RECOMMENDED NOVELS for US Women

RECOMMENDED NOVELS for US Women (all of the following were recommended over various H-Net lists

Authors Novels

Alcott, Louisa May              Work
Alther, Lisa                    Original Sin
Arnow, Harriet                  The Dollmaker
Brown, Rita Mae                 In Her Day
Cather, Willa                   My Antonia & O Pioneers
Chopin, Kate                    The Awakening
Davis, Thulani                  1959
Ferber, Edna                    Roast Beef Medium & Emma McChesney and Co.
Fern, Fanny                     Ruth Hall
French, Marilyn                 The Women's Room
Gibbons, Kaye                   Charms for the Easy Life
                                Ellen Foster
                                A Virtuous Woman
                                A Cure for Dreams
Gilman, Charlotte P.            Herland
                                The Yellow Wallpaper
Harper, Frances W.              Iola Leroy
Harrison, Jim                   Dalva
Hawthorne, Nathaniel            The Scarlett Letter
Hurston, Zora Neale             Their Eyes Were Watching God
Janeway, Elizabeth              Daisy Kenyon
Jewett, Sarah, Orne             A Country Doctor
Jong, Erica                     Fear of Flying
Larsen, Nella                   Quicksand
                                Passing
Lee, Harper                     To Kill A Mockingbird
Marshall, Paule                 Brown Girl, Brownstones
McCarthy, Mary                  The Group
Miller, Susan                   The Good Mother
Mitchell, Margaret              Gone With the Wind
Naylor, Gloria                  The Women of Brewster Place
                                Mama Day
                                Bailey's Cafe
Peattie, Elia                   The Precipice
Phelps, Elizabeth S.            The Silent Partner
                                Story of Avis
Piercy, Marge                   Woman on the Edge of Time
Rawson, Susannah                Charlotte Temple
Richardson, Dorthy              The Long Day
Sarton, May                     The Education of Harriet Hatfield
Silko, Leslie Marmon            Ceremony
Smiley, Jane                    A Thousand Acres
                                Duplicate Keys
Walker, Alice                   Meridian
                                The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith                  The House of Mirth
Williams, Sherley               Dessa Rose
Yerzika, Anzia                  The Breadgivers

2 *******

A few years ago, Charlotte Beahan (Murray State U.) and Mel Page (East Tennessee State) published a short piece on "Some African and Asian Fiction for Teaching Modern World History" in *Teaching History*, a journal of the Historical Association of Great Britain (number 44, February 1986). They suggested ten novels (listed below) and discussed the uses and usefulness of each in teaching world history courses. The novels are:

       Peter Abrahams, MINE BOY
       Khushwant Singh, TRAIN TO PAKISTAN
       Chinua Achebe, THINGS FALL APART
       Yan-tsung Chen, THE DRAGON'S VILLAGE
       Betty Bao Lord, SPRING MOON
       Kamala Markandaya, NECTER IN A SIEVE
       Ngugi wa Thiong'o, WEEP NOT CHILD
       Pa Chin, FAMILY
       Sol T. Plaatje, MHUDI
       Stanlake Samkange, YEAR OF THE UPRISING

3 ****
Mel Page adds:

Since that was published, I have two other African novels to recommend. One is Sir Abubakar T. Balewa, SHAIHU UMAR: A NOVEL ABOUT SLAVERY IN AFRICA (trans-Saharan!); a bit turgid in translation (from Hausa), but short and with introductory material in the Markus Wiener edition. Also, a newer novel by Rose Zwi, THE UMBRELLA TREE (Penguin 1990) about the youth uprisings in 1970s South Africa.

Africa:

Chinua Achebe's *Things Fall Apart* tocover "new imperialism" from a non-European viewpoint. It has weaknesses (e.g. the portrayal of pre-colonial Igbo society as "static"), but students tend to get very engaged with it.

In my course on modern China I assign *The Family* by Pa Chin [Ba Jin], about generational conflict in a Chinese family in the 1920s. It gives a very good sense of cultural and political change at that time.
For early modern Japan, you might use *Silence* or *The Samurai* by Endo Shusaku. Endo, a Japanese Catholic, examines the Japanese response to Christianity in the early 17th century.

6 *****
From: Elizabeth Davis Barlow <bbarlow@umich.edu>

A book I would recommend written by a Palestinian woman is Raymonda Hawa Tawil's book: My Home, My Prison (about life Palestinians under occupation in 1983, prior to the Intifada). It is 265 pages of relatively easy reading (an instructor could reduce the chapters assigned, also). It was published by Zed Publishers. I think that students would be interested in a book written by Yasser Arafat's mother-in-law.

7 *****

From: Gyan Prakash <PRAKASH@pucc.Princeton.EDU>

You might consider Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North--a Sudanese "writing back" of Conrad, about 160 pages of a gripping tale about postcolonial meditation on colonial identity. It is also a brilliant literary rendering of Fanon's brilliant essay "The Fact of Blackness" in his Blck skin, White Masks. For the early 1900s, a very evocative text is "Sultana's Dream", about 85 pages incl. introduction etc. published by the Feminist Press of CUNY, 1988. It is a story written by a Bengali Muslim woman in 1905 about her dream of a world where gender roles are reversed--men cook, clean, and are veiled--and where science and technology enable a harmonious life. This text precedes the much-celebrated "Herland" by Charlotte Perkins. Good luck.

8 *****

From: Alan Fisher CIS - AH MSU <alan@ah2.cal.msu.edu>

One very good novel, which students seem to like, written by an Iranian woman, Simen Daneshvar, Persian Requiem, in paper, concerns an Iranian family in the midst of World War II, facing British control and nationalist desires--the woman in the family turns out to be the real leader of that unit. Daneshvar's novel has been reprinted several times in Iran; she is still a very popular writer there. My students have especially liked the fact that it was written for Iranian readers, and is available to them in translation.

9 *****
FROM: tlewis@new-orleans.Neosoft.com

The novel that has gotten the best response from a large variety of students at three different universities is Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," as it really shows a very wide range of colonialist attitudes, and also stimulates a lot of good questions and discussions.

10 *****

From:           YOUNGMA@ACFcluster.NYU.EDU
                M.Young

It's not by a woman, but I urge Osmene Sembene's ALL GOD'S CHILDREN about a railroad strike in Senegal (I think) led by women. Better than the Achebe I think because there is nothing static about the picture presented. And again, not by a woman, but Memmi's Colonized and Colonizer is short, clear, moving and not so hot on women -- but that can become a discussion. A successor volume corrects the view on women. Not a novel, though.

11 ****

From: "Mel Page" <PAGEM@ETSUSERV.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU> Organization: East Tennessee State University

For those planning to use Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS in world history courses, let me strongly recommend that you read Edward Said's treatment of Conrad's book in CULTURE AND IMPERIALISM. There is much about Conrad that is about Europe, and the effects of the book in Europe are also important; for world history, students should also be helped to see that aspect of the work.

12 *****

From:           peter c holloran <pch@world.std.com>
                Pine Manor College

I have used Oliver Statler's Japanese Inn and also Graham Green's The Quiet American.

13 *****

From:           pjudson1@cc.swarthmore.edu (Pieter Judson)
                swarthmore college

Let me second the recommendation that those who want to use "Heart of Darkness" look at Said's discussion of Conrad in Culture and Imperialism. I also suggest looking at Michael Taussig's essay "Culture of Terror-Space of Death: Roger Casement's Putumayo Report and the Explanation of Torture" in N. Dirks, ed., Colonialism and Culture (michigan: 1992). I myself only use Conrad in this context in my Modern Europe Survey, since it tells much more about constructions of European Identity than it does about anything else.

14 ****
Remember unfortunately; but I believe the title is A Landing on the Sun - it came out last year and is about growing up in a middle-class family while Nasser was president. There's also an interesting autobiography called a Princess of Persia, by an Iranian woman, also middle-class, who became one of the first trained social workers in that country, but left after the revolution. (I can't remember her name but could get it for you if you want.) And there's yet another, Women of Myrrh, Women of Sand, about womens' life in Saudi Arabia. And of course there's Naguib Mafouz. There's also a series of novels about Saudi Arabia as it changed from a poor desert backwater to a center of oil production. One is The Trench, one is Cities of Salt and I can't remember the third. They are by Abdurrahman Munif, if I'm not mistaken. There's another called Damascus Nights, which is a terrific book built around a series of stories a group of Syrian men tell each other. And a book called Zayni Barakat purports to be about a 15th-century Caliph but is apparently really about Nasser.

Also, the Pakistani woman who's been driven out is named Taslima Nasrin; however, she's a poet not a novelist.

