11/1

NOTE (ADDED SUN NOV 4): If you are having trouble getting Waiting for the Barbarians, email me for a pdf version of the first chapter. The file is very very large, which is causing trouble posting it here. I'll keep trying, but in the meantime you can email me to send it directly IF you have an attachment limit of large size--gmail is big enough, if you have an account there.

Thanks Jennifer. You remind us all what's good about Halloween when we're sitting here watching our house be torn to shreds by a candy crazed, chocolate covered Batman and an Elmo with half-eaten lollipops glued into his fur.

Having read the Said and hooks, let's begin the Coetzee novel Waiting for the Barbarians. For Monday read the first section, which in my rather aged edition is pages 1-25. A word on the reading: You'll need to read an average of 40 pages (again, in my edition, which runs only 160 pages) before each session in order for us to get through the book in two weeks, which is our plan. This means that for some sessions more reading will be required. I'm also going to be assigning supplementary readings during that period to help illuminate the book. It would behoove you, then, to read as much as you can, whenever you can, particularly over the weekend. Ideally, you'd read about half the book this weekend, about half next, and be in good shape for the class work over the week. In any case, the first 25 pages for Monday, the next 30+ for Wednesday--you can see the issue.

Finally, for the response, let's try something a bit different: we spoke of real world examples of the 'vestiges of colonialism.' Do a little bit of research on a colony (almost every country has been a colony at some point--including the U.S. for both the early Americans and arguably the Native Americans) and try to understand how those vestiges might manifest themselves. That is, what problems does that ex-colony have to deal with which are the direct or indirect result of the past colonization? I don't expect you to be able to come up with this on your own: I expect a summarization of some minor research into the topic. Don't use wikkipedia or any other encyclopedia-style source, however. Try for more relevant sources--if not scholarly at least contemporary (newspapers, etc.) Summarize what you find in 250-400 words (keep it short and to the point). Quote and cite as needed, to avoid plagiarism.