Attitudes towards Africa Like South America, Africa cannot be reduced to a simple description. Nonetheless, connotations and stereotypes about Africa have arisen in European society. How do most Taiwanese react to Africa, or can we generalize?

Africa Generally What are some major political and geographical features of Africa?

Other Distinctions What diversity can we examine in culture, language, physical appearance of people, etc.?

African Unity (?) Is there any apparent basis for African unity? You might raise the same question for all continents.

Colonialism What are some of the historical relations between Europeans and Americans and Africans? Naturally, you must consider the colonial influences.

Africa and South America Do you think such influences are comparable to what we found in South America? What are the similarities and differences?

Fictional Representations of Africa What books, such as works of fiction, have you read about Africa? Have you seen any films set in Africa? Would you like to travel to Africa, or to some specific part of Africa?

Theme: Illness Have you ever been ill while traveling? What challenges does such illness present? Once we are confronted with the outbreak of a deadly disease, what general social reactions might you observe? Note that there is a range.

Theme: Dangerous Travel What would be an example of a dangerous place to travel today? You might consider a range of dangers, not just one type. What would induce someone to travel to such a place? Is there anything attractive about a place because of the dangers (or challenges) it presents? passage: 118

Alexander Kinglake (1809-1891)

Works Eothen (1842)

Egypt and Africa Our excerpt from Kinglake takes place in Egypt. How might Egypt differ in some readers’ minds from Africa generally? Do you generally think of Egypt as an African country? What might prevent one from doing so?

Illness as Metaphor How might an illness, like plague, serve as a metaphor?

The Use of Illness Camus, The Plague Boccaccio, The Decameron

Content 1. How does Kinglake describe the effect of the plague on his experience of Egypt? Does this attitude seem reasonable? [note personification 118] 2. How is Kinglake warned? Why doesn’t he avoid the plague area? 3. Who is Osman and what is his curious story? [119-120]

Content 4. How did Kinglake form an estimate of the effects of the plague? What incongruities does he point out about religious observations—noting that this is from his point of view? [122]

Content 5. What procedures does he encounter in respect to the Levantine banker? Again, what does Kinglake seem to imply about the attitudes he encounters? What is suggested about what we might call the psychology of disease? [123, 124-125 (cf. our own attitudes)]

Content 6. Other scenes include the slave market, the magician, the visit to the doctor, and the behavior of the English doctor who attends him at the end.

Eurocentrism (?) Does Kinglake come across to you as a racist? Is he, at the least, Eurocentric? Does he suggest the idea of cultural or civilization hierarchy? passages: 118-119 (noting also attitudes towards the French), 122, 124, 134

Kinglake and Slavery What happens in the slave market scene (the “white slave”)? Is the passage critical, and if it is, from what point of view? Does Kinglake show any particular distaste for slavery? Is the woman’s reaction strange to you? passage: 128

Orientalism Said wrote the book Orientalism in the late 1970s. The term had been around a long time, though. Note the representation of the “orient” in some paintings. What qualifies as oriental? What is recurring in them?

Themes Luxury, indolence, excess Ritual, superstition, religious difference Architectural forms, decorative types, ruins Violence, militarism, authoritarianism, cruelty [126] Sensuality, sexuality

Magicians What attitude towards local magicians does Kinglake exhibit? What do you know about the history of magic shows in the West (and the growth of European magic as opposed to so-called Eastern or African magic)? Is Kinglake’s scorn the result of “enlightened” European thinking?

Kinglake’s Personality Is Kinglake callous? Is he neurotic? How does his travel narrative (at least this part of it) differ from what we have encountered before? How does it overlap?

Largeness and the Pyramids How are the pyramids described—of course, I refer to Kinglake’s abstract sense of them, especially their size? What childhood problem does he relate? passage: 135-136

Contemporary Applications What would be necessary in our modern world to produce the sensations caused by the largeness of the pyramid blocks?

Beauty and the Sphinx What is idealization, especially in relation to the human form? Kinglake seems to claim that the sphinx is modeled on an ideal of female beauty, but what basis does he have for this claim? passage: 137-138

Idealization How does idealization function in Greek art? What is its basis and how do these ideal forms differ over time and from the sphinx?

Political Excursus The second set of questions concern the sphinx’s lasting power. Does Kinglake imply that the English will establish a truly lasting presence in the world (i.e. its Empire), or is the implication that it is merely transitory?

For Next Time Read: Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines, Introduction-Chapter X