In 1881, Carlo Collodi intended simply to write a children's story about an inexplicably animate piece of wood. The Adventures of Pinocchio has since become one of Italy's most successful literary exports, giving life to numerous adaptations. The novel is meaningful to college students today, as it deals with the difficulty of abandoning childhood, the value of education, and what it means to be human. This volume, like others in the MLA's Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, is divided into two parts. Part 1, "Materials," gives the instructor bibliographic information on the text and contexts of the book, the critical literature, and audiovisual and electronic resources. Part 2, "Approaches," contains nineteen essays on teaching Pinocchio and its adaptations, which cover such topics as Collodi's life, society in post-Unification Italy, the gothic element, the Frankenstein theme, myths and archetypes, the influence of Ariosto and other writers, children's literature and censorship, the animal fable, and how the famous Disney movie is both a help and a hindrance in the classroom.
In 1881, Carlo Collodi intended simply to write a children's story about an inexplicably animate piece of wood. The Adventures of Pinocchio has since become one of Italy's most successful literary exports, giving life to numerous adaptations. The novel is meaningful to college students today, as it deals with the difficulty of abandoning childhood, the value of education, and what it means to be human. This volume, like others in the MLA's Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, is divided into two parts. Part 1, "Materials," gives the instructor bibliographic information on the text and contexts of the book, the critical literature, and audiovisual and electronic resources. Part 2, "Approaches," contains nineteen essays on teaching Pinocchio and its adaptations, which cover such topics as Collodi's life, society in post-Unification Italy, the gothic element, the Frankenstein theme, myths and archetypes, the influence of Ariosto and other writers, children's literature and censorship, the animal fable, and how the famous Disney movie is both a help and a hindrance in the classroom.
Primo Levi, Holocaust survivor and renowned memoirist, is one of the most widely read writers of post-World War II Italy. His works are characterized by the lean, dispassionate eloquence with which he approaches his experience of incarceration in Auschwitz. His memoirs--as well as his poetry and fiction and his many interviews--are often taught in several fields, including Jewish studies and Holocaust studies, comparative literature, and Italian language and literature, and can enrich the study of history, psychology, and philosophy. The first part of this volume provides instructors with an overview of the available editions, anthologies, and translations of Levi's work and identifies other useful classroom aids, such as films, music, and online resources. In the second part, contributors describe different approaches to teaching Levi's work. Some, in presenting Survival in Auschwitz, The Reawakening, and The Drowned and the Saved, look at the place of style in Holocaust testimony and the reliability of memory in autobiography. Others focus on questions of translation, complicated by the untranslatable in the language and experiences of the concentration camps, or on how Levi incorporates his background as a chemist into his writing, most clearly in The Periodic Table.
Chekhov's works are unflinching in the face of human frailty. With their emphasis on the dignity and value of individuals during unique moments, they help us better understand how to exist with others when we are fundamentally alone. Written in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century, when the country began to move fitfully toward industrialization and grappled with the influence of Western liberalism even as it remained an autocracy, Chekhov's plays and stories continue to influence contemporary writers. The essays in this volume provide classroom strategies for teaching Chekhov's stories and plays, discuss how his medical training and practice related to his literary work, and compare Chekhov with writers both Russian and American. The volume also aims to help instructors with the daunting array of new editions in English, as well as with the ever-growing list of titles in visual media: filmed theater productions of his plays, adaptations of the plays and stories scripted for film, and amateur performances freely available online.
The concept of this book is to reassess Pinocchio originally, alongside puppets and marionnettes within modernity, as a figure characterized by a ‘fluid identity’, informed with transition, difference, joie de vivre, otherness, displacement and metamorphosis. As such, Pinocchio is a truly modern, indeed a postmodern and posthuman cultural icon.
Once merely a footnote in Restoration and eighteenth-century studies and rarely taught, Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave (1688), by Aphra Behn, is now essential reading for scholars and a classroom favorite. It appears in general surveys and in courses on early modern British writers, postcolonial literature, American literature, women's literature, drama, the slave narrative, and autobiography. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," provides not only resources for the teacher of Oroonoko but also a brief chronology of Behn's life and work. In part 2, "Approaches," essays offer a diversity of perspectives appropriate to a text that challenges student assumptions and contains not one story but many: Oroonoko as a romance, as a travel account, as a heroic tragedy, as a window to seventeenth-century representations of race, as a reflection of Tory-Whig conflict in the time of Charles II.