Prof. Louise Halper
Washington & Lee University
School of Law
(703)463-8962
lah@wlu.edu

15 *****

In response to Standen's query, the name of the novelist is Taslima Nasrin and she is from Bangladesh.
Shyamala Raman
Saint Joseph College
West Hartford, CT 06117
email:sraman@mercy.sjc.edu

16 *****

From mpowell@SEDL.ORGMon Feb 13 18:17:27 1995

Not a novel but very interesting, well-written and useful Is Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi. I don't think it is available in paperback yet since it is fairly recent. The U. S. publisher is Addison-Wesley. Undergraduates should find it interesting and it can lead to some good discussions about women in Islam.

17 *****

From fleische@GUSUN.ACC.GEORGETOWN.EDUMon Feb 13 18:17:32 1995

I would suggest, perhaps, Sahar Khalifah's"Wild Thorns". She is Palestinian. Also, Ali Ghnaim's "A Wife for My Son"[Algerian, I believe], or perhaps, "Season of Migration to the North" by Saleh Tayib [Sudanese], anything by Yusuf Idris [Egyptian], or Tawfiq al-Hakim [also Egyptian], "Who Remembers the Sea" by Mohammed Dib [Algerian], and maybe "Men in the Sun" [a novella] by Ghassan Kanafani [Palestinian]. In fact, I suggest you send to Three Continents Press for their catalog, which has many novels from Iran, Algeria, Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, Egypt, etc. Their address:

        Three Continents Press
        P.O. Box 38009
        Colorado Springs, CO 80937-8009

Phone: 719 579-0977

By the way, I did not like al-Shaykh's "Women of Sand and Myrhh", for what that is worth. I felt it was not particularly well-written, and relied heavily on already over-used stereotypes.

18 *****

From:     Joel Cleland <Cleland@Clemson.Clemson.edu>
          Lander University, Greenwood, SC 29649

It is not brief or simply written, but I have had great success with Isabel Allende's _House of the Spirits_ in my college introductory world history course. It takes a while to get my students past the green hair and moving salt shakers, but once that is put behind us, I find the novel very useful in addressing the very issues Curtis is interested in. I would be interested in the experience others have had using this novel in their world history courses.

19 *****

From: Brian Spooner <brian@mec.sas.upenn.edu>

University of Pennsylvania

With regard to the recommendation of _Persian Requiem_, you should know that there are two translations currently available, both in paperback in this country (U.S.). The other one has a different title, _Savushun_, is published by Mage in Washington, D.C. They were released in the U.S. within months of each other. The former was first published in the U.K.

I imagine many people are familiar with _Ali & Nino_ (if you look it up in the library, note the ampersand in the formal title!), which deals with the Caucasus between 1916 and 1922. If not, you might find it complementary.

20 *****

From: Howard Wach <hwach@craft.camp.clarkson.edu>

Those who use Conrad's *Heart of Darkness* or Achebe's *Things Fall Apart* or both--as I have--might have students read Achebe's essay "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness"--pretty scathing. It's included in the Norton Critical Edition of Conrad.

21 *****

From: Steve Tamari <TAMARIS@GUVAX.ACC.GEORGETOWN.EDU>

My favorite novel from the Islamic world is actually three: Naguib Mahfouz's "Cairo Trilogy". I have always wished that I could teach a course on modern Egypt just to be able to integrate at least one volume. The three volumes follow three generations of a Cairene family from the end of WWI and the Egyptian revolution of 1919 to the eve of the Nasir period.

Volume I, "Palace Walk" is probably the finest from the point of view of character development and literary finesse. All the multifarious aspects of a middle class Cairene family just after WWI are explored with depth and subtlety including the patriarchical father who is not all evil, the obediant wife who can get her way, and rebellious youth-- both male and female-- who do not really challenge the status quo. Most importantly, it cannot be said to be an "Islamic" novel event though almost all the characters are Muslims because it demonstrates the variety in belief and behavior among Muslims even within one family including the husband who frequents the brothel more than the mosque and his wife who risks life and limb to go to Friday prayers.

The second volume, "Palace of Desire", I found the least engaging and I think it would be the least successful for history class. The most overtly political is the third volume, "Sugar Street" which ends with three grandsons (?) going very separate ways at the end of WWII, one joining the Communists and one the Muslim Brothers (I can't remember what happened to the third). This would be the best for exploring the domestic political repercussions of the process of decolonization in an Islamic society.

I think of the "Cairo Trilogy" as Egypt's "War and Peace". What more can I say?

Steve Tamari

22 *****

From: Jim Everett <cfjee1@eiu.edu>

Eastern Illinois University

For late antique and medieval Europe I've used Apuleius _the Golden Ass_ and Marie de France _Lais_ that offer nice opportunities to look at "common" people. I've also used Rabelais _Gargantua and Pantagruel_ for the early modern period, and was surprised that so many undergraduates were upset by the graphic humor.

23 *****

From: Robert Entenmann <entenman@stolaf.edu>

St. Olaf College

For pre-1800 fiction from Japan that shows life of commoners and also shows a sense of humor, try the short stories of Ihara Saikaku (usually known as Saikaku, although Ihara was his family name). He wrote in the late 17th century, and his stories were popular among Japan's urban dwellers. They remind me a little of Boccaccio's _Decameron_. William Theodore DeBary has translated _Five Women Who Loved Love_ and some of Saikaku's stories are included in Donald Keene's _Anthology of Japanese Literature_.

24 *****

From: Alan Fisher <alan@ah2.cal.msu.edu>

One "novel" [though one should be careful to use that term for a period prior to the invention of the novel] from 12th c Arab and Iranian world which works very well for students is the _1001 Nights_--in various English versions, though I prefer the Penguin edition, as more complete. It is full of humor, contains stories that were common among the "common folk" of the Islamic urban centers; it also provides a good opportunity to compare with all sorts of stereotypes current about these stories.

25 *****

(note from moderator)

_Les Bouts de bois de Dieu_, by Ousmane Sembene (listed in many catalogs as Sembene Ousmane) chronicles a 1947 railroad strike in Senegal and Mali, in which a women's march to the capital brings about a settlement. In English translation it is _God's Bits of Wood_ (rather than _All God's Children_, as in an earlier posting). It's long but excellent.

                                        Pat Manning, Co-moderator
                                        Northeastern University
                                        manning@neu.edu

26 *****

From: EVAN%UKANVAX@UICVM.UIC.EDU

John Raeburn calls _The Rise of David Levinsky_ "a splendid novel, one of the two or three best about European immigration." As the introduction to the most recent edition of _Levinsky_ suggests, we should not neglect the anti-semitic slant of the novel.

_Levinsky_ seems exemplary because it makes an extreme illustration about acculturation. It does that by portraying Levinsky as a religious fanatic, who becomes a capitalist fanatic and skirt-chasing fanatic.

While advanced cultural critics might be able to come to terms with some of the complexities of this representation, many students cannot. To whit, when I taught the book last year in a 100-level course which used it to exemplify European immigration, my Jewish students lamented that many of their peers would form or reinforce negative images of Jews, based on the book. All the students found the character of Levinsky unredeemingly repulsive. My attempt to take the discourse to a higher, meta-level hardly affected these powerful gut responses.

While the book is quite helpful for research, I think it should be avoided in survey courses. I would very much appreciate comments on or off-list.

27 *****

From: Mary Martin <marym@mec.sas.upenn.edu>

Middle East Center, University of Pennsylvania

Here are suggestions for Arabic novels in translation that might be good for world history courses, according to Roger Allen (Prof. of Arabic Literature, U. of Pa)

> THE STORY OF ZAHRA: set during the Lebanese civil war, this novel makes > use of the dysfunctional Shiite Lebanese family--as portrayed by its > daughter-member--to symbolise all that was/is wrong with Lebanese society > in particular and with the values of a male-dominated social system that, > when carried to extremes, lead inevitably to war. A wonderfully rich > novel, not only for its portrayal of Lebanese society, but also for its > psychological insight and anrrative technique. > > MEN IN THE SUN: a short novel dealing with the desparate situation of the > Palestinians during the 1960s. Three characters, representing different > generations of Palestinians, try to make their way to Kuwait to find > work. They are abused and exploited at every turn, and the description > of the desert crossing in a water-tanker and their death in the searing > heat is a telling allegory on the fate of the Palestinians in general. > > THE WEDDING OF ZEIN: In this superb novella, an entire village becomes a > character as it reflects the antics of Zein, an apparently crazy member of > its society who undergoes a transformation from village clown to > responsible and even modern member of the community. Wonderfully written > and beautifully constructed. > > ROGER ALLEN

28 *****

From: IN%"SMintz@UH.EDU" "Steven Mintz, U. Houston" 8-DEC-1994 14:55:13.12

An extraordinary number of H-list subscribers responded to my request for novels and autobiographies for a multicultural U.S. history course including:

Lori Adolewski, Susan Ambrose, Benay Blend, Patrick Bjork, Priscilla Brewer, Peggy Caffrey, Betty Ch'maj, Dianne S. Clemens, Matt Cohen, Gary Collison, Amy Dean, Robert Entenmann, Antoinette Errante, Peter Frederick, Dan Gleason, Suzanne Green, Victor Greene, Yukiko Hanawa, Joseph Hawes, Mark Hill, Deborah Hirshfield, Sandra Hybels, Stephen Jones, Mark Kornbluh, Sam Mathews-Lamb, Steven Leibo, Sherry Linkon, Timothy Lynch, Don Mabry, James Machor, Partha Mazumdar, Mae Ngai, Vernon Pederson, Pricilla Perkins, Patrick Riordan, Jody Ross, Naoko Shibusawa, Charles Shindo, Shelley Sperry, Clarice Stasz, Elizabeth Stewart, Chris Suggs, Sarah Taylor, Coll Thrush, Jessica Weiss, and Norman Yetman

I can't thank these people enough. Their suggestions and some of their appended comments follow.

