LIB 316 week 2 DQ 1

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Ashford 3: – Week 2 – Discussion

Discussion

By Day 1 of the week, your instructor will post a discussion question. Respond to your instructor’s question and to your classmates’ responses. The goal of this discussion forum is to have a single conversation about the topic, not a series of 30 separate conversations. This means that every post should be in response to another post. Only start a new thread if you want to address a whole different theme within the topic, and only post after first carefully reading what others have written. Do not repeat what your classmates have already said, and do not ignore them if they ask you questions. Try to keep the conversation moving forward.

Attend discussion on at least four separate days, and post a total of 800 words. There is no required word count for individual posts as long as all your posts together total 800 words. Nor is there a minimum number of posts, but you must post on at least four separate days by Day 7.

Carefully review the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate this Discussion Thread.

Responses

Responses are listed below in the following order: response, author and the date and time the response is posted.

Response

Author

Date/Time

(an instructor response)

Week 2 Discussion

Instructor Umansky

6/3/2016 1:28:31 PM

Discussion for Week 2

Reading: Heart of Darkness (Complete novel. p. 51-182 in the Google Books edition) = 131 pages
In the poem “The White Man’s Burden”, Rudyard Kipling portrays the idea that Europe and America had an obligation to shine the “light” of civilization into the “darkness” of “savage” places like Africa. Most scholars see Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness as a critique of this imperialist project. Discuss Conrad’s attitude toward British imperialism, paying particular attention to the way Conrad plays with images of light vs. darkness and civilization vs. savagery. What exactly does Conrad think is the problem with imperialism? What is the “horror” that the character Kurtz refers to with his dying breath? Be sure to cite specific passages from the text that support your interpretation. Once you have a clear understanding of the text, you can move on to evaluation and application. For example, you may wish to discuss ways that Conrad’s novel expresses racist attitudes that might undercut his attempted critique of imperialism. In other words, you may wish to discuss how Conrad is an example of Edward Said’s concept of “orientalism.” Or you may wish to discuss other examples of orientalism you see in today’s culture.

Remember that your discussions have to be a total of 800 words over 4 different days. The initial post should be at a minimum 350-400 words and the response can make up the differences to total 800 words. Please respond to my initial post/thread and respond to 3 peers with substantive responses (at least 150-200 words each), rather than initiating new threads.

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