E 316N Final Exam Authors

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)

"All I want here are wide open eyes/ to see that body that can never rest." Lorca is a beloved poet and playwright both for the lyrical nature and vision of his work, but also for the courage he showed in both life and death. A fitting musical tribute to Lorca is found in the song "Lorca's Revenge," by The Pogues. Readers who have read the poem in the anthology and the story of Lorca's death will find this song a moving tribute. The "Lament for the Death of Ignacio Sánchez Mejías" is intended as an elegy for Lorca's matador friend, and is at the same time a profound meditation on mortality and greatness and grief and more. The Reader might do well to follow the path of the poem as it is laid out in the introduction, but then again, there may come a time to read the poem through, without reading footnotes or biographies, in order to enjoy the beauty and the force of the poem. Perhaps the most relevant remark made in the headnote to the poem is that Lorca, in his elegy to the downed bullfighter, refuses the consolation of religion. Instead, he celebrates Ignacio Sánchez Mejías as a great man, and his death has a kind of permanence in which he survives only in the memory of the poet. As you read, and re-read the poem, you will notice the solidity of objects—even when these are used as metaphors to represent some human trait of Mejîas.

Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006)

A prolific writer, Mahfouz is the author of more than thirty novels, over one-hundred short stories, and two hundred published articles. A youthful goal was to write a series of 40 novels based on Egyptian history form the ancient times to the present. He abandoned that goal after a few novels, but has been the tireless chronicler of Egyptian life, using his own spin on the novel form which was previously not used in Arab literature. He worked at times for newspapers, in various offices of the ministry of culture, and finally began making sufficient income when he turned his talents for writing to the Egyptian film industry. Always frank in his social criticism directed at Egypt's leaders, often unorthodox in his approach to religious matters, Mahfouz was the target of censors and religious leaders throughout his career. One zealot with a religious agenda attempted to kill Mahfouz, stabbing him in the neck before fleeing. Although he recovered from these injuries, the attack marked the beginning of the decline in Mahfouz's health, and he died in 2006. Think of "Zaabalawi" as a quest narrative, where the object of the quest is mysterious and illusive. As the narrator moves through the stages on his quest, you get a picture of life in Cairo. You will notice that the stages of the journey are progressively more spiritual—beginning with the businessman with the Western leisure suit and moving towards the district official with half-Western dress, we move to the more spiritually occupied professionals in calligraphy and music. How does the practiced drinker, also a businessman, qualify as spiritual? I think for the answer to this question, the student must learn a little about Sufi practice of Islam, more focused on finding the divine within one's self rather than in a practice of a regulatory law. Think of how alcohol strips away some layers of the ego, and notice how Mr. Wanas is surrounded by mirrors, indicating that the divine is found within. It may be the musician, Sheikh Gad, who has the most relevant kernel of wisdom in his reminder that while one searches for one's goal, one should be grateful for the people one meets and the experiences one has along the way. To prepare for the exam, make a list of the m

Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie (born 1977)

Adichie, at a relatively young age, has published three major novels (Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, and Americanah) and a collection of short stories (That Thing Around Your Neck), and has worked tirelessly to promote literacy and literature throughout Africa. Her Ted Talk "We Should All Be Feminists" is a major influence on the feminism of Beyoncé, and another Ted talk, "The Danger of a Single Story" is a wonderful cautionary note to us readers not to take any one story we read from a region or nation as "the truth" about that place.The writer of these notes wants to single out Half of a Yellow Sun as a truly remarkable achievement, placing the reader gradually into the increasingly horrific experience of an African civil war (the failed war for the independence of Biafra). Lively characterizations and an intricate use of time frames allow history to live on the page as it is experienced by actors in history. "The Headstrong Historian" is written partially as a tribute to Chinua Achebe, whose novel Things Fall Apart may be the most influential work in the African Canon. The fact that the story is published exactly 50 years after the publication of Achebe's novel, and that it occurs in Umuofia, the lands inhabited by Achebe's characters, secures the relationship between the two, as does the name of Nwambga's husband, Obierka, a name shared by a central character in Things Fall Apart. Adichie's primary objective here is to show the relationship of the rural village mentality, an indigenous mentality, with the new culture of education bought by the British missionaries and colonialists. The reader will note the central importance of the English language in protecting one's rights (particularly in respect to property). Nwambga also recognizes that the superiority of the colonizer rests on the fact that the white man has better guns. The beginning of the story is primarily free from white influence. There is the primacy in Igbo society of having (male) children, the avariciousness of Obierka's cousins (both Achebe and Adichie are careful not to present pre-colonized Africa as paradise), and some other customs. Included among these is the women's Council and their calling out the cousins for their evil wa

