Four Continents+cd

by Ralph A. Henderson (Introduction and Notes), Nadine Gordimer (Contributor), Salman Rushdie (Contributor)

The long history of British colonisation around the world has led to the establishment of the English language as a medium of communication - including literature - on four continents outside Europe.

The stories in this volume represent a wide range of cultures,offering a fascinating insight into the mentality and the way of life of English - speaking Africans, Australians, Canadians, Indians, New Zealanders and West Indians, as well as a rich variety of modes of expressions.

- Full biographical and critical introduction
- Variety of questions and activities to enable students to make an in-depth analytical study of the book
- Numerous footnotes to the text, with phonetic transcriptions of some difficult words
- Recording of selected extracts from the text

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Bloodorange · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading this for two stories - "I Used To Live Here Once" by Jean Rhys (rather disappointing ghost (?) story, not something I am really into), and R. K. Narayan's "A Horse And Two Goats", which is very good.

It is an odd book: a "graded" reader edition (with footnotes explaining more difficult phrases, and literary analysis questions following each story) of stories from ex-British Empire locations. The book is identified as high school level, but the stories require psychological insight few of my students - and my students are smart - would be capable of (Nadine Gordimer, "The Bridegroom";
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, "Minutes of Glory"; Marjorie Barnard, "The Persimmon Tree". Not all stories are necessarily of interest to high school students, too (OK, "The Summer My Grandmother Was Supposed to Die" by Mordecai Richler was a fantastic exception, but a tad long*). The introduction, in contrast, was too basic for high school; the tasks were good for this level.

Stories I will certainly use:
R. K. Narayan, A Horse And Two Goats
Salman Rushdie, Good Advice Is Better Than Rubies

* One reason I'm glad I read this book is that introduced me to Richler.

[Sciarpina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lettura in inglese di questa raccolta di racconti provenienti da paesi del mondo in cui l'inglese è lingua ufficiale o lingua seconda perché colonizzati dalla Gran Bretagna. E' una raccolta molto eterogenea che spazia dal Sudafrica alla Nigeria, dall'India alle Indie occidentali e dal Canada all'Australia e Nuova Zelanda. I temi sono svariati ma trapela sempre un po' ovunque l'aspetto della commistione nata dall'incontro-scontro tra il paese colonizzatore e il paese colonizzato.

[Natalia Mosashvili · Rating 5 out of 5]

Broad human vision embracing all colors and shades!!!

[Thai Son · Rating 3 out of 5]

Also read a while ago, some interesting postcolonialism stuff.