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Post Colonial Theory
through Folklore
Intro
As we read Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, we have an opportunity to become aware of issues surrounding thinking from underrepresented groups in sociey, and we can study the Hurston text through Post-Colonial Theory. In this E-Learning module, we are going to create a celebratory project that will raise your awareness of the lives of marginalized peoples through Post-Colonial Theory. You are going to be part of a team that has as its task to design a performance and presentation as part of a Post-Colonial Cultural Appreciation Festival. You must contribute energy, enthusiasm, and creativity to this Festival of art and folklore.
The TaskYou and a group of three other students (4 total students per group) will come up with an intriguing performance and presentation that will overwhelmingly Wow! the Festival judge, Dr. Carolyn :) on Post-Colonial Life, Folklore, and Theory. You may choose your own groups, but, please. remember to invite every student to be part of a group and that the groups must be well-balanced.
Your team must demonstrate a collective understanding and appreciation of:
** Post-Colonial Life
** Post-Colonial Folklore
** Post-Colonial Theory
Your team must create an entertaining presentation through multimodal texts:
** digital
** audio
** visual
** video
Fill out this BLUEPRINT as your group plans your presentation. Remember to make it a festival that captures the essence of Post-Colonial Theory.
In your final presentation, you should incorporate an original short original film, a skit, an interpretive dance, an original song/ lyrics/ chant/ proverbs/ folktales, and/or another intriguing presentation method. Or will you stick to a traditional Prezi or Google Presentation? You will choose a Webmaster who will compile all the electronic materials into one cohesive composition, which will be linked to each of your websites. BUT you must also individually post your work on your own Google website. AND your group must include written materials that will be handed out as well to the Judge such as a pamphlet, petitions, art, poems, music lyrics, and/or other documents that will support the issues you uncover and the theoretical perspective you take.
What is "Post-Colonial?"
Your design for your performance and presentation as part of a Post-Colonial Cultural Appreciation Festival must demonstrate a keen comprehension of Post-Colonial theory. Stephen Slemon, in Introduction: Points of Departure, suggests that the Post-Colonial "... begins in the moment that colonial power inscribes itself onto the body and space of its Others." Post-Colonial Theory concerns itself with the processes of cultural production as well as the problems of binary thinking. Post-Colonial Theory is an escape from two-part conceptual models derived largely from European imperialism and its effects. In this way of thinking, Post-Colonialism is an "anticipatory discourse" including the "recovery of revaluing of indigenous histories."
Why should we study Post-Colonialism? We can gain critical distance from our own "normal" perspectives and see how our western orientations limit our appreciations for different cultures and ways of being. Literary scholars and students alike pose far-reaching questions about who speaks for whom, under what conditions, and to what ends. Inquiry into Post-Colonial Theory focuses on subjectivity, identity, power, and knowledge, and it interrogates European master discourses around resistance, representation, agency, migration, and gender, among other issues.
Connections to Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
As you and your team research, investigate, and design, consider the following Interpretive goals for reading Their Eyes Were Watching God:
o Perspectives: males versus females
o Timeperiod shifts: present, to distant past, to recent past
o Dialect versus formal English conventions
o Subjugation: #1) persons of color; #2) females of color (who are dually subjugated)
o Embedded qualities of folktales, including proverbs and fairy tales
* Metaphors and similes: what do they represent?
o Human emotions personified
o Alliteration/ assonance/ allusions
o Imagery
The Process
1. You will be working alongside three other students, or 4 total students per group.
2. Your task is to persuade the Post-Colonial Cultural Appreciation Festival judge (i.e. Dr. Carolyn) that your presentation is the most comprehensive and entertaining of all the presentations. You and your fellow teammates must decide how you wish to communicate this in the most appropriate manner. Here you will decide what texts within the required modalities you are going to use: your team must incorporate visual, audio, digital, visual, and print texts.
3. You and your team will devise a plan of “attack.” You must decide WHAT components will convince the judge. Start by making a chart/ blueprint/ design of all important information you learn below. Put the chart right on your website to demonstrate your planning process.
4. Incorporate rich comprehension of social and cultural constructs about underrepresented groups through the Language of Interpretation.
5. Each student must have four research sources: 2 peer-reviewed and 2 non-peer-reviewed sources. You are welcomed to find your own sources, but here are some helpful websites that might work for you, too. Also, please include a Works Cited page with your individual presentation.
Introduction to Post-Colonial Theory at Temple University and An Introduction to Post-Colonial Theory from Villanova
Political Discourse The politics involved. http://www.postcolonialweb.org/poldiscourse/ashcroft3g.html
Folktales of Zora Neale Hurston from Yale Institute; information about the role of folktales in Hurston's works
Pros and Cons http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t1w16mperialsimp1mw.htm
Human Rights http://www.un.org/rights/dpi1627e.htm
Guide to Research in Post-Colonial Theory
Books If you click on a country you fan find authors and literature here. http://www.postcolonialweb.org/
Dr. Carolyn also has a children's book on her classroom bookshelf called Zora and the Chinaberry Tree. If you want to borrow it and use it during class time, you may. Think about it in this way: "If I had to teach this children's book to someone who just arrived from another country --- who has no knowledge of the U.S.--- what meanings and messages does the text tell about life in the U.S.?" You can also apply this idea to other texts in a way you see makes sense.
Equal Rights http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/articlearchives/honormlk/equalra.htm
Other Possibilities: You could read (SPOILER ALERT!) "Foreword," by Edwidge Danticat or "Foreword," by Mary Helen Washington in the beginning of Their Eyes Were Watching God for connections among the Hurston text, Folklore, and Post-Colonial Theory.
Keyword Searches
Here is a list of keywords and terms you can use to search in conjunction with "Post-Colonial:"
Equal rights, colonization, post colonial, imperialism, literature, equality, equality in education, banned books, education, curriculum, diversity, culture, decolonization, politics and culture, Edward Said andOrientalism, Paolo Freire and Pedagogy of the Oppressed
NOW: the fun part! Make your presentation! Be sure that your presentation is eye catching, contains supported facts, is persuading, gives examples of compelling texts and authors (Post Colonial, of course) and an overview of the type of Post Colonial celebration you feel best captures the essence of this project. Make sure presentations are no longer than 20 mins. Be sure to include some type of handouts for the class!
Evaluation
Remember the task: your group will create a celebratory project that will raise awareness of the lives of marginalized peoples through Post-Colonial Theory. You are going to be part of a team that has as its task to design a performance and presentation as part of a Post-Colonial Cultural Appreciation Festival. You must contribute energy, enthusiasm, and creativity to this Festival of art and folklore. Please include a Works Cited page with your individual presentation. Also, please include at least two peer-reviewed, scholarly research articles in your source list.
Each project will be graded on creativeness, multimodality,handouts, research and persuasiveness.
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