Hanan Al-Shaykh (born 1945)

Al-Shaykh is a truly international figure, although her national allegiance and center is in Beirut, Lebanon. Born into a traditional Shiite family, she early on experienced the identity as an outsider, as her devout family lived in a neighborhood of cosmopolitan and less strict practitioners. She's lived in London, Paris, and Saudi Arabia, and has written collections of short stories, novels and plays, often tackling issues that has made her a controversial figure in the Arab world. "The Women's Swimming Pool" is the story of a young girl who has been raised in a remote place, and whose imagination has been inspired by images of the sea. She sets out with her grandmother for her holy grail—the swimming pool for women in the center of Beirut. Her journey is delayed by tradition, by conventions of sociability, and finally, by the realization that her family connections, particularly to her old and ailing grandmother, will always find her tethered to the traditional life of women in the Arab world.

Roasalía De Castro (1837-1885)

Although set here with Spanish language poets, much of the work for which Castro is known is written in Galician, a language closer to Portuguese than to Castilian Spanish (see map at right to get an idea of where Galicia is). The daughter of an aristocratic mother and a Catholic priest who refused any contact with her, Castro had the shame of being both illegitimate and sacrilegious. The fiction that she wrote in five novels explores the subordinate position of women in Spanish society, her poetry with simplicity and accessibility the themes common to Romantic poets—nature, passion, and forebodings of death. In "A glowworm flashes through the moss," find the theme of graven images in contrast to the real presence of the divine. Are there traces here, also, of Keats's "negative capability"? "The ailing woman felt her forces ebb" is a kind of ironic poem, the story of a woman who was quite ready to die in autumn as winter approached. But, "cruel to her," death spared her life until the Spring when "anew/ the earth was being born in blossoming," and death was felt in all its painful glory. Note the concern Castro has with the "ideas" in her poems. Two poems on participate in Romantic Themes. "Some say plants don't speak" suggests an anthropomorphic nature as a fount of human feeling. "The feet of spring is on the stair" duplicates Wordsworth's suggestion of the majestic closeness to the divine one may have in youth. Both poems stress the importance of having an inner dream life.

Albert Camus (1913-1960)

Best known as one of the leading French Existentialists, Camus was a tireless worker for the rights of the oppressed all his life. If he did in fact agree with the basic premise that human existence is absurd, his credo was that one must act as if it weren't, using the principle of engagement to engage with the struggles of the poor and those who lacked a voice in the halls of power. Camus was born into a poor family who lived in Algeria, and the plight of the family worsened when his father died in an early battle of WWI. He lived with his mother, who was illiterate and deaf, and who made a meager living as a cleaning woman. Camus was a gifted athlete, and may have become a professional soccer player had tuberculosis not ruined his health at an early age. Camus lived and worked as a journalist and essayist. He was the director of a couple of theater troupes that were intent on giving a voice to the workers of France. His writings include essays, short stories, novels and plays. The short story "The Guest" gives the reader some notion of the conundrums of a moral life that Camus often focused upon. A schoolteacher that works for the French government is given a job which he feels more suitable for police or military, and in his performance of the job he stresses the choice that he feels free men should have. The challenge to readers is to piece together why what happens at the end happens. Here are a few possibilities you might consider as you think about the Arab who killed his cousin, and the extent to which the law has dominion over him: Does he make the choice he does to honor the hospitality offered to him by Daru? Does he perhaps feel that, after all, he deserves punishment for what he has done? Is the French court the proper place to judge the guilt or innocence of the Arab villager? (Is it possible that a different set of laws has already been applied in his case—that local justice decided that the man who was killed, the Arab's cousin, deserved death for stealing grain in the time of famine?) When Daru returns after his journey where he had offered the Arab his own choice of destinations, he is met with an ironic message from the Arab's fellows. This sense of absurdity seems to this reader to be perf

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)

