Pronunciation Guide for M. Pa Shlaylay's Reading Schedule

2. How do we pronounce the author’s last name? M Pa Shlaylay (Pronouncing the M and P separately; the "ph" = a "sh" sound)

3. Reading Schedule 2017 Chapters 1-4 (p 3-27) Monday 11/13 Chapters 5, 6, Interlude, 7 (p 29-49) Tuesday, 11/14 Chapter 8-11 (p 51-73) Wednesday, 11/15 **Thursday 11/16—Jigsaw Work Time** Chapters Interlude, 12 and 13 (p 76-90)Friday 11/17 **Present Jigsaw Monday 11/20*** Chapters 14-15 (p. 91-119) Tuesday, 11/21 Chapter 16-18 (p 121-151) Wednesday, 11/22 Chapters 19, Interlude, 20 (p 153-185) Monday, 11/27 21, Interlude, 22 (p 187-212) Tuesday, 11/28 Interlude, 23, and Epilogue (p 195-212; 231-236) Wednesday, 11/29 Socratic Seminar Thursday & Friday, 11/30 & 12/1

4. Journals–Remember to complete BOTH assignments for each section. Part 1–Analysis of Literary Conventions: For each section you will choose one convention Mphalele is using and analyze it. What is the effect of his use of this particular convention in this section and in the work as a whole? Quote and label the text with page number. If you are selecting a longer extract, write the opening and closing words. Identify the convention using the proper term and discuss the effect of the convention. Ground your analysis in the text. Length requirement: one half page per section. Part 2—Thinking about discussion of a non-fiction work: Select one of the questions below and consider it in light of the section you read for today. Quote the text to support your points. • What cultural aspects of the context do you think had the strongest impacts in this section of the autobiography? • Is there any person in this section, other than the writer, whose presence you found to be forceful or memorable? • Were there some aspects of Mphalele’s life that you found he was significantly omitting in the story of his experience in this section? • What features of the work in this section most attracted you: for example, the history, the geography, the encounters with people, or the personal reactions of the writer? • What is the role of anecdote in this section and how well do you think Mphalele handled this feature in this section? • Do you have any reservations about Mphalele’s responses or attitudes to the places/people/idea in this section? • What human issues do you see forming the subjects of the work in this section? Do you find any of them particularly well handled?

6. Intro Readings: Discuss • Conventions of Autobiography: what did you learn?

7. Activate Prior Knowledge: What do you already know about African Apartheid?

9. Apartheid • A system of legal racial segregation enforced by the government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority ‘non-white’ inhabitants of South Africa were reduced and minority rule by white people was maintained.

10. Apartheid • Legislation classified inhabitants into racial groups • Black • White • Colored • Indian • TOWNSHIPS: residential areas were segregated, sometimes by means of forced removals. • The government segregated education, medical care, and other public services, and provided black people with services inferior to those of white people.

11. Foreward: Intro Readings • Pair and Share— Foreward to Down Second Avenue • In what way is he a prophet? Describe his life and commitment to education. • One thing you did not know yet about Mphahlele • One thing you had a question about

12. “ The Second Coming” Thesis Exemplars • These dominant-effect statements really capture the big ideas inherent in Yeats’s modernist poem.

13. Epigraph—Yeats! • Discuss: • Why do you think Mphahlelechose this epigraph? What do you think it says about the content of the work to come? • “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.”

14. Mphahlele’s Obituary • Read his obituary to gain additional context for understanding his autobiographical memoir. • Note two sentences that add to your knowledge of the author.

15. Homework • Read chapters 1-4 (p. 3-27) in DSA for Monday and write your first journal entry for this novel in your comp book • Part 2—Thinking about discussion of a non-fiction work • Part 1–Analysis of Literary Conventions

16. Ch1-2: Share and Stamp Journals Character List Setting Narrative voice is 5-y-o in 1924 (Mphahlele was born in 1919) Pretoria and Maupaneng, South Africa • “I”—Ezekiel • Big brother and little sister • Mother and father • Paternal Grandmother • At least 2 daughters, one son • Sarah • Uncle • Old Modsie • Old Segone • Old Reba • Thelma and the pagan girl

17. Ch 3-4: Share and Stamp Journals New Character List Setting Narrator is 12 in chapter three—seven years from the start of the novel Marabastad (the greatest problem was the provision of water) • Chief Mphahlele (not related) • Mother: Eva • Father: Moses • Solomon • Maternal Grandmother-Hibila • Aunt Dora (three kids of her own), three uncles younger than E’s mother, husband (Titus) is dead • Ma-Janeware • Ma-Legodi • Dokie(s), both sharp and fat • BoetaLem (Brother Blade) • Old Ramtese • Ra-stand

18. Analyze the literary structures Mphahlele employs in chapter 1-4: Form and Structure • Foreshadowing • Plot/subplot • Chapter • Flashback • Flash forward • Chronological/disrupted narrative • Exposition • Climax • Plot • Suspense • Circular narrative • Personal/Archetypal myth Convention/Genre of Autobiography: Anecdote, bildungsroman Narrative Voice • Point of view • First person • Interior Monologue • Direct/indirect speech • Stream of consciousness

19. CH 1-4 Discussion • What are the cultural values that Mphahlele communicates through his narratives? • Analyze the tone Mphahlele creates to critique those values • What cruelties did young Ezekiel experience in the autobiography’s exposition? Does he thrive? Could anyone, given these circumstances?

