to struggle.
f) chueh-chu or
truncated poetry is a shorter version of the lu-shih and was also
popular during the Tang dynasty. It
contains only four lines but within its twenty or twenty-eight syllables or
characters were vivid pictures of natural beauty.
g) tzu was
identified with the Sung dynasty. It is
not governed by a fixed number of verses nor a fixed number of characters per
verse. The tzu lyrics were
sung to the tunes of popular melodies.
4. Conventions of Chinese Theater. Chinese drama may be traced to the song and
dances of the chi (wizards) and the wu (witches)
whom the people consulted to exercise evil spirits, to bring rain, to insure
bountiful harvest, etc., an origin in worship or in some sacred ritual.
a) There are four principal roles: sheng,
tau, ching, and chao.
· The sheng is the prerogative of the
leading actor, usually a male character, a scholar, a statesman, a warrior
patriot and the like.
· The tau plays all the women’s
roles. At least six principal characters
are played by the female impersonator who has taken over the role after women
were banned from the Chinese stage as they were looked down upon as courtesen.
· The ching roles usually assigned the
roles of brave warriors, bandits, crafty and evil ministers, upright judges,
loyal statesmen, at times god-like and supernatural beings. Conventionally, the ching must have broad
faces and forehead suitable for the make-up patters suggestive of his behavior.
· The chau is the clown or jester who is
not necessarily a fool and may also do serious or evil character. He is easily recognized for the white patch
around his eyes and nose, his use of colloquial language and adeptness in combining
mimicry and acrobatics.
b)
Unlike Greek
plays, classical Chinese plays do not follow the unities of time, place, and
action. The plot may be set in two or
more places, the time element sometimes taking years to develop or end, and
action containing many other sub-plots.
c)
Chinese drama
conveys an ethical lesson in the guise of art in order to impress a moral truth
or a Confucian tenet. Dramas uphold
virtue, condemn vice, praise fidelity, and filial piety. Vice is represented on the stage not for its
own sake but as contrast to virtue.
d)
There are two
types of speeches – the dialogue, usually in prose, and the monologues. While the dialogue carries forward the action
of the day, the monologue is the means for each character to introduce
him/herself at the beginning of the first scene of every scene as well as to
outline the plot.
e)
Chinese plays are
long – six or seven hours if performed completely. The average length is about four acts with a
prologue and an epilogue. The Chinese
play is a total theater. There is
singing, recitation of verses, acrobats, dancing, and playing of traditional
musical instruments.
f)
Music is an
integral part of the classical drama. It
has recitatives, arias, and musical accompaniment. Chinese music is based on movement and rhythm
that harmonized perfectly with the sentiments being conveyed by a character.
g)
The poetic
dialogue, hsieh tzu (wedge), is placed at the beginning or in
between acts and is an integral part of the play.
The stage is bare of props except a table and a pair of
chairs may be converted to
a battlefield or a court scene, a bedroom, even a
prison through vivid acting and poetry.
Property conventions are rich in symbolism table with
a chair at the side, both placed at
the side of the stage, represents a hill or a high
wall.
h)
Dramatic
conventions that serve to identify the nature and function of each character.
Make-up identifies the characters and personalities. Costumes help reveal types and
different colors signify ranks and status.
i)
Action reflects
highly stylized movements. Hand
movements may indicate embarrassment or helplessness or anguish or anger.
5. Major Chinese Writers.
· Chuang Tzu (4th century B.C.) was the most
important early interpreter of the
philosophy of Taoism. Very little is
known about his life except that he served as a minor court official. In his stories, he appears as a quirky
character who cares little for either public approval or material possessions.
· Lieh Tzu (4th
century B.C.) was a Taoist teacher who had many philosophical differences with
his forebears Lao-Tzu and Chuan Tzu. He
argued that a sequence of causes predetermines everything that happens,
including one’s choice of action.
· Lui An (172
– 122 B.C.) was not only a Taoist scholar but the grandson of the founder of
the founder of the Han dynasty. His
royal title was the Prince of Haui-nan.
Together with philosophers and under his patronage, he produced a
collection of essays on metaphysics, cosmology, politics, and conduct.
· Ssu-ma Ch’ien
(145 – 90 B.C.) was the greatest of China’s ‘Grand Historians’ who dedicated
himself to completing the first history of China the Records of the
Historian. His work covers
almost three thousand years of Chinese history in more than half a million
written characters etched onto bamboo tablets.
The T’ang Poets:
- Li Po (701
–762) was Wang Wei’s contemporary and he spent a short time in courts, but
seems to have bee too much of a romantic and too give to drink to carry
out responsibilities. He was a
Taoist, drawing sustenance from nature and his poetry was often
other-wordly and ecstatic. He had
no great regard for his poems himself.
He is said to have mad thousands of them into paper boats which he
sailed along streams.
- Tu Fu
(712 –770) is the Confucian moralist, realist, and humanitarian. He was public-spirited, and his poetry
helped chronicle the history of the age: the deterioration
- Wang Wei
(796? – 761?) was an 8th century government official who spent
the later years of his life in the country, reading and discussing
Buddhism with scholars and monks. He is known for the pictorial quality of
his poetry and for its economy. His
word-pictures parallel Chinese brush artistry in which a few strokes are
all suggestive of authority, the disasters of war, and official
extravagance.
·
Po Chu-I (772 – 846) was born two years after Tu Fu died, at a
time when China was still in turmoil from foreign invasion and internal
strife. He wrote many poems speaking
bitterly against the social and economic problems that were plaguing China.