Borges has an immensely fertile and imaginative life in the mind, originating from life in the book. Born in Argentina. His grandmother was a native English speaker, which he learned along with Spanish. His original "playground," so to speak, was his father's library. When Borges was nine years old, a local newspaper published a translation he had made of an Oscar Wilde story for children. People assumed it was his father who had done the translation. Educated in Geneva, Switzerland, where his family became stranded during WWI. Lived in Spain, where he was involved with a group called the Ultraists. One interesting project they had was the writing of a novel on a public wall (so people would have to come as a community to read it). Early work as a librarian. Fell out of favor with the Perón regime, and was removed from his post. After the fall of Perón, he was offered and accepted the post as the National Librarian of Argentina. By this time he was almost completely blind. Had a semester at the University of Texas in 1961. "The Garden of the Forking Paths" has elements that are characteristic of most of Borge's stories. It begins, for instance, with a book (and this is a real book, although the quotes used are from a variation that may exist on a different "path"). It also involves a speculation on the nature of something we take for granted—in this case, "time." Readers should enjoy the challenge of following the logic of Borges' other world, created for the story. It is useful to note, too, a kind of racial or identity politics in the story. The narrator, a Chinese man, works with great ardor to please his boss, a man who feels that Lu Tsun is inferior to him by nature (compare the situation of Captain Richard Madden, an Irishman in the service of the British). There is a reason that Borges' collection of short stories is called Labyrinths. Most of his work involves tracing a complex and confusing line of thought, almost inevitably getting lost before reaching the goal. It is a route towards finding something unexpected, rich, and fascinating.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o (born 1938)

Born James Ngugi, the Kenyan author is a galvanizing figure in modern African literature, primarily for his public debate with writers like Chinua Achebe in which he contends that writing in the language of the colonizing country is tantamount to collaboration with the oppressor. Ngugi began his career writing in English, but in 1977 made the decision to switch his language of composition to his native Gikuyu language. He paid a price for this—the new government of independent Kenya had forbidden writing in anything except for English, and Ngugi was imprisoned for almost a year for his transgression. His prison novel, Devil on the Cross, was composed on prison toilet paper and smuggled out by guards. Ngugi's life is marked by the Mau Mau rebellion that was instrumental in expelling the British from Kenya, and his intellectual life was heavily influenced by Marxism and writers from the radical left. "Wedding at the Cross" (1975) is one of the last compositions in English from Ngugi. It follows the career of Wariuki, whose free spirited Afro-centric behavior enthralls Mariamu, but distresses her fully assimilated parents. Although she sides with Waiuki, willing to live in poverty to be wedded with him, he is irreparably stung by her father's dismissal of him as a man. Finding opportunities offered by revolution and independence, he finds financial fortune and returns triumphant to prove himself to Mariamu's father. The artificial nature of his "conversion" is sown in the ludicrous name he adopts, Dodge W. Livingstone, Jr., and the culminating episode referred to by the title is rejected by Mariamu as meaningless. Like the Adichie story, this highlights the crisis of identity for the African subject in the modern world.

Orhan Pamuk (born 1952)

Certainly the most widely read Turkish writer internationally, Pamuk may be less honored in his own country. This may be for a number of reasons. One is that because of his widespread fame, he has come to represent, for Europe and the Americas, Turkish literature (where they feel they have a great number of equally talented writers). Another is that Pamuk often engages with Western ideas and themes in a style that is as Western as it is "Turkish." For more Orthodox, Nationalist, and fundamental Islamic Turks, Pamuk represents a voice that borders on blasphemy and treason. He was persecuted most stridently for an essay he wrote demanding that Turkish citizens recognize the historical culpability of their government in the Armenian genocide. Following this essay, crowds burned his books, he was threatened with imprisonment, and much of his work was censored (on the other hand, it is this event that brought more widespread international attention to Pamuk's work and probably cemented his being awarded the Nobel Prize). "To Look Out the Window" is a snapshot of life in Istanbul through the eyes of a child. While the concerns of the boy are important (the soccer game, collecting "famous people" cards, avoiding the inoculation) one could make a case that it is the plight of the mother in the story, helpless against the machinations of her husband in the closed society, that is at the center of the story. Note that while the story is introduced by the mature narrator as a story of his youth, the perspective on events is limited to that of the youthful narrator. Look at the nearly cloistered life of the grandmother, which may in fact be the fate of the mother in the very near future. Do some of the tensions in the story come from gambling—from handing your destiny to fate? This may be obvious in the card trading between the two brothers; it also is connected to the refusal of the vaccination the younger brother succeeds in implementing. (Inoculations were instituted in Europe by Lady Mary Montagu, who spent time as the wife of the ambassador to Turkey in the 18th century, and learned about vaccinations there.) What to make of the relative worthlessness of the "famous people" with origins in Turkish history?

