Running head: AGENCY INTRODUCTION 1 AGENCY INTRODUCTION 2 Agency Introduction Tolby Markham Kaplan University PP698: Master’s Capstone in Public Administration March 3, 2015 INTRODUCTION The Administration on Aging is one of the major agencies of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The major objective of this agency is to deal with the provision of older American act of 1965. Agency launches different programs to promote the respect and well-being of older individuals and help them to live their life free and independently in their own home or their communities. The mentioned act also strengthens the federal government for the distribution of various fund sand supportive services in the citizens of US who are more than 60 years old. The organization or agency is also responsible for provision of various home and community based services which are related to aging. It also enables the citizens of USA to take their decisions about their health care, providing them their rights according to their age, preventing them from abuse and creating their respect in society. Different research organizations are also awarded by the agency to research on different projects which are related to the goals and objectives of agency. Various statistical activities are conducted by the organization for the analysis and interpretation of results to meet and predict the future needs of aging population of USA (Health and Services, 2013). The annual budget of the agency was $1.9 billion for 2014. The maximum amount of the budget was expanded on various nutrition programs for aging population. Different funds were issued for the provision of supportive services to aging population at their homes. Cash amount was also granted to aging population to fulfill their daily needs and for home care activities. The mechanism and administration of the agency is controlled by the position of Assistant Secretary currently occupied by Kathy Greenlee. The assistant secretary is responsible to take instructions from department of health and human services. From 35 years, organization is working to provide home care facilities and various other services to the aging population of USA. BACKGROUND OF AGENCY If the history of agency is analyzed, then it can be observed that a long time ago the government of the USA was involved to facilitate its aging population. In past, different steps were taken to provide the services to aging population of the country. In 1935, the Social Security Act was passed. This Act provided the assistance and many other facilities including insurance to the old age people. In 1950, the first conference on aging population was held by President Truman. Two years later after that conference, federal funds were issued to provide numerous social services to aging population of USA. In 1956, solid and mature steps were taken to facilitate the aging population. A special staff within the office of education, health and welfare was e ...

1. Running head: AGENCY INTRODUCTION 1
AGENCY INTRODUCTION 2
Agency Introduction
Tolby Markham
Kaplan University
PP698: Master’s Capstone in Public Administration
March 3, 2015
INTRODUCTION
The Administration on Aging is one of the major agencies of the
US Department of Health and Human Services. The major
objective of this agency is to deal with the provision of older
American act of 1965. Agency launches different programs to
promote the respect and well-being of older individuals and
help them to live their life free and independently in their own
home or their communities. The mentioned act also strengthens
the federal government for the distribution of various fund sand
supportive services in the citizens of US who are more than 60
years old. The organization or agency is also responsible for
provision of various home and community based services which
are related to aging. It also enables the citizens of USA to take

2. their decisions about their health care, providing them their
rights according to their age, preventing them from abuse and
creating their respect in society. Different research
organizations are also awarded by the agency to research on
different projects which are related to the goals and objectives
of agency. Various statistical activities are conducted by the
organization for the analysis and interpretation of results to
meet and predict the future needs of aging population of USA
(Health and Services, 2013).
The annual budget of the agency was $1.9 billion for 2014. The
maximum amount of the budget was expanded on various
nutrition programs for aging population. Different funds were
issued for the provision of supportive services to aging
population at their homes. Cash amount was also granted to
aging population to fulfill their daily needs and for home care
activities. The mechanism and administration of the agency is
controlled by the position of Assistant Secretary currently
occupied by Kathy Greenlee. The assistant secretary is
responsible to take instructions from department of health and
human services. From 35 years, organization is working to
provide home care facilities and various other services to the
aging population of USA.
BACKGROUND OF AGENCY
If the history of agency is analyzed, then it can be observed that
a long time ago the government of the USA was involved to
facilitate its aging population. In past, different steps were
taken to provide the services to aging population of the country.
In 1935, the Social Security Act was passed. This Act provided
the assistance and many other facilities including insurance to
the old age people. In 1950, the first conference on aging
population was held by President Truman. Two years later after
that conference, federal funds were issued to provide numerous
social services to aging population of USA. In 1956, solid and
mature steps were taken to facilitate the aging population. A
special staff within the office of education, health and welfare
was established. Later on, a federal council was founded by the

3. government of USA for the aging population. The first white
house conference about the aging population was held in 1961.
To establish a pure separate and independent commission on
aging, legislation was introduced in 1962. After introducing this
legislation, the Administration on Aging was founded in 1965.
The age discrimination act was included in constitution of USA
in 1967. This age discrimination act was added to employment
law in 1990. To cover the right activities of American citizens,
an amendment was added to law which was named as older
American act in 1965. The addition of this amendment provided
the full national support to the aging population of the US
(Health and Services, 2008). These were the major motives
behind the establishment of Administration of Aging. The major
objective for the inception of this agency was to serve and
facilitate the aging population of USA. It can be observed that
the Administration on Aging is going very well to achieve its
major objectives. Agency is committed to become the leader as
mentioned in vision statement.
AGENCY’S MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the Administration on Aging is to provide the
full-fledged services to aging population of the country and
inception of broad, comprehensive, well harmonized and cost
effective system to serve the aging population for long period of
time and enhancement their respect and dignity in society, at
their homes or communities where they are living. The agency
also helps and supports to prepare the society or community for
the aging population (Timmreck, 2003).
AGENCY’S VISION STATEMENT
Promotion of dignity and well-being of aging population in
USA is the vision of Administration on Aging. The agency will
support the aging population as much as possible to become an
active member of society. Agency will found a proactive and
comprehensive setup to fulfill all needs of older people just in
time. Agency will be a leader through fulfilling all needs of
aging population. It will make the aging population independent

4. and free to give them an opportunity to enjoy their life
(Timmreck, 2003).
ENABLING LEGISLATION
The major enabling legislation for the Administration on Aging
is Older American Act 1965. The agency was established on the
base of this act. This is the act which enables the agency to
serve and support the aging population of the country. The
agency follows terms and conditions of this law to serve the
aging population communities. This act directs the agency for
the establishment of senior centers to facilitate the aging
population on time. The services which are provided by the
agency and the services which are provided by other public or
private firms are coordinated for better implementation of this
act. According to this act, the age limit is 60
years to receive the old age benefits. This act empowers the
agency to found a comprehensive and well centralized network
to enhance and support the well-being of aging population in
societies. In short, Older American Act 1965 can be called as
one of the major enabling legislations of agency (Binstock,
1991).
AGENCY’S ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Administration on Aging is operating just like other general
organization. So its organizational structure is also similar like
the other organizations. The structure of organization is
composed of following units.
· Administration on Aging
· Centre for Supportive Services
· Centre for Health Promotion
· Centre for Adult Protection
· Centre for AI and AN Programs
· Centre for Long-Term Care of Aging population
REFERENCES
Binstock, R. H. (1991). "From the Great Society to the Aging
Society--25 Years of the Older Americans Act."

5. Generations15(3): 11-18.
Health, U. D. o. and H. Services (2008). "Administration on
Aging." A Statistical Profile of Older Americans 65.
Health, U. D. o. and H. Services (2013). Administration on
Aging. A profile of older Americans: 2011, Retrieved 07/15/02
from http://www. aoa.gov/aoa/STATS/statpage. html.
Timmreck, T. C. (2003). Planning, program development, and
evaluation: A handbook for health promotion, aging, and health
services, Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Administration on Aging
Centre for Supportive Services
Centre for Health Promotion
Centre for Adult Protection
Centre for AI and AN Programs
Centre for Long-Term Care

6. Unit 6: Continental Europe III: Modern Drama - Research Links
To research the playwright, click the Doll's House, an Ibsen
library, Ibsen home page, or a bio of Ibsen.
To research feminist readings, strike an American
production, or Ibsen and feminism.
To research feminism, hit feminist activism, counters to radical
feminism. There are many kinds of feminism: see the most
extenstive bibliography.
Module 6: Lecture -- A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen
Objectives:
With the perhaps founding work of modern drama before us,
different in theme and technique from ancient or late medieval
and Renaissance drama, we shall be looking for evidence that
the play sets out an indictment of patriarchal institutions of
marriage and family, as has been alleged by many readers. Ibsen
seems to deny it.
Modern drama privileges an individual character's point of

7. view. How is that true here? Gender roles, and the division of
labor, are typical modernist themes (though they do occur
earlier, often in surprisingly different form!) Ask whether the
play demonstrates inequity between the sexes.
The emphasis on perspective, however, puts a particular burden
on the audience or reader. Your own ability to perceive and to
judge can be crucial in determining what the play means. So do
not just accept what someone else says is the meaning! Note
thus that we should want more than just assertions of inequity.
The modernist assumptions about sexual inequity may hide a
more conflicted and ambiguous (or tragically ambivalent)
situation. See then whether there is a definitive clash of values,
or of systems of belief, such as we would expect in ancient
Greek tragedy.
NOTE! If there is a clash along the tragic lines of the Greek
model, then both sides may have strong reasons on their side,
and the pursuit of ideals can lead to personal and social
catastrophe on both sides. Such a "final cause" to the action
(Nora leaving) would honor neither the deeply flawed society
that Ibsen depicts -- nor, for that matter, the moral and socio-
economic condition of a woman who chooses to walk away from
it all.
What role does moral agency play in this modern drama? What
role does emotion play? How is moral agency defined here? And
is this a tragedy -- or a comedy?
NOTE! A successful indictment of a patriarchal institution
would be deemed by many feminist readers a "happy" way to
end the play, while Ibsen's own case study notes for this play
are strikingly entitled a "tragedy."
Competencies:
Don't forget to provide these in the journal; copy them over.
1. Demonstrate the use of foreshadowing in the plot
development here.
2. Define social stereotypes and illustrate them here. Why do
they exist, and what effect do they have?
3. Define and illustrate inequality in the roles of the sexes here.