The award-winning playwright August Wilson used drama as a medium to write a history of twentieth-century America through the perspectives of its black citizenry. In the plays of his Pittsburgh Cycle, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences and The Piano Lesson, Wilson mixes African spirituality with the realism of the American theater and puts African American storytelling and performance practices in dialogue with canonical writers like Aristotle and Shakespeare. As they portray black Americans living through migration, industrialization, and war, Wilson's plays explore the relation between a unified black consciousness and America's collective identity. In part 1 of this volume, "Materials," the editors survey sources on Wilson's biography, teachable texts of Wilson's plays, useful secondary readings, and compelling audiovisual and Web resources. The essays in part 2, "Approaches," look at a diverse set of issues in Wilson's work, including the importance of blues and jazz, intertextual connections to other playwrights, race in performance, Yoruban spirituality, and the role of women in the plays.
Italo Calvino, whose works reflect the major literary and cultural trends of the second half of the twentieth century, is known for his imagination, humor, and technical virtuosity. He explores topics such as neorealism, folktale, fantasy, and social and political allegory and experiments with narrative style and structure. Students take delight in Calvino's wide-ranging and inventive work, whether in Italian courses or in courses in comparative or world literature, literary criticism, cultural studies, philosophy, or even architecture. Given the range of his writing, teaching Calvino can seem a daunting task. This volume aims to help instructors develop creative and engaging classroom strategies. Part 1, "Materials," presents an overview of Calvino's writings, nearly all of which are available in English translation, as well as critical works and online resources. The essays in part 2, "Approaches," focus on general themes and cultural contexts, address theoretical issues, and provide practical classroom applications. Contributors describe strategies for teaching Calvino that are as varied as his writings, whether having students study narrative theory through If on a winter's night a traveler, explore literary genre with Cosmicomics, improve their writing using Six Memos for the Next Millennium, or read Mr. Palomar in a general education humanities course.
The Adventures of Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi (1826–1890) Translated into English by Mary Alice Murray (1892) Published by T. Fisher Unwin, 1892 Illustrated by Enrico Mazzanti (1850–1910) Images and text used from Wikisource (Public Domain) A Children's Book for Adults, by Nicolae Sfetcu: Translated by Nicolae Sfetcu from "Aventurile lui Pinocchio - O poveste pentru oameni mari" by Nicolae Sfetcu, Telework (10 decembrie 2021), DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22089.67688, MultiMedia Publishing (ed.), ISBN: 978-606-033-666-2 The Adventures of Pinocchio recounts the adventures of an animated puppet named Pinocchio, who moves independently. He underwent transformations during the novel, and is often described as wearing a pointed hat, a jacket, and a pair of knee-length colored pants (called "caprietti"). Pinocchio's nose is his best-known feature. He grows taller when he tells a lie. The Adventures of Pinocchio focus on the psychological investigation of his central character, as he tries to discover a humanity lost in the vacuum of technology and science. The book can also be approached through the prism of the philosophy of mind, of the essential questions in this field. These questions are about personality and suffering. The common thread of Pinocchio's story is his desire to become a human being. In search of his identity, Pinocchio goes on an initiation journey. The problem of identity leads to the duality of mind / body, to what constitutes one's essence. To what extent do we remain the same when we change our appearance? Hence the story of an awareness of one's inner need. The puppet's desire to become human is one of the different literary manifestations of the animated / inanimate archetype, being loaded with different connotations and substrates of meaning. An archetypal story due to all its mythical, fairytale and religious references. Desire is the driving force that triggers the final metamorphosis, transforming inanimate matter into a living being. The puppet is, in this context, a metaphor for human formation and fulfillment as a citizen. One of the most widely read books in the world, considered a metaphor for the human condition, and suitable for a variety of interpretations, the novel has had a great impact on world culture. The book responds to a prerogative that belongs only to masterpieces: that of being out of time. CONTENTS: The Adventures of Pinocchio - I How it came to pass that Master Cherry the carpenter found a piece of wood that laughed and cried like a child. - II Master Cherry makes a present of the piece of wood to his friend Geppetto, who takes it to make for himself a wonderful puppet, that shall know how to dance, and to fence, and to leap like an acrobat. - III Geppetto having returned home begins at once to make a puppet, to which he gives the name of Pinocchio. The first tricks played by the puppet. - IV The story of Pinocchio and the Talking-cricket, from which we see that naughty boys cannot endure to be corrected by those who know more than they do. - V Pinocchio is hungry and