Great Works of Literature Fall 2014

We will observe a moment of silence in class on Thursday, Dec. 11 at 11 am. Below is the message I received from the CUNY faculty and staff union about the meaning and intent behind this gesture.

The PSC (Professional Staff Congress) Executive Council voted unanimously to call on all CUNY faculty and professional staff to observe a moment of silence at 11:00 AM this Thursday, December 11, in memory of Eric Garner. We have asked for an extraordinary gesture because this is an extraordinary moment. The failure to issue indictments in Ferguson and Staten Island—the decision not even to take the cases to trial—suggests that black and brown lives in the United States continue to be devalued. As educators at a university founded on the premise that “the children of the whole people” are entitled to equal education, CUNY faculty and staff have a special responsibility to challenge the devaluing of any lives in the diverse communities that make up our student body. By observing a collective moment of silence, we will send a counter-message of respect; we will silently make the public assertion that black lives matter.
Please incorporate the moment of silence into your normal work and fulfill your professional responsibilities as usual. The union leadership is not calling for a withholding of labor; we are asking you to observe a moment of silence as you would in other instances, invoking the traditional gesture of respect. By asking all CUNY faculty and staff to observe the moment together, we hope to magnify its impact and open a space for private reflection and public discussion of questions of history, race and justice. Nowhere are such discussions more appropriate or urgent than at CUNY. We also hope to express a connection to our students, many of whom live in communities where people of color are aggressively policed.
The moment of silence is called for 11:00 AM on Thursday, December 11 to recall that the video depicting Eric Garner’s death at the hands of the police showed him saying eleven times “I can’t breathe.” We could echo Martin Luther King’s statement on an injustice anywhere by saying that no one can breathe if anyone can’t breathe.
The PSC has a strong tradition of opposing institutional racism and calling for an end to the overuse of police force. We stand with our students. Many of us have already participated and will continue to participate in public protests demanding justice. Observing a moment of silence together is a way we can share our sorrow and anger about another needless death.

Be part of sending a message that will resonate across CUNY and New York City: observe a moment of silence at 11:00 on Thursday the 11th. Silence, as Audre Lorde said, must be transformed into language and action; collective silence can be a language of its own.

You’ve already done two presentations this semester: on your blog post and on your annotation work. This last presentation is meant to be informal and fun for all.

This is your chance to share with the class your creative/intellectual contribution to the study and enjoyment of Great Works of World Literature. I hope you feel comfortable enough in the class to speak from the heart and with confidence. Tell us about your ideas, your claims, your work. You may read excerpts of what you’ve written or show brief clips, but I hope you will spend a good chunk of your presentation time speaking to us about your work without reading–just telling us what you did and what you learned along the way. What are you taking away from the process of doing your final essay, and/or what are you taking away from the class overall?

You should each plan to speak for 5-6 minutes. Please time yourself before your presentation so you are aware of how much time you’re taking and limit your presentation to 6 minutes max. This will mean you have to choose one portion of your work to present; you won’t be able to present the “whole” thing.

Since we have to get through 26 presentations in two days, and we also need to talk about course evaluations and have a party, I will be forced to time you and I WILL cut you off at 6 minutes. I don’t want to have to do it; it makes me feel bad; but I’ll do it.

Don’t make me feel bad.

Happy Thanksgiving; peace and love to you and yours!

Tuesday December 9

1. Leandro
2. Maidi
3. Bhavana
4. Xuan (Bonnie)
5. Luz
6. Joseph
7. Symone
8. Sammy
9. Michael
10. Jingru
11. Steven
12. Timothy
13. Sean
14. Neil
15. Leonora (if we have time to get to Neil and Leonora today, we will; otherwise, they may be postponed to Thursday)

Thursday December 11   Pot luck class celebration; happy holidays; you are invited to bring a treat to share!