20. CH 1-4 Discussion Analyze Mphahlele’s use of: • Symbols: Water, clothing, vermin … • Punctuation: em-dashes … • Motifs: Religion, education • Themes: Civilization v savagery; urban v rural; British v Boers

21. DSA Discussion Analyze Mphahlele’s use of: • Gender Roles: within families? Villages? • Imagery: Seasons, Flowers, Houses, Death, Water • Setting: urban v rural; rivers, etc. • Motifs: Growing, Religion, Poverty, Class Divisions

22. DSA 1-4 Exit Slip Analyze Mphahlele’s use of language, technique, and/or style in his memoir’s exposition to convey the motif of: (choose one) • Religion • Water • Patriarchy/Matriarchy • Safety

23. Homework • Read Chapters 5, 6, Interlude, and 7 (p 29-49) in DSA for Tuesday and write your second journal entry for this novel in your comp book • Part 2—Thinking about discussion of a non-fiction work • Part 1–Analysis of Literary Conventions

24. CH 3-4 Culture Discussion “A pilgrimage at a communal water tap. It was like this in Second Avenue, you knew it must be like this at every other communal tap in Marabastad.” (23) “Government is a strange person.” (25) “Inevitable white superintendent…” “But the back yards seemed to be beyond him.” (27)

25. Analyze the literary structures Mphahlele employs in his 1) chapters and 2) interludes: Form and Structure • Foreshadowing • Plot/subplot • Chapter • Flashback • Flash forward • Chronological/disrupted narrative • Exposition • Climax • Plot • Suspense • Circular narrative • Personal/Archetypal myth Convention/Genre of Autobiography: Anecdote, bildungsroman Narrative Voice • Point of view • First person • Interior Monologue • Direct/indirect speech • Stream of consciousness

26. CH 5: “The Location” • What evidence does Mphahlele give in this chapter that he is growing up and broadening his perspective? • In this chapter, what is the significance of Mphahlele’s use of: • Seasonal/weather imagery • Setting

27. CH 6: “Saturday Night” • What are some of the ways Mphahlele felt that “Darkness had set in” during his childhood? (38) • Describe how the brewing of beer illuminates both gender roles in Marabastad and the relationship between people and the police? Where is irony in this alcohol motif? • Convention focus: anaphora (37) • “Most people feared she was telling the truth” (39). What truths are feared in young Mphahlele’s South Africa?

28. Interlude—Pre-CH 7 • Memoir’s Structure: • What is the purpose of the Interludes in Mphahlele’s memoir? • What ideas does this interlude convey? • How is the writing style in this interlude similar to or different from the writing style in the chapters?

29. CH 7 “Backward Child” • Does Mphahlele’s discussion of education, partiularly ‘Kuzwi’, reflect a mature or immature worldview? Hyperbole? • How does the cinema anecdote show the role of art and literacy in Mphahlele’s life? In Apartheid African culture?

30. Homework • Read Chapters 8-11 in DSA for Wednesday and write your second journal entry for this novel in your comp book • Part 2—Thinking about discussion of a non-fiction work • Part 1–Analysis of Literary Conventions

31. South African Culture & Context Jigsaw • Objective: Determine how Mphahlele’s autobiography uses South African history to evoke a critique of apartheid’s nuanced prejudices. • Instructions: • Students will work with others in their same number group to research an assigned topic tomorrow in class using laptops. • On Monday, 11/20, students will teach their material to a group of students who have researched the other 6 topics. All students will take notes. • Working with students in your same number group, research your assigned topic. By the end of the two half-class work periods you should be able to teach the other 7 people in your jigsaw group (each of whom has one of the other seven topics) for 5 minutes about your topic. • You must turn in ONE typed, scan-able page of notes to Matheny after you present.

32. Presentation Order: 1. British conquest of the Xhosa people and the Zulu people; British colonialism in South Africa 2. British conquest of the Afrikaner people (the Boers); Orange Free State and Transvaal; discoveries of diamond mines and gold mines; the Anglo-Boer war 3. Racial Distinctions in South Africa, 1910-1934 (Categories and Classes of Races, relative position in society, percentage of the population etc.) 4. Apartheid, 1948-1957 including the laws associated with apartheid such as the Bantu Education Act 5. African National Congress up until 1957 6. Drum Magazine (South Africa): history and importance of it 1950s 7. Segregation and Discrimination in South Africa, 1910-1939

33. Post-Presentation Exit Board-Thesis • On the board, legibly, write a vivid, specific, and unique thesis statement about how the history of South Africa affected Mphahlele’s writing. • Write your name after your sentence.