8. Is there any difference between inequality, and inequity?
Or equality and identity? [Look them up!]
4. Determine Torvald's perspective on the alleged injustice done
to Nora.
5. Define the role of audience in a dramatic conflict of beliefs,
or a social crisis, such as Ibsen's clarification of the human and
particularly female experience.
6. Contrast the dramatic method of Ibsen with those of
Sophocles and Everyman. What is the impact of the demand for
realistic points of view, especially in drama, on the author's
narrative? The role of psychological realism on
characterization?
7. Describe the structure of authority and responsibility,
the division of labor, and the tension between affection and
sacrifice, in the conventional marriage in Ibsen. Is modern
marriage at all similar?
8. What is Krogstad's relation to Nora? Identify the literary
device.
9. Why is Dr. Rank's health "bankrupt"? What is Helmer's
occupation? Explain the figure of speech used here.
Methodological and Epistemological Factors in the Modern
Drama, as in The Doll's House
The Modern era is in many ways quite different from the
ancient world, and from medieval culture or the Renaissance, as
we saw in the last module. Ibsen helps to usher in the modernist
era, in the late 19th century. This modernism has certain typical
characteristics that come into focus with him and others like
Dostoyevsky and Chekhov. We will examine one of the
modernist subjects momentarily, but I wish to draw your
attention to some underlying issues of method.
Realism: Realism requires that what is represented be like
ordinary "real" experience. Of course, the question must arise,
what sort of experience would that be? It is sometimes asserted
to be sensible, material, practical "stuff," what normal people
might encounter in ordinary living: such as watching the

9. laundry turn in the laundromat, or feeling gravity propell a
speeding car off the cliff. Of course, sensation, matter, and the
laws of physics do not tell us what we feel or think, or what to
make of what we experience, or what to do and why.
More to the point, different points of view are the key to
different kinds of experience, and in modernism the creative or
critical trick is to illuminate a particular angle of vision. Ibsen
does this with each major character, but especially Nora, and
except for the business of deception and one particular
disagreement on values, they all seem to have compatible points
of view, which is why the drama seems "realistic," and also why
Nora is so affective with the audience. Each one knows no more
than his or her eyes can tell, and every one has his or her own
agenda, which ultimately is to serve the self. Others are
obstacles or aids to one's self-serving course of action.
(Consider Doctor Rank, and of course, Krogstad, pushed past
decent behavior by need, or revenge).
Compare this individual knowing and acting with the sentry
making report of the unburied body to Creon. There is plenty of
tension, but the point of their communication is to pass
information and to have it accepted. The knowledge, though due
to a possibly suspect angle of vision, is the basis for common
ground, once truly shared. This scene (calling attention to
contending over knowing) actually gives us our first sense that
Creon as tyrant is arrogant and dangerous. Information becomes
a precious, perhaps scarce commodity to be fought over. The
individual's possession of certain facts (as much as social
position, or money) in Ibsen gives power, even character, to the
characters.
So, in the strongest currents of modernism (if not in the
broadest part of the popular stream), realism has more to do
with the perception of what is true or important, than with the
reality being represented. The given condition or context of an
individual will be important, but the important business of a
truly modernist story will be how the context or condition is
perceived by one or by several characters. Plot tension comes

10. thus in part or whole from deceptions, revelations and conflicts
over what is true or good. Psychological realism (narrating from
a particular, often flawed point of view, with the appropriate
interests and methods of speaking, thinking and acting), as
Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky did, is not a big leap. Yet the external
realities are potentially unreliable: it is the point of view that
counts. So Ambrose Bierce fools the reader in "The Occurrence
at Owl Creek Bridge": the hanged man imagines the whole
escape.
Consider Nora's point of view. It is our dramatic focus. Thus
her perceptions tend to rule ours. (In The Mousetrap, Agatha
Christie uses the unconscious audience sympathies with the
"point of view" character to set us up for the surprise ending of
the mystery.) We sympathize, bristling at Thorvald's manner of
referring to his wife as a little bird, yet forgiving Nora her lies
and her focus on money. What niggling doubts we have (which
are given voice by the superior Thorvald) are usually translated
out of mind by the key revelation that her actions are all part of
a grand sacrifice, for her ungrateful husband. Even her eventual
traumatic departure is set up as a noble gesture to spare her
children from a lying, dishonorable mother, and her husband
from bearing the burden of dishonor on his own broad shoulders
alone.
We therefore ignore the niggling fact that Thorvald did not
know about the sacrifice, or even the purpose of the trip to
Italy. We forget his bankerly warning
· that lies, like forgery, rob one of the substance of character
(like a bankable commodity in the unforgiving eyes of society),
and
· that the condition of lying will also affect one internally, in
motivation and responsibility (like a moral slippery slope) --
· or that he could be right on both accounts.
We can likewise ignore the less than noble indebtedness of
Nora's historical model (in Ibsen's notes).
We finally may ignore the direct contradiction of the value of
self-sacrifice, in Nora's departure from the man for whom she

11. has just devoted apparently many happy but hard years, and
even from her children, who cannot be said to have done any
harm to her. Ibsen sets this up. Act I ends with her worry about
the children, and her husband's brusque evaluation of her
character, in the person of Krogstad. Is she sacrificing her self
for their sake? That is not the impression most people have at
the end. Her husband's strict moral standard on lies and such is
seen to drive her away. The very emphasis on perception that
informs this play makes interpreting it (by a simple, plot-
supported theme like the "rejection of patriarchal marriage") a
difficult task.
Pertinent Elements of Plot
Note Torvald's "mysterious" preoccupation with business,
endless papers in the study: the conventional man's world. Yet
it is such a paper that threatens Nora's life, and had saved
Torvald's life. Nora complains of not being able
to manage affairs (but rejects Mrs. Linden's scolding imputation
of a woman's affair, as her means of raising money). Money
seems key: it is, socially as well as economically, the medium
of exchange -- what makes social relationships work, under the
surface, ignorable by the Noras of the world, until a Krogstad
brings it out. Of course, he was also compelled to forge for a
"good reason," like her.
Indeed, Ibsen could be said to be indicting society's lack of a
medical safety net. He is also indicting a representative
Norseman's obsession with the appearance of honor, and key to
that is the absence of forgiveness. He runs against the Golden
Rule ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"),
when rejecting Krogstad from polite society, including his
home. It is noteworthy that social positions are reversed:
Torvald has the social capital now -- but fortunes change, as
Krogstad illustrates. This stiff honor actually weakens the
businessman's ability to surmount misfortune, at least when his
character is not as rock hard as Torvald's. Business qua business
is by its nature unforgiving.
We see Torvald playing at love, with his words and his

12. conventional role as husband and father, but he takes his
business home. Does he really love them? How would you
know? One key is to determine where love (a.k.a. charity)
stands in his priorities. It is below honor and will remain so, if
his character cannot change (as Nora assumes). The other key is
representative language and action: he is the source of money;
he belittles her even as he praises her; and she has defined love
in terms of sacrifice. In the latter sense, Krogstad at first stands
above Torvald, though his revenge is to send Nora into the
gutter as his moral and social equal. Nora embraces her fate, in
that sense, rather resist it as her husband suggests. (Yet the
Helmers did survive many lean years and maintained their honor
and love -- but Ibsen does not show us that other life.)
Historical Perspective
Although written by a Norwegian author, the struggle and
conflict of this play is a part of each country's development and
is as appropriate a topic for social discussion today as back in
the 1880s. Nora is a woman of her 19th century times, and,
today, many women are still fighting for socio-economic
independence and legal equality. Today, some women struggle
against what is termed the glass ceiling, or choose to fight the
stereotypical roles of women. In the late 19th century, a middle-
class woman's place was generally in the home, as the manager
of the house, the middle-class version of the estate or farm.
Wage-earning career opportunities for women who wanted or
needed to work were largely limited to those of seamstress,
teacher, nurse, or in some instances clerical worker or shop
salesperson. A girl was traditionally raised to be a good wife
and mother. She was often not expected to be educated
(considered a waste of time and money, as in Charles
Dickens' Hard Times) or to have a career (considered
unnecessary, since they would be dependent upon their
husbands). The division of labor, though in the city, is modelled
on that of farm-life, but the roles are less clearly determined.
Girls were instructed to marry well by attracting a husband who
would be a good provider as well as a loving mate (in that

13. order). Her husband would earn and manage the family
finances, giving her an annual stipend for meals, household
expenses and clothing. What we may not understand, then, is
what Nora is rejecting -- or gaining -- socially or economically.
She has had a role, and she no longer will have one. Perhaps she
has savings or marketable skills, but what safety net does she
have outside her family? (She has not feared indebitedness
before.) There is no particular future for her out that door. She
has sacrificed, finally, for herself, to give up comfort and
conventionality for freedom, freedom from Torvald and freedom
to have experience all her own. A room of one's own must be a
scarce commodity to be so precious.
To tell the truth, apart from her deceptions, she has in the
course of the play already demonstrated character. What will
leaving gain her, if she is already her own person within the
given confines of her society? The play is notably based upon
deception. Nora, in order to please her husband and pretend to
play the role society has prepared for her, must conceal
whatever independent actions she takes. Some are trivial, such
as eating sweets, but one action is crucial to the development of
the plot. Nora has borrowed money in order to finance a year in
Italy for Torvald's health, and she must repay the loan. As a
woman, she is not prepared for responsibilities she faces. She
lacks training, experience, and opportunity in financial matters.
She even lacks the legal status to negotiate the loan in her own
name. However, her ingenuity in developing a secret life to
negotiate and conceal the loan reveals strength of character,
strong imagination, moral convictions, and courageous initiative
to launch into uncharted waters.
By the end of the play, Nora brushes aside social norms of the
day and has the courage to face public condemnation for leaving
her husband and children (in order, she says, to discover who
she really is). The facts are claimed that she and Torvald are
incompatible, and that she no longer loves him, and that these
are sufficient reasons for her to leave him. The cost of leaving
her children is much higher, but she seems to believe that

14. greater self-knowledge will be worth the cost of leaving her
children. (I do not actually see this justification being
developed in the body of the play.) In fact, the message of the
play seems to be that learning who one is and becoming that
person are worth any price.
Psychological Perspective
The individual clearly dominates society in the play. Yet, it is a
typical pattern of character development, whereby one character
plays the opposite or double of another. Nora and Mrs. Linden
are such opposites, and they help develop our understanding of
potential female perspectives. They may represent the possible
dual nature found within all women. Mrs. Linden is Nora's
double or doppelganger, in that she represents what Nora
secretly admires and wants to become, an autonomous woman
who is free to take risks and to assume the responsibilities and
consequences of her actions. Nora wants the freedom she sees in
Mrs. Linden, while the irony is that Mrs. Linden wants the
loving husband and family that Nora has. Mrs. Linden
represents Nora's alter ego (the other self). Ibsen thus does not
truly endorse Nora's revolt, at least not in a vacuum, because
there is another point of view. Mediating the two views of
women's roles probably allows us to discover Ibsen's nuanced
vision of women's personal and social potential. The trick is for
the audience to remember Christina.
Nora is not pleased to be Torvald's dearest treasure. She has
been forced to leave the dance before she was ready to go, and
she is annoyed at Torvald as well as worried about how soon he
will read Krogstad's letter. Additionally, Nora resents Torvald's
objectification of her ("his little bird" in dozens of phrases),
and his appropriation of her as something belonging to him. The
latter is most precisely what leaving demolishes. All of these
emotions mean that she is not receptive to Torvald's ill-timed
attempts at romance.
Social Perspective

