Andrew’s World Literature Blog

     Starting with Hansu, I was immediately apprehensive about him. I reminded myself that this takes place a long time before these kinds of age gaps would be considered socially reprehensible, but it didn’t help me think of Hansu positively. I was hoping that the gaze Hansu had for Sunja in the beginning was a misdirect from a gaze of attraction like one of the women there noticed, but that didn’t turn out to be the case later on. Before that reveal however, I actually admired and rooted for Hansu when he protected Sunja from those kids, and held out hope that he had a different motive. I somewhat understood why they met in private since people would assume misleading ideas about them at the time, but I was immediately uncomfortable when he wanted her to call him his big brother, coming off as way too sudden considering they had just met. Hansu generally seemed manipulative and off putting, and I had completely disliked him once they actually started a relationship, mor...

     I think the most striking difference between Busan and the Korean ghettos in Osaka (from the reader’s perspective) are found in Sunja’s expectations of Japan contrasting with her feelings of home. Though she understands that she doesn’t generally live as well as most Japanese families do and that there are always guests being lodged, I feel like Sunja likes her home. I also think she likes the area, but knows that it’s dangerous for her to walk alone. Before meeting Hansu, most of her life at home revolved around working, as women weren’t allowed to be educated and she didn’t really have any friends outside of the sisters in the house.      Though we haven’t seen Osaka for that long at this point in the book, we see that the area Sunja is living in is a Korean ghetto, harboring rough living conditions for all the citizens there imposed on them by the Japanese government. Our first impression of the people of this area is a warning from Yoseb that peopl...

     The way the final chapter of Equiano’s narrative is written can be tied back to the introductory letter found before the first chapter. It isn’t in every edition of the book, but we read it in class. The letter addresses Equiano’s main audience, who he assumes is mainly comprised of white Londoners that may already be in favor of slavery, or that may have a neutral stance on it. I immediately noticed how much he was prefacing his words, seeming as though he didn’t want to offend. Part of the intent of this book is to be a message against slavery, one that was written during the height of its existence. With that, Equiano needed to be cautious with his wording and his demands, especially since he himself is black. He can’t ask for too much or come on too strongly, denouncing not just slavery but everybody who perpetuates its existence. The final chapter is Equiano’s final plea to the humanity of the reader, hoping that if his narrative has done anything, it has appeal...

     To start off, I think the Equiano team did a great job with their presentation, establishing a lot of the historical context in Equiano’s narrative. What stuck with me the most was the diagram and additional information about the layout and space of the ships on the Atlantic slave trade. While I had already known about the trade and the awful, inhumane conditions found within, the presentation opened my eyes to some other terrible details that made it even more real than it was. The StoryMap states that merely 68 out of 251 were less crowded than what the diagram showed, a diagram specifically used by abolitionists to draw attention to these injustices. The space in the diagram had already seemed incredibly crowded and unlivable, but then we learned that the ships had carried upwards of 740 people at one point, almost twice as many as in the diagram. This would mean that strangers would literally be sleeping on top of each other, and in excrement. It was to the point...

     The Archives and Special Collections visit had a lot of interesting new topics to learn about. I was surprised that some of the papyrus found is from around 2500-3000 B.C., which was easily the oldest thing in the archive. It’s incredible that human culture can go so far back, being even more incredible that we can see it today right in front of us being preserved. And once again, I just really enjoyed seeing the many different forms that literature can take, between scrolls, tiny books, folded up pages into 8 squares, accordions, and more. The history of print strongly intersects with literary history in the sense that print is highly influential on how readers end up reading a book. As we saw with Antigone, entire lines can get changed when it comes to translations. Translating is a very difficult job, especially when authors implement subtext or ambiguity that the translator may be unsure about. It can even come to the point where a work has been altered from its ...

     It is true that Olaudah Equiano often argued for slavery to be more humane, but I do believe that ultimately, he aimed to abolish slavery. It’s important to recognize what the audience is for this autobiography. As the opening letter “My Lords and Gentlemen” that we read in class displays, Equiano treats this narrative as almost a conversation with the reader, of which would mostly be white, English citizens. He prefaces his words many times so as to not offend anybody, knowing full well that he would otherwise likely be immediately disregarded for his race as he has been throughout his entire life. Additionally, some of the slave owners and people he runs into treat him nicely compared to most slave owners, even growing attached to some of them. While slavery is bad regardless of the context, Equiano seeing and hearing of these cruel slave owners while having a situation that is usually somewhat better moves him to call for slavery to be more humane.   ...

From what I remember, transculturation is the process and point at which cultures exchange and adopt outside cultural elements, negative or positive. For example, in The Secret River, the Natives and settlers experienced transculturation when they were exchanging items they had like hats and food. There is also Dick getting along with the Native children, learning how to throw a spear and start a fire without flint. An example from my own life is in my Spanish class. Not only do I learn about Spanish and Mexican culture (through learning the language and learning about cultural events). Not only that, but one of the activities is speaking with Native Spanish speakers online. We have a specific theme and questions to ask, but between the introductions and the topic, I get to learn a lot about these different places and the worlds they live in. Honestly, most of the learning is the realization of how similar we are despite living in different countries and speaking different languages, ...

     The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is definitely one of, if not the most unique (and difficult!) books we’ve read for class. It’s the only autobiography of the bunch, and the writing feels less like the author trying to set up this world and story rather than a man telling his audience about his life in a rather matter-of-fact way. As somebody mentioned in class, it reads in a similar fashion to Hayy Ibn Yaqzan since this is a difficult book to skim or read quickly, and in some cases, it’s difficult to read in general. I have noticed that a lot of writing from the 1700s-1800s is very wordy with little consideration for concision. Sentences can just go on comma after comma, making certain concepts difficult to grasp in their verbosity. Additionally, most of the story so far has been told in a very pragmatic way, sort of listing event after event without too much flow in terms of the story beats.      Despite these challenges brou...