This drawing is my reflective postcard for this semester in my World Literature class. I wanted to create something that would represent all of the literature and films that we took in during the semester.
The goddess Kali is from The White Tiger, the final book that we read. A magnet depicting her is kept on the dashboard of the car by the narrator Balram. She is typically depicted with either 4 or 10 arms. Here she has 10 and holds items that come from, or represent all of the others. Over her head she holds a basketball to represent Sherman Alexie's collection of short stories The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Presented on her next hand to the right is the head of Humbaba the monster from The Epic of Gilgamesh. Below that she holds a samurai sword to represent the film "The Twilight Samurai." Following this is a take out bag from the fast food chain Cowboy Chicken, featured in the story "After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town" in Ha Jin's collection The Bridegroom. The next hand holds a liquor bottle which is included as a unifying image for several of the works, but the design of the bottle was inspired specifically from The White Tiger. Kali is often depicted with her foot on the head of the dead Vishnu, who in this work, has been replaced with a face to represent Okwonkwo of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. The next hand brandishes a wooden spoon representative of Tita in Laura Esquivel's novel Like Water for Chocolate. Above this a hand holds a stick for the blind to represent Mohammad in the Iranian film "The Color of Paradise." The hand above that holds a ring to represent "Beuowolf." The last hand has a parrot perched upon it to represent the novel Wide Sargasso Sea.
Although each of the items is included with a particular work initially in mind, there is much more that I meant to represent with them. Although Mohammad is the only physically blind character in the works that we read/watched this semester, many of the other characters fumble like the blind in their search for things. This searching is something I would say is a unifying theme throughout the works. A liquor bottle is used by Balram as the weapon to commit a murder, but alcohol plays a major role in Alexie's work as well. It also appears prolifically in Wide Sargasso Sea as Antoinette's mental state declines. There was so much I thought about as far as the meaning of the items and their placement in the work, perhaps you are familiar with one or more of the works and can make your own connections.
The only work that we viewed this semester that doesn't have it's own individual item is the film "Waltz with Bashir." Of all of the characters searching for things, this search is possibly the most obvious, but I had trouble coming up with something representative that I felt worked.
I really enjoyed the armchair travels we went on in this class throughout the semester. Although I like to get out and see and experience places a lot as well, I think that arm chair travelling is a fantastic thing to do, and is far more practical and less expensive that traditional travel. Also when we actually travel, there is a propensity to insulate ourselves from the people we are visiting by travelling with tour groups that are designed specifically for American tourists. There's quite a bit more that we can learn from people and places if we have the time to stop and really take in their point of view. I didn't enjoy, or like all of the works that we used in this class. But I don't find that necessary either. A lot of times being challenged by a work that you wouldn't not normally expose yourself to is a very positive thing. Sometimes those are the ones from which we learn the most. If you're interested in mote of my thoughts on some of the works included in this reflective post card collage, check my blog archive as I have blogged in depth about several of them through the semester. Though not all of them managed to make it onto the blog yet, many did, and others are draft posts still awaiting completion. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment