Thursday 7 April 2011

On-line Task 2


Do we have a canon for Malaysian literary works? Let's say we do, who do you think are in it? Consider the fact that their works are well-known and most importantly included as part of the school syllabus- (both in BM and English)



  • K.S. Maniam – The Return (novel)
  • Prof. Dr. Muhammad Haji Salleh – Si Tenggang’s Homecomming (poem)
  • Datuk A. Samad Said – The Dead Crow (poem)
  • Kamaluddin Muhamad (Keris Mas)- Jungle of Hope (novel)


The poems by Erica Jong raises some feminist issues. What are they?

Penis Envy
On the First Night

Penis Envy by Erica Jong
I envy men who can yearn
with infinite emptiness
toward the body of a woman,

hoping that the yearning
will make a child,
that the emptiness itself
will fertilize the darkness.

Women have no illusions about this,
being at once
houses, tunnels,
cups & cupbearers,
knowing emptiness as a temporary state
between two fullnesses,
& seeing no romance in it.

If I were a man
doomed to that infinite emptiness,
& having no choice in the matter,
I would, like the rest, no doubt,
find a woman
& christen her moonbelly,
madonna, gold-haired goddess
& make her the tent of my longing,
the silk parachute of my lust,
the blue-eyed icon of my sacred sexual itch,
the mother of my hunger.

But since I am a woman,
I must not only inspire the poem
but also type it,
not only conceive the child
but also bear it,
not only bear the child
but also bathe it,
not only bathe the child
but also feed it,
not only feed the child
but also carry it
everywhere, evertwhere...

while men write poems
on the mysteries of motherhood.

I envy men who can yearn
with infinite emptiness



Do you think they are suitable to teach at the secondary school level? Explain.

I don’t think so. Some of the issue are too extreme for a secondary school students like the issue of sex and infidelity in a marriage. They are not suitable for their age level and they might be not be able to handle it properly. They are also against our traditional value which is full of politeness whereby these poems are more bold and sarcastic.


Is
Hillary Tham's poem more suitable?

Yes, definitely. Hillary Tham’s poem are more relevant, fun, loving and meaningful. As a Malaysian, she is more aware of our multi-cultural status and sensitive issues in our society. Having able to portray our way of life in her poems her works are more pleasing and respectful to Malaysian. The poems too are very beautiful and rich in literary terms like metaphors. There are also a lot of values that I can be taught through the poem to the secondary school students.


The short tale from the Native American group is about a girl who is unsatisfied with her life. How is this a universal experience? Can it teach our students anything?

Being unsatisfied is natural when it comes to a human being. We always want more in life regardless of what we are having. But then again, this story about the girl who had  made choice by leaving her lover and marrying another man whom she does not love. Later on, when she realised that she had been wrong she goes back to the man she loves even though he is in lack of some qualities. This story can certainly teach our students to think wisely before any decision and be grateful for god’s gifts in life.


From your findings about his background, tell me about the dilemma he conveys through the poem CROSS.

            James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, Langston Hughes was mostly raised by his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas after his parents divorced when he was very young. He was an important contributor to the Harlem Renaissance, traveled and was read all over the world and died in New York in 1967. Also a prolific writer of novels, short stories, plays and essays, Hughes took it as his poetic vocation “to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America,” and became known as Poet Laureate of black life and culture. He embodied his radical ideals in poems of exhortation and portrayed black characters in both lyric and satirical modes.
            In this poem, Langston Hughes reflected the idea of slavery in America that happened a long time ago. Langston shows this by comparing his mother and his father. Both parents have a different race and treatment by others. By being biracial, thus ,he expresses his feeling of  frustration of not being able to ‘fit in’ in the society. 


I find "Dinner Guest: Me" laden with irony and sarcasm. Briefly state if you feel the same.

Yes, I feel the same way too. The lines “I know I am; the Negro Problem” is  full of sarcasm. He clearly pictures that even the Negros would not accept him and they address him as a problem because of his mix parenting. At that time, the United States of America is considered modern country,  to talk about darkness is actually to put into irony the darkness of the Negros in the bright country of U.S.A. this can also be considered as sarcasm. He even stated that “I’m so ashamed of being White” which makes him feel ashamed to be half white because of the  way they treat the blacks.

The experience in the poem Harlem is one that is true for many people. Do you agree?
Yes,  this experience of being ill treated doesn’t only happen to The Negros, but also for the females all over the world, where they were not given the freedom of speech.

Langston Hughes fights for the voice of his people. What is the movement called?

The Civil- Rights Movement.

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