MULTIETHNIC COLLECTIONS

David Katzman and William Tutle, eds., Plain Folk (an edited version of Hamilton Holt's Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans)
Perkins and Perkins, Kaleidescope: Stories of the American Experience

AFRICAN AMERICANS

Pre-Twentieth Century

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery

Twentieth Century

Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land Jay Davids, ed., Growing Up Black
Ernest Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman Chester Himes, If He Hollers Let Him Go Latoya Hunter, My First Year in Junior High School Charles Johnson, Middle Passage, Oxherding Tales Alex Kotlowitz, There Are No Children Here Terry McMillan, ed., Breaking Ice
Paule Marshall, Praise Song for the Widow, Proud Shoes

      (an African American woman's reconnection with her cultural
      past)

Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi Toni Morrison, Beloved
Theodore Rosengarten, All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw Alice Walker, The Color Purple
Sayde Wier, A Black Businessman in White Mississippi Richard Wright, Black Boy
Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

ASIAN AMERICANS AND PACIFIC ISLANDERS

Chinese

Frank Chin, Donald Duk
Louis Chu, Eat a Bowl of Tea

      (set in New York's Chinatown after World War II, deals with
      a Chinese American veteran, his immigrant bride, and their
      marital problems)
    Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior: Memories of a Girlhood
      Among Ghosts
    Him Mark Lai, ed., Island
      (poetry written by Chinese immigrants on Angel Island, carved
      into the walls of the wooden barracks where they were detailed
      waiting for immigration inspection, 1910-1940)
    Gus Lee, China Boy
      (wartime and postwar San Francisco, intermarriage, immigration,
      assimilation, confronting prejudice, and 1950s masculinity)
    McCunn, A Thousand Pieces of Gold
      (brought to the West--East for her!--as a picture bride

Victor Nee, Longtime Californ'
Amy Tan, Joy Luck Club
Jade Snow Wong, Fifth Chinese Daughter

Filipinos

Carlos Bulason, America is in the Heart (Filipino farm worker in early 20th century California)

Hawaiians

Haunanh K. Trask, From a Native Daughter

Indians

Bharati Mukherjee, The Middleman and Other Stories (short stories about Asian Indians)

Japanese

Joy Kogawa, Obasan
Lydia Minatoya, Talking to High Monks in the Snow John Okada, No-No Boy

      (a Nisei who, interned during WWII, refused to be drafted
      and was sent to prison)

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Farewell to Mazanar Monica Sone, Nisei Daughter

Koreans

Kim Ronyoung, Clay Walls

Vietnamese

Le Ly Hayslip, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

EUROPEAN ETHNICS

Eastern Europeans

Thomas Bell, Out of This Furnace

Italians

Jerre Mangionne, Mount Alegro

Jews

Mary Antin, Promised Land
Cahan, Rise of David Levinisky
Mike Gold, Jews Without Money
Henry Roth, Call It Sleep
Anzia Yezierska, Bread-Givers

Polish

Eva Hoffman, Lost in Translation

HISPANIC AMERICANS

Cubans

Cristina Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban

Mexicans

Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me Ultima
Raymond Barrio, The Plum Plum Pickers Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (very evocative about gender and community) Ernesto Galarza, Barrio Boy
Jesse Lopez de la Cruz in Kerber, Women's America Ruben Navarrette, Jr., A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano
Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory

      (presents the story of his assimilation in American society
      as a child and young man)

Jose Antonio Villarreal, Pocho

Puerto Ricans

     Esmeralda Santiago, When I was Puerto Rican
       (impact of immigration on identity, vivid descriptions of
       childhood in Puerto Rico and coming of age in NYC)

NATIVE AMERICANS

Black Elk Speaks
Ignatia Broker, Night Flying Woman: An Ojibway Narrative Mary Crow Dog, Lakota Woman
Ella Cara Deloria, Waterlily
Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa), From the Deep Woods to Civilization
Jim Harrison, Dalva
Tony Hillerman, Dance of the Dead and Skinwalkers Linda Hogan, Mean Spirit
Nancy O. Lurie, Mountain Wolf Woman N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain, House Made of Dawn Peter Nabakov, Two-Leggins: The Making of a Crow Warrior Pretty Shield: Medicine Woman of the Crows Polingaysi Qoyawayma, No Turning Back: A Hopi Woman's Struggle to Live in Two Worlds
Patricia Riley, ed., Growing Up Native American Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony

      (impact of WWII on the lives of the men who fought it and
      returned to the reservation; takes a returning soldier through
      alcoholic degeneration into traditional religion and back as
      a whole person who embraces his Indianness as his true identity)
    Tom Spanbauer, The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon
      (explores gender, sexuality, race, and religion in the West)

Luther Standing Bear, My People, the Sioux Leo Stein, ed., Fragments of Autobiography Ruth Underhill, The Autobiography of a Papago Woman James Welsh, Fools Crow

      (evokes the worldview of a culture--the Blackfeet Indians
      i! 1870--on the brink of destruction)

Zitkala-sa, American Indian Stories Louise Erdrich, Tracks, Love Medicine

      (trace two Native American families through 70 years of struggle
      between traditional values and modern realities)

29 *****

From: David Kessler <dkessler@library.berkeley.edu>

Another novel that might be useful in depicting social relations in Arabic society is Nawal el-Saadawi's God dies by the Nile, translated by Sherif Hetata, London, Zed, 1985. This short, powerful novel explores the situation of women in Egyptian society.

30 *****

From: Ellen Broidy <ejbroidy@uci.edu>

How about Anzia Yezierska's The Bread Givers and Meredith Tax's 1982 novel Rivington Street? While neither focus exclusively on issues of women and work, both offer insights into the experiences, including the work experiences, of immigrant Jewish women in New York City at the beginning of this century. And they are both eminently readable!

31 *****

From: VMODRSI@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU

How about Louise Erdrich's *the Beet Queen*, with women, particularly Mary, working in a butcher shop.

32 *****

From: KTOVO@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu

A few suggestions:
Fanny Fern's _Ruth HallAlcott'
s -Old-fashioned GirlAnzia
Yezierska -Bread Givers-, -Hungry Hearts (short stories)-, -The Open Cage- (short stories), -Arrogant BeggarHarriet Wilson's -Our Nig- (altho' this is ostensibly autobiography) Theresa Malkiel -Diary of a Shirtwaist StrikerThe Maimie Papers -- letters between prostitute & philanthropist (I think) might also be interesting to use as a nonfiction source

33 *****

From: natashas@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu

I'd like to suggest Agnes' Smedley's _Daughter of the Earth_, called a novel but written in an autobiographical style, which covers a journalist's experience covering U.S. work issues (she later, tho' not in this book, moves to China and writes extensively from there).

34 *****

From: REHARTMAN%ZODIAC@UICVM.UIC.EDU

I would recommend Ann Petry's The Street. It offers compelling insights into the work experiences of black women in the 1930s/40s.

35 *****

From kreng@ksu.ksu.edu
For twentieth century Europe I have found Koestler's Arrival and Departure, Silone's Bread and Wine, Kafka's Trial to work very well.

36 *****
From: Frank Conlon <conlon@u.washington.edu>

Modern Indian history can be wonderfully enhanced with such novels as Raja Rao, _Kanthapura_, which looks at a village upon the arrival of "nationalism", or V. Madgulkar, _The Village Had No Walls_ which ought to make anyone think twice about prescribing the path of modernization without attention to the details. There are many others, Premchand's _Gift of a Cow_ or the numerous novels of Mulk Raj Anand, for example.

