Your task for this essay is to respond to the book, “Out of Darkness, Shining Light”. I suggest one of two ways to think of this assignment: either one of a series of essays, or as a capstone to the class. The first option would locate you more firmly in the novel; the second might use Pettina Gappah as a focus but look backwards to answer a question important to you.
Choose 1 of the following Prompts:
1) You could start with the theme of the course: narratives of empire. How does this novel change your understanding of empire, and how has the class?
2) Or perhaps youve had other questions you cared about more. For instance, how should we approach the cruelty and atrocity of the past? What are the risks and benefits of reimagining the past? Those would be questions about history.
3) To what extent are fictional works political, and to what extent should they be political?
4) What does representation mean, and how do novels challenge our ideas of representation? Whats the value of appearance and symbol?
These are interpretive questions. That just means that youre after something thats unfixed. Someone else might disagree with youfor good reasons, rather than just out of bad faith. The point isnt to find a final answer that everyone agrees with, but to demonstrate why you care about one thing among many, and why you see it the way that you do.