15. Nora's problem is caused both by her and Torvald's
personalities and/or the values created by the society in which
they live. Their society supports dominating men, rather than
liberated women, a fact that makes Nora the unusual partner in
the marriage and gives Torvald little motivation to change his
attitudes. On the other hand, in any society, a woman would
have to be very insecure and needy to be happy with a husband
who cares more about what other people think of him than he
cares about his wife. At least, the trigger event is his valuing
honor over love. But what does he mean by honor, and what
does she mean by love? Could both values be defined in terms
of sacrifice, including self-sacrifice?
By the end of the play, Nora has exchanged one set of problems
with another. She has cut herself off from the traditional
support of a family, and she needs to find a job so that she can
be financially independent. It might be possible, in time, for her
to find both emotional and financial security, but she will have
to do it spite of social opposition.
Nora wrestles with the social pressure of the good of the family
prevailing over the needs of the individual. Nora must consider
how much value she will be to her children and they to her. She
must answer the question: Should she continue to treat them
like dolls, as Torvald treats her? If that is how you treat
someone you love, what does it mean to love? to be a puppet-
master, or a kind of voyeur? If that is love, it might be better
not to inflict yourself on those you say you love -- and become
silent and alone, like Dr. Rank. To her, the price for
independence is therefore (I infer) worth the loss of the family.
Note that Mrs. Linden does not balance Nora on this issue, by
the end of the play.
Ibsen portrays Nora as important in that she rebels against the
inequitable values of society. Torvald is very important in that
he epitomizes the self-satisfied attitudes that Ibsen is criticizing
in contemporary life.
Ibsen's Themes:

16. 1) A marriage based upon misperceptions, deceptions, and
inequality is not a true marriage, which would display unity (not
inequity) and be a vehicle compassion (not honor);
2) In Ibsen's view, a person's primary obligation is to self while
everyone else (even the closest family members) comes second;
3) The most important goal for a person in life is, as the Greek
oracle at Delphi instructed the petitioner, know thyself;
4) The development of an individual's personality and the
fulfillment of personal goals are just as important for a woman
as they are for a man. So even though Torvald's commitment to
honor (at the expense of wife and family) is suspect, Nora's
commitment to self-respect (a.k.a. honor) is dramatically the
last word.
Ideology, Moral Agency, and Utopianism
The easy reading of The Doll's House, following the point of
view characer and the critical metaphor of the title, is a feminist
attack on patriarchal institutions and male arrogance. These
things may need criticism, but there is a danger in
universalizing a particular angle of vision, such as Nora's
revolt, or indeed either gender's entitlement. Modernism, in
fact, has often been guilty of this transformation: the
particularly interesting point of view becomes convincing and
absolute (in its own view); think of racism, fascism, jingoistic
patriotism, the perhaps benevolent dictator or boss, et cetera,.
Nora's departure is a leap into utopia -- an idealized picture of
what she thinks she wants. Many of us do the utopian gamble.
The problem with utopia is indicated by the word: (e- or o-
)topia, "a good place" -- or "no place at all." Political
utopianism in the 20th century is famous for being terribly
destructive: thus, communism was the purification of society;
Hitler always wanted to improve things, and then he got the
power. On a more personal scale, feminist glorification of Nora
is such a false move.
Against this absolutizing the single point of view is the Golden
Mean. Mix Nora and Mrs. Linden together. Eschew extremes.

17. The play may not encourage us here, but there are clues that
Ibsen could agree. A related notion is that the often derided
status quo may not be so bad. The grass may not be greener.
The devil you know is better than the devils you don't. A bird in
the hand is worth two in the bush. So Nora could change her
world without destroying it. She could throw out the bathwater
but (literally) keep the baby.
Moreover, there is the Golden Rule, which is at the heart of
Greek and Christian notions of moral agency. Do unto others as
you would have them do unto you. Act charitably. Do not act
toward others merely out of expectation of personal gain. Nora
was expecting Torvald's sacrifice of honor, like the payment
due on a bond. Moral agency is about how one acts especially
toward others. Nora turns inward (a common modern, and
ancient, mistake).
What should she make of the distasteful husband and the
inequitable status of women in society? Make the best of the
situation. Better yet, turn a bad into a good. Namely, change
Torvald, or compromise with him. That is a specifically
Christian answer. If it is hard to do, given the complexities of
the particular situation, then the important struggle (for the
literature to work out) ought to be to figure out how. We do not
quite get that from Ibsen, or most modernists, in fact. A
fundamental tendency in modernist literature is to strive for
significance by choosing to represent bad things like war,
starvation or sexism. The plot, it is assumed, should not have a
truly happy ending, because then it would resemble wishful
thinking and not be serious literature anymore.
Personally, one reason I read literature is to figure out how to
solve important issues. Modernist works of literature often stop
short of solving the very problems it points out. One of the
three defining purposes of literature, besides pleasing and
moving people to act, is to teach. The job of the reader -- of us -
- is to learn.
Unit 7: Africa I: Fantasy and History - Research Links

18. To read Diop, "Africa," and Dadie, "Dry Your Tears, Africa,"
read below first.
If you would like information about Aladdin, read below
second.
If you would like information about Sinbad, read below third.
If you would like more information and comments
regarding Negritude, read below fourth.
Module 7: Africa--Lecture
on Tall Tales and Short Stories,
and the Historical Contexts
OBJECTIVES
We begin to lay the groundwork for our appreciation of
literature in Africa, which begins with the recognition that is a
gigantic geographical region, with diverse peoples, cultures and
histories. The very word "Africa" designates a place more on
the maps of European traders and colonizers than in the minds
of its inhabitants. Our first readings are out of medieval Islamic
culture, in part to point up this limitation on our vocabulary.
Two of our selections wrestle with that word, which itself is a
sign that those poems are mid- to late twentieth century in
perspective. Africa becomes mythologized, in a way like and
yet unlike the imagery of William Blake's "Tyger, tyger,
burning bright in the forests of the night," or Rudyard Kipling's
savage background to the "white man's burden" of civilizing the
uncivil natives. De-colonizing Africa has had as much to do
with building up the identity of the freed lands, as with losing a
layer of colonial bureaucracy or military.
Our other two selections also wrestle with this issue of a
"modern" identity for Africans, though not in overtly political
ways. In fact, in these two stories it is clear that it is the
Africans who must wrestle free of a sometimes dark and
clouded heritage. We will see this again in Wole Soyinka's play

19. next week, and Chinua Achebe's novel in two weeks. De-
colonization itself has proven a mixed blessing.
In addition to our geographical focus, we also have a mix of
literary modes and genres. The adventurous tale, heroic perhaps
but perhaps impossible, stands over against the realistic short
stories that represent aspects of a particular cultural history. We
need to see how these are alike but different, and to evaluate
their respective advantages and disadvantages, for there are two
branches of literature here.
Competencies
1. What is a tall tale?
2. What is a short story?
3. Which stories are like a fable? Explain how so.
4. What is realistic about one story? Does this add to the
validity of the story? Explain both answers.
5. What is physically impossible in one story? Explain whether
this hurts the validity of the story.
6. What is merely implausible in one story? Explain its function
in the plot.
7. Which poem gives you a stronger appreciation, or a more
complete understanding, of Africa? Explain, with details from
both the poems.
8. What is a rite of passage? Illustrate.
9. What is a fertility rite? Why does one exist? What is the
meaning of opposing romantic love to the trade-off of life and
death in the fertility rite (in Ogot, as in Greek myth and
Arthurian legend)?
The Middle East
Aladdin
The king of India, Shahyrar, having been betrayed once, vows
never to be fooled again, so he marries a new wife each day and
beheads her the next (for three years). Scheherezade tells him a
suspenseful story each night, when she becomes queen, so that
he postpones the execution each time. Indeed, she chooses to
become his wife to stop the slaughter. One thousand and one

20. nights later, so the frame story goes, the barbaric rule is erased.
In truth, the stories were collected over many years in many
places, as a medieval anthology of short fiction (like our own),
before being compiled in one printing c.1500.
"Aladdin" is one of her tales. This is not your Disney film!
Many tales are racy or bloodthirsty, not what we would think of
as children's literature. The betrayal of women in the frame
story is an example.
The lamp can stand for wish fulfillment, a common enough
element in day-dreams. A poor boy wishes to alter his
circumstances. This is a motivation we can sympathize with.
There is a danger in lamps: wishing for too much, not having
the character to handle good fortune (which may be implicit in
how one handles bad fortune too), and doing the wrong thing
with the advantages one has. Here the hero needs to be a
sympathetic figure, to be a good role model for other people
who may have wish-fulfillment fantasies, like children (and
their parents!). Can we take either magician seriously as a
figure of evil?
Sindbad
This tale has the most developed plot, short of the frame story
of the Arabian Nights itself. Sinbad even has its own frame
story. The seven voyages emphasize adventure, seeing the
world, which is a bit like what we are doing in this course. Each
trip involves excitement, which is, metaphorically or really,
magic. Tales of adventure tend to be entertaining, thus, but
these tales often use magic to propel the plot, which has been
anathema to modernist writers (except for an element of the
fantastic in Latin American magical realism)..
The frame story suggests a moral angle missing from Aladdin.
Wealth and social status, however desireable, can be
questioned. Desires do not justify themselves here. So magic is
less a matter of wish fulfillment, more an aspect of nature or of
narrative. Adventure while inescpable and often enoyable is not
an end in itself. Sindbad donates profits to the poor.

21. Note that the "magic" in the first tale is a mattter of mistaken
identity. The wonder is quite natural. The second wonder is
quasi-natural. Both tricks of the imaginative narrative are
familiar in science fiction. Dangers moreover carry rewards.
The third voyage is adapted from classical Greek literature
(the Odyssey). The fourth voyage is a window on strange -- but
plausible -- social customs. The fifth voyage sets out tactical
problems. The sixth voyage is a matter of finding opportunities
wherever and whenever they appear (and even when they hide!)
Finally, the seventh voyage shows us Sindbad no longer in
command, commanded, then enslaved; he is a mighty hunter, yet
he discovers the point of view of the hunted and is mightily
rewarded.
Even Hindbad who provokes the telling of the tales is rewarded.
Note that here, as in the larger frame story of Scheherazade, the
tale itself is the real prize, and the reader is the true sailor.
Western, Eastern and Southern Africa
Dry Your Tears, Africa! by Bernard Dadie
This poem can be interpreted as a return from a journey that is
either real or symbolic, or as both. The persona of the poem
appears to be speaking for all returning Africans.
Historic Perspective: The poem's publication in the 1950s could
recall Africans returning to the continent following the events
of World War II. During WWII, some African troops fought
alongside French forces on the European continent. The African
countries would have been brought into the war based upon the
colonization activities taking place in Africa by the European
nations.
In this light, the reader might interpret the discrimination and
prejudice experienced by the African troops in the lines "storm
and squalls of fruitless journeys" and "the springs of ill fortune
and or glory". Even though the African troops fought on the
Allied side during the war, the persona clearly names the
fruitlessness of their efforts, presumably because it was not

