AUTHOR BIO
QUOTES
LITERARY TERMS & EXTRA AUTHOR STUFF
CHARACTER INFO
SURPRISE FUN
100
Went blind (from reading too much?!). (What was he employed as at the time?)
Who is Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina, "The Garden of the Forking Paths")? National librarian of Argentina.
100
"I accept, I accept it all." Name the author and work.
What is Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (Cesaire, Martinique)?
100
Genre of fiction that incorporates fantastical elements into scenes of everyday life. (Name an author or two associated with it.)
What is magical realism? Garcia Marquez (Colombia) and Cortazar (Argentina).
100
Wrote lyric cycle/epic poem featuring a mother-poet speaker whose son was imprisoned.
Who is Anna Akhmatova (Russia, "Requiem)?
100
The two works we've read that take place in the United States.
What is "One out of Many" (V.S. Naipaul, India and Trinidad - lived/educated in the U.S. and U.K.) and "Drown" (Junot Diaz, Dominican Republic and U.S.)
200
Wrote primarily in modern Hindi-Urdu language and in the genre of "idealistic realism."
Who is Premchand ("Road to Salvation")?
200
"Never had she been so moved by the sight of trains." Identify the speaker, work, and author. (Bonus question: in what other work(s) use trains as a symbol for modernization, moving forward, progress, etc.?)
Who is Sultana in "The Black Shalwar" (Manto)? Other works: Mo Yan, The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid.
200
Fictional character who is an established Argentinean author and frequently enters writing competitions.
Who is Sensini? ("Sensini," Roberto Bolano, Chile)
200
Name of an influential Indian novel from which "The Perforated Sheet" was excerpted.
What is Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie, India)?
300
Author of the Palestinian declaration of independence.
Who is Mahmoud Darwish?
300
"The easiest way to relieve your hate is to turn against someone weaker." Name the speaker, the work, the author, and the context.
Who is Henri? What is "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen" (Borowski)? Set in a concentration camp - Henri, one of the other inmates, is telling the narrator that it is easy to hate and deceive the weaker (camp law).
300
Got stuck in Geneva, Switzerland with his family when WWI broke out. (Also specify why they went there originally.)
Who is Jorge Luis Borges ("The Garden of the Forking Paths," Argentina)? His father went there for a surgery.
300
The most beautiful woman in the world. (Name work and author too.)
Who is Laura Farina? (Garcia Marquez, "Death Constant Beyond Love.")
300
Zionist (define it?) poet involved in the Hebrew revival movement. His poems often juxtapose Biblical stories with scenes from everyday life.
Who is Yehuda Amichai (Israel)? Zionist = political movement for the establishment and support of a Jewish nation in Israel.
400
Died of glandular tuberculosis from malnutrition.
Who is Mahasweta Devi? ("Giribala," India)
400
"Do not give in to defeat. This extraordinary man brings fatigue to all who seek him. It was easy enough with him in the old days when his place of abode was known. Today, though, the world had changed...It is therefore no longer an easy matter to reach him, but have patience and be sure that you will do so." Name the work, author, and the figure referred to.
"Zaabalawi," Mahfouz (Egypt), the elusive mystic Zaabalawi
400
Both of these authors received death threats from Islamic extremists over their fictional depictions of God/sacred material.
Who are Salman Rushdie (Midnight's Children, India - remember, the fatwa) and Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt, "Zaabalawi").
400
Name of the prominent (fictional) Sinologist who has extensive knowledge of the narrator's grandfather, Ts'ui Pen. (Also, why does the narrator have to kill him?)
Who is Stephen Albert? (Because he is apparently the only Albert he could find, and he needs to send a message to the Germans about the location of a bomb attack.)
400
This author is associated with these images/ideas: labyrinths, libraries, archives.
Who is Borges (Argentina, "The Garden of the Forking Paths")?
500
Both of these authors received death threats from Islamic extremists over their fictional depictions of God/sacred material.
Who are Salman Rushdie (Midnight's Children, India - remember, the fatwa) and Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt, "Zaabalawi").