1. Christine S.
2. Emily
3. Cristina N.
4. Walter
5. Rashed
6. Christine Y.
7. Xinuye (Sofie)
8. Jonathan
9. Kimberly
10. Amy
11. Ziting

Twyla and Roberta were two childhood friends from back when they first met each other in St. Bonny. The two of them were left there for a certain period of time because Roberta’s monster was sick and Twyla’s mother loved to dance all night.  The two of them were identified as separate races the moment Mary told Twyla that “that they never washed their hair and they smelled funny. Morrison doesn’t reveal the either of the character’s race. As Twyla and Roberta grew up in St.Bonny, none of the other children liked them because of how they weren’t real orphans with beautiful dead parents in the sky. Twyla and Roberta were treated and bullied by other grown up girls. Maggie, a person who worked in the kitchen for St.Bonny was also teased by other children in St.Bonny. One day, she tripped and fell and the older girls would then laugh at her. Twyla and Roberta are standing there watching Maggie’s misery because they were afraid the older girls would bully them if they were to help Maggie up. Later on in the story, Roberta would eventually leave St.Bonny thus separating the two of them and Twyla never saw her then.

Years later, Twyla would encounter Roberta when Twyla was working behind a counter in Howard Johnson’s. She sees Roberta with two other guys who were smoking a cigarette and how Roberta’s physical appearance has changed drastically from the last time she seen her. Throughout this stage, Twyla and Roberta are just catching up with each other and ask each other the same questions, “How’s your mother?” Years later Roberta and Twyla would meet each other again in a grocery store called Food Emporium. During the time they met each other, both of their lives were completely different. Twyla is married to James Benson with one child and Roberta is married to an IBM executive who’s apparently rich. When they started to talk about the past, it seems the side of their stories were completely different. Twyla recalled Maggie who tripped and fell but Roberta remembered how Maggie was pushed onto the ground and her clothes were torn off in the orchard by the older girls. This puts Twyla in a state of confusion because this wasn’t how she pictured it from the past. And later on the same question comes back between them, “How’s your mother?”

Years later, a racial strife occurred during this time when kids were being sent from one school to another. This affected Twyla because she had to drive her child to Hudson street and there she encountered a familiar face, Roberta. Roberta was in a group of protestors who were against the forced movement of their child from one school to another. This results to the argument between Twyla and Roberta because they had different views on the racial strife. Then a group of protesting ladies surrounds Twyla’s car and starts swaying her car. The story continues as how Roberta describes Twyla as different from before. She also says that “you’re the same little state kid who kicked a poor old black lady when she was down on the ground.” This starts to drive Twyla nuts because she doesn’t recall Maggie being black and not to mention she didn’t kick Maggie either. Their memories differ from one another and this conflict develops between the two of them. Then again the both of them asked each other, “How’s your mother?”

During Christmas, Roberta and Twyla once encounter each other again in a coffee shop. The two of them were having a conversation about the “St.Bonny and Maggie incident.” Their perspective of the stories differ from each other and Twyla doesn’t recall anything about Maggie being black. This time, they didn’t ask each other the “question” but instead just blurt it out randomly. Twyla’s mother never stopped dancing and Roberta’s mother never got well. After that Roberta was in tears and a state of confusion and wondered what the hell happened to Maggie.

Two questions I’ve posed:

1. Why does the story of the “Maggie incident” change whenever Roberta and Twyla encounter each other? What does this symbolize?’

2. Why does Twyla and Roberta ask each other the same question over and over each other as the year goes by? (How’s your mother?) Is there any meaning behind it?

The story “Zaabalawi” starts out with the narrator talking about his father and his stories about this saint of God. That if it was not for him, he would have died miserably a long time ago. The narrator also says that he has heard many stories from his father about this saint and the miracles he performed. Whenever he was sick, they could find a cure to it without much trouble, until one day he had an illness that no one possessed a remedy for. He tried everything to find a cure, until one day he thought why not seek the Sheik Zaabalawi and bumps into Sheikh Qamar who was one of those sheiks that practiced law. To his surprise, when he went there, Zaabalawai had left “quarter ages” ago. Then he is told that Zaabalawai is living in Garden City and has an office in al-Alzhar Square.

The narrator proceeds to go there and is told that he was actually living in Birgawi Residence and the narrator graciously thanks him and continues on his journey. He goes to Birgawi Residence, and finds an old man selling books of theology and mysticism. He asks where Zaabalawai is and the only thing the old man can tell him was that how great he was and how long ago he used to live here. Feeling dejected, he asked many of the shopkeepers around the area and a lot of them have never heard of Zaabalawai while some remember the good times they had with him, and others making fun of the great Zaabalawai and how he should go to a doctor instead for the cure of his illness.

