ICCinTE - Methods and Materials to Develop Intercultural Competence 4.3

4.1 Introduction
4.2 Guidelines literature
4.3 Tasks for literature
4.4 Three poems
4.5 The Little Prince
4.6 Malamud's Black
4.7 Guidelines for films
4.8 Tasks for films
4.9 Guidelines songs
4.10 Stranger than you
4.11 Bibliography

4.3 Tasks and activities for literature

Veronika Rot Gabrovec

NOVELS

Task

Check the internet and find out more about the different books that have been banned in various countries recently and/or in the past. Choose a title you know/have read and is available in your country. Reread it and find out why it may be considered unwanted in a community/society. (You'll find some very well known authors and books on these 'unwanted lists', like the books on Harry Potter and Mark Twain's novels.)
Organise a panel discussion on this book/a couple of 'banned' books, and discuss various criteria that censors seem to apply when the appropriateness of a book is being discussed.

FOLKTALES

Example: How the animals came to Australia

(An Australian Aboriginal legend explaining how the animals came to Australia when they were still men. Having discovered a vast new continent, they wanted to move there, but could find no other vessel that could take them all but the one that belonged to Whale. As he was unwilling to lend the boat to them, the animals used the help of Whale's best friend Starfish to steal it, then crossed the sea, and successfully settled in Australia.)

Make a list of animals that appear in the legend. Which of these animals do you know? Can you come across them in the folktales in your culture? If not, explain which animals are typical of your fairy tales.
Find a story that explains the existence/arrival of the native animals in your country. Find the parallels and differences in both tales.
Decide which of the animals in the Australian tale are the heroes, and which the antiheroes. Which are good, and which are bad? Which features of the characters/events help you come to a decision, and which make it difficult for you?
Think about the values that are presented in the tale. What values are they? Could you trace these values/such value systems in your folktales as well? Are they presented in the same way?

The story mentioned above can be found in:
Reed, A. W. 1994. Aboriginal Stories. Chatswood, NSW: Reed Books.

Note: Reed's collection of texts is interesting and offers itself for class discussions easily. Still, there are other, equally if not more interesting, legends and collections of aboriginal tales available which have not been retold by white authors but have been published as told by their traditional owners. For instance, check the Australian Aboriginal books published by Tjukurpa Press, or Working Title Press.

POETRY

Exploring the facts and attitudes in poems:
Poems about Homeland

Task One

Draw a picture representing the place where you live.
What will your picture show? Do you expect your mates' pictures to focus on the same aspects? What is your selection of the elements based on?
Read the following statement, then look at your picture. Whose attitude are you personally closer to?

If asked about their home environment, the white settlers would draw the hills, the plains, the rivers / they would focus on how beautiful the landscape is. However, if you ask the Australian Aborigines to draw their environment, they draw the kangaroos and the birds / for them it is important what the land gives them, not the aesthetic value of it.
(adapted from a TV programme)

Task Two

Read the following excerpts from various poems. Which one do you like best?
What kind of feelings do they express? Explain how the speakers of the poem feel, and why. Can you relate to their attitude? Why (not)?
Think of when and by whom these poems might have been written. Support your opinion with the ideas/expressions from the text.
Think about your country, and of the poetry written there, the advertisements used, speeches made . . How do people feel about their home country? Are patriotic feelings encouraged?
In your opinion, has the attitude changed within the last five/ten/sixty years? How so? Explore the changes in Britain/in your home country/other countries. Talk to older people, and compare their views/experiences with your opinions and views. Find the relevant monuments/memorials etc. Find examples of various kinds of music. Search for newspaper articles, TV documentaries about the (post)war time (e.g. Britain in the 40s, Britain in the 50s . ). Find some relevant literary texts, and explore the attitudes expressed there.
Compare your own conclusions with the findings of another group. Can you find any parallels/have the changes been similar or very different? How would you account for that?

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendors,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
The man who used to "hump his drum"
On far-out Queensland runs
Is fighting side by side with some
Tasmanian farmer's sons.
The fisher-boys dropped sail and oar
To grimly stand the test,
Along that storm-swept Turkish shore,
With miners from the west.
The old state jealousies of yore
Are dead as Pharaoh's sow,
We're not State children any more --
We're all Australians now!
[. ]
Fight on, fight on, till Victory
Shall send you home again.
And with Australia's flag shall fly
A spray of wattle-bough
To symbolise our unity --
We're all Australians now.
A body of England's, breathing English air,
    Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
    A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
    Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
    And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

NOTE:

The first excerpt has been taken from My Country by Dorothea Mackellar (if you want to read the whole poem,
go to: http://www.imagesaustralia.com/mycountry.htm or search for other websites.
If you want to read a modern version of this poem, check Oscar Krahnvohl's My Country: www.scu.edu.au/schools/edu/student_pages/2001/jkelly/
bcountry.html
The second excerpt has been taken from We are all Australians now by A. B. Banjo Paterson. If you want to read the whole poem, go to: www.anzacday.org.au/anzacservices/poetry/
allaussies.htm or search for other websites.
The third excerpt has been taken from The Soldier by
Rupert Brooke. If you want to read the whole poem, go to http://bartleby.com/103/149.html or search for other websites.