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013)

Chinua Achebe is the most influential African writer. His novel Things Fall Apart can be considered as the gateway to contemporary world literature and to African literature. The child of an African man converted to Christianity who became a missionary, Achebe grew up with British literature in his father's library and African stories in his mother's hut. Inspired by the image of Africans as devoid of civilization that he found in British literature, he resolved to write "Africa from the inside." The world of his novels and short stories finds Africa to be a complex civilization with a rich history and social makeup. But it is not simply to learn about Africa that readers go to Achebe's work; his writing is compelling, with complex characters facing conflicts and tensions that are sometimes insurmountable. This edition of the Norton is the first of the global World Literature anthologies that doesn't include the full text of Things Fall Apart. "Chike's School Days" covers a small piece of the ground covered by the novel. The world of Chike is heavily influenced by the conversion of some Africans to Christianity for instance, which changed the status of the slave-caste Osu dramatically. As an Osu, Chike's ability to be raised in the white man's ways gives him opportunities he could never have in the village tradition. The real delight of the story emerges in the school attended by Chike, in his fascination with the English language, and with Achebe's genius for linguistic blending of the Igbo native language with the emergence of English. With his fascination with words (periwinkle, constellation, Damascus), Chike seems to be the avatar of the author, Achebe (seems to be the figure who represents him). (And we only use the word avatar for the Chikes in the audience—those who are fascinated with words. We almost used the word amanuensisLinks to an external site., but that is not precisely right for this purpose).

Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003)

Described as "the most significant Latin American voice of his generation," much of Bolaño's fame comes posthumously. His gigantic achievement, the novel 2666, for instance, was published in 2004, with an English translation in 2008 winning the National Book Critics Circle Award. To discuss Bolaño's biography is often itself an exercise in fiction, since he perpetuated many details about his own life that can be called into question. Read the biography to get some basic facts and what is "known." It does seem beyond doubt that Bolaño was well-traveled, and that he was interested in and active in left-wing politics. He was fairly prolific, with more material emerging in English to this day. Besides 2666, his most well-known novel is The Savage Detectives. "Sensini" is a modest story, centering around the strange relationship of a writer and his older counterpart, tracing lines through their involvement with literary prizes, through which the older man attempts to eke out a living. Their paths cross more intimately, until the writer Sensini disappears to South America. The story is written in a realistic style, until, in the end, a kind of transformation comes over our blasé narrator in a kind of other-worldly revelation.

Olaudah Equiano (ca. 1745-1797)

Equiano is a fit writer with which to begin our series on written literature in Africa. Although Africa has a long history of orality, a kind of spoken language literature, it is with the arrival of Europeans and European language that the notion of written literature took hold. Equiano may have never had the idea to write his thoughts and experiences had he not been forcibly removed from his native culture and exposed to the difficulties of slavery (and the opportunities to learn English). One of the great benefits that has come from Equiano's memoir is to force the acceptance of blacks as humans, with the intellectual capacity to do this kind of work. The fact that Equiano took so well to Christianity did not hurt his cause in the eyes of most abolitionists. The battle for emancipation of slaves in the British Empire is captured in the Michael Apted film Amazing Grace, in which the part of Equiano (a relatively minor role in the film) is played by "the voice of Africa," musician Youssou NDour. Equiano's life is summed up in our introduction—and much of what is known about the author is learned from his memoir, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written by Himself. Unlike the well-known slave narratives by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, Equiano's goes back into African civilization and life, documenting the social construction of his Igbo tribe. He admits that even Africans among themselves kept slaves, who were usually captives taken in war, but goes on to point out that these "slaves" could own property and marry among the free people. He tells the horrifying tale of becoming captive along with his sister, and gives a heart-wrenching account of being separated from this sister—the only person familiar to him among the captives. Equiano's early days of captivity are fill him with such despair that he considers committing suicide as an escape from his plight. He documents that many among the captives did not manage to survive. There is much to marvel at in the full account of Equiano's life—his time as a sailor, as a seaman on the ships of great explorations into the Arctic, the "good fortune" that allowed him to be owned by men who allowed him t

