World Literatures in English
Conclusion
Mapping:
Visual Mapping
& Cognitive Mapping in
the ‘Big Wide World”
and
Continuation
Relatedness to our
World and Taiwan
What does it mean to live in a
global village?
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To be good at American English only?
To know all the geographical and historical
facts?
To travel around?
What matters is how we relate to different
people, cultures and events in this world.
Image: “Peep and the Big Wide World”
社會新鮮人國際觀大調查
Are these questions important? Why?
問題內容：
 1.請問以下那個宗教的教義禁酒？
基督教、神道教、回教、東正教、道教
回教（36.44%）to protect the mind of
man which is part of the body


畢業科系與平均分
數：
 理工學院 27.13
 商管學院 41.03
 文學院 29.62
 外語學院 37.07

醫學院 31.35

法社學院 40.21
 傳播學院 38.98
 其他學院 27.44
2.請問以下那個國家的人民多半不吃牛
肉？美國、巴林、斯里蘭卡、沙烏地阿
拉伯、印度
印度（56.27%）
9.請問在社交場合上，對初次見面的美
國人，要避免以下哪種主題的談話？
球賽、環保、財經、休閒活動、政黨
政黨（62.24%）
Try it yourself!!!
http://www.9999.com.tw/pj/act/p930831_a/xls.htm
何謂國際觀？何謂全球視野?
誰知道我們會不會有越南裔同學？
不會有個印度丈夫？
不只是增加
 當代地理、歷史（地名、人名）知識﹔
 企業和個人競爭力﹔
還包括注重
 Connectedness了解、注意全世界各地的關連性（文化、政
治、經濟、氣候）﹔
 Communication: 跨文化溝通的能力﹔
 Learning Motivation and Abilities:對其他文化的了解意願和
學習能力﹔
 Concerned: 關切其他國家和世界性的災難和議題（很多始
於種族、文化、宗教差異相關，如以阿戰爭、印巴對立）。
 Comparative Perspective and Self-Positioning: 經由和其他
文化相似、相異處，更加了解我們自己的位置和文化認同。
What is Mapping and what is it
for?


Visual mapping & Daily News Connections –
the authors and characters are not out of
nowhere.
Cognitive mapping – a way to manage your
own knowledge and to locate oneself
I: Contextualization & Artistic Concretization
II. Major Themes
III. Self-Location
Visual Mapping

India
Caribbean
Area
South Africa
Visual Mapping: South Asia

Lahore
Shahjahanpur
Kelara
Daily News Connections: News
Today
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Arm Race: 一九九八年印巴 先後試爆核武成功
奇異在印度 將大舉擴張 將啟動第三階段擴張計
畫，預料在印度的營收將從目前八億美元，驟升
至五年後的五十億美元。 (China Times)
Bollywood’s popularity.
1956: Pakistani women gain right to vote in
national elections.
2005 Kuwait (source:
http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/suffrage.htm )
Visual Mapping: South Africa

Daily News Connections: News
Today
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不甘長期受屈辱 非洲婦女爭人權  (PTS
source)
Kenya: against family violence; Nigeria: 教導當
地青少女維護自己權利的啟蒙課程。奈及利亞女
性：以我個人來說-在我家和傳統上女孩必須行割
禮(clitoridectomy )我很幸運很早就接觸到-女
孩權利啟蒙組織也就是在行割禮前所以當我面臨
那個時期時
史瓦濟蘭(Swaziland)國王恩史瓦帝三世
南非副總統 朱馬 (Zuma, who used to be an antiapartheid fighter)涉軍購貪污遭撤職 (PTS; )
Visual Mapping:
The Caribbean Islands & their migrants
Canada

The U.S.
“Children of the Sea”; Fugees
Annie John
M. Cliff, B. Marley
Wide Sargasso Sea
Sugar Cane Alley
England
France
Daily News Connections:
News Today