37 *****
From: pch@WORLD.STD.COM Peter Holloran, Pine Manor College

I have a long list of novels used in US and Western Civ or World Civ courses, but these are some my students preferred: Thomas Flanagan, The Year of the French Oliver Statler, Japanese Inn
James Clavell, Tai-Pan
Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs Mark Twain, Puddn'head Wilson
Thomas Bell, Out of This Furnace
Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah
Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast John P. Marquand, The Late George Appleby

38 *****

From gmonahan@eosc.osshe.eduMon Feb 13 18:19:39 1995

First, I would like to thank all those who have responded to my query about a biography of a Roman for a Western Civ. Class. I should say that I tried Suetonius the first time I decided to use biographies, but made the mistake, perhaps, of requiring all of it. The bios of Caligula and Nero are fun, but many of the later ones are terribly obscure and not a little boring, especially for Freshmen. I may try just assigning some of the more famous lives.

Now to novels: I have had good luck using Umberto Eco's *Name of the Rose* in an upper-division medieval Europe class. In the second half of Western Civilization, I've used Grimmelshausen's *Adventures of a Simpleton* for the 30 years war to good effect--students enjoy it--as well as Dickens' *Hard Times* which they don't enjoy quite so much, and Solzhenitsyn's *One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich* which they really like. In a course on Modern Germany, I've used Remarque's *All Quiet on the Western Front* which is powerful at every learning level, and Elie Wiesel's *Night* which has been discussed a great deal on H-Teach. For a course in Soviet history I've had great luck with Vladimir Voinovich's *The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin* a wonderful satire of the Stalin era. Following excellent advice from colleagues on H-France, I plan to use Anatole France's *The Gods Must Have Blood* next term in a course on the French Revolution and Napoleon. I find novels on the whole to add a new dimension to the course, stimulating lively discussions and supplying a variety of creative options for writing assignments. I'd like to find one to use in my course on the Renaissance and Reformation (in addition to the large number of primary sources I already require).

39 *****

From: DHARKNESS@CENTER.COLGATE.EDU

I used Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose" this semester in an upper division course on the cultural and intellectual history of early modern Europe. The book served to give students--in the space of 5 class periods--the medieval background to the period we would be focusing on in the rest of the semester. We had wonderful in class discussions about how knowledge could be used to conceal rather than reveal; why Jorge was afraid of laughter; whether William of Baskerville was a "medieval" or a "modern" intellect; and the interplay between visual and literal culture.

40 *****

From SKOPPDR@SNYPLAVAMon Feb 13 18:19:48 1995

Two of my favorite novels to use for teaching about twentieth century Europe: 1) Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front -- for an introductory course on European civilization. (True, about half the class were supposed to have read it in high school, and many say they have. The remainder either feel guilty that they have not read it, or are insp;ired to do so, since it usually is recommended by their peers.) I use it to illustrate WWI, German cultural stress in the Weimar period, the validity and necessity of historical memory, and as a cultural artifact which the Nazis attempt to purge. I show excerpts of the 1930 black-and-white film after the students have read it, and bracketing my discussion of it with them. I also require a 5 page essay linking the book to a theme in the 20th century, e.g., violence, technology, the individual in a mass society. 2) Hans Fallada's Little Man What Now. In my upper-level course on Europe 1900-1939, this novel helps me illustrate the impact of the Depression on the working-class in Weimar Germany. On occasion, I have asked students to enact a dramatic sequenc of the story of their own choosing and creation, with dialogue that doesn't come from the work, or had them write an additional chapter to the work, set in 1936 or 1939. I have used other novels, but not with the predictable success of these two. Hope this helps. Doug Skopp

41 *****

From crjackson@ucdavis.edu

I have also used "Bread and Wine" and find it an excellent novel for demonstrating the incomplete penetration of fascism to the south of Italy. This must, naturally, be contrasted with Nazi Germany; unfortunately, the novels of the Nazi period from the point of view of the Germans (not the Jews) are not quite as outstanding--Klaus Mann's "Mephisto" is good, though I personally prefer the film. For the Soviet Union one can use either "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" (I'm sure the spelling is wrong--sorry), or, my favorite, "Darkness at Noon." My speciality is German history, and there are a number of novels that can be used to effect in pursuing themes of historical analysis: in investigating the "Sonderweg" thesis, Heinrich Mann's "Man of Straw" (orig. German, "Der Untertan") is a classic portrayal of the servility of bourgeois German society before the edifice of nationalism, militarism, and the nobility (my class just wrote their mid-term yesterday on the subject--we'll see how it turned out!). "Effi Briest" by Fontane gives a subtle portrayal of the hypocrisy of the nobility in Prussia (very similar to "Madame Bovary" in many respects). A superb and touchingly quotidian portrait of the dilemma faced by a white-collar worker during the Weimar Republic is given by Hans Fallada, "Little Man, What Now?" The more you know about the Weimar Republic, the better it is as a teaching tool--the hyperinflation, political parties, social sliding. Heinrich Boell's "Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" is good for the role of the media in 1960s/70s Germany, and his other works are good on the defeat of Germany, particularly "When the War was at an End."

41 *****

From: 00aoedmonds@bsuvc.bsu.edu

In my family history course (mainly freshmen, all honors students), I've had good success with __Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant__ and __The Good Mother__ (although some very religious students find the language in __GM__ off-putting).

42 *****

From djm1@Ra.MsState.Edu (Don Mabry)

Nelson M. Blake published a book years ago that dealt with novels as history. If my memory is correct, that is the title (Novels as History). He was concerned with the Progressive Era in U.S. history.

43 *****

From RANDYP@cc1.uca.eduMon Feb 13 18:20:05 1995 OK, Sara, since you don't mind repetitions, I should again like to champion my favorite history, African. For those of you teaching World courses, and are somewhat at a loss on what to assign on Africa, I recommend these highly:

D.T. Niane, SUNDIATA, AN EPIC OF OLD MALI (Longman Publ. Co.) - a

        Iliad-like story of the first great king of ancient Mali
        based on a griot's account. (Good also for leading class
        discussions on oral vs. literate history)

Chinua Achebe, THINGS FALL APART (Heinemann Educ. Books) - an

        excellent view of life in a West African village on the eve
        of the colonial 'conquest.' Through the protagonist, Okonkwo,
        one can see the destructive effects the gradual imposition
        of Christianity and Western ways have on the delicate balance
        of village life. ALWAYS a hit with students.

Others to consider are Ngugi wa Thiongo's THE RIVER BETWEEN, Okot p'Bitek's SONG OF LAWINO and SONG OF OCOL (publ. together by Heinemann), Miriama Ba's SO LONG A LETTER.

44 *****

From RANDYP@cc1.uca.eduMon Feb 13 18:20:20 1995

Other novels I've used which deal with non-Western subjects include,

Alifa Rifaat, DISTANT VIEW OF A MINARET (Heinemann's) -- a

        collection of short stories present various perspectives
        on the place of women in Muslim Egypt.

Taha Hussein, A STREAM OF DAYS (migjht be out of print,

but worth checking) - growing up in Muslim Egypt.

Carlos Fuentes, THE DEATH OF ARTEMIO CRUZ. A perspective on

        the generation produced by the Mexican Rewvolution. A
        bit "literary," therefore probably more useful in upper
        division classes.

45 *****

From: Randolph Hollingsworth <RHOLL00@UKCC.uky.edu>

In response to Sara's request for a good novel to use as a model for individual student book reviews, we Women's Studies faculty at Lexington Community College have used Gilman's HERLAND and Hurston's THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD very successfully over the course of 2 years. We offer two intro courses for Women's Studies, one for the Arts & Humanities and the other for Social Sciences, as a fulfillment of the University of Kentucky's gen educ requirement called "Cross-Disciplinary" -- students take both courses that are interlinked by theme and common readings to show how the disciplines are distinct yet often overlap. In my case, I am using HERLAND (only about 150 pages) to start the class out with some basic knowledge about the history of women (Gilman wrote this in 1915), to practice using the step-by-step outline I ask them to use when they write their individually chosen novels later in the semester, and to practice analyzing the novel's message in regards to a theoretical paradigm that the LCC faculty designed to bridge the two courses (entitled Worlds of Women). It's been fun (Gilman is funny and very OBVIOUS even to poor readers) as well as a wonderful way to start off the semester.

46 *****

From: Jody Ross <rossjoan@student.msu.edu>

I would like to suggest a couple of novels

Francis E.W. Harper's _Iola Leroy_ and _Charles W. Chesnutt's _The House Behind the Cedars_. Both books deal with the post-Civil War/Reconstruction period in the United States. Both are stories about light-skinned blacks and the decisions available to them. The authors take very different approaches to the subject of passing as white. The novels work well with the DuBois/Washington discourse. They also compliment James Weldon Johnson's _Autobiography of an Ex-colored Man_.