Isabel Allende (born 1942)

Isabel Allende comes from an illustrious political family in Chile; her cousin is Salvador Allende, who was ousted as president in the 1973 coup by Augusto Pinochet. Allende and her family left for Venezuela, a move that she credits with allowing her the space to become a writer. Her first novel, The House of the Spirits (1982) was made into a major Hollywood film in 1993. The style in which she writes summons up the work of her idol, Gabriel García Márquez. "And of Clay Are We Created" is the heartbreaking story of the death of a small girl in the aftermath of a devastating volcanic eruption. The first sentence of the story establishes the eerie and desolate tone of the story: "They discovered the girl's head protruding from the mudpit, eyes wide open, calling soundlessly". In a landscape that has been transformed into something rather unreal, the story has the qualities sometimes associated with Magical Realism, but works in a mode of realism. A stylistic change does occur, however, late in the story, when the girl, Azucena, and her would-be rescuer, Rolf Carlé, are sleep deprived, chilled to the bone, hungry and feverish. One might say that the kind of floating and dislocated series of memories that occur in this section remain true to a kind of realism, in that they are the kinds of thoughts someone in this position is likely to have.

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

Neruda is a fascinating public figure in South America and in international poetry. Born in a small town, and raised in a frontier town, his avocation towards culture was discouraged by his father, but the frontier town of Temuco happened to be the home of the poet Gabriela Mistral, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1945. As a young man, Neruda was appointed the nation's consul in Rangoon, Burma, and from there he traveled to Ceylon, Java, and Singapore, later to be posted in Argentina, Spain, France, and Mexico. Among other luminary figures, he met and befriended the poet Federico García Lorca, who steered Neruda's politics to the left. Neruda won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971. Please enjoy the beauty of Neruda's lines, (in the hands of a gifted translator) and the powerful immediacy of his imagery. Only then worry about what will be asked on the final. For this kind of reading, the questions will be likely to center around recognition that this is indeed Neruda, or a broad question about the subject matter of the poem. "Walking Around," for instance, has a theme. It is that of transformation, of no longer settling for passive acceptance of the injustices of the social world, but rising to protest it, to assault it, however futile the act of doing so may be. "I'm Explaining a Few Things" is, of course, in homage to Neruda's murdered friend, Lorca, turning his death into a monumental, earth-changing event: "Face to face with you I have seen the blood/ of Spain tower like a tide/ to drown you in one wave/ of pride and knives!" The excerpts from General Song (Canto General) are epic in scale, evoking existence on a grand scale, reaching back into pre-history, and into the inexplicable forces of nature and creation to do so. In its scale and reach, it may be compared to Eliot's The Wasteland, but Neruda finds elements of the world that are eternal and indestructible, and both of these qualities bring hope, and a majesty, to his vision. You might gain from reading this poem alongside some photos of the famous pilgrim's destination of Machu Picchu.

Nawal el Saadawi (born 1931)

One wants to caution the reader that there is some harrowing accounts in the story of using rape as a weapon of interrogation. In the end, a kind of heroism of the woman on trial is witnessed, but there are unpleasant aspects of her experience that you may expect in the story. Saadawi is one of nine children of a mother descended from the traditional aristocracy and a father who was a government functionary. Saadawi studied medicine at the University of Cairo, rising to become director of public health in the Ministry of Health. The publication of her book Woman and Sex caused her to lose her public position, because of progressive ideas in the book, including criticism of the practice of female circumcision. In 1981 she was imprisoned for three months during a crackdown on intellectuals in the Sadat regime. She uses her prison experience as a focus in her most famous novel, Woman at Point Zero, an account of a woman condemned to death for killing a pimp. "In Camera" is also concerned with the plight of women in the judicial system of what in this case is an unnamed country under the repressive rule of an unnamed dictator. Part of the difficulty of the story is that it opens in the perspective of the young woman who has been imprisoned, tortured, and raped by the prison guards. So, her own perspective is damaged—it seems that her body and even her vision has become defective, probably due to a long experience of sensory deprivation. One elegant moment in the text comes when the poor victim is able to piece together, from fragments, the fact of the large representation of the national "leader" in a portrait situated behind the judge. The story also includes several shifts of perspective. For some time there is the story of the mother, with the intensely strong maternal bond with the prisoner featured. Another shift goes to the father, who at one point seems to gain stature from the crowd's approval of his daughter's voice; and at another time seems to feel shame at the fact of her sexual violation. The ending is bittersweet, as the woman prisoner has had some impact on the court, but she is also returned to its mercy. One may positively view it as a sacrifice that one individual can make for the benefit of the