22. "their" fight.
Archetypal Perspective: On a symbolic level, the persona may
be referring to the tendency of human nature to want to return
home to native roots. This could symbolize the "tie that binds"
and the national pride in the sense of motherland or fatherland.
The returning children may refer to the many Africans whom
the Europeans assimilated by educating them in systems that
taught foreign values, languages, and culture. As a result, many
became more European than African, yet as in
Dadie's Negritude movement, there was the desire to return
home.
The poem reflects the values of the Negritude movement (the
goal of which was to bring Africans back into African culture
by showing them the unique and appealing aspects of their own
traditions and values that would make them proud to be an
African) in its personification of Africa as the loving mother,
and those who have left, as her children (very archetypal)
A Sunrise on the Veld, by Doris Lessing
This is a powerful, yet typical, rite-of-passage story, a journey
of initiation. Rites-of-passage stories are archetypal in nature.
Every culture has traditions which signify passage from one
phase of life to another: from childhood to adulthood, from one
educational level to another, etc. The rites (rituals) are not
necessarily the same for males and females. In this story the
rite-of-passage involves moving from adolescence to adulthood.
The protagonist of the story leaves home at dawn on a hunting
expedition, feeling exuberantly omnipotent. His euphoria is
shattered when he discovers an injured buck in the process of
being eaten to the bone by hordes of voracious ants.
This sight serves as an epiphany for the boy. He suddenly
becomes aware of the fact that death is an inherent part of life
and that, like the fate of the buck, the circumstances of his own
mortality are beyond his ability to predict or control (rather
fatalistic)times when he has injured a wild animal and left it to
its fate in order to be home in time for breakfast, and he

23. suddenly feels the guilt of acting selfishly and irresponsibly. He
knows that this incident with its accompanying insights has
irrevocably changed the course of his life, and he plans to take
the time to ponder its significance. However, he crosses the
threshold into adulthood reluctantly, nostalgic for his lost
innocence and not quite ready for the pain, loss, and guilt that
are part of the adult world.
The archetypal perspective continues from the story's two major
themes involving the nature of the universe and the relationship
of human beings to that universe. The issues of control over
one's life and the extent to which one's fate is unpredictable and
inescapable are serious subjects contemplated by each
generation of human beings. Lessing's third-person limited
(meaning the narrator is not all-knowing) narrative perspective
dramatizes the contrast between the boy's feelings of control
and power in a benign universe before seeing the dying buck
and, afterwards, his feelings of fatalism in a cruel and uncaring
universe.
The second theme involves a different, but equally important,
conception of the universe and the relationship of human beings
to it. In Lessing's hands, nature becomes a living entity
(personification) that is the essence of the universe. Both
animals and humans are part of that totality, neither more nor
less than the other. Once nature is understood in this way, the
responsibility of human beings to the plant and animal
kingdoms becomes clear. The boy's feelings and perceptions are
described in figurative and sensory language that enables the
reader to experience the environment as directly as if he or she
were actually accompanying the boy on the journey. Thus, in
this respect, a crucial issue in the story becomes the reader's
response on an empathetic level.
Africa! by David Mandessi Diop
This is another example of literature in the spirit of Negritude.
Specifically, the poem opposes (colonial) oppression to the
(forgotten) glories of free Africa. The repeated opening line,

24. "Africa, my Africa," is an almost patriotic chant.
Some of the language invokes ancestral inhabitation of the land.
The figure of ancestral Africa personifies the sufferings of the
people, to the poet's voice. She answers when he asks, then, of
the spirit of the land. It is a living tree, young and growing,
amid the white and faded flowers (symbols of the old and
colonial Africa, soon to be surpassed), not to be oppressed by
minor suffering. The fruit of this new cultivation will
eventually be liberty. The poem thus is about the transformation
of culture.
Of course, it is Diop's hoped-for acculturation here. De-
colonization may be under way, though not too far along at this
point, but what would need to happen to make this vision of
liberty is a strong culture. Africa is too big to be one society.
Diop registers the incipient problem with the word "bitter" in
the last line. That liberty can be bitter will be a surprise to
those who think that freedom is like dessert, all sweets and no
pain. Diop phrases the bitter taste of liberty as a kind of
growing pain, necessary to the overcoming of colonialism and
to the building of a new society. The problem with this political
vision is that it smacks of wish-fulfillment (a poem to be rubbed
like Aladdin's lamp). We know that few nations established
strong cultures in Africa in the last forty years, and that Africa
is torn with fighting. Some Africans even blame the very de-
colonization which Diop is praying for.
The Rain Came, by Grace A. Ogot
This story has many different levels of meaning, depending
upon your point of view and your desired critical approach.
Some readers will give it romantic appeal (meaning good
triumphs, a happy ending, etc., romanticism in literature does
not mean emotional love, even though the subject matter might
deal with love), while others give it intellectual power. The
story's romantic appeal is based on its satisfying conclusion,
where love conquers adversity. Stories of beautiful maidens in
distress, like Oganda, who are rescued by handsome and

25. courageous young men, like Osinda, are the subject of many
romantic folktales and myths. Because it ends with a feeling
(although not an actuality) of "happily ever after," the story
satisfies the human need for love, security, and justice, almost
like a fairy tale.
The story gains intellectual appeal from its examination of the
role of tradition in society. The story contains the archetypal
fertility myth, where the sacrifice of a valued and beautiful
young virgin is necessary in order to bring rain for the growth
of the crops. Ogot dramatizes the intense emotion with which
individuals respond to the traditional demands of their society
under circumstances where "love it or leave it" are the only
options. Labong'o experiences heartrending conflict between his
responsibility to his people and his responsibility to his family,
but, as chief, he does not have the freedom to choose. Oganda
experiences anguish and terror at being the sacrificial victim;
she would prefer a normal life to eternal fame, but, as princess,
she does not have the freedom to choose. Meanwhile, the
villagers celebrate because, with the exception of Osinda, they
have everything to gain and nothing personal to lose from the
sacrifice of Oganda. Fortunately for Oganda, Osinda has both
the motivation and the freedom to choose the course of his life.
Valuing Oganda more than family, friends, and the safety of
conformity, he leaves the village and rescues the woman he
loves.
The fact that it rains despite Oganda's rescue means different
things to different people. The villagers presumably are
unaware of Oganda's fate and remain committed to their
traditions. Oganda and Osinda learn that they have achieved
personal happiness and freedom without cause for guilt since
"the Almighty" does not punish their community for their
rebellion.
The conflict between people's responsibility to their society and
their personal desires and the conflict between tradition and
innovation have universal application. People in every society
are called upon to sacrifice their personal desires for the needs

26. of their community., particularly in the time of social crisis.
Moreover, as young people become young adults, they often
find that new circumstances cause them to question traditional
patterns of behavior. Though the social forms may change,
however, the need for individual sacrifice does not. Managing
social demands and personal desires is necessary for a happy
ending. That is a plot which many of us have faced also, when
we made the choices that helped to make us who we are. So,
this story too can be seen archetypically as a rite-of-passage
story as well.
(1) DiopAfrica (by David Diop)
Africa, my Africa
Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs
Africa of whom my grandmother sings
On the banks of the distant river
I have never known you
But your blood flows in my veins
Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields
The blood of your sweat
The sweat of your work
The work of your slavery
Africa, tell me Africa
Is this you, this back that is bent
This back that breaks
Under the weight of humiliation
This back trembling with red scars
And saying yes to the whip under the midday sun
But a grave voice answers me
Impetuous child that tree, young and strong
That tree over there
Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers
That is your Africa springing up anew
Springing up patiently, obstinately

27. Whose fruit bit by bit acquires
The bitter taste of liberty.
_______________________
Afrique / Africa
by David Diop (1927-1960)
A frique mon AfriqueAfrique des fiers guerriers dans les
savanes ancestralesAfrique que me chantait ma grand-mèreAu
bord de son fleuve lointainJe ne t’ai jamais connueMais mon
regard est plein de ton sangTon beau sang noir à travers les
champs répanduLe sang de ta sueurLa sueur de ton travailLe
travail de l’esclavageL’esclavage de tes enfantsAfrique dis-moi
AfriqueEst-ce donc toi ce dos qui se courbeEt se couche sous le
poids de l’humilitéCe dos tremblant à zébrures rougesQui dit
oui au fouet sur les routes de midiAlors gravement une voix me
réponditFils impétueux cet arbre robuste et jeuneCet arbre là-
basSplendidement seul au milieu de fleurs blanches et
fanéesC’est l’Afrique ton Afrique qui repousseQui repousse
patiemment obstinémentEt dont les fruits ont peu à peuL’amère
saveur de la liberté.
A frica my Africa
Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs
Africa of whom my grandmother sings
On the banks of the distant river
I have never known you
But your blood flows in my veins
Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields
The blood of your sweat
The sweat of your work
The work of your slavery
Africa, tell me Africa
Is this your back that is unbent
This back that never breaks under the weight of humiliation
This back trembling with red scars
And saying no to the whip under the midday sun

28. But a grave voice answers me
Impetuous child that tree, young and strong
That tree over there
Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers
That is your Africa springing up anew
Springing up patiently, obstinately
Whose fruit bit by bit acquires
The bitter taste of liberty.
Dry Your Tears Africa
Bernard Dadie
(Photo from: google.com)
Dry your tears, Africa!
Your Children come back to you
Out of the storm and squalls of fruitless journeys
Through the crest of the waves and the bubbling of the breeze,
Over the gold of the East
and the Purple of the setting Sun,
the peaks of the proud mountains
and the grasslands drenched with light
They return to you
out of the storm and squalls of fruitless journeys
Dry your tears, Africa!
We have drunk
From all the springs of ill fortune and of glory
And our senses are now opened
To the splendour of your beauty
To the smell of your forests
To the charm of your waters
To the clearness of your skies

29. To the cares of your sun
And to the charm of your foliage pearled by the dew
Dry your tears, Africa!
Your children come back to you
Their hand full of playthings
And their heart full of love
They return to clothe you
In their dreams in their hopes
"Aladdin" and Sinbad" Wikipedia articles first, Negritude
article second.
(2) Aladdin"Aladdin"
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin, April 8, 2010)
This article is about the original Middle-Eastern folk tale. For
the Disney animated movie adaptation, see Aladdin (1992 film).
For other modern use of the characters and storyline, see
Aladdin (disambiguation). For other people of the same name,
see Ala-ud-din.
Aladdin in the Magic Garden, an illustration by Max Liebert
from Ludwig Fulda's Aladin und die Wunderlampe[1]
Aladdin (an Anglicisation of the Arabic name ʻAlāʼ ad-Dīn,
Arabic: ‫ءالع‬ ‫نيدلا‬ literally "nobility of the faith") is one of the
tales of medieval Arabian origin in The Book of One Thousand
and One Nights (Arabian Nights), and one of the most famous,
although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine
Galland (see sources and setting).[1]
Contents