Two other books (monographs) that I would recommend for 19th early 20th century U.S. history are Charles Rosenberg's _The Cholera Years_ and Shelia Rothman's _Living in the Shadow of Death: Tuberculosis and the Social Experience of Illness in American History. I am using the two monographs with _Arrowsmith_ (S. Lewis) and Sarah Orne Jewett's _A Country Doctor_. The four books used together form a wonderful tapestry that allows students to think about health care and issues of access, restriction of public liberty, professional options, gender and class as determinants in health and wellness.

47 *****

From HIRSHFIE@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu I have had very good luck with both Anzia Yezerskia's _The _Breadgivers and Maya Angelou's _I _Know _Why _the _Caged _Bird _Sings. I use them in both my family history courses and my women's history courses. I have the students write two pages on each relating them to the themes of the course and I also use novels for small group discussions. In my family history class I also use: Kinsella, _Shoeless _Joe Rita Mae Brown, _Rubyfruit _Jungle Lousia May Alcott, _An _Oldfashioned _Girl

I have found that the students are very passionate about Yezerskia and Angelou because they are so unfamiliar with these different experiences. (Yezerskia is about a very traditional Jewish family in the 1920's in New York).

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From: Randolph Hollingsworth <RHOLL00@UKCC.uky.edu>

49 *****

From RROTZ@iunhaw1.iun.indiana.eduMon Feb 13 18:21:29 1995

I have not had much luck using one novel assigned to the entire class. Students seem to be totally bewildered as to how the material can be tested, and frankly, I don't seem to be able to come up with very good testing devices myself.

I have however had pretty good responses to the use of novels as subjects for a "book report" type assignment. In an African Civilization course I am teaching now for the first time, I require what I call an "African Voices" assignment, in which students are required to read and report on either a novel or primary sources of African origin. No two people can pick the same item. So far, so good, but I won't know for sure how it works out until April.

I do think with Randall Pouwels that there are some really first- rate African novels that do a fine job creating an understanding of historical or contemporary issues. In addition to *Things Fall Apart,* which he mentioned, three other Chinua Achebe novels strike me as having excellent instructional value: *Arrow of God*, about the confrontation between Christianity and traditional African religion, set in about 1920; *No Longer at Ease*, sort of a sequel, because the central character is the grandson (I think) of the central protagonist in *Things*, illustrating the temptations of corruption for the African elite in the late colonial period; and *A Man of the People*, which forces the reader to confront the limits and weaknesses involved in applying democracy to underdeveloped countries, set in the immediate post-independence period (the use of pidgin from time to time might set some students off this last one, though). My personal favorite little-known African novel, a really powerful one that manages to deal with traditional vs. Western values and the status of women all at the same time, through the device of two cousins seeking an education, is Tsitsi Dangarembga, *Nervous Conditions*, set in Zimbabwe.

50 *****

From DEARAGON@GONZAGA.EDUMon Feb 13 18:21:33 1995

To all those colleagues who have assigned Eco's _The Name of the Rose_ to their history classes, I would hope you have called the students' attention to his stereotypic depiction of medieval society. As a medievalist, I had three reactions to the book: 1) I enjoyed the mystery, 2) I deplored the cliches about monastic life in particular and medieval life in general, and 3) I felt he had included more information on the disputes between religious orders than I considered necessary for the plot or interesting to anyone except a specialist. Unless the instructor is prepared to supply the nuances to counter the stereotypes, I would recommend finding an alternative.

51 *****

From A23211F@MSUMUSIK.MURSUKY.EDU Ken Wolf

I have waited to send this until seeing what other novels have been used. I have used some of those mentioned and would only add, esp. for use in freshman world history courses two others. First is Kamala Markandaya's "Nectar in a Sieve," the story of an Indian family which is destroyed--bit by bit in a fashion very clear to my students--by the presence of a Western (British) tannery. It is not anti-Western in tone, but does elict much understanding of the effects of Western imperialism. Another novel I've used successfully is Jamake Highwater's "The Sun, He Dies," about the last Aztec emperor. These, like Achebe's "Things Fall Apart," have elicted some good short papers from my students in which they express sympathy with non-Western people facing Western intrusion.

52 *****

From: Mel Page <PAGEM@ETSU.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU>

A few years ago, Charlotte Beahan (Murray State U.) and I published a short piece on "Some African and Asian Fiction for Teaching Modern World History" in *Teaching History*, a journal of the Historical Association of Great Britain (number 44, February 1986). We suggested ten novels (listed below) and discussed the uses and usefulness of each in teaching world history courses. The novels are:

       Peter Abrahams, MINE BOY
       Khushwant Singh, TRAIN TO PAKISTAN
       Chinua Achebe, THINGS FALL APART
       Yan-tsung Chen, THE DRAGON'S VILLAGE
       Betty Bao Lord, SPRING MOON
       Kamala Markandaya, NECTER IN A SIEVE
       Ngugi wa Thiong'o, WEEP NOT CHILD
       Pa Chin, FAMILY
       Sol T. Plaatje, MHUDI
       Stanlake Samkange, YEAR OF THE UPRISING

As we noted then, these are not the only nor necessarily the best for use in teaching world history, but "they have proved effective in our classrooms and those of other teachers."

53 *****

From: "Mel Page" <PAGEM@ETSUSERV.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU>

Since the question was put regarding novels on Africa, Asia, etc, let me suggest (although immodestly, I suppose): M.E. Page and C.L. Beahan, "Some African & Asian Fiction for Teaching Modern World History," TEACHING HISTORY (U.K.--The Historical Association of Great Britain), 44(1986): 26-29. This surveys ten novels, five each from Africa and Asia, and has a brief description of each with a consideration of how it might be taught.

Since the general question about suppliments/readings came up, let me reiterate what I have written elsewhere (and maybe here too!): the collection of short, comparative biographies by Ken Wolf, PERSONALITIES & PROBLEMS, vols I & II (McGraw-Hill, 1994) are **very good** and I have found that students get into them and are willing to discuss the implications of the essays on how they see world history. More on this privately if anyone is interested.

54 *****

From: "Kenneth R. Curtis" <kcurtis@csulb.edu>

> From: Phil Mueller <hi23ahg@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu> >
> Well, Its time to order outside readings for the Spring > semester. My class is mostly freshmen and I find it difficult > to keep their interest. Novels have been my most successful > ploy. Does anyone on h-world have any suggestions for short > historical novels about Africa, Asia, or the Pacific Rim? > This will be for World Civ from 1500.

Like many others, I have used Chinua Achebe's *Things Fall Apart* to cover "new imperialism" from a non-European viewpoint. It has weaknesses (e.g. the portrayal of pre-colonial Igbo society as "static"), but students tend to get very engaged with it.

And now a query of my own. I usually assign two novels in my post-1500 survey. Lately I have been using Graham Greene's *The Quiet American* to situate the U.S. in post-war world history. For a number of reasons, I am looking for something new. I would like to find a novel written by a Latin American, Asian or Arab WOMAN which speaks to issues of decolonization and/or issues of cultural identity and transformation in the past half century. Also, it must be appropriate for students at an urban commuter university, with many non-traditional students, and many for whom English is a second language; i.e. it must be brief and simply written!! Thanks for your suggestions.

55 *****

From:           Robert Entenmann <entenman@stolaf.edu>
                St. Olaf College

56 *****

From: Elizabeth Davis Barlow <bbarlow@umich.edu>

> From: "Kenneth R. Curtis" <kcurtis@csulb.edu> >
> Like many others, I have used Chinua Achebe's *Things Fall Apart* to > cover "new imperialism" from a non-European viewpoint. It has > weaknesses (e.g. the portrayal of pre-colonial Igbo society as > "static"), but students tend to get very engaged with it. >
> And now a query of my own. I usually assign two novels in my > post-1500 survey. Lately I have been using Graham Greene's *The > Quiet American* to situate the U.S. in post-war world history. For a > number of reasons, I am looking for something new. I would like to > find a novel written by a Latin American, Asian or Arab WOMAN which > speaks to issues of decolonization and/or issues of cultural identity > and transformation in the past half century. Also, it must be > appropriate for students at an urban commuter university, with many > non-traditional students, and many for whom English is a second > language; i.e. it must be brief and simply written!! Thanks for your > suggestions.
>

57 *****
From: Gyan Prakash <PRAKASH@pucc.Princeton.EDU>

58 *****

From: Alan Fisher CIS - AH MSU <alan@ah2.cal.msu.edu>

         Center for Integrative Studies, Arts & Humanities
         Michigan State University

59 *****

FROM: "T"

       tlewis@new-orleans.Neosoft.com
       Terrance L. Lewis, PhD  History Program
       Southern University at New Orleans

60 *****

From:           YOUNGMA@ACFcluster.NYU.EDU
                M.Young

61 *****

From:           peter c holloran <pch@world.std.com>
                Pine Manor College

I have used Oliver Statler's Japanese Inn and also Graham Green's The Quiet American.