Haitian president thanks Taiwan for airport
link

A highway linking the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince's international
airport to the city's downtown district, which was completed with funds
donated by Taiwan(donated more than US$8 million)  improve traffic
conditions. (source:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2003/01/06/189940
)

2004 Sept伊凡颶風在加勒比海地區造成33人死亡 (source)
南非衛生部長傳布有關HIV散播非洲的陰謀論 ; AIDS征服
加勒比海島嶼 (source: 愛滋新聞)

Daily News Connections:
News Today


(PTS news) Kingston, Jamaica, 資優
班，班上超過六十個學生中三分之二是女生;
Reasons: 在牙買加，父親經常在家中缺席，男孩
被鼓勵在運動和音樂等課外活動，取得傑出的表
現。相對的他們在課業上的表現，就沒有那麼受
到關注。為了改善這樣的傳統造成男孩學習成積
上的落後，牙買加的學校會鼓勵學童邀請父親一
起來上課，甚至在某些日子，女學童不用上課，
只有男學生和他們的父親一起到校上課。
Another Possibility:
Audio Connection
e.g. Syrian music  Islamic music, etc.
This is like working on
a jigsaw puzzle with no fixed image or boundaries.
Cognitive mapping I --Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
How is marriage determined and influenced
by class differences in one of the following
Indian texts (e.g. "Flute Music," "Gainda,"
Monsoon Wedding and Fire).
The limitations and/or protection of Indian
women by purdah in "Purdah 1" or "Honour."
The issue of illiteracy and letter writing in either
Saloom Bombay or "Annamalai."
Discuss the use of a Caribbean custom (e.g.
abeng, hunting, Krik? Krak!) in one of the
following texts (Sugar Cane Alley, "Children of
the Sea," Abeng).
Cognitive mapping I –Questions
(2)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Political Upheavals, Racial Conflicts and their
Consequences in one of the following texts: The God
of Small Things, Earth, "The Day of the Riot," and
"Children of the Sea." (immediate; remote-- e.g. the
history house; Massacre)
The issue of Land in during the period of Apartheid in
one of the following texts: "Six Feet of My Country,"
"Amnesty," Cry, the Beloved Country.
The issue of "English" education (both literature and
language) and identity in one of the following texts:
The God of Small Things, Foe, "Dan is the Man in
the Van."
The role of obeah woman and obeah in one or two of
the following texts: "The Prophetess," Wide Sargasso
Sea, Annie John, Abeng .
Cognitive mapping I

the cultural specifics: (esp. in religions,
gender and race/class relations)

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e.g. India: multiple religions (e.g. Ganesh & Krishna,
Sita) and languages, Caste system, purdah,
e.g. South Africa: multiple languages; apartheid,
“cross-over” styles in music (e.g. “God Bless
Africa”: iscathamiya + missionary school music)
e.g. the Caribbean: creolization, krik?krak!
Cognitive mapping I-2
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Traveling and interchanges of cultures:
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
Obeah – 1) African roots; 2) mixture of signs of
Christianity and voodoo
Caribbean Music – mixture of influences from Africa
(drum, abeng) and the U.S. (e.g. reggae from New
Orleans R&B); influences of slavery (Calypso) and
capitalism.
Cognitive mapping I—example 1

“Purdah”
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“Honour”
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Stands outside herself, or turns inward to look for a self for
herself;
Moral constraints + romantic/sexual fantasies  lack of
sympathy and reality checks
“Her Mother”
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Housework  fragmentary thinking and writing;
Limitations: in view of marriage and the “foreigners”
Able to sympathize with her husband and her daughter;
support her daughter’s education.
Cognitive mapping I—example 2

Influences of Political Upheaval

“The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses”
 “[The prinson] makes a man contemplate all kinds of evil
deeds.” (71);  different kinds of constraints (physical 
stealing, mental not being able understand grander
motivation of revolution).
“The Day of the Riot” –all the mysteries in the ending;

The riot before Antoinette’s house.

