Friday, May 14, 2010

Honoring Edward Said... analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching

Edward Said and sister, Rosemarie 1940

from my dear friend Nancy:
Form A of the 2010 Advanced Placement Literature and Composition Test uses a prompt inspired by Edward Said


(Suggested time 40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)

Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also said that exile can become “a potent, even enriching” experience.

Select a novel, play, or epic in which a character experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from “home,” whether that home is the character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special place. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching, and how this experience illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or one of comparable literary merit. Do not merely summarize the plot.

The American

Angle of Repose

Another Country

As You Like It

Brave New World

Crime and Punishment

Doctor Zhivago

Heart of Darkness

Invisible Man

Jane Eyre

Jasmine

Jude the Obscure

King Lear

The Little Foxes

Madame Bovary

The Mayor of Casterbridge

My Ántonia

Obasan

The Odyssey

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

The Other

Paradise Lost

The Poisonwood Bible

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

The Road

Robinson Crusoe

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Sister Carrie

Sister of My Heart

Snow Falling on Cedars

The Tempest

Things Fall Apart

The Women of Brewster Place

Wuthering Heights

Piano Keys

Fayeq Oweis "The piano keys honor Edward Said’s artistic talent. They also honor his efforts in using music to bridge the Palestinian-Israeli divide (Riding 2006). Together with conductor Daniel Barenboim, he created the East-West Diwan Orchestra" Honoring Edward Said: Outline and Element Descriptions 9, featuring young Israeli and Palestinian musicians.

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1 comment:

  1. Anne Selden AnnabMay 14, 2010 at 8:56 AM

    Dear AP - The Edward Said question on this years AP test

    Dear AP,

    I suspect you will be getting many complaints about the Edward Said question on this years AP test as there are harassment campaigns being launched to punish you for daring to print the word Palestinian.

    The transition from the Zionist rally cry of "There is no such thing as a Palestinian" into a more enlightened and compassionate era is bound to be difficult. I very much hope that your best students, regardless of supposed race or religion, were able to rise to the occasion- able to concentrate on writing a great essay.... it really was a perfect question.

    Sincerely,
    Anne Selden Annab
    American homemaker & poet

    ReplyDelete