30. * 1 Synopsis
* 2 Sources and setting
* 3 In literature, the stage, film, and games
* 4 See also
* 5 External links
* 6 Notes
Synopsis
The original story of Aladdin is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It
concerns an impoverished young ne'er-do-well named Aladdin,
in a Chinese city, who is recruited by a sorcerer from the
Maghreb (who passes himself off as the brother of Aladdin's
late father) to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-
trapped magic cave. After the sorcerer attempts to double-cross
him, Aladdin finds himself trapped in the cave. Fortunately,
Aladdin retains a magic ring lent to him by the sorcerer. When
he rubs his hands in despair, he inadvertently rubs the ring, and
a djinni appears, who takes him home to his mother. Aladdin is
still carrying the lamp, and when his mother tries to clean it, a
second, far more powerful djinni appears, who is bound to do
the bidding of the person holding the lamp. With the aid of the
djinni of the lamp, Aladdin becomes rich and powerful and
marries princess Badroulbadour, the Emperor's daughter. The
djinni builds Aladdin a wonderful palace - far more magnificent
than that of the Emperor himself.
[Illustration of "Aladdin Saluted Her with Joy", Arabian Nights,
the illustration by Virginia Frances Sterret, 1928, shows the
Chinese-esque setting of the original tale.]
The sorcerer returns and is able to get his hands on the lamp by
tricking Aladdin's wife, who is unaware of the lamp's
importance, by offering to exchange "new lamps for old". He
orders the djinni of the lamp to take the palace to his home in
the Maghreb. Fortunately, Aladdin retains the magic ring and is

31. able to summon the lesser djinni. Although the djinni of the ring
cannot directly undo any of the magic of the djinni of the lamp,
he is able to transport Aladdin to Maghreb, and help him
recover his wife and the lamp and defeat the sorcerer.
Sources and setting
[Illustration of New Crowns for Old, a 19th Century British
cartoon based on the Aladdin story (Disraeli as Abanazer from
the pantomime version of Aladdin offering Queen Victoria an
Imperial crown (of India) in exchange for a Royal one).]
No medieval Arabic source has been traced for the tale, which
was incorporated into the book One Thousand and One Nights
by its French translator, Antoine Galland, who heard it from an
Arab Syrian storyteller from Aleppo. Galland's diary (March 25,
1709) records that he met the Maronite scholar, by name
Youhenna Diab ("Hanna"), who had been brought from Aleppo
to Paris by Paul Lucas, a celebrated French traveller. Galland's
diary also tells that his translation of "Aladdin" was made in the
winter of 1709–10. It was included in his volumes ix and x of
the Nights, published in 1710.
John Payne, Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp and Other
Stories, (London 1901) gives details of Galland's encounter with
the man he referred to as "Hanna" and the discovery in the
Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris of two Arabic manuscripts
containing Aladdin (with two more of the "interpolated" tales).
One is a jumbled late 18th century Syrian version. The more
interesting one, in a manuscript that belonged to the scholar M.
Caussin de Perceval, is a copy of a manuscript made in Baghdad
in 1703. It was purchased by the Bibliothèque Nationale at the
end of the nineteenth century.
Although Aladdin is a Middle-Eastern tale, the story is set in
China, and Aladdin is explicitly Chinese.[2] However, the
"China" of the story is an Islamic country, where most people

32. are Muslims; there is a Jewish merchant who buys Aladdin's
wares (and incidentally cheats him), but there is no mention of
Buddhists or Confucians. Everybody in this country bears an
Arabic name and its monarch seems much more like a Muslim
ruler than a Chinese emperor. Some commentators believe that
this suggests that the story might be set in Turkestan
(encompassing Central Asia and the modern Chinese province
of Xinjiang).[3] It has to be said that this speculation depends
on a knowledge of China that the teller of a folk tale (as
opposed to a geographic expert) might well not possess -
compare "Cathay".[4]
For a narrator unaware of the existence of America, Aladdin's
"China" would represent "the Utter East" while the sorcerer's
homeland in the Maghreb (Morocco) represented "the Utter
West". In the beginning of the tale, the sorcerer's taking the
effort to make such a long journey, the longest conceivable in
the narrator's (and his listeners') perception of the world,
underlines the sorcerer's determination to gain the lamp and
hence the lamp's great value. In the later episodes, the
instantaneous transitions from the east to the west and back,
performed effortlessly by the Djinn, make their power all the
more marvellous.
In literature, the stage, film, and games
Adam Oehlenschläger wrote his verse drama Aladdin in 1805.
Carl Nielsen wrote incidental music for this play. Ferruccio
Busoni set some verses from the last scene of Oehlenschläger's
Aladdin in the last movement of his Piano Concerto, Op. 39.
In the United Kingdom, the story of Aladdin was first published
in England between 1704–14; and was dramatised in 1788 by
John O'Keefe for the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.[5] It has
been a popular subject for pantomime for over 200 years.[6]
The traditional Aladdin pantomime is the source of the well-

33. known pantomime character Widow Twankey (Aladdin's
mother). In pantomime versions of the story, changes in the
setting and plot are often made to fit it better into "China"
(albeit a China situated in the East End of London rather than
Medieval Baghdad). One version of the "pantomime Aladdin" is
Sandy Wilson's musical Aladdin, from 1979. Since the early
1990s Aladdin pantos tend to be influenced by the Disney
animation - for instance the 2007/2008 Birmingham version,
which starred John Barrowman, and featured a variety of songs
from the Disney movies Aladdin and Mulan.
In the 1960s Bollywood produced Aladdin and Sinbad, very
loosely based on the original, in which the two named heroes
get to meet and share in each other's adventures. In this version,
the lamp's djinni (genie) is female and Aladdin marries her
rather than the princess (she becomes a mortal woman for his
sake).
The tale has been adapted to animated film a number of times,
including Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, the 1939 Popeye
the Sailor cartoon.
In 1962 the Italian branch of the Walt Disney Company
published the story Paperino e la grotta di Aladino (Donald and
Aladdin's Cave), written by Osvaldo Pavese and drawn by Pier
Lorenzo De Vita. In it, Uncle Scrooge leads Donald Duck and
their nephews on an expedition to find the treasure of Aladdin
and they encounter the Middle Eastern counterparts of the
Beagle Boys. Scrooge describes Aladdin as a brigand who used
the legend of the lamp to cover the origins of his ill-gotten
gains. They find the cave holding the treasure which is blocked
by a huge rock and it requires a variation of "Open Sesame" to
open it, thus providing a link to Ali Baba and the Forty
Thieves.[2]
A Soviet film Volshebnaia Lampa Aladdina ("Aladdin's Magic

34. Lamp") was released in 1966.
In 1979 kollywood produced "Allaudinaum Arputha Vilakkum"
starring big Tamil actors such as Kamal Haasan as Aladdin,
Rajinikanth,and many big stars
In 1982 Media Home Entertainment released Aladdin and the
Wonderful Lamp.
Gary Wong and Rob Robson produced Aladdin the Rock Panto
in 1985. The GSODA Junior Players recently staged the
production at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre.Adam
Oehlenschläger wrote his drama Aladdin in 1805. Carl Nielsen
wrote incidental music for this play.
In 1986, the program Faerie Tale Theatre based an episode
based on the story called "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp".
In 1986, an Italian-American co-production (under supervision
of Golan-Globus) of a modern-day Aladdin was filmed in Miami
under the title Superfantagenio, starring actor Bud Spencer as
the genie and his daughter Diamante as the daughter of a police
sergeant.
Currently the form in which the medieval tale is best known,
especially to the very young, is Aladdin, the 1992 animated
feature by Walt Disney Feature Animation. In this version
several characters are renamed and/or amalgamated (for
instance the Sorcerer and the Sultan's vizier become the same
person, while the Princess becomes "Jasmine"), have new
motivations for their actions (the Lamp Genie now desires
freedom from his role) or are simply replaced (the Ring Genie
disappears, but a magic carpet fills his place in the plot). The
setting is moved from China to the fictional Arabian city of
Agrabah, and the structure of the plot is simplified.

35. Broadway Junior has released Aladdin Junior, a children's
musical based on the music and screenplay of the Disney
animation.
One of the many retellings of the tale appears in A Book of
Wizards and A Choice of Magic, by Ruth Manning-Sanders.
There was also a hotel and casino in Las Vegas named Aladdin
from 1963 to 2007.
The game Sonic and the Secret Rings is heavily based on the
story of Aladdin, and the main villain, known in the game as the
Erazor Djinn, is the genie from the story as well.
While only featured for a short segment of the film, the story of
Aladdin was used as a metaphor for the Law of Attraction in the
2006 self-development film The Secret.
The 2009 Bollywood movie Aladin, starring Amitabh Bachchan
as the genie, Ritesh Deshmukh as Aladin, and Jacqueline
Fernandez as Jasmine, borrows from aspects of the plot.
See also
* The Bronze Ring
* Jack and His Golden Snuff-Box
* The Tinder Box
* One Thousand and One Nights
* Arabian mythology
External links
* "Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp", in John Payne,
Oriental Tales vol. 13
* Alaeddin, by Sir Richard Francis Burton. (in HTML and
annotated)

36. * The Thousand Nights and a Night in several classic
translations, with additional material, including Payne's
introduction [3] and quotes from Galland's diary.
* The Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang at Project Gutenberg
* Aladdin Junior, the Broadway Junior Musical
Notes
1. ^ John Payne, Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp and Other
Stories, (London 1901) gives details of Galland's encounter with
'Hanna' in 1709 and of the discovery in the Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris of two Arabic manuscripts containing Aladdin
and two more of the 'interpolated' tales. Text of "Alaeddin and
the enchanted lamp"
2. ^ Plotz, Judith Ann (2001). Romanticism and the vocation
of childhood. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 148–149. ISBN
0312227353.
3. ^ Moon, Krystyn (2005). Yellowface. Rutgers University
Press. pp. 23. ISBN 0813535077.
4. ^ Hugh Honour, Chinoiserie: The Vision of Cathay (1961).
Section I "The Imaginary Continent".
5. ^ Pantomime Guided Tour: Aladdin (PeoplePlay – Theatre
Museum) accessed 10 July 2008
6. ^ "Aladdin". http://www.its-behind-you.com/aladdin.html.
Retrieved 2008-01-22.
(3) Sinbad
_____________________________________________________
____________
Sinbad the Sailor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinbad_the_Sailor, April 8, 2010)
Sinbad the Sailor (also spelled Sindbad; Arabic ‫دابدنسلا‬
sa ‫بحري‬ ‫ال‬-Sindibād al-Baḥri; Persian ‫دابدنس‬ Sendbād) is a