·
Li Ch’ing-chao (A.D. 1084 – 1151) is regarded as China’s greatest
woman poet and was also one of the most liberated women of her day. She was brought up in court society and was
trained in the arts and classical literature quite an unusual upbringing for a
woman of the Sung dynasty. Many of her
poems composed in the tz’u form celebrate her happy marriage or
express her loneliness when her husband was away.
·
Chou-Shu-jen (1881 – 1936) has been called the ‘father of the
modern Chinese short story because of his introduction of Western techniques. He is also known as Lu Hsun whose
stories deal with themes of social concern, the problems of the poor, women,
and intellectuals.
B.
JAPAN
1. Historical Background. Early Japan borrowed much from Chinese culture but
evolved its own character over time. Early
Japan’s political structure was based on clan, or family. Each clan developed a hierarchy of classes
with aristocrats, warriors, and priests at the top and peasants and workers at
the bottom. During the 4th
century A.D. the Yamato grew to be most powerful and imposed the Chinese
imperial system on Japan creating an emperor, an imperial bureaucracy, and a
grand capital city.
a) The Heian Age was the period of peace and
prosperity, of aesthetic refinement and artificial manners. The emperor began to diminish in power but
continued to be a respected figure.
Since the Japanese court had few official responsibilities, they were
able to turn their attention to art, music, and literature.
The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon, represents a unique form of the
diary genre. It contains vivid sketches
of people and place, shy anecdotes and witticisms, snatches of poetry, and 164
lists on court life during the Heian period.
Primarily intended to be a private journal, it was discovered and
eventually printed. Shōnagon served as a
lady-in-waiting to the Empress Sadako in the late 10th century.
From
Hateful Things
One is in a hurry to leave, but one’s
visitor keeps chattering away. If it is
someone of no importance, one can get rid of him by saying, “You must tell me
all about it next time”; but, should it be the sort of visitor whose presence
commands one’s best behavior, the situation is hateful indeed.
b) The Feudal Era was dominated by the samurai
class which included the militaristic lords, the daimyo and the
band of warriors, the samurai who adhered to a strict code of
conduct the emphasized bravery, loyalty, and honor. In 1192 Yorimoto became the shogun
or chief general one of a series of shoguns who ruled Japan for
over 500 years.
c) The Tokugawa Shogonate in the late 1500s
crushed the warring feudal lords and controlled all of Japan from a new capital
at Edo, now Tokyo. By 1630 and for two
centuries, Japan was a closed society: all foreigners were expelled, Japanese
Christians were persecuted, and foreign travel was forbidden under penalty of
death. The shogonate was ended in 1868
when Japan began to trade with the Western powers. Under a more powerful emperor, Japan rapidly
acquired the latest technological knowledge, introduced universal education,
and created an impressive industrial economy.
2. Religious Traditions. Two major faiths were essential elements in
the cultural foundations of Japanese society.
a) Shintoism or
‘ the way of the gods,’ is the ancient religion that reveres in dwelling divine
spirits called kami, found in natural places and objects. For this reason natural scenes, such as
waterfall, a gnarled tree, or a full moon, inspired reverence in the Japanese
people.
The
Shinto legends have been accepted as
historical fact although in postwar times they were once again regarded as
myths. These legends from the Records of Ancient Matters, or Kokiji, A.D. 712, and the Chronicles of Japan, or Nihongi, A.D. 720 form the earliest
writings of ancient Japan. Both
collections have been considerably influenced by Chinese thought.
b) Zen Buddhism
emphasized the importance of meditation, concentration, and self-discipline as
the way to enlightenment. Zen rejects
the notion that salvation is attained outside of this life and this world. Instead, Zen disciples believe that one can
attain personal tranquility and insights into the true meaning of life through
rigorous phusical and mental discipline.
3. Socio-political concepts. Japan has integrated Confucian ethics and
Buddhist morality which India implanted in China. The concepts of giri and on
explain why the average Japanese is patriotic, sometimes ultra-nationalistic,
law-abiding. Even seppuku
or ritual disembowelment exemplify to what extent these two socio-political
concepts could be morally followed.
a) Giri
connotes duty, justice, honor, face, decency, respectability, courtesy,
charity, humanity, love, gratitude, claim.
Its sanctions are found in mores, customs, folkways. For example, in feudal Japan ‘loss of face’
is saved by suicide or vendetta, if not renouncing the world in the monastery.
b) On
suggests a sense of obligation or indebtedness which propels a Japanese to act,
as it binds the person perpetually to other individuals to the group, to
parents, teachers, superiors, and the emperor.
4. Poetry is
one of the oldest and most popular means of expression and communication in the
Japanese culture. It was an integral
part of daily life in ancient Japanese society, serving as a means through
which anyone could chronicle experiences and express emotions
a) The Manyoshu or ‘Book of Ten Thousand Leaves is
an anthology by poets from a wide range of social classes, including the
peasantry, the clergy, and the ruling class.
b) There are different poems according to set forms or
structures:
· choka are poems that consist of alternate lines of
five and seven syllables with an additional seven-syllable line at the
end. There is no limit to the number of
lines which end with envoys, or pithy summations. These envoys consist of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables
that elaborate on or summarize the theme or central idea of the main poem.
· tanka is the
most prevalent verse form in traditional Japanese literature. It consists of five lines of 5-7-5-7-7
syllables including at least one caesura, or pause. Used as a means of communication in ancient
Japanese society, the tanka often tell a brief story or express a
single thought or insight and the common subjects are love and nature.