62 *****

From:           pjudson1@cc.swarthmore.edu (Pieter Judson)
                swarthmore college

63 *****

From LAH@FS.LAW.WLU.EDUThu Mar 30 18:13:34 1995

There's a wonderful novel by an Egyptian woman, whose name I cannot remember unfortunately; but I believe the title is A Landing on the Sun - it came out last year and is about growing up in a middle-class family while Nasser was president. There's also an interesting autobiography called a Princess of Persia, by an Iranian woman, also middle-class, who became one of the first trained social workers in that country, but left after the revolution. (I can't remember her name but could get it for you if you want.) And there's yet another, Women of Myrrh, Women of Sand, about womens' life in Saudi Arabia. And of course there's Naguib Mafouz. There's also a series of novels about Saudi Arabia as it changed from a poor desert backwater to a center of oil production. One is The Trench, one is Cities of Salt and I can't remember the third. They are by Abdurrahman Munif, if I'm not mistaken. There's another called Damascus Nights, which is a terrific book built around a series of stories a group of Syrian men tell each other. And a book called Zayni Barakat purports to be about a 15th-century Caliph but is apparently really about Nasser.

Also, the Pakistani woman who's been driven out is named Taslima Nasrin; however, she's a poet not a novelist.

Prof. Louise Halper
Washington & Lee University
School of Law
(703)463-8962
lah@wlu.edu

64 *****

From sraman@MERCY.SJC.EDUThu Mar 30 18:13:42 1995

In response to Standen's query, the name of the novelist is Taslima Nasrin and she is from Bangladesh. Shyamala Raman Saint Joseph College West Hartford, CT 06117 email:sraman@mercy.sjc.edu

65 *****

From mpowell@SEDL.ORGThu Mar 30 18:13:47 1995

66 *****

From: Ellen Fleischmann <fleische@GUSUN.ACC.GEORGETOWN.EDU>

World -L-forum on non-Eurocentric World history

Regarding the request for novels from the Muslim world: you do not indicate exactly how you wish to use it [them]. One thing to keep in mind is that the novel is a relatively recent form, at least in Arabic literature, and many if not most of the subjects, protagonists, themes, topics, etc. deal with the contemporary world and particularly, politics. In addition to the suggestions by ___Halper, I would suggest, perhaps, Sahar Khalifah's "Wild Thorns". She is Palestinian. Also, Ali Ghnaim's "A Wife for My Son" [Algerian, I believe], or perhaps, "Season of Migration to the North" by Saleh Tayib [Sudanese], anything by Yusuf Idris [Egyptian], or Tawfiq al-Hakim [also Egyptian], "Who Remembers the Sea" by Mohammed Dib [Algerian], and maybe "Men in the Sun" [a novella] by Ghassan Kanafani [Palestinian]. In fact, I suggest you send to Three Continents Press for their catalog, which has many novels from Iran, Algeria, Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, Egypt, etc. Their address:

        Three Continents Press
        P.O. Box 38009
        Colorado Springs, CO 80937-8009

[I just happened to receive this from the Middle East Studies Association conference today, coincidentally.] By the way, I did not like al-Shaykh's "Women of Sand and Myrhh", for what that is worth. I felt it was not particularly well-written, and relied heavily on already over-used stereotypes.

Ellen Fleischmann

67 *****

From:     Joel Cleland <Cleland@Clemson.Clemson.edu>
          Lander University, Greenwood, SC 29649

Kenneth R. Curtis solicited recommendations to fill the need for a novel by a "Latin American, Asian or Arab WOMAN which speaks to issues of decolonization and/or issues of cultural identity and transformation in the past half century. Also, it must be . . . brief and simply written!!" It is not brief or simply written, but I have had great success with Isabel Allende's _House of the Spirits_ in my college introductory world history course. It takes a while to get my students past the green hair and moving salt shakers, but once that is put behind us, I find the novel very useful in addressing the very issues Curtis is interested in. I would be interested in the experience others have had using this novel in their world history courses.

68 *****

From: Brian Spooner <brian@mec.sas.upenn.edu>

University of Pennsylvania

                                                Brian Spooner
                                                brian@mec.sas.upenn.edu
                                                University of Pennsylvania
                                                Philadelphia, PA 19104-6398
                                                (215) 898-5207/FAX 573-2003

69 *****

From: Steve Tamari <TAMARIS@GUVAX.ACC.GEORGETOWN.EDU>

I think of the "Cairo Trilogy" as Egypt's "War and Peace". What more can I say?

Steve Tamari

70 *****

From: Jim Everett <cfjee1@eiu.edu>

Eastern Illinois University

With the current discussion of novels in modern world history I wonder what people are using for the pre-1500 period (or pre-1800 period for that matter).

Does anyone have similar sources for India, China, Japan, etc. that throw some light on commoners and/or show different standards of humor? Something accessible that also captures the "otherness" of these places and times -- quite a tall order!

71 *****

From: Robert Entenmann <entenman@stolaf.edu>

St. Olaf College

72 *****

From: Alan Fisher <alan@ah2.cal.msu.edu>

Michigan State University

On Thu, 1 Dec 1994 H-WORLDMANNING wrote:

> From: Jim Everett <cfjee1@eiu.edu> > Eastern Illinois University > > With the current discussion of novels in modern world history I wonder > what people are using for the pre-1500 period (or pre-1800 period for that > matter). > > For late antique and medieval Europe I've used Apuleius _the > Golden Ass_ and Marie de France _Lais_ that offer nice opportunities to > look at "common" people. I've also used Rabelais _Gargantua and > Pantagruel_ for the early modern period, and was surprised that so many > undergraduates were upset by the graphic humor. > > Does anyone have similar sources for India, China, Japan, etc. that throw > some light on commoners and/or show different standards of humor? > Something accessible that also captures the "otherness" of these places > and times -- quite a tall order! > One "novel" [though one should be careful to use that term for a period prior to the invention of the novel] from 12th c Arab and Iranian world which works very well for students is the _1001 Nights_--in various English versions, though I prefer the Penguin edition, as more complete. It is full of humor, contains stories that were common among the "common folk" of the Islamic urban centers; it also provides a good opportunity to compare with all sorts of stereotypes current about these stories.

Alan Fisher
Center for Integrative Studies, Arts & Humanities Michigan State University
alan@ah2.cal.msu.edu

73 *****

From: Robert Entenmann <entenman@stolaf.edu>

St. Olaf College

74 *****

From: Chris Garton-Zavesky <GARTONCJ@HCL.CHASS.NCSU.EDU>

I can't help with African or Asian perspectives from their own side, at least not in the pre-1800 period, but maybe Montesquieu's _Persian Letters_ or the extant journals of Marco Polo would be a way to get at it? As to a post-1900 vision of things, do you know _Les Petit Bouts du Bois de Dieu_? (whose author, I'm afraid, slips my mind).

(note from moderator)

                                        Pat Manning, Co-moderator
                                        Northeastern University
                                        manning@neu.edu

75 *****

From: EVAN%UKANVAX@UICVM.UIC.EDU

While the book is quite helpful for research, I think it should be avoided in survey courses. I would very much appreciate comments on or off-list.

Evan@ukanvax.bitnet

76 *****

From: Mary Martin <marym@mec.sas.upenn.edu>

Middle East Center, University of Pennsylvania

Here are suggestions for Arabic novels in translation that might be good for world history courses, according to Roger Allen (Prof. of Arabic Literature, U. of Pa)

> THE STORY OF ZAHRA: set during the Lebanese civil war, this novel makes > use of the dysfunctional Shiite Lebanese family--as portrayed by its > daughter-member--to symbolise all that was/is wrong with Lebanese society > in particular and with the values of a male-dominated social system that, > when carried to extremes, lead inevitably to war. A wonderfully rich > novel, not only for its portrayal of Lebanese society, but also for its > psychological insight and anrrative technique. >
> MEN IN THE SUN: a short novel dealing with the desparate situation of the > Palestinians during the 1960s. Three characters, representing different > generations of Palestinians, try to make their way to Kuwait to find > work. They are abused and exploited at every turn, and the description > of the desert crossing in a water-tanker and their death in the searing > heat is a telling allegory on the fate of the Palestinians in general. >
> THE WEDDING OF ZEIN: In this superb novella, an entire village becomes a > character as it reflects the antics of Zein, an apparently crazy member of > its society who undergoes a transformation from village clown to > responsible and even modern member of the community. Wonderfully written > and beautifully constructed.
>
> ROGER ALLEN

77 *****

From: IN%"SMintz@UH.EDU" "Steven Mintz, U. Houston" 8-DEC-1994 14:55:13.12

An extraordinary number of H-list subscribers responded to my request for novels and autobiographies for a multicultural U.S. history course including:

I can't thank these people enough. Their suggestions and some of their appended comments follow.