34. Journal Stamping and Discussion According to The Independent, “Es'kiaMphahlele was one of the founding figures of modern African literature. Though a novelist and short story-writer of distinction, he will almost certainly be remembered most for the autobiographical Down Second Avenue, published in 1959 when the world's conscience was first being pricked by South African writers protesting at the apparently indomitable system of apartheid.” -What have you read that might make the larger world feel compunction at their passive or active role in apartheid? Note specific anecdotes in your discussion.

35. CH 8 “The Foxes” • Evaluate the moral character of Mphahlele’s friend group • Toward each other • Toward girls • Toward outsiders--Chinese, Indian, and from the Rand (a.k.a. Ranteng or Johannesburg)

36. CH 9 “Hawker’s Daughter” • Analyze the initial characterization of Rebone and her father, DinkuDikae • Role of gossip • Foreshadowing…

37. CH 10 “Ma-Lebona” • What does the extended anecdote about Ma-Lebona, Joel, and Anna (and “pretty Kuku”) reveal about gender roles and marriage roles in Marabastad?

38. CH 11 “Ma-Bottles” • Why are “Marabasted and winter” inseparable in Mphahlele’s mind? • What tragedies are related in this chapter?

39. “The Second Coming” Turning and turning in the widening gyre    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;  Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;  Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,  The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;  The best lack all conviction, while the worst    Are full of passionate intensity.  Surely some revelation is at hand;  Surely the Second Coming is at hand.    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it    Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.    The darkness drops again; but now I know    That twenty centuries of stony sleep  Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? 

40. DSA Group Work: Analyzing the Memoir’s Exposition and Rising Action • Your group of 2-3 people will be assigned a dominant theme, motif, technique, style, or convention in the memoir to begin to synthesize what Mphahlele does in Ch 1 – 13. • Religion • Femininity • Masculinity • Childhood • Familial relationships • Marriage • Setting • Water • Racial tension/Apartheid • Purpose and function of Interludes • Mphahlele’s writing style and structure • Connections to Yeats’ “The Second Coming” • Find evidence of how Mphahlele uses your topic and analyze that evidence—then, create a literary thesis statement to sum up your work • Relay your groups’ evidence and analysis, along with decorative and effective poster design, on the poster paper provided for you. • This work is due at the end of class today. Everyone who contributed should put their first and last names on the poster.

41. Journal Stamping and Discussion • Discuss how the quote relates to the structure and voice Mphahlele constructs in his autobiography: • “No use trying to put the pieces together. Pieces of my life. They are a jumble.” (77)

42. Interlude • Biblical Allusion: Levi, Moses • “…God will provide…” (76) • “No use trying to put the pieces together. Pieces of my life. They are a jumble.” (77)

43. CH 12 “Witchcraft Next Door” • “I had the same strong fear of Witchcraft as Maupaneng had instilled in me.” (82) • P. 82/24: tortise symbol

44. Post-6 & 11 Interlude Discussion • What function do Mphahlele’s two interludes serve in the book thus far? • A: 41-43; B: 75-77 • Analyze the content, style, and conventions of your assigned interlude. Contrast with that of the other chapters. • Mphahlele writes three more interludes: post-19, post-21, and post-22

45. CH 13-16 Small-Group DiscussionRecord responses in your comp books on a dedicated page. • For a possible A (88%), respond—analyzing specific evidence—to at least one question per chapter slide. • For a possible A+, respond well to more questions than just the four.

46. CH 13 “Big Eyes” • How does the anecdote about Big Eyes, the choir, and the laundry reveal the subjugation of the Africans, to both European Government and Religion? • Analyze the friendship between Rebone and Ezekiel. • Evaluate the failure of educators: censorship or awkwardness? (76, 90)

47. 1934: Prince George, British Duke of Kent, visits Africa

48. CH 14 “The Columbia Dance Hall” • 30s international depression—how does it’s inclusion in the narrative reveal the depth of poverty in Marabastad? • Analyze the racism Es’kia admits to in this chapter. • What cultural values does the story about Old Rametse and the Blade reveal? • Analyze Ezekiel’s evolving religious consciousness.

49. CH 15 “Fight with Abdool” • “For Aunt Dora, the past never seemed to hold any romantic memories; she never spoke about the future; she simply grappled with the present.” (112) • Does the story about the stamp book prove or disprove Mphahlele’s narration about Dora? • Why do Aunt Dora and Grandmother loathe boys who “[hung] around on shop verandas”?

50. Who in the work, aside from the author, created a presence you found to be forceful or memorable?