Every
Single Thing
(by Priest Saigyo)
Every single thing
Changes and is changing
Always in this world.
Yet with the same light
The moon goes on shining.
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How
Helpless My Heart!
(by Ono Komachi)
How helpless my heart!
Were the stream to tempt,
My body, like a reed
Severed at the roots,
Would drift along, I think.
|
· renga is a
chain of interlocking tanka. Each tanka
within a renga was divided into verses of 17 and 14 syllables
composed by different poets as it was fashionable for groups of poets to work
together during the age of Japanese feudalism.
· hokku was
the opening verse of a renga which developed into a distinct literary form
known as the haiku. The haiku
consist of 3 lines of 5-7-5 syllable characterized by precision, simplicity,
and suggestiveness. Almost all haiku
include a kigo or seasonal words such as snow or cherry blossoms
that indicates the time of year being described.
Buson
Blossoms on the pear;
and a woman in the moonlight
reads a letter there…
|
Sokan
If to the moon
one puts a handle – what
a splendid fan!
|
Onitsura
Even stones in streams
of mountain water compose
songs to
wild cherries.
|
5. Prose
appeared in the early part of the 8th century focusing on Japanese
history. During the Heian Age, the
members of the Imperial court, having few administrative or political duties,
kept lengthy diaries and experimented with writing fiction.
· The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, a work of tremendous length and
complexity, is considered to be the world’s first true novel. It traces the life of a gifted and charming
prince. Lady Murasaki was an
extraordinary woman far more educated than most upper-class men of her
generation. She was appointed to serve
in the royal court of the emperor.
· The Tale of Haike written by an anonymous author during the 13th century was
the most famous early Japanese novel. It
presents a striking portrait of war-torn Japan during the early stages of the
age of feudalism.
· Essays in Idleness by Yoshida Kenko was written during the age of feudalism. It is a loosely organized collection of
insights, reflections, and observations, written during the 14th
century. Kenko was born into a
high-ranking Shinto family and became a Buddhist priest.
Excerpt from Essays in Idleness:
In all things it is Beginning and End
that are interesting. The love of men
and women – is it only when they meet face to face? To feel sorrow at an unaccomplished meeting,
to grieve over empty vows, to spend the long night sleepless and alone, to
yearn for distant skies, in a neglected house to think fondly of the past –
this is what love is.
· In the Grove
by Ryunusuke Akutagawa is the
author’s most famous story made into the film Rashomon. The story asks these questions: What is the
truth? Who tells the truth? How is the truth falsified? Six narrators tell their own testimonies
about the death of a husband and the violation of his wife in the woods. The narrators include a woodcutter, a monk,
an old woman, the mother-in-law of the slain man, the wife, and finally, the dead
man whose story is spoken through the mouth of a shamaness. Akutagawa’s ability to blend a feudal setting
with deep psychological insights gives this story an ageless quality.
An Excerpt: “The Story Of The Murdered Man As Told
Through A Medium”
After violating my wife, the robber,
sitting there, began to speak comforting words to her. Of course I couldn’t speak. My whole body was tied fast to the root of a
cedar. But meanwhile I winked at her
many times, as much as to say, “Don’t believe the robber.” I wanted to convey some such meaning to her.
But my wife, sitting dejectedly on the bamboo leaves, was looking hard at her
lap. To all appearances, she was
listening to his words. I was agonized
by jealousy.”
6. Drama.
a) Nō plays
emerged during the 14th century as the earliest form of Japanese
drama. The plays are performed on an
almost bare stage by a small but elaborately costumed cast of actors wearing
masks. The actors are accompanied by a
chorus and the plays are written either in verse or in highly poetic
prose. The dramas reflect many Shinto
and Buddhist beliefs, along with a number of dominant Japanese artistic
preferences. The Nō performers’ subtle
expressions of inner strength, along with the beauty of the costumes, the
eloquence of the dancing, the mesmerizing quality of the singing, and the
mystical, almost supernatural, atmosphere of the performances, has enabled the
Nō theater to retain its popularity.
Atsumori by Seami Motokiyo is drawn from an episode of The
Tale of the Heike, a medieval Japanese epic based on historical fact
that tells the story of the rise and fall of the Taira family, otherwise known
as the Heike. The play takes place by
the sea of Ichi no tani. A priest named
Rensei, who was once a warrior with the Genji clan, has decided to return to
the scene of the battle to pray for a sixteen-year-old named Atsumori, whom he
killed on the beach during the battle.
Rensei had taken pity on Atsumori and had almost refrained from killing
him. He realized though that if he did
not kill the boy, his fellow warriors would.
He explained to Atsumori that he must kill him, and promised to pray for
his soul. On his return, he meets two
peasants who are returning home from their fields and Rensai makes an
astonishing discovery about one of them.
An
Excerpt from Atsumori
Chorus:
[ATSUMORI rises from the ground and advances toward the Priest with
uplifted sword.]
“There
is my enemy,” he cries, and would strike,
But the other
is grown gentle
And calling on
Buddha’s name
Has obtained
salvation for his foe;
So that they
shall be reborn together
On one lotus
seat.
“No, Rensai
is not my enemy.
