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The JSleru Curriculun^^
Editor’s note: This column will host a series of articles by Chowan College faculty members who will
introduce courses of the new curriculum leading to bachelors degrees. D. H. Nicholson's perspective
on his modern world literature course is the first of this series.
English 206
Survey of Modern World Literature
“Travelers with closed minds can tell us little except about themselves. ”
Chinua Achebe
Nigerian Novelist
Mr. Achebe's statement can serve as a
springboard into a discussion of modem world
hterature where the student is introduced to
writers not found within the modem “Western”
canon. We can remember the wonderful
experiences we have had when introduced to
American or European writers. We can have
similar experiences when we read works of
writers from major regions of the non-Westem
world—sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle-East.
South Asia, East Asia, the Caribbean, and
Latin America . To be exposed to such writers
and their works is to be introduced to an
intellectual geography of immense proportions.
To read of the rage of Middle Eastern
female writers who appear to be “ensconced”
with the other “daughters of Eve” in a patriar
chy, where they are also defined and ruled by
the patriarch’s interpretation of religion, is to
expose ourselves to a part of the world
radically different from what most of us might
take for granted. To study parts of the world
where religious and political systems do not
valorize the individual, where self-fulfillment
would be considered tantamount to abandon
ing the demands of family, village, or caste is
to be startled into regions where individualism
as opposed to community can bring exposiwe
and personal danger We are introduced to
such when we read Nawal A1 Sa Dawi’s
“Growing Up Female in Egypt” fi’om her larger
Memoirs of a Female Physician and other
works which speak out on behalf of Arab
women, works which are not generally avail
able in the Arab world and works for which
then-President Anwar el-Sadat had her impris
oned in 1981.
We readily see the superfluousness of
female life in an African society when we read
Kenya writer Ngugi Wa Thiongo’o’s “Minutes
of Glory” from his larger work Secret Lives
and Other Stories, where Wanjim will have
minutes of glory from her destitute life as a
bargirl and prostitute only when she can feel
Westem and non-Afiican by using her Chris
tian name and stealing money to buy tempo
rary physical beauty. Naguib Mahfouz,
Egyptian-born and the only Arab writer ever to
win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1988), and
his “Zaabalawi” describe the mystical search
which becomes a defining moment in the
narrator’s life as he tries to live a life devoted
to Islam. Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s “The
Birth” reminds the reader of the terrible cost of
Dutch colonial rale on Indonesia. Japanese
writers like Higuchi Ichiyo and Kawabata
Yasunari (this latter writer is Japan’s first Nobel
Laureate in Literature-1968) force us to see
people so different from our Eurocentered or
Westem perspective that we are “surprised” to
discern our former enemies in World War II as
people who are beautiful and good, as people
who are full of hope and faith in the midst of
the calamities that befall them. Rabindranath
Tagore (1913 Nobel Prize in Literature) and
Mahatma Gandhi take us on literary tours
which both conflict and attempt to answer the
need for India's independence from British rule.
Shmuel Yosef Agnon, in 1966 the first
Hebrew writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature, shows us in his “The Tale of the
Scribe” a fundamental pattern which is also
found in Jewish history: the physical and
spiritual cost of stasis and tradition. Rigoberta
Menchu is a human rights activist in Guatemala
who was awarded the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize;
she describes her life under one of the most
repressive regimes in all of Latin America in her
book / . . . Rigoberta Menchu. An Indian
Woman in Guatemala from which we get her
short excerpt: “The Bible and Self-Defence: The
E.xamples of Judith, Moses, and David,” where
she discusses, to our discomfort, ways in which
religion can be used as a weapon by those who
want to exploit and oppress the Indian.
We could go on and on about this survey of
modem literature. However, a course such as
this invites us to read and explore writers and
their works from parts of the world vastly
different from our own. The course, I believe,
helps us to see this world as both emergent
and increasingly interdependent. We are too
interconnected to deny others chances to tell
us their stories of hope and faith. It is not
enough for us to tell only of ourselves.
Students participate
in state “Clean
Sweep” program
During the 1995-96 academic year, the
Chowan Science Club adopted a project to
assist in the effort to improve the campus
environment and clean the area around Lake
Vann during the weekend of Sept. 22-23. The
project was held in conjunction with North
Carolina's annual “Clean Sweep Prograia”
Members of the club worked during the
weekend and collected nine large trash bags of
liter and refiise. Because a large portion of the
trash consisted of discarded alimiinum drink
cans, the club agreed to institute a recycling
project and placed aluminum recycling contain
ers at various locations around the campus.
During the academic year, ahnost 300
pounds of beverage cans were collected in the
containers and sold to aluminum processors for
recycling.
The club officers presented a check to the
department of science to be used toward the
purchase of a piece of laboratory equipment
needed for the new environmental biology
program.
The club expressed appreciation to the
student body for their help in the project and
encouraged all students to join the effort for a
more attractive campus and healthier environ
ment.
Timberlands
Continued from Page 4
its way over me. The thrill of the hunt had
ended, and the result seemed anticlimactic. As
much as I wanted to express exhilaration and
embrace Dick with joyful hugs, the mood was
so solemn that I found it an effort to smile.
With gratitude and a sense of relief, we broke
from the staid surroundings of the office and
walked into the warm sunshine with Maria,
headed for David’s traditional “sale luncheon”
to celebrate a sense of accomplishment.
Driving back to Murfreesboro, Dick and I
both felt somehow compelled to detour past
the old Thomas estate. The autumn drive took
us past majestic hardwood timbers surround
ing the old homestead and outbuildings.
Proud pines towered over the car as we
carefully edged our way down the sandy
roadway David had just positioned into the
property. I know that trees have a life expect
ancy ... I know that they can become beetle-
infested if left too long in the forest. . . and I
know that the land will be replanted. Still, as I
inhaled the soft pungency of sweet pine, I
couldn’t help but feel sadness at the prospect
of the forest starting over with the knowledge
that it would not complete its noble growth
cycle within my lifetime.
The lumber business is in David Jennette's
blood. His father taught him well, and four
years at North Carolina State earned him a
degree in Forestry. He moved to Windsor,
North Carolina at an early age and disclosed
that he always knew exactly what he wanted
to do with his life. In partnership with his
late father, the two founded ‘‘Timberlands
Unlimited, Inc. " in 1986. When I asked David
a few simple questions about forestry, he
jumped from his chair and dug out a copy of
Tree Facts, a booklet he compiled for elemen
tary school students to enhance forest study
during his guided field trips. His love for the
land is apparent.
An ordinary occurrence for many residents
of North Carolina, the recent sale of selected
lumber from the estate of Ruth M. Thomas
provided an exceptional glimpse into an au
thentic southern tradition for Dick and me, as
two Midwestern transplants. In addition to
the harvest area, the generous estate has also
given the college a variety of untouched eco
systems for biological research, enhancing the
new major in biology.
“The autumn
drive took us
past majestic
hardwood timbers
surrounding
the old
homestead and
outbuildings. ”
Garth Faile, science departtnent chair, second from right, accepts
a check from Matt Suggs, treasurer of the Chowan Science Club.
The gift was made possible through the sale of aluminum cans
collected by the club in a campus clean-up campaign. Others
pictured are, left to right, Gilbert Tripp, associate professor of
science and club adviser. Carta Culbertson, club president,
Suggs; Faile; and Jeremy Funk, club vice president.
CHOWAN TODAY, December 1996 — Page 5