37. fictional sailor from Basrah, living during the Abbasid
Caliphate - the hero of a story-cycle of Middle Eastern origin.
During his voyages throughout the seas east of Africa and south
of Asia, he has fantastic adventures going to magical places,
meeting monsters, and encountering supernatural phenomena.
Contents
* 1 Origins and sources
* 2 The tales
o 2.1 Sinbad the Porter and Sinbad the Sailor
o 2.2 The First Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor
o 2.3 The Second Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor
o 2.4 The Third Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor
o 2.5 The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor
o 2.6 The Fifth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor
o 2.7 The Sixth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor
o 2.8 The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor
* 3 Sinbad in popular culture
o 3.1 Films, TV, animation
o 3.2 In high culture
o 3.3 In pop culture
o 3.4 In science
* 4 Notes
* 5 External links
Origins and sources
Sinbad is a Persian word[1] hinting at a Persian origin. In fact
some scholars believe that the Book of Sindbad, as such, was
originally compiled in Sassanid Persia, although its author was
familiar with Indian narrative works, possibly in Middle Persian
translations.[2] The oldest texts of the cycle are however in
Arabic, and no ancient or medieval Persian version has
survived. A variation of the name, Smbat, can also be found in
Armenia, as well as the version Lempad of his father's name

38. Lambad. The stories themselves are based partly on real
experiences of sailors around the Indian Ocean, partly on
ancient poetry (including Homer's Odyssey and Vishnu Sarma's
Panchatantra), and partly upon Arab, Indian and Persian
folklore and literature.
The collection is tale 133 in Volume 6 of Sir Richard Burton's
1885 translation of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights
(Arabian Nights)[3] (despite criticisms regarding the translation
and the commentary of the Burton edition, it remains the most
extensive collection of Arabian Nights tales in English and is
hence often used for reference purposes[4][5]). While Burton
and other Western translators have grouped the Sinbad stories
within the tales of Scheherazade in the Arabian Nights, its
origin appears to have been quite independent from that story
cycle and modern translations by Arab scholars often do not
include the stories of Sinbad[6] or several other of the Arabian
Nights that have become familiar to Western audiences.
The tales
Sinbad the Porter and Sinbad the Sailor
Like the 1001 Nights' the Sinbad story-cycle has a frame story,
which goes as follows: in the days of Haroun al-Rashid, Caliph
of Baghdad, a poor porter (one who carries goods for others in
the market and throughout the city) pauses to rest on a bench
outside the gate of a rich merchant's house, where he complains
to Allah about the injustice of a world which allows the rich to
live in ease while he must toil and yet remain poor. The owner
of the house hears, and sends for the porter, and it is found they
are both named Sinbad. The rich Sinbad tells the poor Sinbad
that he became wealthy, "by Fortune and Fate", in the course of
seven wondrous voyages, which he then proceeds to relate.
The First Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor

39. After dissipating the wealth left to him by his father, Sinbad
goes to sea to repair his fortune. He sets ashore on what appears
to be an island, but this island proves to be a gigantic sleeping
whale on which trees have taken root ever since the world was
young. Awakened by a fire kindled by the sailors, the whale
dives into the depths, the ship departs without Sinbad, and
Sinbad is saved by the chance of a passing wooden trough sent
by the grace of Allah. He is washed ashore on a densely wooded
island. While exploring the deserted island he comes across one
of the king's grooms. When Sinbad helps save the King's mare
from being drowned by a sea horse—not a seahorse as we know
it, but a supernatural horse that lives underwater—the groom
brings Sinbad to the king. The king befriends Sinbad and so he
rises in the king's favour becoming a trusted courtier. One day,
the very ship on which Sinbad set sail docks at the island, and
he reclaims his goods (still in the ship's hold). Sinbad gives the
king his goods and in return the king gives him rich presents.
Sindbad sells these presents for a great profit. Sinbad returns to
Baghdad where he resumes a life of ease and pleasure. With the
ending of the tale, Sinbad the sailor makes Sinbad the porter a
gift of a hundred gold pieces, and bids him return the next day
to hear more about his adventures.
The Second Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor
On the second day of Sinbad's tale-telling—but the 549th night
of Scheherazade's, for she has been breaking her tale each
morning in order to arouse the interest of the homicidal king,
and make him spare her life for one more night—Sinbad the
sailor tells how he grew restless of his life of leisure, and set to
sea again, "possessed with the thought of travelling about the
world of men and seeing their cities and islands." Accidentally
abandoned by his shipmates again, he finds himself stranded in
an inaccessible valley of giant snakes which can swallow
elephants, and a gigantic bird called the roc, which prey upon
them. The floor of the valley is carpeted with diamonds, and

40. merchants harvest these by throwing huge chunks of meat into
the valley which the birds then carry back to their nests, where
the men drive them away and collect the diamonds stuck to the
meat. The wily Sinbad straps one of the pieces of meat to his
back and is carried back to the nest along with a large sack full
of precious gems. Rescued from the nest by the merchants, he
returns to Baghdad with a fortune in diamonds, seeing many
marvels along the way.
The Third Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor
Restless for travel and adventure, Sinbad sets sail again from
Basra. But by ill chance he and his companions are cast up on
an island where they are captured by a cyclops, "a huge creature
in the likeness of a man, black of colour, ... with eyes like coals
of fire and eye-teeth like boar's tusks and a vast big gape like
the mouth of a well. Moreover, he had long loose lips like
camel's, hanging down upon his breast and ears like two Jarms
falling over his shoulder-blades and the nails of his hands were
like the claws of a lion." This monster begins eating the crew,
beginning with the Master, who is the fattest. (Burton notes that
the giant "is distinctly Polyphemus").
Sinbad hatches a plan to blind the cyclops (again, obvious
parallels with the story of Polyphemus in Homer's Odyssey),
with the red-hot iron spits with which the monster has been
kebabing and roasting the ship's company. He and the remaining
men escape. After further adventures (including a gigantic
python from which Sinbad escapes thanks to his quick wits), he
returns to Baghdad, wealthier than ever, where "I gave alms and
largesse and clad the widow and the orphan, by way of
thanksgiving for my happy return, and fell to feasting and
making merry with my companions and intimates and forgot,
while eating well and drinking well and dressing well,
everything that had befallen me and all the perils and hardships
I had suffered."

41. The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor
Impelled by restlessness Sinbad takes to the seas again, and, as
usual, is shipwrecked. The naked savages amongst whom he
finds himself feed his companions a herb which robs them of
their reason (Burton theorises that this might be bhang), prior to
fattening them for the table. Sinbad realises what is happening,
and refuses to eat the madness-inducing plant. When the
cannibals have lost interest in him, he escapes. A party of
itinerant pepper-gatherers transports him to their own island,
where their king befriends him and gives him a beautiful and
wealthy wife.
Too late Sinbad learns of a peculiar custom of the land: on the
death of one marriage partner, the other is buried alive with his
or her spouse, both in their finest clothes and most costly
jewels. Sinbad's wife falls ill and dies soon after, leaving
Sinbad trapped in an underground cavern, a communal tomb,
with a jug of water and seven pieces of bread. Just as these
meagre supplies are almost exhausted, another couple—the
husband dead, the wife alive—are dropped into the cavern.
Sinbad bludgeons the wife to death and takes her rations.
Such episodes continue; soon he has a sizable store of bread and
water, as well as the gold and gems from the corpses, but is still
unable to escape, until one day a wild animal shows him a
passage to the outside, high above the sea. From here a passing
ship rescues him and carries him back to Baghdad, where he
gives alms to the poor and resumes his life of pleasure.
(Burton's footnote comments: "This tale is evidently taken from
the escape of Aristomenes the Messenian from the pit into
which he had been thrown, a fox being his guide. The Arabs in
an early day were eager students of Greek literature").
The Fifth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor

42. Sindbad's fifth voyage
"When I had been a while on shore after my fourth voyage; and
when, in my comfort and pleasures and merry-makings and in
my rejoicing over my large gains and profits, I had forgotten all
I had endured of perils and sufferings, the carnal man was again
seized with the longing to travel and to see foreign countries
and islands." Soon at sea once more, while passing a desert
island Sinbad's crew spots a gigantic egg that Sinbad recognizes
as belonging to a roc. Out of curiosity the ship's passengers
disembark to view the egg, only to end up breaking it and
having the chick inside as a meal. Sinbad immediately
recognizes the folly of their behavior and orders all back aboard
ship.
However, the infuriated parent rocs soon catch up with the
vessel and destroy it by dropping giant boulders they have
carried in their talons. Shipwrecked yet again, Sinbad is
enslaved by the Old Man of the Sea, who rides on his shoulders
with his legs twisted round Sinbad's neck and will not let go,
riding him both day and night until Sinbad would welcome
death. (Burton's footnote discusses possible origins for the old
man—the orang-utan, the Greek triton—and favours the African
custom of riding on slaves in this way. This is also reminiscent
of an old Indian folktale, Vikram aur Betaal).
Eventually, Sinbad makes wine and tricks the Old Man into
drinking some, then Sinbad kills him after he has fallen off and
escapes. A ship carries him to the City of the Apes, a place
whose inhabitants spend each night in boats off-shore, while
their town is abandoned to man-eating apes. Yet through the
apes Sinbad recoups his fortune, and so eventually finds a ship
which takes him home once more to Baghdad.
The Sixth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor

43. "My soul yearned for travel and traffic". Sinbad is shipwrecked
yet again, this time quite violently as his ship is dashed to
pieces on tall cliffs. There is no food to be had anywhere, and
Sinbad's companions die of starvation until only he is left. He
builds a raft and discovers a river running out of a cavern
beneath the cliffs. The stream proves to be filled with precious
stones and becomes apparent that the island's streams flow with
ambergris. He falls asleep as he journeys through the darkness
and awakens in the city of the king of Serendib (Ceylon, Sri
Lanka), "diamonds are in its rivers and pearls are in its valleys".
The king marvels at what Sinbad tells him of the great Haroun
al-Rashid, and asks that he take a present back to Baghdad on
his behalf, a cup carved from a single ruby, with other gifts
including a bed made from the skin of the serpent that
swallowed the elephant ("and whoso sitteth upon it never
sickeneth"), and "a hundred thousand miskals of Sindh lign-
aloesa", and a slave-girl "like a shining moon". And so Sinbad
returns to Baghdad, where the Caliph wonders greatly at the
reports Sinbad gives of the land of Ceylon.
The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor
The ever-restless Sinbad sets sail once more, with the usual
result. Cast up on a desolate shore, Sinbad makes a raft and
floats down a nearby river to a great city. Here the chief of the
merchants weds Sinbad to his daughter, names him his heir, and
conveniently dies. The inhabitants of this city are transformed
once a month into birds, and Sinbad has one of the bird-people
carry him to the uppermost reaches of the sky, where he hears
the angels glorifying God, "whereat I wondered and exclaimed,
"Praised be Allah! Extolled be the perfection of Allah!" But no
sooner are the words out than there comes fire from heaven
which all but consumes the bird-men. The bird-people are angry
with Sinbad and set him down on a mountain-top, where he
meets two youths who are the servants of Allah and who give
him a golden staff; returning to the city, Sinbad learns from his