Pray for me
again, oh pray for me again.”
b) Kabuki
involves lively, melodramatic acting and is staged using elaborate and colorful
costumes and sets. It is performed with
the accompaniment of an orchestra and generally focus on the lives of common
people rather than aristocrats.
c) Jorori (now
called Bunraku) is staged using
puppets and was a great influence on the development of the Kabuki.
d) Kyogen is a
farce traditionally performed between the Nō tragedies.
7. Novels and Short Stories.
· Snow Country
by Kawabata tells of love denied by a Tokyo dilettante, Shimamura, to
Komako, a geisha who feels ‘used’ much as she wants to think and feel that she
is drawn sincerely, purely to a man of the world. She has befriended Yoko to whom Shimamura is
equally and passionately drawn because of her virginity, her naivete, as he is
to Komako who loses it, after her affair with him earlier. In the end, Yoko dies in the cocoon-warehouse
in a fire notwithstanding Komako’s attempt to rescue her. Komako embraces the virgin Yoko in her arms
while Shimamura senses the Milky Way ‘flowing down inside him with a
roar.’ Kawabata makes use of contrasting
thematic symbols in the title: death and purification amidst physical decay and
corruption.
· The House of Sleeping Beauties by Kawabata tells of the escapades of a dirty
old man, Eguchi, to a resort near the sea where young women are given drugs before
they are made to sleep sky-clad. Decorum
rules it that these sleeping beauties should not be touched, lest the customers
be driven away by the management. The
book lets the reader bare the deeper recesses of the septuagenarian’s
mind. Ironically, this old man who
senses beauty and youth is incapable of expressing, much less having it. Thus, the themes of old age and loneliness
and coping become inseparable.
· The Makioka Sisters by Tanizaki is the story of four sisters whose chief concern is
finding a suitable husband for the third sister, Yukiko, a woman of traditional
beliefs who has rejected several suitors.
Until Yukiko marries, Taeko, the youngest, most independent, and most
Westernized of the sisters, must remain unmarried. More important than the plot, the novel tells
of middle-class daily life in prewar Osaka.
It also delves into such topics as the intrusion of modernity and its
effect on the psyche of the contemporary Japanese, the place of kinship in the
daily life of the people, and the passage of the old order and the coming of
the new.
· The Sea of Fertility by Mishima is the four-part epic including Spring Snow,
Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, and The Decay of the Angel. The novels are set in Japan from about 1912
to the 1960s. Each of them depicts a
different reincarnation of the same being: as a young aristocrat in 1912, as a
political fanatic in the 1930s, as a Thai princess before the end of WWII, and
as an evil young orphan in the 1960s. Taken
together the novels are a clear indication of Mishima’s increasing obsession
with blood, death, and suicide, his interest in self-destructive personalities,
and his rejection of the sterility of modern life.
· The Setting Sun
by Ozamu is a tragic, vividly painted story of life in postwar Japan. The narrator is Kazuko, a young woman born to
gentility but now impoverished. Though
she wears Western clothes, her outlook is Japanese; her life is static, and she
recognizes that she is spiritually empty.
In the course of the novel, she survives the deaths of her aristocratic
mother and her sensitive, drug-addicted brother Naoji, an intellectual ravage
by his own and society’s spiritual failures.
She also spends a sad, sordid night with the writer Uehara, and she
conceives a child in the hope that it will be the first step in a moral
revolution
· In the Grove
by Akutagawa is the author’s most famous story made into the film
Rashomon. The story asks these
questions: What is the truth? Who tells
the truth? How is the truth
falsified? Six narrators tell their own
testimonies about the death of a husband and the violation of his wife in the
woods. The narrators include a
woodcutter, a monk, an old woman, the mother-in-law of the slain man, the wife,
and finally, the dead man whose story is spoken through the mouth of a
shamaness. Akutagawa’s ability to blend
a feudal setting with deep psychological insights gives this story an ageless
quality.
· The Wild Geese
by Oagi is a melodramatic novel set in Tokyo at the threshold of the 20th
century. The novel explores the blighted
life of Otama, daughter of a cake vendor.
Because of extreme poverty, she becomes the mistress of a policeman, and
later on of a money-lender, Shazo. In her
desire to rise from the pitfall of shame and deprivation, she tries to befriend
Okada, a medical student who she greets every day by the window as he passes by
on his way to the campus. She is
disillusioned however, as Okada, in the end, prepares for further medical
studies in Germany. Ogai’s novel follows
the traditio of the watakushi-shosetsu or the confessional I-
novel where the storyteller is the main character.
· The Buddha Tree
by Fumio alludes to the awakening of Buddha under the bo
tree when he gets enlightened after fasting 40 days and nights. Similarly, the hero of the novel, Soshu,
attains self-illumination after freeing himself from the way of all flesh. The author was inspired by personal tragedies
that befell their family and this novel makes him transcend his personal agony
into artistic achievement.
8. Major Writers.
· Seami Motokiyo had
acting in his blood for his father Kanami, a priest, was one of the finest
performers of his day. At age 20 not
long after his father’s death, he took over his father’s acting school and
began to write plays. Some say he became
a Zen priest late in life; others say he had two sons, both of them
actors. According to legend, he died
alone at the age of 81 in a Buddhist temple near Kyoto.
· The Haiku Poets
-
Matsuo Bashō (1644 – 1694) is regarded as the greatest haiku
poet. He was born into a samurai family
and began writing poetry at an early age.
After becoming a Zen Buddhist, he moved into an isolated hut on the
outskirts of Edo (Tokyo) where he lived the life of a hermit, supporting
himself by teaching and judging poetry. Bashō
means ‘banana plant,’ a gift given him to which he became deeply
attached. Over time his hut became known
as the Bashō Hut until he assumed the
name.