MULTIETHNIC COLLECTIONS

AFRICAN AMERICANS

Pre-Twentieth Century

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery

Twentieth Century

      (an African American woman's reconnection with her cultural
      past)

ASIAN AMERICANS AND PACIFIC ISLANDERS

Chinese

Frank Chin, Donald Duk
Louis Chu, Eat a Bowl of Tea

      (set in New York's Chinatown after World War II, deals with
      a Chinese American veteran, his immigrant bride, and their
      marital problems)
    Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior: Memories of a Girlhood
      Among Ghosts
    Him Mark Lai, ed., Island
      (poetry written by Chinese immigrants on Angel Island, carved
      into the walls of the wooden barracks where they were detailed
      waiting for immigration inspection, 1910-1940)
    Gus Lee, China Boy
      (wartime and postwar San Francisco, intermarriage, immigration,
      assimilation, confronting prejudice, and 1950s masculinity)
    McCunn, A Thousand Pieces of Gold
      (brought to the West--East for her!--as a picture bride

Victor Nee, Longtime Californ'
Amy Tan, Joy Luck Club
Jade Snow Wong, Fifth Chinese Daughter

Filipinos

Carlos Bulason, America is in the Heart (Filipino farm worker in early 20th century California)

Hawaiians

Haunanh K. Trask, From a Native Daughter

Indians

Bharati Mukherjee, The Middleman and Other Stories (short stories about Asian Indians)

Japanese

Joy Kogawa, Obasan
Lydia Minatoya, Talking to High Monks in the Snow John Okada, No-No Boy

      (a Nisei who, interned during WWII, refused to be drafted
      and was sent to prison)

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Farewell to Mazanar Monica Sone, Nisei Daughter

Koreans

Kim Ronyoung, Clay Walls

Vietnamese

Le Ly Hayslip, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

EUROPEAN ETHNICS

Eastern Europeans

Thomas Bell, Out of This Furnace

Italians

Jerre Mangionne, Mount Alegro

Jews

Mary Antin, Promised Land
Cahan, Rise of David Levinisky
Mike Gold, Jews Without Money
Henry Roth, Call It Sleep
Anzia Yezierska, Bread-Givers

Polish

Eva Hoffman, Lost in Translation

HISPANIC AMERICANS

Cubans

Cristina Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban

Mexicans

Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me Ultima
Raymond Barrio, The Plum Plum Pickers Sandra Cisneros, The Hous on Mango Street (very evocative about gender and community) Ernesto Galarza, Barrio Boy
Jesse Lopez de la Cruz in Kerber, Women's America Ruben Navarrette, Jr., A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano
Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory

      (presents the story of his assimilation in American society
      as a child and young man)

Jose Antonio Villarreal, Pocho

Puerto Ricans

     Esmeralda Santiago, When I was Puerto Rican
       (impact of immigration on identity, vivid descriptions of
       childhood in Puerto Rico and coming of age in NYC)

NATIVE AMERICANS

      (impact of WWII on the lives of the men who fought it and
      returned to the reservation; takes a returning soldier through
      alcoholic degeneration into traditional religion and back as
      a whole person who embraces his Indianness as his true identity)
    Tom Spanbauer, The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon
      (explores gender, sexuality, race, and religion in the West)

Luther Standing Bear, My People, the Sioux Leo Stein, ed., Fragments of Autobiography Ruth Underhill, The Autobiography of a Papago Woman James Welsh, Fools Crow

      (evokes the worldview of a culture--the Blackfeet Indians
      i! 1870--on the brink of destruction)

Zitkala-sa, American Indian Stories Louise Erdrich, Tracks, Love Medicine

      (trace two Native American families through 70 years of struggle
      between traditional values and modern realities)

78 *****

From: David Kessler <dkessler@library.berkeley.edu>

University of California, Berkeley

79 *****

From: Ellen Broidy <ejbroidy@uci.edu>

                Ellen Broidy
                Library Publications Officer
                History and Film Studies Librarian
                University of California, Irvine
                ejbroidy@uci.edu
                714/824-5694

        ****************************************************

80 *****

From: VMODRSI@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU

How about Louise Erdrich's *the Beet Queen*, with women, particularly Mary, working in a butcher shop.

81 *****

From: Tamara Lee Ann Miller <ummille7@cc.UManitoba.CA>

A slighly older, though really interesting, novel is Anzia Yezierska, _Bread Givers_. Initially published in 1925, there is a more recent one put out by Persea Books (1975) and edited by Nancy Kessler.

Tamara Miller
U of Manitoba
ummille7@cc.umanitoba.ca

81 ****

From: KTOVO@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu

82 *****

From: natashas@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu

83 *****

From: REHARTMAN%ZODIAC@UICVM.UIC.EDU

I would recommend Ann Petry's The Street. It offers compelling insights into the work experiences of black women in the 1930s/40s.

84 *****

From: George M Kren <kreng@ksu.ksu.edu>

On Fri, 3 Feb 1995, tucker sara wrote:

> As part of developing an H-Net Teaching Resource Guide, I would like to > ask H-Teach list members to recommend novels that work well as > supplementary class readings. Please feel free to repeat ones recommended > here in the past; I plan to compile all for the Guide. If possible tell > us what class you use it in, how exactly your assignments work, and any > plusses and minuses you've noted.
>
> To start it off, I have used Dicken's *Hard Times* in Victorian Britain > and Van Gulik's *Chinese Gold* in China I classes. In both cases I > had the whole class buy, read, and discuss the relevant book, and then > created an exam section they all had to do (with several essay questions > they could choose among). I then required an individually-chosen book > review of each student (subject to my approval); the idea being they now > knew better how to attack the task, having all done a practice one together. > Both books seem to me to work well; once students get into them they find > them readable (Dickens is definitely harder), and almost unanimously > appreciate the training the shared discussion gives them when it comes > time to write their own book's review. >
> Sara Tucker
> zztuck@acc.wuacc.edu
>

85 *****

From: Frank Conlon <conlon@u.washington.edu>

Sara-

On the "what" side, modern Indian history can be wonderfully enhanced with such novels as Raja Rao, _Kanthapura_, which looks at a village upon the arrival of "nationalism", or V. Madgulkar, _The Village Had No Walls_ which ought to make anyone think twice about prescribing the path of modernization without attention to the details. There are many others, Premchand's _Gift of a Cow_ or the numerous novels of Mulk Raj Anand, for example.

On the "how" side, I have sometimes asked students to do an essay in which they link up the novel's content with some specific theme in the course. On other occasions--come to think of it all of them back at the start of my career--I just assumed that they would read the novels and get a "feel" for a bit of India.

A lot of my students today complain about reading novels--I think twenty-five years ago the difference was that they didn't complain. My adding of the essay projects was in part response to the question which may have been the oldest query asked in the world--"will this stuff be on the examination?"

Frank

Frank F. Conlon
Professor of History
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
Co-moderator of H-ASIA
<conlon@u.washington.edu>

86 *****

From: peter c holloran <pch@world.std.com>

Peter Holloran, Pine Manor College, pch@world.std.com

87 *****

From: peter c holloran <pch@world.std.com>

Peter Holloran, Pine Manor College, pch@world.std.com

88 *****

From: Gregory Monahan <gmonahan@eosc.osshe.edu>

Greg Monahan
gmonahan@eosc.osshe.edu

89 *****

From: DHARKNESS@CENTER.COLGATE.EDU

Deborah Harkness
DHARKNESS@CENTER.COLGATE.EDU
Department of History
Colgate University

90 *****

From: "DOUGLAS R. SKOPP" <@UICVM.UIC.EDU:SKOPPDR@SNYPLAVA>

Douglas R. Skopp Professor of History Champlain Valley Hall 321 State University of New York at Plattsburgh Plattsburgh, New York 12901 OFFICE TELEPHONE: 518-564-52I8 INTERNET: SKOPPDR@SPLAVA.CC.PLATTSBURGH.EDU FAX: 518-564-7827 Home Telephone: 518-563-6592--But not after 9 pm EST please.

91 *****

From: Christopher Jackson <crjackson@ucdavis.edu>

A great thread for discussion, since it is now quite popular to use novels for teaching!

Christopher R. Jackson, UC Davis

92 *****

From: 00aoedmonds@bsuvc.bsu.edu

                                Tony Edmonds
                                Ball State Univ.