Task Three

Expanding and exploring the (battle)field

What seems to be the general public opinion about fighting and wars in your country?
Has the attitude changed since the Second World War/any
other war? Why (not)?
Check various available sources: talk to people who fought in WW2/any war veterans to see how they felt when going to war; watch or read any speeches available (Blair, Bush, politicians from your own country); read the newspapers (letters to the editor; editorials, commentaries); watch TV news/panel discussions etc.
Write a set of criteria according to which you will compare the persuasive strategies in the materials (e.g. language
/ metaphors, use of personal pronouns; rhetorical questions, supportive materials like photos etc used. )
- Can you find similar strategies in the British/American/other media?
- Do the strategies seem universal or typical of a culture? Are
  they merely typical of a person?
Do you agree that history can be occasionally used to enlighten people, or as a starting point for a discussion of current issues?
Are you conscious of a shared history with other people in your community/country/culture? How does common history create bonds?

TEMPORA MUTANTUR:
Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kate Walker)

Below is a text (an excerpt from a poem) where the speaker thinks about her past. Read the text carefully and decide where the speaker might be from.

Which words help you pinpoint the country? What do they
mean?
Are there any words you do not understand? Do they blur the meaning of the poem or do you still understand it?

I have seen corroboree
Where that factory belches smoke;
Here where they have memorial park
One time lubras dug for yams;
One time our dark children played
There where the railway yards are now,
And where I remember the didgeridoo
Calling us to dance and play,
Offices now, neon lights now,
Bank and shop and advertisement now,
Traffic and trade of the busy town.

Draw two 'maps'. One should show the area as it used to be in the past, the other as it is now. Which one do you
find more appealing? Why? Can you tell which one the speaker prefers?
If you wish, you can first check the meaning of some words
which might be unknown to you in the glossary below.
Then find and read the whole poem / it is called Then and now and was written by Oodgeroo Noonuccal (
Kate Walker). It will help you understand the poet's
attitude to the past and the present.

Glossary

corroboree / a ceremonial gathering of sacred, festive, or warlike character
lubras / Aboriginal women and/or girls
yams / a type of potato
didgeridoo / an Aboriginal musical instrument (traditionally played by men). It is made from a hollowed tree stem.
- What can you find out from the poem about Oodgeroo Noonuccal's community/society? Compare the values then and now. Have the value systems changed because the time has changed? Do you think it has to do with the (type of) society? Or is it something else that makes us all change?
- Why do you think the poet has two names (Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Kate Walker)? If you are not sure, find more information about the history of Australian Aborigines on the Internet, or watch the movie The Rabbit-Proof Fence. On the basis of the facts you have discovered decide if you agree with Shakespeare's opinion that "that which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet".
- Write a short poem or a paragraph on the recent changes in your life. Mention who/what has caused the changes, and how you feel about them.

HUMOUR & TABOO TOPICS
as encountered in literature and films

TASK ONE

Imagine someone is telling you the following joke. How would you react?
Write a parallel text to it, explaining what a person from your culture might be thinking when listening to a speaker telling you this joke. What would bother them more, the speaker's personal approach to telling jokes, the type of the joke / or none of these?

I can't tell jokes. Get them wrong. .I mess them up. You know. when I try . at dinner parties. Terrible. . Let's
. you know the one . uhm . This is a bar . And . This bloke goes into the bar. It's quite funny actually . one
of my . Anyway. He says to the bloke behind the bar, "Please can I have some lipstick?" Oh it's a chemist, sorry,
a chemist shop. Not a bar . And this bloke, in the chemist's, says, "Certainly sir, would you like it in a bag?" And
the bloke says, "No, that's alright, can you put it on my bill?" . It's a duck. Sorry. It was a duck. That's right. The bloke who went in was a duck.

NOTE: The joke is quoted from a scene in Neville's Island, a film
by Tim Firth, 2004

TASK TWO

Read the following short extract from G. B. Shaw's Pygmalion (Act 3). Professor Higgins is (rather successfully) trying to teach a young and impressionable girl Clara how to use the 'new small talk'. Check the original play and its translation(s) into your language, and decide:

Is the language Clara and Higgins use shocking? Do you think the expressions they use were shocking when the play was written (around 1900)?
Which taboo/swear words did the translators use when translating this scene? Are the expressions (still) taboo words in your culture? Why (not)?
How has the range of swear words changed in your language? Why? Can you explain the change of vocabulary with any social change in the society?

CLARA (all smiles) I will. Good-bye. Such nonsense, all this early Victorian prudery!
HIGGINS (tempting her) Such damned nonsense!
CLARA. Such bloody nonsense!

See more recommended titles of novels, tales and short stories
in the bibliography under Further reading, viewing and singing.