-
Yosa Buson (1716 – 1783) is regarded as the second-greatest
haiku poet. He lived in Kyoto throughout
most of his life and was one of the finest painters of his time. Buson presents a romantic view of the
Japanese landscape, vividly capturing the wonder and mystery of nature.
-
Kobayashi Issa (1763 –1827) is ranked with Bashō and Buson although
his talent was not widely recognized until after his death. Issa’s poems capture the essence of daily
life in Japan and convey his compassion for the less fortunate.
- Yasunari Kawabata (1899 – 1972) won the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1968. The sense of loneliness
and preoccupation with death that permeates much of his mature writing
possibly derives from the loneliness of his childhood having been orphaned
early. Three of his best novels are: Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, and Sound of the Mountains. He committed suicide shortly after the
suicide of his friend Mishima.
- Junichiro Tanizaki (1886 –1965) is a major novelist whose writing
is characterized by eroticism and ironic wit. His earliest stories were like those of
Edgar Allan Poe’s but he later turned toward the exploration of more
traditional Japanese ideals of beauty.
Among his works are Some Prefer Nettles, The Makioka Sisters,
Diary of a Mad Old Man.
- Yukio Mishima (1925 – 1970) is the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka, a prolific
writer who is regarded by many writers as the most important Japanese
novelist of the 20th century.
His highly acclaimed first novel, Confessions of a Mask
is partly autobiographical work that describes with stylistic brilliance a
homosexual who must mask his sexual orientation. Many of his novels have main characters
who, for physical or psychological reasons, are unable to find
happiness. Deeply attracted to the
austere patriotism and marital spirit of Japan’s past, Mishima was
contemptuous of the materialistic Westernized society of Japan in the
postwar era. Mishima committed seppuku
(ritual disembowelment).
- Dazai Ozamu (1909 – 1948) just like Mishima, and Kawabata committed suicide,
not unusual, but so traditional among Japanese intellectuals. It is believed that Ozamu had psychological
conflicts arising from his inability to draw a red line between his
Japaneseness clashing with his embracing the Catholic faith, if not the
demands of creativity. The
Setting Sun is one of his works.
- Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892 – 1927) is a prolific writer of stories,
plays, and poetry, noted for his stylistic virtuosity. He is one of the most widely translated
of all Japanese writers, and a number of his stories have been made into
films. Many of his short stories
are Japanese tales retold in the light of modern psychology in a highly
individual style of feverish intensity that is well-suited to their
macabre themes. Among his works are
Rashomon, and Kappa. He also committed
suicide.
·
Oe Kenzaburo (1935 -) a novelist whose rough prose style, at time
nearly violating the natural rhythms of the Japanese language, epitomizes the
rebellion of the post-WWII generation which he writes. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1994. Among his works are: Lavish
are the Dead, The Catch, Our Generation, A Personal Matter, The Silent Cry, and Awake, New Man!.
C.
AFRICA
1. The Rise of Africa’s Great Civilization. Between 751 and
664 B.C. the kingdom of Kush at the southern end of the Nile River gained
strength and prominence succeeding the New Kingdom of Egyptian
civilization. Smaller civilizations
around the edges of the Sahara also existed among them the Fasa of the northern
Sudan, whose deeds are recalled by the Soninka oral epic, The Daust.
- Aksum (3rd century A.D.), a rich
kingdom in eastern Africa arose in what is now Ethiopia. It served as the center of a trade route
and developed its own writing system.
The Kingdom of Old Ghana (A.D. 300) the first of great
civilizations in western Africa succeeded by the empires of Old Mali and
Songhai. The legendary city of
Timbuktu was a center of trade and culture in both the Mali and Songhai
empires. New cultures sprang up
throughout the South: Luba and Malawi empires in central Africa, the two
Congo kingdoms, the Swahili culture of eastern Africa, the kingdom of Old
Zimbabwe, and the Zulu nation near the southern tip of the cotinent.
·
Africa’s
Golden Age (between A.D. 300 and A.D.
1600) marked the time when sculpture, music, metalwork, textiles, and oral
literature flourished.
·
Foreign
influences came in the 4th century.
The Roman Empire had proclaimed Christianity as its state religion and
taken control of the entire northern coast of Africa including Egypt. Around 700 A.D. Islam, the religion of
Mohammed, was introduced into Africa as well as the Arabic writing system. Old Mali, Somali and other eastern African
nations were largely Muslim.
Christianity and colonialism came to sub-Saharan Africa towards the
close of Africa’s Golden Age. European
powers created colonized countries in the late 1800s. Social and political chaos reigned as
traditional African nations were either split apart by European colonizers or
joined with incompatible neighbors.
·
Mid-1900s marked
the independence and rebirth of traditional cultures written in African
languages.
2. Literary Forms.
a) Orature is
the tradition of African oral literature which includes praise poems, love
poems, tales, ritual dramas, and moral instructions in the form of proverbs and
fables. It also includes epics and
poems and narratives.
b) Griots, the
keepers of oral literature in West Africa, may be a professional storyteller,
singer, or entertainer and were skilled at creating and transmitting the many
forms of African oral literature. Bards,
storytellers, town criers, and oral historians also preserved and continued the
oral tradition.
c) Features of African oral literature:
· repetition and parallel structure – served foremost as memory aids for griots and other
storytellers. Repetition also creates
rhythm, builds suspense, and adds emphasis to parts of the poem or
narrative. Repeated lines or refrains
often mark places where an audience can join in the oral performance.
