Compare and contrast the effects of magic realism in Mezlekia, realism in Mason-John, and surrealism in Shane Book.

Answer one of the questions below:

-Nega Mezlekias memoir describes an Ethiopia rent by civil war, while Valerie Mason-Johns poetry discusses her damaged self-image as a girl. Zalika Reid-Bentas linked short stories chronicle a protagonists slow adoption of an independent identity as a second-generation, immigration-borne, African-Canadian girl. Discuss the phenomenon of betrayal in each of these works.

-Compare and contrast the effects of magic realism in Mezlekia, realism in Mason-John, and surrealism in Shane Book.

-Mezlekia is African from Africa, Mason-John is black but raised in white households, while Shane Book is mixed-race, born in Canada, but with a Peruvian and Trinidadian background. How does generational connectionor disconnectionto Africa influence (or not) the black perspectives that each presents?

-Mezlekia describes war crimes, Mason-John comments on trauma, Book scribes violent images. What is the connectionif anybetween historical inheritance and the propensity for harming oneself and/or others?

-Elaborate upon the clashif anybetween European (political) influence and Afrocentric aspirations in Reid-Benta, Mason-John, and Book.

-Apply Mezlekias comments on Ethiopian poetry to the works by Mason-John and Book. Rewrite their poems so that they offer double or triple meanings in the manner than Mezlekia describes.

-If you had to stage or film or dramatize Mezlekia, Book, or Reid-Benta which episodes in each of their works would you choose to emphasize? Why?

-What is the importance of patois or moments of Black (or Blackened) English in Reid-Benta, Book, and Mason-John?

…

Books from the term:

Atkinson & Fiorito. The Life Crimes and Hard Times of Ricky Atkinson.

Book, Shane. Congotronic

Boyd, George. Consecrated Ground.

Brand, Dionne. Land to Light On.

Clarke, Austin. Choosing His Coffin.

Compton, Wayde. 49th Parallel Psalm.

Cooper, Afua. The Hanging of Angelique

Gale, Lorena. Anglique.

Hosten, Jennifer. Miss World 1970.

Jones & Walker. Burnley Rocky Jones: Revolutionary.

Laferrire, Dany. How to Make Love to a Negro without Getting Tired.

Mason-John, Valerie. I Am Still Your Negro.

Mayr, Suzette. Monoceros.

Mezlekia, Nega. Notes from the Hyenas Belly.

Reid-Benta, Zalika. Frying Plantain.

Sears, Djanet. Harlem Duet.

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