...Running Head: Children's Literature Task 1 1 Children;s Literature Task 1 Arthur Carroll Western Governor's University Children's Literature Task 1 2 Children's Literature Task 1 It is well known that the world is filled to the brim with a rich history in athletics, education, science, politics, and the arts. What is not common knowledge is the history and richness of children's literature and how it eventually became what it is today. Just like most things, what we now know as children's literature is nothing like what it was originally, it has transformed into something else entirely. Nonetheless, it has as colorful a history as it does some of it's own books. Before children's literature was ever even written down it was given to children in a less tangible way; orally. Prior to publishers like Scholastic and Golden Books existence, the technology to write books was long and tedious, especially if the author was trying to make many copies. So instead, children's literature was told out loud where many could hear it at once and the time factor for preparation was at a minimum. Once authors had better technology to help simplify the process of physical writing, oral literature transformed into written literature. It wasn't always computers or even typewriters though, written used to literally mean written. Like the transformation from mouth to pen, pen evolved to computer...
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...The History of Children’s Literature EDP1: Task 1 Janet Blake Western Governors University Children’s literature is defined many different ways. It can be simply defined as a book that a child reads, or as Kiefer defined it “as the imaginative shaping of life and thought into the forms and structures of language.” (Kiefer, 2010, p.5) Literature has been around for hundreds of years, although not in the form that we are used to seeing now. There have always been stories to be told for as long as one can remember. Before the days of bound books and magazines, there were stories that were told by people in the village around the campfires, or the bards and traveling entertainers telling stories to the court in the castles. This form of literature is labeled as oral literature. Oral literature has been around as long as there has been a language to speak. It is the stories that have been passed on from generation to generation. These stories included folklore, fables, stories about animals, or stories about brave heroes who performed a majestic deed to win the hand of his true love. They were told to both children and adults alike, because children and adults were all treated similarly during this time. In the early years of the fifth century through the fifteenth century this was the avenue for entertainment and to teach many of the lessons that they needed. Children would listen to the stories that the adults would listen to. These stories were often kept or preserved...
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...In 16th century Ethiopia, Amharic, the main spoken language, was used to write books and few were written in Ge’ez. Before the Amharic times there were Christian writings that were translated into Ge'ez but this language lost footing and became mostly a written language, and was then overtaken by Amharic. During the 18th century Ge’ez became the language of the church and poetry using this language came into style. This style of Ethiopian poetry was practiced in monasteries throughout the the colonial times (Ethiopian literature). Monasteries during the 1800’s, although they probably had Amharic books, mainly used the Ge’ez poetry such as the poems written by Alaqa Taye (Ethiopian literature). The change of the dominant language in Ethiopia affected the literature produced during pre-colonial and colonial...
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...Religion in Colonial America Deanna Levant ENG 491/American Literature to 1860 Professor Rathi Krishnan October 27, 2014 The Colonial period was an abundant period of American history in its source of respectful and influential people who helped to shape modern society through questioning the past beliefs. As a result, many people came to America with the purpose of searching for religious freedom. Their major hopes and wishes were to escape the religious persecution, which they were forced to face. In addition, they had the opportunity to choose religion that wished to be part of. Hence, the settlers came here with a load of European cultural and artistic traditions and began to implement them in real life. Consequently, the earliest writings that emerged during the colonial period were religious tracts and historical essays. Thus, this paper presents the information on the role of religion in colonial American literature and discusses the works of colonial authors to analyze how their religious views shape their literary works, their styles, and their interpretation of historical and political events. To start with, for the Puritans of the Colonial Period, various creations were actually connected to their religious beliefs and views of God. The Puritans sailed to America in order to build their lives on biblical laws away from the rule of the old church. Severe Calvinists, they believed in the indisputable authority...
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...The colonial period was the start of a new world. And people met the Native Americans for the first time. Religion influenced literature because the type of people that went to the new world wanted to have their freedom, which continued to be a trend. Also politics had a role in influencing literature . First off, religion had a big influence on literature because religion was such a big part of life. To start, the puritans were a big part the people that first came to America. they went over to try and get away from being prosecuted for their religion. “Puritans believed that it was necessary to be in a covenant relationship with God in order to redeem one from one’s sinful condition, that God had chosen to reveal salvation through preaching, and that the Holy Spirit was the energizing instrument of salvation” (britannica, puritans). The Puritans went to the new world to escape the judgement and persecution they experienced in England. They wanted freedom. Next, Rationalist were the other big group in the new colonies. they were different from the puritans, but were still important. “the view that regards reason as the...