· repeat-and-vary technique – in which lines or phrases are repeated with slight
variations, sometimes by changing a single word.
· tonal assonance
– the tones in which syllables are spoken determine the meanings of words like
many Asian languages.
· call-and-response format - includes
spirited audience participation in which the leader calls out a line or phrase
and the audience responds with an answering line or phrase becoming performers
themselves.
d) Lyric Poems
do not tell a story but instead, like songs, create a vivid, expressive
testament to a speaker’s thoughts or emotional state. Love lyrics were an influence of the New
Kingdom and were written to be sung with the accompaniment of a harp or a set
of reed pipes.
The Sorrow of Kodio by Baule Tribe
We were three women
Three men
And myself, Kodio Ango.
We were on our way to work in the city.
And I lost my wife Nanama on the way.
I alone have lost my wife
To me alone, such misery has happened,
To me alone, Kodio, the most handsome of
the three men,
Such misery has happened.
In vain I call for my wife,
She died on the way like a chicken
running.
How shall I tell her mother?
How shall I tell it to her, I Kodio,
When it is so hard to hold back my own
pain.
|
e) Hymns of Praise Songs were offered to the sun god Aten. The Great Hymn to Aten is the
longest of several New Kingdom hymns.
This hymn was found on the wall of a tomb built for a royal scribe named
Ay and his wife. In was intended to
assure their safety in the afterlife.
f) African Proverbs are much more than quaint old sayings.
Instead, they represent a poetic form that uses few words but achieves
great depth of meaning and they function as the essence of people’s values and
knowledge.
· They are used to settle legal disputes, resolve
ethical problems, and teach children the philosophy of their people.
· Often contain puns, rhymes, and clever allusions, they
also provide entertainment.
· Mark power and eloquence of speakers in the community
who know and use them. Their ability to
apply the proverbs to appropriate situations demonstrates an understanding of
social and political realities.
Kenya. Gutire muthenya ukiaga ta ungi. (No day dawns
like another.)
South Africa. Akundlovu yasindwa umboko wayo.
(No elephant ever found its
trunk too heavy.)
Kikuyu. Mbaara ti ucuru. (War is not porridge.)
g) Dilemma or Enigma Tale is an important kind of African moral tale intended
for listeners to discuss and debate. It
is an open-ended story that concludes with a question the asks the audience to
choose form among several alternatives.
By encouraging animated discussion, a dilemma tale invites its audience
to think about right and wrong behavior and how to best live within society.
h) Ashanti Tale
comes from Ashanti, whose traditional homeland is the dense and hilly forest
beyond the city of Kumasi in south-central Ghana which was colonized by the
British in the mid-19th century.
But the Ashanti, protected in their geographical stronghold, were able
to maintain their ancient culture. The
tale exemplifies common occupations of the Ashanti such as farming, fishing,
and weaving. It combines such realistic
elements with fantasy elements like talking objects and animals.
i)
Folk Tales have been handed down in the oral tradition from
ancient times. The stories represent a
wide and colorful variety that embodies the African people’s most cherished
religious and social beliefs. The tales
are used to entertain, to teach, and to explain. Nature and the close bond that Africans share
with the natural world are emphasized.
The mystical importance of the forest, sometimes called the bush, is
often featured.
j)
Origin stories include creation stories and stories
explaining the origin of death.
k) Trickster Tale
is an enormously popular type. The best
known African trickster figure is Anansi the Spider, both the hero and villain
from the West African origin to the Caribbean and other parts of the Western
Hemisphere as a result of the slave trade.
l)
Moral Stories attempt to teach a lesson.
m) Humorous Stories is primarily intended to amuse.
“Talk”
The chief listened to them patiently, but he couldn’t refrain from
scowling.
“Now, this is really a wild story,” he said at last. “You’d better all go back to your work before
I punish you for disturbing the peace.”
So the men went away, and the chief shook his head and
mumbled to himself, “Nonsense like that upsets the community”
“Fantastic, isn’t it?” his stool said, “Imagine, a
talking yam!”
n) Epics of
vanished heroes – partly human, partly superhuman, who embody the highest
values of a society – carry with them a culture’s history, values, and
traditions. The African literary
traditions boasts of several oral epics.
· The Dausi
from the Soninke
· Monzon and the King of Kore from the Bambara of western Africa
· The epic of Askia the Great, medieval ruler of
the Songhai empire in western Africa
· The epic of the Zulu Empire of southern Africa
· Sundiata
from the Mandingo peoples of West Africa is the best-preserved and the
best-known African epic which is a blend of fact and legend. Sundiata Keita, the story’s hero really
existed as a powerful leader who in 1235 defeated the Sosso nation of western
Africa and reestablished the Mandingo Empire of Old Mali. Supernatural powers are attributed to
Sundiata and he is involved in a mighty conflict between good and evil. It was first recorded in Guinea in the 1950s
and was told by the griot Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate.
3. Negritude,
which means literally ‘blackness,’ is the literary movement of the
1930s – 1950s that began among French-speaking African and Caribbean writers
living in Paris as a protest against French colonial rule and the policy of
assimilation. Its leading figure was
Leopold Sedar Senghor (1st president of the Republic of Senegal in
1960) , who along with Aime Cesaire from Martinique and Leo Damas from French
Guina, began to examine Western values critically and to reassess African
culture. The movement largely faded in
the early 1960s when its political and cultural objectives had been achieved in
most African countries. The basic ideas
behind Negritude include:
· Africans must look to their own cultural heritage to
determine the values and traditions that are most useful in the modern world.