Gabriel Gárcia Márquez (1928-2014)

Probably the most well-known and accomplished writer from Latin America in the 20th Century, Gárcia Márquez changed the face of literature with his monumental novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967). The chronicle of a family in the South American town of Macando, the work is epic, fantastical, complex, and filled with episodes that seem to come from local folk tales. Besides being read in many languages by many people, it brought attention to other authors from South America and contributed greatly to the "Latin American Boom" in contemporary literature. Those of us who have been moved by the work of Kafka appreciate the kind of shout-out to the Czech author given by Gárcia Márquez in the introduction in our text. Gárcia Márquez worked for a number of years in a variety of places as a journalist before finding great success with his most famous novel. "Death Constant Beyond Love" is said to come from Gárcia Márquez's later, more politically directed, period. In it, the basic human condition of loneliness and despair at one's own mortality is at the center, and the desire for a love that transcends death is understandable for a man of Sánchez's position. Only one of the episodes include anything one might associate with Magic Realism: that of the paper butterfly that sticks to the wall as if painted on. The rest of the story is well within the boundaries of the possible (although some stretch those boundaries just a little). What do you make of all of the elements of the story that involve paper—the cardboard façade of the future, for instance, or the clouds of money floating in the room recently vacated by the important men of Rosal de Virrey? Note that even Nelson Fariña's quest has to do with paper. The subplot connected with Nelso and Laura Fariña is important—especially the sins of the father and the deals he makes to cover them up. PreviousNext

Julio Cortázar (1914-1984)

There are some lines of similarity with Cortázar's life and that of Borges. Both of their families were stranded in Europe when the outbreak of WWI stranded their families (15 years Borges' junior, this marks Cortázar's birth). Both spent their childhood in Argentina, immersed in an ample library (Cortázar's preference was for science fiction and the writing of Jules Verne). Both began their literary enterprise at the age of nine. And both are marked as much by international experience and culture than that of their native country, although both are claimed by Argentina. "House Taken Over" has the fantastical element that Cortázar frequently uses—it would probably be proper to mention this story in the same breath as Magic Realism. The story seems like an everyday account of a couple of everyday, if unusual lives. What occurs to disrupt the tale, the event that gives the story its title, comes on suddenly and without explanation, but is accepted calmly by the brother and sister who inhabit the house. Of the suggestions given in the introduction to give the story meaning, I like the comparison to "The Metamorphosis," in the way extraordinary transformations occur without a great deal of wonder—steps are simply taken to deal with the new reality.

Doris Lessing (1919-2013)

When Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize for literature it was for a multifaceted career: for early feminist works like The Golden Notebook and the Martha Quest Series, for a series of speculative or science-fiction books she wrote later in her career, but also for the autobiographical writing from her early life in Rhodesia, among which "The Old Chief Mshlanga" is a prime example. The child of a WWI veteran who was able to acquire a vast tract of land in what was then Rhodesia (today, Zimbabwe) Doris May Tayler had an isolated childhood until she was sent off to convent school to become educated. A communist sympathizer early in life, and an advocate for Southern African Independence Movements throughout her life, in 1956 Lessing was declared a "prohibited alien" in both Rhodesia and South Africa. "The Old Chief Mshlanga" has evident autobiographical details. The young girl at the center, called "little Nkosikaas" by the workers on the farm, is raised as a European child on African soil, indoctrinated in a belief in her superiority to the blacks that originally inhabited the land. Through her meeting with the title character, she is given a different perspective on native Africans, finding that they possess a dignity and composure superior to that of their white oppressors (like her father, Mr. Jordon). One scene to be aware of is the opening, where the European storybooks create for the girl a reality that is more vivid to her than the one she walks in. Then there is the tour-de-force scene of the girl as she walks towards Mshlanga's settlement, and finds herself a stranger and an intruder in the Africa she had previously thought of as hers.