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...1. ABORIGINAL 2.1 RELIGION Like the Hellenic religion of Ancient Greece, the early religion of the Filipinos was polytheistic. They worshipped different deities that have different domains and functions, often related to the daily lives of the believers. Bathalang Maykapal was superior to all other deities for he was believed to be the creator of earth and of man. Other deities were: Idiyanale, the god of agriculture; Lalahon, goddess of harvest; Balangaw, a rainbow god; Mandarangan, the god of war; Diyan Masalanta, god of love; Agni, the fire god; and many others. Objects of nature were to be respected. Old trees were considered “divine”. Anitos and diwatas, equivalent to our saints today, were offered prayers and food. Sacrificial rituals were performed by priests or priestesses called baylana or katalona. They believed in the immortality of the soul and in life after death. 2.2 SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANIZATION The forms of government during this time were aristocracy (in which power is in the hands of a small, privileged, ruling class) and plutocracy (in which society is ruled and dominated by the small minority of the wealthiest citizens). These privileged people were the nobles. They were the chieftains of the barangay, along with their families. They enjoyed rights that were not usually enjoyed by the other members of the society. In the Tagalog region, they usually carried the title of Gat or Lakan. They wielded tremendous influence in the society. Next to the...
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...History of Philippine Literature in English I. Pre-Colonial Period - Consisted of early Filipino literature passed down orally; oral pieces have a communal authorship – it was difficult to trace the original author of the piece since oral literature did not focus on ownership or copyright, rather on the act of storytelling itself; - Many oral pieces became lost in the wave of the new literary influence brought about by the Spanish colonization; however, according to the Philippine Literature: A History & Anthology, English Edition (Lumbera, B. & Lumbera C.), the pre-colonial period of Philippine literature is considered the longest in the country’s history; - Literature in this period is based on tradition, reflecting daily life activities such as housework, farming, fishing, hunting, and taking care of the children as well; - Oral pieces told stories which explained heroes and their adventures; they attempted to explain certain natural phenomena, and, at the same time, served as entertainment purposes; - Pre-colonial literature showed certain elements that linked the Filipino culture to other Southeast Asian countries (e.g. oral pieces which were performed through a tribal dance have certain similarities to the Malay dance); - This period in Philippine literature history represented the ethos of the people before the arrival of a huge cultural influence – literature as a cultural tradition...
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...James Clifford T. Santos Dr. Jocelyn Martin LIT 127.2 (Postcolonial Literature II) Ateneo De Manila University 10 February 2014 Of Interpreters, Schools, and Courts: An Analysis of the Postcolonial Themes of Language, Education, and Power in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Through his awareness of the European literary tradition of negatively stereotyping the African natives as uncivilized peoples and putting the West in the pedestal in terms of cultural superiority and advancement (Guthrie 51-52), it can be asserted that the renowned African novelist and intellectual Chinua Achebe may had realized, at one point in his life, that in order to have a more realistic portrayal of the dynamics of Western and non-Western contact, there is a need to break such convention which undeniably favours the West. Perhaps, this is the reason why Achebe had written Things Fall Apart in such a way that it provides readers the African point of view of culture, identity and colonization thereby eradicating the dominant and unwarranted perception that the peoples of Africa are mere savages that have no customs, beliefs and traditions. Indeed, by providing a somewhat balanced approach in portraying the dynamic societal changes experienced by the Ibo people due to the conflict between their traditional culture and the foreign culture brought by their English colonizers primarily through religious and educational instruction, Things Fall Apart indubitably qualifies as a relevant and interesting...
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...many changes that reformed their way of life from the time they first set foot in the New World. After being discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, colonists began to cross the Atlantic Ocean in hopes of riches, religious freedom, and many other reasons. The average age of the colonists was seventeen before the revolution. A seventeen year old is very rebellious, and when the British throne mistreated them, they stood up to fight. However, before the revolution, colonial society was different before the revolution. The different aspects of the colonial society included: mercantilism and the Navigation Acts, women in colonial...
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...“Until the lions produce their own historians, the story of the hunt will glorify only the hunter.” Chinua Achebe, Home and Exile Literature is the expression of life in words of truth and beauty.It encompasses all genres of literature-poetry,prose,fiction,drama,philosophy,history etc.Among them,fiction is any narrative,whether in prose or verse,which is invented instead of being an account of events that actually happened. The voice of Africa in the world of letters tries to emancipate Africa from its literary stereotype.Africa is no longer a gloomy phenomenon,a dark continent.Chinua Achebe, the major exponent of the modern African novel,is greatly concerned with the two realities of social man –his individual and group identity,the legacy of colonialism, and the shift in the system of values of life leading to rampant corruption- moral and monetary. He is also concerned with the use of English as the medium of expression of African experience defining the relevance of colonial and post-colonial experience to the present .Achebe’s novels are dialectic tranformation of experience, a new way of looking at tradition to create a different order of reality through universalizing imagination.Though he has followed the established tradition of novel writing in English, Achebe has put few things ‘African’ and has successfully employed certain narrative techniques of narration to give authenticity and African flavour to his novels in order to attract the native audience and...