· Committed writers should use African subject matter
and poetic traditions and should excite a desire for political freedom.
· Negritude itself encompasses the whole of African
cultural, economic, social, and political values.
· The value and dignity of African traditions and
peoples must be asserted.
4. African Poetry is more eloquent in its expression of Negritude since it is the poets
who first articulated their thoughts and feelings about the inhumanity suffered
by their own people.
· Paris in the Snow swings between assimilation of French, European culture or negritude,
intensified by the poet’s catholic piety.
· Totem by Leopold
Senghor shows the eternal linkage of the living with the dead.
· Letters to Martha by Dennis Brutus is the poet’s most famous collection that
speaks of the humiliation, the despondency, the indignity of prison life.
· Train Journey
by Dennis Brutus reflects the poet’s social commitment, as he reacts to
the poverty around him amidst material progress especially and acutely felt by
the innocent victims, the children
· Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka is the poet’s most
anthologized poem that reflects Negritude.
It is a satirical poem between a Black man seeking the landlady’s
permission to accommodate him in her lodging house. The poetic dialogue reveals the landlady’s
deep-rooted prejudice against the colored people as the caller plays up on it.
Excerpt
from Telephone Conversation
The price seemed reasonable, location
indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
off premises.
Nothing remained
but self-confession. “Madam,” I warned,
5“I hate a
wasted journey – I am African.”
Silence.
Silenced transmission of
pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was foully.
10“HOW DARK?” …
I had not misheard … “ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?” Button B.
Button A. Stench
of rancid breath of public
hide-and-speak.
· Africa by David
Diop is a poem that achieves its impact by a series of climactic sentences
and rhetorical questions
Africa
Africa, my Africa
Africa of proud warriors
on ancestral savannahs
Africa that my grandmother
sings
On the bank of her distant
river
I have never known you
But my face is full of
your blood
Your beautiful black blood
which waters
the wide fields
The blood of your sweat
The sweat of your work
The work of your slavery
The slavery of your
children
Africa tell me Africa
Is this really you this
back which is bent
And breaks under the load
of insult
|
This back trembling with
red weals Which says yes to the whip on the hot
roads of noon
Then gravely a voice
replies to me
Impetuous son that tree
robust and
young
That tree over there
Splendidly alone amidst
white and faded
flowers
That is Africa your Africa
which grows Grows patiently obstinately
And whose fruit little by
little learn
The bitter taste of
liberty.
|
· Song of Lawino
by Okot P’Bitek is a sequence of poems about the clash between African
and Western values and is regarded as the first important poem in “English to
emerge from Eastern Africa. Lawino’s
song is a plea for the Ugandans to look back to traditional village life and
recapture African values.
5. Novels.
· The Houseboy
by Ferdinand Oyono points out the disillusionment of Toundi, a boy who
leaves his parents maltreatment to enlist his services as an acolyte to a
foreign missionary. After the priest’s
death, he becomes a helper of a white plantation owner, discovers the liaison
of his master’s wife, and gets murdered later in the woods as they catch up
with him. Toundi symbolizes the
disenchantment, the coming of age, and utter despondency of the Camerooninans
over the corruption and immortality of the whites. The novel is developed in the form of a recit,
the French style of a diary-like confessional work.
· Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe depict a vivid picture of Africa before the
colonization by the British. The title
is an epigraph from Yeats’ The Second Coming: ‘things fall apart/
the center cannot hold/ mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.’ The novel laments over the disintegration of
Nigerian society, represented in the story by Okwonko, once a respected
chieftain who looses his leadership and falls from grace after the coming of
the whites. Cultural values are woven
around the plot to mark its authenticity: polygamy since the character is
Muslim; tribal law is held supreme by the gwugwu, respected
elders in the community; a man’s social status is determined by the people’s
esteem and by possession of fields of yams and physical prowess; community life
is shown in drinking sprees, funeral wakes, and sports festivals.
· No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe is a sequel to Things Fall Apart
and the title of which is alluded to Eliot’s The Journey of the Magi:
‘We returned to our places, these kingdoms,/ But no longer at
ease here, in the old dispensation.’
The returning hero fails to cope with disgrace and social pressure. Okwonko’s son has to live up to the
expectations of the Umuofians, after winning a scholarship in London, where he
reads literature, not law as is expected of him, he has to dress up, he must
have a car, he has to maintain his social standing, and he should not marry an Ozu,
an outcast. In the end, the tragic hero
succumgs to temptation, he, too receives bribes, and therefore is ‘no longer at
ease.’
· The Poor Christ of Bombay by Mongo Beti begins en medias res
and exposes the inhumanity of colonialism.
The novel tells of Fr. Drumont’s disillusionment after the discovery of
the degradation of the native women, betrothed, but forced to work like slaves
in the sixa. The
government steps into the picture as syphilis spreads out in the priest’s
compound. It turns out that the native
whose weakness is wine, women, and song has been made overseer of the sixa
when the Belgian priest goes out to attend to his other mission work. Developed through recite or
diary entries, the novel is a satire on the failure of religion to integrate to
national psychology without first understanding the natives’ culture.
· The River Between by James Ngugi show the clash of traditional values and
contemporary ethics and mores. The Honia
River is symbolically taken as a metaphor of tribal and Christian unity – the
Makuyu tribe conducts Christian rites while the Kamenos hold circumcision
rituals. Muthoni, the heroine, although
a new-born Christian, desires the pagan ritual.