44. wife that the bird-men are devils, although she and her father
are not of their number. And so, at his wife's suggestion, Sinbad
sells all his possessions and returns with her to Baghdad, where
at last he resolves to live quietly in the enjoyment of his wealth,
and to seek no more adventures.
(Burton includes a variant of the seventh tale, in which Sinbad
is asked by Haroun al-Rashid to carry a return gift to the king
of Serendib. Sinbad replies, "By Allah the Omnipotent, O my
lord, I have taken a loathing to wayfare, and when I hear the
words 'Voyage' or 'Travel,' my limbs tremble". He then tells the
Caliph of his misfortunate voyages; Haroun agrees that with
such a history "thou dost only right never even to talk of
travel". Nevertheless, a command of the Caliph is not to be
gainsayed, and Sinbad sets forth on this, his uniquely
diplomatic voyage. The king of Serendip is well pleased with
the Caliph's gifts (which include, inter alia, the food tray of
King Solomon) and showers Sinbad with his favour. On the
return voyage the usual catastrophe strikes: Sinbad is captured
and sold into slavery. His master sets him to shooting elephants
with a bow and arrow, which he does until the king of the
elephants carries him off to the elephants' graveyard. Sinbad's
master is so pleased with the huge quantities of ivory in the
graveyard that he sets Sinbad free, and Sinbad returns to
Baghdad, rich with ivory and gold. "Here I went in to the Caliph
and, after saluting him and kissing hands, informed him of all
that had befallen me; whereupon he rejoiced in my safety and
thanked Almighty Allah; and he made my story be written in
letters of gold. I then entered my house and met my family and
brethren: and such is the end of the history that happened to me
during my seven voyages. Praise be to Allah, the One, the
Creator, the Maker of all things in Heaven and Earth!").
In some versions we return to the frame story, in which Sinbad
the Porter may receive a final generous gift from Sinbad the
Sailor. In other versions the story cycle ends here, and there is

45. no further mention of Sinbad the Porter.
Sinbad in popular culture
Sinbad's quasi-iconic status in Western culture has led to his
name being appropriated for a wide range of uses in both
serious and not-so-serious contexts, frequently with only a
tenuous connection to the original tales.
Films, TV, animation
Many films, television series, animated cartoons, novels, and
video games have been made, featuring Sinbad not as a
merchant who happens to stumble into adventures, but as a
dashing dare-devil adventure-seeker.
* Sinbad the Sailor (1935) Directed by Ub Iwerks
* Popeye the Sailorman (1936) Episode: Popeye the Sailor
Meets Sindbad the Sailor
* Sinbad the Sailor (1947)
* Son of Sinbad (1955)
* The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
* Adventures of Sinbad (1962)
* Captain Sindbad (1963)
* Sinbad Jr. (1965)
* Sindbad Alibaba Aladin (1965)
* Sindbad (Szindbád, Hungarian movie version of the stories,
1971)
* Sinbad and the Caliph of Baghdad (1973)
* The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974)
* Arabian Nights: Sinbad's Adventures (Arabian Naitsu:
Shinbaddo No Bôken, 1975)
* Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
* Sinbad of the Seven Seas (1989)
* The Fantastic Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor (1996)
* The Adventures of Sinbad (1996-98)

46. * The Fantastic Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor (1998)
* Alif Laila - A TV series by Sagar Films ( Pvt.Ltd.) for DD
National. Also shown on SAB TV & Ary Digital tv channels
* Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists (2000)
* Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)
* "Backyardigans" (2007) episode: Sinbad Sails Alone
* Sinbad The Fifth Voyage In-Production: Giant Flick Films
(2010)
* The 7 Adventures of Sinbad (2010) film by The Asylum
* Princess Dollie Aur Uska Magic Bag: Sinbad is a main
character.
Sadko (film) (1952), although unrelated to Sindbad and instead
based on Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Sadko, was overdubbed and
released in English as The Magic Voyage of Sinbad.
In high culture
* In Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's suite Scheherazade, the 1st,
2nd and 4th movement focus on portions of the Sinbad story.
Various components of the story have identifiable themes in the
work, including Rocs and the angry sea. In the climactic final
movement, Sinbad's ship (6th voyage) is depicted as rushing
rapidly toward cliffs and only the fortuitous discovery of the
cavernous stream allows him to escape and make the passage to
Serindib.
* In The Count of Monte Cristo, "Sinbad the Sailor" is but
one of many pseudonyms used by Edmond Dantès.
* In his Ulysses, James Joyce uses "Sinbad the Sailor" as an
alias for the character of W.B. Murphy and as an analogue to
Odysseus. He also puns mercilessly on the name: Jinbad the
Jailer, Tinbad the Tailor, Whinbad the Whaler, and so on.
* Edgar Allan Poe wrote a tale called "The Thousand and
Second Tale of Scheherazade". It depicts the 8th and final
voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, along with the various mysteries
Sinbad and his crew encounter; the anomalies are then described

47. as footnotes to the story.
* Polish poet Bolesław Leśmian's Adventures of Sindbad the
Sailor is a set of tales loosely based on the Arabian Nights.
* Hungarian writer Gyula Krudy's Adventures of Sindbad is a
set of short stories based on the Arabian Nights.
* In John Barth's "The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor",
"Sinbad the Sailor" and his traditional travels frame a series of
'travels' by the thinly anonymous 'Somebody the Sailor'.
In pop culture
* Sinbad appears in the comic book series Fables written by
Bill Willingham, and as the teenaged Alsind in the comic book
series Arak, Son of Thunder—which takes place in the 9th
century AD—written by Roy Thomas.
* "The Last Voyage of Sindbad" by Richard Corben and Jan
Strnad originally appeared as "New Tales of the Arabian
Nights" serialized in Heavy Metal (magazine) #15-28 (1978-79)
and was later collected and reprinted as a trade paperback book.
* In the Arabian Nights-themed video game Sonic and the
Secret Rings, Sinbad looks almost exactly like Knuckles the
Echidna.
* In Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen:
Black Dossier Sinbad appears as the Immortal Orlando's lover
of thirty years, until he leaves for his 8th Voyage and never
returns.
* Sinbad provides the theme for Sindbad's Storybook Voyage
at Tokyo DisneySea, for a roller coaster at the Efteling theme
park at Kaatsheuvel, Netherlands, and for an elaborate live-
action stunt show, The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad, at the
Universal Orlando Resort in Florida.
* Sinbad The Sailor is a track in the Bollywood movie Rock
On!!
* "Nagisa no Sinbad" (渚のシンドバッド) was the 4th single
released by Pink Lady, a popular Japanese duo in the late 1970s
and early 1980s . The song has been covered by former idol

48. group W (Double You) and by the Japanese super group
Morning Musume.
* In 1978, Gottlieb manufacturing released a pinball machine
named "Sinbad", featuring characters in the artwork from the
movie Eye of the Tiger. Also released, in a shorter run, was an
Eye of the Tiger pinball.
* Successful comedian David Adkins, uses the stage name
Sinbad.
* Sinbad plays an important role in the 2000 novel "The
Amazing Voyage of Azzam" as the often mentioned but never
seen rival of the glory seeking main character.
* Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Milhauser has a story
entitled "The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad" in his 1990 collection
"The Barnam Museum
In science
* Copeland CS, Mann VH, Morales ME, Kalinna BH,
Brindley PJ. "The Sinbad retrotransposon from the genome of
the human blood fluke, Schistosoma mansoni, and the
distribution of related Pao-like elements." BMC Evol Biol. 2005
Feb 23;5(1):20. PMID: 15725362
* Marcelli A, Burattini E, Mencuccini C, Calvani P, Nucara
A, Lupi S, Sanchez Del Rio M. "SINBAD, a brilliant IR source
from the DAPhiNE storage ring." J Synchrotron Radiat. 1998
May 1;5(Pt 3):575-7. Epub 1998 May 1. PMID: 15263583
* Favorov OV, Ryder D. "SINBAD: a neocortical mechanism
for discovering environmental variables and regularities hidden
in sensory input." Biol Cybern. 2004 Mar;90(3):191-202. Epub
2004 Mar 12. PMID: 15052482
Notes
1. ^ W. Eilers (1983), "Iran and Mesopotamia" in E.
Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. pg 497

49. 2. ^ Scott Meisami, Julie; Starkey, Paul; Encyclopedia of
Arabic Literature, Taylor & Francis, 1998, ISBN
9780415185721; p. 24.
3. ^ Burton's translation on-line
4. ^ Marzolph, Ulrich and Richard van Leeuwen. 2004. The
Arabian nights encyclopedia, Volume 1. P.506-508
5. ^ Irwin, Robert. 2004. The Arabian nights: a companion.
6. ^ Haddawy, Husain, The Arabian Nights V.1, London,
W.W.Norton:1995 ISBN 9780393313673
External links
* Story of Sindbad The Sailor
* 21 Illustrations by the German cartoon pioneer Stefan Mart,
from Tales of the Nations (1933)
* Sindbad's Middle-European reincarnation
* ' Listen it in Hindi'
* circa 1960 Finnish matchboxlabel with advertisement for
the 1955 Howard Hughes produced film, from the Richard
Greene Collection of Popular Culture
(4) Overview of Negritude
===============================================
===========
For links on aspects of the movement, click
on http://french.about.com/library/bl-
negritude.htm or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negritude, and
see the articles in Module 8.
Also, read this excellent MSN Encyclopedia article surveying
African literature:

50. African Literature
I.
Introduction
African Literature, oral and written literature produced on the
African continent. Africa has a long literary tradition, although
very little of this literature was written down until the 20th
century. In the absence of widespread literacy, African
literature was primarily oral and passed from one generation to
the next through memorization and recitation.
Most of Africa’s written literature is in European languages,
owing to European colonization of the continent from the 16th
century to the mid-20th century. During that period European
languages supplanted African languages in government,
education, business, and, to a great extent, in daily
communication. By far the most widely used European language
in African literature is English, followed by French and
Portuguese, respectively. Works written in African languages
and traditional oral texts went virtually unacknowledged until
the late 20th century, but today they are receiving increased
recognition. Many scholars prefer to speak of African
literatures, rather than African literature, to emphasize the many
different literary traditions the term encompasses.
This survey covers only African literatures south of the Sahara.
The literatures of North Africa are not included because North
African cultures share greater affinities with the Arab world
than with sub-Saharan peoples and cultures (for more
information, see Arabic Literature). The literature of white
South Africa is similarly excluded, as it is more closely linked
with the European literary heritage (see South Africa, Republic
of: Literature).