The mob in Earth.
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Cognitive mapping I-3: Questions



9. Compare and contrast the different spatial imagery
in "Bright Thursdays," Wide Sargasso Sea, and
"Children of the Sea." (e.g. the protagonists' senses
of the houses, the garden, the mountain and the sea
and how they reflect their senses of identity.)
10. Nature: Choose one text. Discuss the way
nature is treated; for instance, the symbolic meanings
of Paparachi's moth in The God of Small Things,
mongoose and the pig in Abeng, or butterflies, banyan
tree and the sea in "Children of the Sea".
11. The use of different narrators in Foe, Wide
Sargasso
Cognitive mapping I-3: Art

the artistic embodiment:

e.g. the “symbolic” meanings of obeah (WSS and
“The Prophetess”)
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e.g. spatial metaphors,
e.g. natural beings as metaphors
e.g. Biblical allusions (WSS-garden, )
e.g. English sayings and words.
Language
Cognitive mapping II-1: Themes-Questions
Colonization, Systems of Inequality and Post-Colonial
Resistance

a. Colonization and Gender-1) How is colonial mentality (its inner lack and its
views of the Other) analyzed and presented in terms
of gender relations in the following two texts? Foe,
Wide Sargasso Sea.

2) Analyze the different roles the white masters
(including both Creoles and Afrikans) play in three of
the following text: Sugar Cane Alley, Wide Sargasso
Sea, the hunting episode in Abeng, "The Prisoner Who
Wore Glasses" and "Six Feet of the Country"
Cognitive mapping II-1: Themes-Questions (2)
Colonization, Systems of Inequality and Post-Colonial
Resistance

b. Systems of Inequality in colonial society-
3) Use two examples from below to a) analyze how
women can be doubly victimized in gender and racial
hierarchy in a (post-)colonial society; b) and compare
their different responses to the experiences of
victimization. Earth, Salaam Bombay, Wide Sargasso
Sea, Abeng (exerpt), "Amnesty" and "Children of the
Sea."

4) How is social hierarchy presented in two of the
following texts? Explain their differences in terms of
their social contexts. "Gainda," "The Day of the Riots"
and "Bright Thursday."
Cognitive mapping II-1: Themes-Questions (3)
Colonization, Systems of Inequality and Post-Colonial
Resistance

c. Post-colonial Revision and Languages:

5) How are the endings of Foe and Wide Sargasso
Sea different from or similar to each other? In their
postcolonial revision of canonical texts, who gets to
speak and who don't?

6). Postcolonial cultural syncretism: In many
postcolonial texts, we see the English revised and
turned into 'englishes.' Choose two texts (the group
reports' texts included) to comment on their different
mixture of standard English with another english, or
their appropriation and revision of canonical text in
their own.
Cognitive mapping II-1.a: Central
Themes
Colonization, Systems of Inequality and PostColonial Resistance
a. Colonization and Gender

Colonial mentality:

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

Need for expansion;
Lack – in their mind, or of money. (Crusoe,
Rochester, the jailer)
Gender and colonization -- women’s role as
object of exchange
Creoles and Afrikans –don’t always have the
power because of their “white” skin colors.
Cognitive mapping II-1.b: Central
Themes
b. Systems of Inequality in colonial society—
Racial(government) hierarchy // gender hierarchy
minority women doubly victimized but also the ones to
survive: e.g. (the mother) and the sweet sixteen in SB,
Earth, the girl in Sugar Cane Alley, “Children.”
Racial hierarchy criss-crossed with that of gender: e.g.
Abeng
Women’s responses:

Sense of fatality (Antoinette)

showing their power of survival and greater awareness:
“Amnesty”
Cognitive mapping II-1.c: Central
Themes
c. Post-Colonial Resistance and identities