93 *****

From: RANDYP@cc1.uca.edu

> On Fri, 3 Feb 1995, tucker sara wrote: >
> As part of developing an H-Net Teaching Resource Guide, I would like to > ask H-Teach list members to recommend novels that work well as > supplementary class readings. Please feel free to repeat ones recommended > here in the past; I plan to compile all for the Guide. If possible tell > us what class you use it in, how exactly your assignments work, and any > plusses and minuses you've noted.

OK, Sara, since you don't mind repetitions, I should again like to champion my favorite history, African. For those of you teaching World courses, and are somewhat at a loss on what to assign on Africa, I recommend these highly:

D.T. Niane, SUNDIATA, AN EPIC OF OLD MALI (Longman Publ. Co.) - a

        Iliad-like story of the first great king of ancient Mali
        based on a griot's account. (Good also for leading class
        discussions on oral vs. literate history)

Chinua Achebe, THINGS FALL APART (Heinemann Educ. Books) - an

        excellent view of life in a West African village on the eve
        of the colonial 'conquest.' Through the protagonist, Okonkwo,
        one can see the destructive effects the gradual imposition
        of Christianity and Western ways have on the delicate balance
        of village life. ALWAYS a hit with students.

Others to consider are Ngugi wa Thiongo's THE RIVER BETWEEN, Okot p'Bitek's SONG OF LAWINO and SONG OF OCOL (publ. together by Heinemann), Miriama Ba's SO LONG A LETTER.

Cheers,Randall L. Pouwels
Department of History
University of Central Arkansas
Conway, AR 72035-0001
U.S.A.
RANDYP@cc1.uca.edu

94 *****

From: RANDYP@cc1.uca.edu

Other novels I've used which deal with non-Western subjects include,

Alifa Rifaat, DISTANT VIEW OF A MINARET (Heinemann's) -- a

        collection of short stories present various perspectives
        on the place of women in Muslim Egypt.

Taha Hussein, A STREAM OF DAYS (migjht be out of print,

but worth checking) - growing up in Muslim Egypt.

Carlos Fuentes, THE DEATH OF ARTEMIO CRUZ. A perspective on

        the generation produced by the Mexican Rewvolution. A
        bit "literary," therefore probably more useful in upper
        division classes.

Best wishes,
Randall L. Pouwels
Department of History
University of Central Arkansas
Conway, AR 72035-0001
U.S.A.
RANDYP@cc1.uca.edu
FAX: 501-450-5208

95 *****

From: Randolph Hollingsworth <RHOLL00@UKCC.uky.edu>

Randolph Hollingsworth
rholl00@ukcc.uky.edu

96 *****

From: Jody Ross <rossjoan@student.msu.edu>

Novels, etc.

I would like to suggest a couple of novels

98 *****

From: Jody Ross <rossjoan@student.msu.edu>

I would like to suggest a couple of novels

99 *****

From: HIRSHFIE@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu

I have had very good luck with both Anzia Yezerskia's _The _Breadgivers and Maya Angelou's _I _Know _Why _the _Caged _Bird _Sings. I use them in both my family history courses and my women's history courses. I have the students write two pages on each relating them to the themes of the course and I also use novels for small group discussions. In my family history class I also use:
Kinsella, _Shoeless _Joe
Rita Mae Brown, _Rubyfruit _Jungle
Lousia May Alcott, _An _Oldfashioned _Girl

Deborah Hirshfield         Hirshfie@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu
Department of History      or Hirshfie@chekov.hm.udayton.edu
University of Dayton
Dayton, OH 45469-1540     "Get your facts first, then you
(513) 229-3047             can distort them as you please."
                                Mark Twain

100 *****

From: Randolph Hollingsworth <RHOLL00@UKCC.uky.edu>

Randolph Hollingsworth
rholl00@ukcc.uky.edu

101 *****

From: RANDYP@cc1.uca.edu

Other novels I've used which deal with non-Western subjects include,

Alifa Rifaat, DISTANT VIEW OF A MINARET (Heinemann's) -- a

        collection of short stories present various perspectives
        on the place of women in Muslim Egypt.

Taha Hussein, A STREAM OF DAYS (might be out of print,

but worth checking) - growing up in Muslim Egypt.

Carlos Fuentes, THE DEATH OF ARTEMIO CRUZ. A perspective on

        the generation produced by the Mexican Rewvolution. A
        bit "literary," therefore probably more useful in upper
        division classes.

Best wishes,
Randall L. Pouwels
Department of History
University of Central Arkansas
Conway, AR 72035-0001
U.S.A.
RANDYP@cc1.uca.edu
FAX: 501-450-5208
TEL: 501-450-5620

102 *****

From: "Rhiman A. Rotz" <RROTZ@iunhaw1.iun.indiana.edu>

No doubt I'll have more thoughts after my students read more novels, since I'll have to read more novels too! Dr. Rhiman A. Rotz, Associate Professor of History Indiana University Northwest, Gary, Indiana 46408, USA Phone: (219) 980-6973 E-mail: rrotz@iunhaw1.iun.indiana.edu

103 *****

From: Ken Wolf <A23211F@MSUMUSIK.MURSUKY.EDU>

Sara: I have waited to send this until seeing what other novels have been used. I have used some of those mentioned and would only add, esp. for use in freshman world history courses two others. First is Kamala Markandaya's "Nectar in a Sieve," the story of an Indian family which is destroyed--bit by bit in a fashion very clear to my students--by the presence of a Western (British) tannery. It is not anti-Western in tone, but does elict much understanding of the effects of Western imperialism. Another novel I've used successfully is Jamake Highwater's "The Sun, He Dies," about the last Aztec emperor. These, like Achebe's "Things Fall Apart," have elicted some good short papers from my students in which they express sympathy with non-Western people facing Western intrusion.

I would also appreciate it if the person who teaches German history and has used "Man of Straw" (which I am RIGHT NOW using in my Modern Germany class) would write me if he has any good discussion questions he uses when discussing this in class. My new e-mail address (not listed below) is: KWolf@Racer1.mursuky.edu. Thanks.

Ken Wolf, Dept. of History          (502) 762-2232 or 762-6582
Murray State University             FAX (502) 762-3424
Murray KY 42071                     e-mail <A23211f@MSUMUSIC.Bitnet>

104 *****

From: Mel Page <PAGEM@ETSU.EAST-TENN-ST.EDU>

       Peter Abrahams, MINE BOY
       Khushwant Singh, TRAIN TO PAKISTAN
       Chinua Achebe, THINGS FALL APART
       Yan-tsung Chen, THE DRAGON'S VILLAGE
       Betty Bao Lord, SPRING MOON
       Kamala Markandaya, NECTER IN A SIEVE
       Ngugi wa Thiong'o, WEEP NOT CHILD
       Pa Chin, FAMILY
       Sol T. Plaatje, MHUDI
       Stanlake Samkange, YEAR OF THE UPRISING

As we noted then, these are not the only nor necessarily the best for use in teaching world history, but "they have proved effective in our classrooms and those of other teachers." Perhaps some readers of H-TEACH will find that discussion of these books useful in their own courses.

105 *****

From: Mary Boelcskevy <maboelcs@husc.harvard.edu> Subject: Re: Inquiry: Texts for Intro. Women's Hist. Course

Re novels: Toni Morrison's _The Bluest Eye_, _Sula_, and _Tar Baby_. Mary Anne

106 *****

From: David Fahey <faheydm@muohio.edu>

Miami University

Some months ago there was a thread about novels in the teaching of world history. I excavated some of my print outs for ideas to consider in my text order (needed 3 April). I welcome any additional suggestions. For me Latin America is especially a problem since the novels that I am most familiar with seem too challenging for beginning students. Also, may I ask for reactions to a book that is not a novel: Amitav Ghosh, IN AN ANTIQUE LAND (1992; Vintage paperback)?

David Fahey (Miami University)
dfahey@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu

Moderator's note (PM): for those wishing to dig back into H-WORLD files, the earlier discussion took place mostly from November 28 through December 8, 1994.

107 *****

From: Resat Kasaba <kasaba@u.washington.edu>

University of Washington

Amitav Ghosh's "In an Antique Land" is superb. I am planning on using it next fall in a seminar on the "Origins of the Global System". It combines several disciplines, geographical regions, and time periods and does it in a very elegant way. Especially in a Graduate Seminar it should work very well.

108 *****

From: Jenny Lloyd <JLLOYD@ACSPR1.acs.brockport.edu>

SUNY at Brockport

I didn't see the earlier discussion, so this may be redundant, but I have used Azuela's "The Underdogs" about the Mexican Revolution with reasonable success, although it needs considerable background information.

109 *****

From: Don Johnson <JOHNSOND@ACFcluster.NYU.edu>

New York University

For David Fahey. Ghosh's IN AN ANTIQUE LAND is a wonderful book which combines the best of anthropology and fiction. However, it will be very demanding for novice students.

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