51. II.
Oral Traditions
Modern African literatures have been influenced to a
remarkable degree by the continent’s long tradition of oral
artistry. Before the spread of literacy in the 20th century, texts
were preserved in memory and performed or recited. These
traditional texts served many of the same purposes that written
texts serve in literate societies—entertainment, instruction, and
commemoration, for example. However, no distinctions were
made between works composed for enjoyment and works that
had a more utilitarian function. Africa’s oral literature takes the
form of prose, verse, and proverb, and texts vary in length from
the epic, which might be performed over the course of several
days, to single-sentence formulations such as the proverb. The
collective body of oral texts is variously described as folklore,
verbal art, oral literature, or (more recently) orature.
Foremost among prose forms in African literature is the myth.
Like myths everywhere, African myths typically explain the
creation of the universe, the activities of the gods at the
beginning of creation, the essence of all creatures, and the
nature of their interrelationships. Next in importance is the
legend, intended to enhance a listener’s understanding of the
constitution of the universe. Legends, which deal with events
that occurred after the era of the gods, describe such heroic
human feats as establishing dynasties or single-handedly
preventing disaster. The African legend has much in common
with the epic, in that both focus on heroism. However, unlike
epics, legends are less elaborate and are not performed on
special occasions or in formal settings. Instead, these prose
works are shared in the context of everyday life.
The folktale, another prose form, is usually told for nighttime
entertainment. Folktales feature human beings and animals,
either separately or together. They are often employed for social
commentary and instruction and also serve as a potent means of

52. affirming group values and discouraging antisocial behavior. A
popular type is the trickster tale, which features a small but
wily animal that employs its cunning to protect itself against
much larger and more powerful animals. Examples of animal
tricksters are Anansi, a spider in the folklore of the Ashanti
people of Ghana; Àjàpá, a tortoise in Yoruba folklore of
Nigeria; and Sungura, a hare found in central and East African
folklore.
The epic is not prevalent in Africa, and scholars disagree on
whether the term should even be applied to African texts. What
is beyond question is that the African texts described as epics
are extended celebrations of heroic figures. A good example
available in print is The Mwindo Epic (1969) of the Nyanga of
eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, formerly
Zaire).
When the integrity of a text is important, it is cast in verse.
Certain myths, for example, must be recited exactly as part of
the sacred cult of a divinity or chanted in the process of
divination (foretelling future events or interpreting omens).
Texts in verse form are more easily committed to memory and
recalled. Various devices to aid recall are embedded in the text,
as in the Zulu izibongo performed in praise of chiefs.
Finally, several African cultures possess a rich repertoire of
epigrams, including proverbs and riddles. In many African
societies effective speech and social success depend on a good
command of proverbs. These treasured sayings convey the
demonstrated wisdom of the ages and therefore serve as a
reliable authority in arguments or discussion. Closely related to
proverbs are riddles—both are based on principles of analogy
that require the listener to decipher the intended meaning.
American linguist Albert Scheven’s Swahili Proverbs (1981)
offers examples of proverbs from East Africa.
Despite the major transformations that have taken place in
Africa in the past few centuries, a large number of people
remain in close contact with traditional cultures and
institutions. Oral traditions continue to play important roles in

53. their lives. For the westernized elite, oral traditions are useful
resources for placing an authentic African stamp on writings
and they can aid in reconstructions of traditional life.
III.
Written Literature
With a few exceptions, literacy came to sub-Saharan Africa
from elsewhere. In a handful of instances, rudimentary forms of
writing were developed and used by secret societies and other
exclusive groups. The major exception to this rule is Amharic,
which for centuries has been used in written form in the Horn of
Africa.
Literacy in Arabic came to Africa with the introduction of the
Islamic religion into the kingdom of Ghana in the 11th century
by the Tuaregs, a tribal people of the Sahara. As Islam spread
into other parts of West Africa through jihads (holy wars),
literacy spread as well. Islam depended on the Qur'an (Koran),
its sacred scripture, and required converts to memorize passages
from it. From the 7th century on, Arab influence was also
prevalent on the east coast of Africa, where Arab traders and
slavers were active. The Arabic script was eventually adapted
for Swahili, which in central and East Africa served as the
lingua franca (language for trade and other cross-cultural
communication).
Christianity was a second means for introducing literacy to sub-
Saharan Africa. Christian missionaries became active on the
continent in the second half of the 19th century, especially after
the abolition of the slave trade and the rise of interest among
Europeans in other types of trade. The schools that they
established were intended to train local helpers for the
missionaries, but they later served European colonial
administrations and commercial concerns by preparing low-
level functionaries. In the areas where Muslims introduced
literacy, the literature produced is mainly in African languages.

54. In countries where literacy was introduced by Christian
missionaries, the majority of literature is in English, French, or
Portuguese.
A.
Literatures in African Languages
Literatures in African languages have received little scholarly
attention, in part because of a Western bias in favor of literature
in European languages. Another barrier is that few scholars of
African culture know any African languages, and few Africans
know an African language other than their own. The best-known
literatures in African languages include those in Yoruba and
Hausa in West Africa; Sotho, Xhosa, and Zulu in southern
Africa; and Amharic, Somali, and Swahili in East Africa.
In West Africa, Yoruba writing emerged after Bishop Ajayi
Crowther, a former slave, developed a script for the language
and in 1900 published the first Yoruba translation of the Bible.
Isaac Babalola Thomas published the first work of fiction in
Yoruba, Sègilolá eléyinjú egé (Segilola of the Seductive Eyes,
1929). It appeared in serial form in Akéde Èkó, a newspaper in
Lagos, Nigeria, and warns of the woes in store for women who
live a life of prostitution. The most important Yoruba writer,
Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa, used his writings to commend
Christian virtues to the public. His first work is also the first
full-length novel published in Yoruba: Ògbójú ode nínú igbó
irúnmalè (1938) was translated by Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole
Soyinka as The Forest of a Thousand Daemons: A Hunter’s
Saga (1968). It tells of the exploits of Akara-Ogun, a fearless
hunter in a forest infested with a myriad of unnatural creatures,
and draws extensively on Yoruba folklore. Writing emerged in
the Hausa language earlier than in the Yoruba language, with
such works as Wakar Muhammadu (Song of Muhammad,
1845?), a portrait of the prophet Muhammad by poet Asim
Degel.

55. In southern Africa as well, writing was introduced by
missionaries who established themselves in the 1820s at
Lovedale, near Alice (now in Eastern Cape Province). In
addition to the Bible, one of the texts the missionaries
translated for instruction was ThePilgrim’s Progress (1678 and
1684)by English author John Bunyan. This work provided the
model for the first South African work of fiction, Thomas
Mofolo’s Moeti Oa Bochabella (1906; translated as
TheTraveller of the East, 1934). Like Bunyan’s book, this
Sotho-language work uses allegory to tell the story of a man’s
spiritual journey after converting to Christianity. Also
associated with the Lovedale mission is Samuel Edward Krune
Loliwe Mqhayi, whose Xhosa-language novel Ityala lamawele
(The Case of the Two Brothers, 1914) recreates the legal
proceedings he observed at the court of his great-uncle, a chief.
He is also known for his poetry, for which admirers named him
Imbongi yesizwe jikelele (the poet of the whole nation). In the
Zulu language, Abantu abamnyama lapha bavela ngakhona
(1922; The Black People and Whence They Came, 1979), by
Magema ka Magwaza Fuze, tells of Zulu history and presents an
early plea for black unity in Africa.
In East Africa, a system of writing for the Somali language was
not developed until the early 20th century, long after writing in
Arabic had become widespread among Somali-speaking peoples.
Literature in Somali is predominantly in verse, and its greatest
figure is Sayyid Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan, who was born in the
mid-19th century and died in 1921. He criticized the European
colonizers and their native collaborators in such poems as
“Xuseenow caqligu kaa ma baxo idam Ilaahaye” (O Xuseen,
God willing may good sense never leave you). The short novel
“Qawdhan iyo Qoran” (Qawdhand and Qoran, 1967), by Somali
writer Axmed Cartan Xaarge, is about two lovers who cannot
marry because a marriage for the woman had already been
arranged. Although literature in Amharic, now the official
language of Ethiopia, did not flourish until the 20th century,
much earlier writings do exist, including the anonymous 17th-

56. century religious works Mazmura Dāwit (The Psalter of David)
and Waddaseē Māryām (Praises of Mary).
Literature in Swahili dates back to the 17th century. Early
writings, by Muslim scholars and clerics, consist largely of
celebrations in verse of religious figures. Modern Swahili
literature, in prose and in verse, dates from 1925, when the
countries then forming British East Africa (now Kenya,
Tanzania, and Uganda) adopted Swahili as the only African
language for use in their schools. The first important modern
Swahili writer was Tanzania’s Shaaban Robert, who wrote in
prose and verse, praising his traditional culture. Very different
in subject and style is the later Simu ya kifo (Phone Call to
Death, 1965), a police thriller by Tanzanian writer Faraji
Katalambulla.
B.
African Literatures in European Languages
The European languages most commonly used in Africa are
English, French, and Portuguese. Literature in the English
language, known as Anglophone literature, is the African
literature best known outside Africa, followed by Francophone
(French-language) and Lusophone (Portuguese-language)
literatures.
B.1.
Anglophone African Literature
The British began colonizing Africa in the early 19th century.
Their holdings eventually grew to include what is now Egypt,
Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya in North and East Africa; Ghana,
Sierra Leone, and Nigeria in West Africa; and in the southern
part of the continent, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South
Africa. African literature in English is more extensive than

57. African literatures in other European languages, but it generally
made a later appearance than Lusophone or Francophone
African literatures.
B.1.a.
Poetry
The first collection of African poetry in English translation is
An Anthology of West African Verse (1957), edited and
compiled by the Nigerian Olumbe Bassir. It includes a large
number of Francophone poems in English translation, which
testifies to Anglophone literature’s slower and later
development. And whereas French-speaking writers in Africa
tended to celebrate African culture and blackness in a
movement called négritude, English-speaking writers and
intellectuals in Africa generally disdained négritude as
ostentatious and unnecessary. Despite this, some early
Anglophone poems resembled négritude verse in their
examination of the effects of European colonialism on Africa.
One of the first African poets to publish in English is Lenrie
Peters of The Gambia, whose poems examine the disorienting
discontinuities between past and present in Africa. His book
Poems came out in 1964 and Selected Poetry, his third
anthology, in 1981. Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has
published several volumes of poetry, including Idanre and Other
Poems (1967). Fellow Nigerian Christopher Okigbo had
established himself as one of the most important Anglophone
poets in Africa before his death in 1967 during the Biafran war.
His collected poems were published as Labyrinths, with Path of
Thunder (1971). Ghana’s Kofi Anyidoho emerged in the 1980s
as one of the most impressive African poets writing in English,
earning critical praise for his treatment of both personal and
political subjects. A Harvest of Our Dreams (1984) is regarded
as his best work so far.
Writers in East Africa began producing significant poetry in the