Race as Seen Through the Racial Formation Perspective

Becoming a citizen of American society is the process of learning to see race – that is, to ascribe social meanings and qualities to otherwise meaningless biological features. And in turn, race consciousness figures centrally in the building of a collective body of knowledge without which we could not make sense of the world around us – a body of knowledge that Omi and Winant call 'racial common sense'. That describes the associations we make between individual characteristics, preferences, behaviors, and attitudes and a particular physical appearance or perceived group membership

Lenses for Things Fall Apart

Wow!  It's been a while since we've done any blogging.  Dust off your computers.  You now have another opportunity to engage in this infinitely enjoyable activity.

In recent weeks, I have given you two handouts regarding postcolonial and feminist literary theory.  (If they were stolen from you, here is a link to a place where you can download them.)  Your job now is to choose one of these lenses to use in analyzing Things Fall Apart.  So the question is: Do you want to subject the text to a feminist or postcolonial reading?

After you make that decision, I'm asking you to create a blog where you describe what you're going to write about.  How are you going to utilize the theoretical text?  What insights will you use in order to frame your analysis?

Then talk a bit about what you would like to say about the novel.  Basically, this is a prewriting exercise that is designed to help you develop a topic.  I want to have a chance to read these things before you take off on an essay (so that I can head off any problems that I see before you get 1500 words into it).

This post should be at least 300 words, and MUST QUOTE FROM THE THEORETICAL TEXT.  Due before class on Monday.  Have fun.

P.S. If you would like to apply an alternative lens, you may.  However, this means that you will have to do your own research on that theory.