Post-Colonial Literary Criticism About City Lovers Essay

Materials:

Listen to the following podcast as Tessa Hadley reads the story:
- “City Lovers” by Nadine Gordimer [Audio: 52.24min]
- If the podcast link above does not work, try: http://www.newyorker.com/podcast/fiction/tessa-had…
- The original article can be accessed from the following link:
  - City Lovers – New Yorker Magazine October 13 1975 (PDF: 3 Pages)
Attend to what the reader and the host discuss before and after the story as well.

Assigments:

Review Post-Colonial literary theory:
- Bedford/St. Martin’s “Critical Approaches” overview .
Read this post by AmardeepSingh on the Post-Colonial concepts of mimicry and hybridity:
- Mimicry and Hybridity in Plain English
Answer these questions regarding “City Lovers”:
- Who is/are the oppressed? Who is/are the oppressors?
- What are the cultural practices of the oppressed and the oppressor?
- How do the cultures intersect?
- Who is exerting power over whom? How? In what ways?
Think about how factors of oppression or hybridization or mimicry affect the two main characters. These effects might be caused by political, social, economic, or cultural oppression.
Post a three-paragraph response to the discussion board by clicking on the title of this activity or through the Discussion Board main menu on the left.
- In the first paragraph, identify the two characters and the conflict you will analyze.
- In the second, analyze factors of oppression that seem to be motivating these characters, especially in ways that put them in conflict with each other or their environment.
- In the third, explain how these factors and this conflict contribute to meanings of the story.
- Use direct quotations and paraphrases (with in-text citations) to support your claims and include Works Cited entries for Amardeep Singh and for the audio version or the PDF version of the story.