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As I have discussed at length from the beginning of the semester, one of the primary
reasons to engage with literature (or art generally) is that it asks us to pay attention
to the particulars of something. The space of a story or a poem is a space framed in
the world, one that we are called to pay attention to, to consider how we enter that
space
and time, what we encounter within it, and how we return to the world that
we live in with a greater sense of what that world means, how it was created and for
whose benefit, and what we can do to transform that world.
Daniel Alarcón's collection of short stories, War by Candlelight, is one of those
spaces and times, but it is one composed within it of different spaces and times. The
focus for the midterm exam is the title story, "War by Candlelight," but we have to
link that specific story and its frame to the others stories we have read in the
collection so far. The world you actually live in isn't one place, one space and time,
but many, with many conflicts, hidden or secret things, questions, moments of anger
and joy, hopes and fears, etc. We can see these issues explored both at an individual
or existential level in “War by Candlelight," and at a social or political level.
This story explores the life and perception of the focal character, Fernando. It
follows the circular logic of memory and of thought, not of chronological or "clock”
time. This requires that you, the reader, pay attention to the particulars of each
section of the story, how each is a kind of frame within the larger frame of the story,
in order to make connections and sort out the frame of Fernando's life: where and
who it came from; how and why he grew and developed as he did both in the family
of which Don José is head as well (including his brothers and sister) as with
Fernando's own family (Maruja his wife, Carmen his daughter); the education that
Fernando received both in and out of the schools he attended (both secondary and
college or university); his friends and the choices he makes as an adult. Throughout
this story, Alarcón asks his reader to consider the relationship between an
individual life, with all its existential questions and personal relationships, and the
ways that individual lives are shaped by the social, political, and historical world in
which they live.
Topic question:
Summarize the life of Fernando, organizing key moments of his life from
childhood to adulthood and marking key moments in his grown from child to
adult man (identify key aspects of setting, including specific places and dates).
Identify key statements that tell us what those key moments meant to him as
well as to the country in which he lives, Peru. How are his life and the history
of Peru in the period covered by the story connected? How does his personal
life, as a son and as a husband/father, and his life as a student and eventual
revolutionary present him with specific conflicts? Given this information, as
provided by the specific and literal facts of the story, how would you define
the relationship between our personal lives and our lives as members of a
society or citizen of a specific country, one (like ours) with deep divisions of
class, race, and gender-divisions that are used as tools to divide and separate
people rather than connect or unite them?
Prepare carefully for this exam by outlining the details of Fernando's life, showing
you have read and understood the story thoroughly. Identify key quotations to
support your outline and the answers you provide to each question. Prepare to
write a thorough, detailed paragraph in response to each question asked above in
the hour you have to write the exam.
ܐ݈ܢܳܐ ܕ݁ܒ݂ܶܣܛ 1. ܝ. ܐ ܐ .܂
You are permitted to use outline, notes, and the text during the exam, but you must
prepare carefully to respond effectively to these complicated questions in the time
given. You are NOT permitted to write your response ahead of time. You will be
given an exam booklet for your in-class written response.
s40!