searches for an egg to make himself an omelet; but just at the most interesting moment the omelet flies out of the window. - VI Pinocchio falls asleep with his feet on the brazier, and wakes in the morning to find them burnt off. - VII Geppetto returns home, makes the puppet new feet, and gives him the breakfast that the poor man had brought for himself. - VIII Geppetto makes Pinocchio new feet, and sells his own coat to buy him a Spelling-book. - IX Pinocchio sells his Spelling-book that he may go and see a puppet-show. - X The puppets recognise their brother Pinocchio, and receive him with delight; but at that moment their master Fire-eater makes his appearance and Pinocchio is in danger of coming to a bad end. - XI Fire-eater sneezes and pardons Pinocchio, who then saves the life of his friend Harlequin. - XII The showman Fire-eater makes Pinocchio a present of five gold pieces to take home to his father Geppetto: but Pinocchio instead allows himself to be taken in by the Fox and the Cat, and goes with them. - XIII The inn of The Red Craw-fish. - XIV Pinocchio, because he would not heed the good counsels of the Talking-cricket, falls amongst assassins. - XV The assassins pursue Pinocchio; and having overtaken him hang him to a branch of the Big Oak. - XVI The beautiful Child with blue hair has the puppet taken down: has him put to bed and calls in three doctors to know if he is alive or dead. - XVII Pinocchio eats the sugar, but will not take his medicine: when, however, he sees the grave-diggers, who have arrived to carry him away, he takes it. He then tells a lie, and as a punishment his nose grows longer. - XVIII Pinocchio meets again the Fox and the Cat, and goes with them to bury his money in the Field of miracles. - XIX Pinocchio is robbed of his money, and as a punishment he is sent to prison for four months. - XX Liberated from prison, he starts to return to the Fairy's house; but on the road he meets with a horrible serpent, and afterwards he is caught in a trap. - XXI Pinocchio is taken by a peasant, who obliges him to fill the place of his watch-dog in the poultry-yard. - XXII Pinocchio discovers the robbers, and as a reward for his fidelity is set at liberty. - XXIII Pinocchio mourns the death of the beautiful Child with the blue hair. He then meets with a pigeon who flies with him to the seashore, and there he throws himself into the water to go to the assistance of his father Geppetto. - XXIV Pinocchio arrives at the island of the 'Industrious Bees,' and finds the Fairy again. - XXV Pinocchio promises the Fairy to be good and studious, for he is quite sick of being a puppet and wishes to become an exemplary boy. - XXVI Pinocchio accompanies his schoolfellows to the sea-shore to see the terrible Dog-fish. - XXVII Great fight between Pinocchio and his companions. One of them is wounded, and Pinocchio is arrested by the gendarmes. - XXVIII Pinocchio is in danger of being fried in a frying-pan like a fish. - XXIX He returns to the Fairy's house. She promises him that the following day he shall cease to be a puppet and shall become a boy. Grand breakfast of coffee and milk to celebrate this great event. - XXX Pinocchio, instead of becoming a boy, starts secretly with his friend Candlewick for the 'Land of Boobies.' - XXXI After five months' residence in the land of Cocagne, Pinocchio, to his great astonishment, grows a beautiful pair of donkey's ears, and he becomes a little donkey, tail and all. - XXXII Pinocchio gets donkey's ears; and then he becomes a real little donkey and begins to bray. - XXXIII Pinocchio, having become a genuine little donkey, is taken to be sold, and is bought by the director of a company of buffoons to be taught to dance, and to jump through hoops: but one evening he lames himself, and then he is bought by a man who purposes to make a drum of his skin. - XXXIV Pinocchio having been thrown into the sea is eaten by the fish and becomes a puppet as he was before. Whilst he is swimming away to save his life he is swallowed by the terrible Dog-fish. - XXXV Pinocchio finds in the body of the Dog-fish . . . whom does he find? Read this chapter and you will know. - XXXVI Pinocchio at last ceases to be a puppet and becomes a boy. A Children's Book for Adults - Carlo Collodi - The Adventures of Pinocchio - Pinocchio - The Myth - The Psychology - The Duality - The Heterotopy - The Identity - Artificial Intelligence - The Humanism - The Becoming - The Demiurge - The Education - Bibliography Publishing House - MultiMedia Publishing
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is one of the most important and celebrated authors of postindependence Africa as well as a groundbreaking postcolonial theorist. His work, written first in English, then in Gikuyu, engages with the transformations of his native Kenya after what is often termed the Mau Mau rebellion. It also gives voice to the struggles of all Africans against economic injustice and political oppression. His writing and activism have continued despite imprisonment, the threat of assassination, and exile. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," provides resources and background for the teaching of Ngũgĩ's novels, plays, memoirs, and criticism. The essays of part 2, "Approaches," consider the influence of Frantz Fanon, Karl Marx, and Joseph Conrad on Ngũgĩ; how the role of women in his fiction is inflected by feminism; his interpretation and political use of African history; his experimentation with orality and allegory in narrative; and the different challenges of teaching Ngũgĩ in classrooms in the United States, Europe, and Africa.