Christophine’s criticism of Rochester;
Antoinette’s “dark journey home.”
Friday’s dance and flower ritual on the sea
Susan Barton’s ceaseless attempts at
communication and writing;
Cognitive mapping II-II: Questions

II. Children's Growth and Gender Relationships in
(Post-)Colonial society

5) How are children (their education, gendering process
and/or family relations) affected in a colonial or postcolonial society (e.g. Wide Sargasso Sea, Salaam
Bombay, Sugar Cane Alley, The Hunting episode in Abeng,
Annie John, "Bright Thursday," "The Prophetess," "The
Music of the Violin," etc.)? . . .
6) Discuss the theme of mother-daughter relationship in
three of the texts we have studied. (e.g. "Her Mother,"
"Bright Thursdays," Wide Sargasso Sea and Annie
John.) (How does the mother teaches the daughter? If the
mother-daughter relationship gets broken, what are the
reasons? How does the daughter establish her sense of
identity in relation to the mother?)

Cognitive mapping II-II

B. Children and Gender
1.
Children’s growth and education (e.g. Clare and
Zoe vs. Antoinette and Tia; Krishna vs. Jose;
Vukani (“Violin”) vs. Jose; the boy in “Prophetess”
vs. Antoinette)
2.
Mother-daughter relationship
Cognitive mapping II-III


C. Diaspora: Connecting to the Big Wide World
8). How do the immigrants (including English
colonizers), or the diasporic groups, serve to link
together the three areas we cover in class, as well
as the other parts in the world? Choose 2-3 texts
to discuss what these diasporic connections mean
in the texts' themes and styles, and whether
people of the same race have different social
statuses in different societies. (Use at least one
text we deal with in class, and then you are free to
choose whatever relevant texts you know as
examples.)
Cognitive mapping II-III





C. Diaspora: Connecting to the Big Wide World
Wild Connections: the astronauts in Floating Life
 the astronauts in《候鳥》劉若英  台商
Different positions of “white” women in Wide
Sargasso Sea, Abeng, L’Amant, and Salaam
Bombay.
Robinson Crusoe in different places and
situations.
Cannibalism
Continuation (I)

Taiwanese counterparts;
A. (de-)colonization: Does Taiwan succeed in constructing its
own identity after the multiple colonization by Holland, Spain,
Japan, the U.S. and under the neo-colonial powers of the
U.S. and Japan?
(e.g. 1. Japanese and American cololization:
 the stories by 黃春明；
 the films 《無言的山丘》、《無卵頭家》、 A Borrowed
Life, City of Sadness, 、《太平天國》(Bhadha Bless
America)、
2. KMT and White Terror: 《悲情城市》《超級大國民》 《匪
諜大亨》
3. and so many other texts.)
Continuation (I)

Taiwanese counterparts;
cultural/national identity: What kinds of cultural identities do
Taiwanese have? How are they different from the Chinese
diaspora in the other parts in the world?
Taiwan’s identities: 〈台灣奇蹟〉；張大春〈將軍碑〉、〈四喜
憂國〉；林燿德《高砂百合》
Immigrants: 《候鳥》vs. 《春光乍洩》《浮生》 from Hong
Kong
to the States:平路〈玉米田之死〉 、《三個女人的故事》 vs.
《甜蜜蜜》、《愛在他鄉的季節》
Immigrants in Taiwan: Malaysians in Taiwan many novels
such as〈魚骸〉、 《望鄉》、《飛行城市》
Continuation (I)
Taiwanese counterparts;
gender and race: Orientalism.
How have Taiwanese women suffered from the
colonizers‘ rape （e.g. Comfort Women, 慰安婦）,
or from double victimization by both patriarchy and
colonialism （李昂〈戴貞操帶的魔鬼〉《迷園》）?
How have Taiwanese women assert themselves
against both? （平路 《行路天涯》）
How about mainland Chinese women in Taiwan?
 Wives waiting for getting their citizenship;
 “Some” prostitutes seeing 收容所 as their temporary
home.