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...pre-communist, 1950s or 60s picture of Grenada that can heal Grenadian society after its violent history. What stands out in this novel is that, even though Grenada has had such a violent political history, it does not even mention politics. It is as if Buffong has given up on politics; so much so that she does not even bother to critique it any more. Yet she does critique corrupt religious figures, from obeah practitioners to those of the higher echelons of the Roman Catholic Church. This suggests that Buffong sets her hopes on a return to an African-based spirituality in harmony with nature and community, illustrated by the novel’s nature symbolism and African-Caribbean religions and folklore. In Healing Narratives, Gay Wilentz develops the idea that “cultures themselves can be[come] ill” from a brutal history of colonial conquest and slavery (1). The colonists’ violent disruption and dislocation of African communities were compounded by the psychological violence caused by the repression of the root culture and the imposition of the dominant culture; conditions which laid the foundation for sick Caribbean communities. Members of these communities suffer from the identity crises caused by the conflict between Western materialism and African spirituality. Although the enslaved Africans clung to their culture to maintain an identity in opposition to that of the colonizer, their descendants were lured into assimilation by promises of material wellbeing and social mobility under the...
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...parents in the large village Ogidi, in Igboland, Eastern Nigeria. He received an early education in English, but grew up surrounded by a complex fusion of Igbo traditions and colonial legacy. He studied literature and medicine at the University of Ibadan; after graduating, he went to work for the Nigerian Broadcasting Company in Lagos and later studied at the British Broadcasting Corporation staff school in London. During this time, Achebe was developing work as a writer. Starting in the 1950s, he was central to a new Nigerian literary movement that drew on the oral traditions of Nigeria's indigenous tribes. Although Achebe wrote in English, he attempted to incorporate Igbo vocabulary and narratives. Things Fall Apart (1958) was his first novel, and remains his best-known work. It has been translated into at least forty-five languages, and has sold eight million copies worldwide. Chinua Achebe’s “African Trilogy” : Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God captures a society caught between its traditional roots and the demands of a rapidly changing world. A titled Ibo chieftain himself, Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of Western and traditional African values during and after the colonial era. His style relies heavily on the Ibo oral tradition, and combines...
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...oral literature serve to reinforce existing religious and social patterns. The Westernized minority, influenced by European culture and Christianity, first rejected African traditional culture, but with the rise of African nationalism, a cultural revival occurred. The governments of most African nations foster national dance and music groups, museums, and to a lesser degree, artists and writers. Africa was the birthplace of the human species between 8 million and 5 million years ago. Today, the vast majority of its inhabitants are of indigenous origin. People across the continent are remarkably diverse by just about any measure: They speak a vast number of different languages, practice hundreds of distinct religions, live in a variety of types of dwellings, and engage in a wide range of economic activities. Over the centuries, peoples from other parts of the world have migrated to Africa and settled there. Historically, Arabs have been the most numerous immigrants. Starting in the 7th century, they crossed into North Africa from the Middle East, bringing the religion of Islam with them. A later movement of Arabs into East and Central Africa occurred in the 19th century. Europeans first settled in Africa in the mid-17th century near the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern end of the continent. More Europeans immigrated during the subsequent colonial period, particularly to present-day South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Algeria. South Asians also arrived during colonial times...
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...HISTORY OF MALAYSIAN ARTS Malaysia is a very unique country that have multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-ethnics and multilingual as this country consist of 50% Malays, 30% Chinese and 20% India and this country also consist of various ethnics as well as migrants and colonial settlers that comes from Portugal, British and Japan afterwards all of these factors contributed to the development of arts in Malaysia. Malaysian arts also have been influenced by the Hindus and Islam in architecture design, music, language and literaturer. We can see the Hindus influential mostly in the classic literaturer for instance Hikayat Jaya Lengkara and Hikayat Indera Bangsawan while Islam has influenced Malaysian architecture design, music and paint such as Sultan Abdul Samad building has Islamic style design like floral and geometrical shapes furthermore to spread Islam reformation Arabian people encouraged local people to sing songs that shows praisal and worship the almighty Allah and His messenger Muhammad. Malaysian artists have different styles in paintings and they adopted artistic techniques from British, Chinese and Middle East creativity. Generally Malaysian arts have been influenced by the exterior factors and help to build great and diverse Malaysian arts. The Music of Malaysia Music and dance are almost inseparable in the Malaysian culture. Where there is one, the other is not far behind. True to Malaysia's heritage, dances vary widely and are, if not imports direct from the source...
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...of the cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism. In simplest and most familiar way, the hyphenated term post colonial means post or after the colonial period and it indicates something that happened after the end of formal colonization. Post-colonial has become useful because it raises large and important questions. Therefore, the widest definition of post colonial fiction easily includes Chinua Achebe’s novels. Postcolonial study delineates all aspects of the colonial process from the beginning to the end of colonial contact. Chinua Achebe’s novels contain the experiences of Nigerian people after the end of British Empire. Achebe’s novels are the replication of African history as well. Therefore, his novels describe an archetypal post colonial era African country. Chinua Achebe is one of the finest Nigerian novelists of the twentieth century, whose novels show various post colonial aspects in them. Achebe throws light on the changes in African society and politics, His four novels cover the entire colonial history of Africa from the early days of European advent to the post colonial aspects like retrieval of an identity and own past, language liberty, cultural change, disestablishment of Eurocentric norms and complexes of this period of perplexity. Achebe wrote novels chronologically one is attached to another as, pre-colonial, colonial, post colonial and commonwealth. Chinua Achebe has depicted traditional Igbo society and African history through writing his...
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