She dies in the end but Waiyaki, the teacher, does not teach vengeance
against Joshua, the leader of the Kamenos, but unity with them. Ngugi poses co-existence of religion with
people’s lifestyle at the same time stressing the influence of education to
enlighten people about their socio-political responsibilities.
· Heirs to the Past by Driss Chraili is an allegorical, parable-like novel. After 16 years of absence, the anti-hero
Driss Ferdi returns to Morocco for his father’s funeral. The Signeur leaves his legacy via a tape
recorder in which he tells the family members his last will and testament. Each chapter in the novel reveals his
relationship with them, and at the same time lays bare the psychology of these
people. His older brother Jaad who was
‘born once and had ided several times’ because of his childishness and
irresponsibility. His idiotic brother,
Nagib, has become a total burden to the family.
His mother feels betrayed, after doin her roles as wife and mother for
30 years, as she yearns for her freedom.
Driss flies back to Europe completely alienated fro his people,
religion, and civilization.
· A Few Days and Few Nights by Mbella Sonne Dipoko deals withracial
prejudice. In the novel originally
written in French, a Cameroonian scholar studying in France is torn between the
love of a Swedish girl and a Parisienne show father owns a business
establishment in Africa. The father
rules out the possibility of marriage.
Therese, their daughter commits suicide and Doumbe, the Camerronian,
thinks only of the future of Bibi, the Swedish who is expecting his child. Doumbe’s remark that the African is like a
turtle which carries it home wherever it goes implies the racial pride and love
for the native grounds.
· The Interpreters by Wole Soyinka is about a group of young intellectuals who
function as artists in their talks with one another as they try to place
themselves in the context of the world about them.
6. Major Writers.
· Leopold Sedar Senghor (1906) is a poet and statesman who was cofounder of
the Negritude movement in African art and literature. He went to Paris on a
scholarship and later taught in the French school system. During these years Senghor discovered the
unmistakable imprint of African art on modern painting, sculpture, and music,
which confirmed his belief in Africa’s contribution to modern culture. Drafted during WWII, he was captured and
spent two years in Nazi concentration camp where he wrote some of his finest
poems. He became president of Senegal in
1960. His works include: Songs of
Shadow, Black Offerings, Major Elegies, Poetical Work. He became Negritude’s foremost spokesman and
edited an anthology of French-language poetry by black African that became a
seminal text of the Negritude movement.
· Okot P’Bitek
(1930 – 1982) was born in Uganda during the British domination and was embodied
in a contrast of cultures. He attended
English-speaking schools but never lost touch with traditional African values
and used his wide array of talents to pursue his interests in both African and
Western cultures. Among his works are: Song
of Lawino, Song of Ocol, African Religions and Western Scholarship, Religion of
the Central Luo, Horn of My Love.
· Wole Soyinka
(1934) is a Nigerian playwright, poet, novelis, and critic who was the first
black African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He wrote of modern West Africa in a satirical
style and with a tragic sense of the obstacles to human progress. He taught literature and drama and headed theater
groups at various Nigerian universities.
Among his works are: plays – A Dance of the Forests, The Lion and
the Jewel, The Trials of Brother Jero; novels – The Interpreters,
Season of Anomy; poems – Idanre and Other Poems, Poems from
Prison, A Shuttle in the Crypt, Mandela’s Earth and Other Poems.
· Chinua Achebe
(1930) is a prominent Igbo novelist acclaimed for his unsentimental depictions
of the social and psychological disorientation accompanying the imposition of
Western customs and values upon traditional African society. His particular concern was with emergent Africa
at its moments of crisis. His works
include, Things Fall Apart, Arrow of
God, No Longer at Ease, A Man of the People, Anthills of Savanah.
· Nadine Gordimer
(1923) is a South African novelist and short story writer whose major theme was
exile and alienation. She received the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991.
Gordimer was writing by age 9 and published her first story in a
magazine at 15. Her works exhibit a
clear, controlled, and unsentimental technique that became her hallmark. She examines how public events affect
individual lives, how the dreams of on’s youth are corrupted, and how innocence
is lost. Among her works are: The
Soft Voice of the Serpent, Burger’s Daughter, July’s People, A Sport of Nature,
My Son’s Story.
· Bessie Head (1937
–1986) described the contradictions and shortcomings of pre- and postcolonial
African society in morally didactic novels and stories. She suffered rejection and alienation from an
early age being born of an illegal union between her white mother and black
father. Among her works are: When Rain Clouds Gather, A Question of
Power, The Collector of Treasures, Serowe.
· Barbara Kimenye
(1940) wrote twelve books on children’s stories known as the Moses
series which are now a standard reading fare for African school children. She also worked for many years for His
Highness the Kabaka of Uganda, in the Ministry of Education and later served as
Kabaka’s librarian. She was a journalist
of The Uganda Nation and later a columnist for a Nairobi
newspaper. Among her works are: KalasandaRevisited,
The Smugglers, The Money Game.
·
Ousmane
Sembene (1923) is a writer and
filmmaker from Senegal. His works reveal
an intense commitment to political and social change. In the words of one of his characters: “You
will never be a good writer so long as you don’t defend a cause.” Sembene tells his stories from out of
Africa’s past and relates their relevance and meaning for contemporary
society. His works include, O My
Country, My Beautiful People, God’s Bits of Wood, The Storm.