The narrator feels hopeless now, with his pain of the illness he has becoming greater, but then he remembers a local sheikh, and asks where is Zaabalawai The man smiles and reveals that Zaabalawai is still alive and well. The man then proceeds to give him a drawing and says that this was his best bet in finding Zaabalawai. The narrator then takes the map and continues on his journey. He goes to the street and finds an old Hassanein and asks if he knows Zaabalawai. The narrator introduces himself and proceeds to say that the he was a friend of Zaabalawai and he says he was, once upon a time. The Hassanein proceeds to talk to the narrator about him but does not offer any help in actually finding Zaabalawai. As the narrator continues, he meets a musician who tells the narrator that it will be hard to find Zaabalawai because he is being pursued by police on a charge of false pretenses. Losing hope, he wanders around and goes into a bar and drinks with a random man. He drinks until he passes out and never finds Zaabalawai.

As the translation by Denys Johnson-Davies, he states that in the folklore “Zaabalawai” the narrator illness is unclear. As well as who Zaabalawai is anyone’s guess. Only some knows who he actually is from the past, and others know of him. The narrator’s quest in finding Zaabalawai can be read as a spiritual one, and that he was looking for certainly and assurance in the face of despair.  My thoughts are that maybe the narrator isn’t sick after all, and he just wants hope. Hope and belief that there is a saint called Zaabalawai and he wants to be assured by him that he will be okay. The narrator is probably going though tough times, and he just needs guidance and who else would be best to give it, than the man his father used to tell him stories about.

Questions:

1) Was the narrator really in pain, while looking for Zaabalawai? If he really was, how could he find the strength to search for Zaabalawai even though he had no clue where he was? Is the pain actually only mental and not physical?

2) In the end of the folklore, he states that some people regard him only as a myth. Why does the narrator still say he must find Zaabalawai even though some say he’s a myth and doesn’t actually exist?

Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer, who was awarded the Novel Prize for Literature in 1988. He was the first Arabic writer to be honored. Naguib Mahfouz was also a screen pay writer; many of his works have been made into foreign films.

Zaabalawi is about a man who has gotten really sick and is unable to find a remedy or cure for his sickness. The narrator’s father had told him about “a saint of God,” Sheikh Zaabalawi, who is able to cure any illness or disease. Therefore, the narrator made it his objective to find the mysterious Zaabalawi. During the narrator’s journey in finding Zaabalawi he encounters a variety of people. The first person he meets is a lawyer who practices religious law, who tells the narrator that Zaabalawi has left years ago. The narrator also meets a bookkeeper who tells him that Zaabalawi no longer lives in this building. Next the narrator takes a visit to a government official and a calligrapher thinking that he must know the whereabouts of Zaabalawi. After meeting with a musician, who is said to be a friend of Zaabalawi, the narrator learns that Zaabalawi is hiding from the police for false accusations. Finally, the narrator meets a drunken man at the bar. This drunken man gets the narrator to drink until he passes out. This causes the narrator to miss Zaabalawi completely. Apparently, Zaabalawi had appeared next to the narrator while he was unconscious.

In the story, the narrator never tells us what kind of illness he has; he merely just says that he has great pain. I think that the narrator’s illness in the story is a metaphor for his lack of spirituality and religion. The narrator searches for Zaabalawi because he needs guidance. I think that Zaabalawi is the figure of God in the story. Even though Zaabalawi has already cured the narrator, the narrator still insists on finding him. This represents the commitment he is making to God.

All of the people that the narrator encounters either have never heard of Zaabalawi or they no longer know of his current location. Moving from visit to visit the narrator learns a little more about the mysterious Zaabalawi. The narrator visits different people; do they represent something? At every one of the encounters the people tell the narrator that Zaabalawi is still alive and they share great things about Zaabalawi causing the narrator to seek harder. However, the narrator never actually gets to see Zaabalawi. This raises the question, whether Zaabalawi is an actual person or merely just an idea.

Questions:

1. Who is Zaabalawi? Is Zaabalawi a real man, or just an idea?
2. What do the people that the narrator visits in the story represent?