Self-study
P1
The work of South African writer Ezekiel Mphahlele has confounded literary critics, especially those who feel compelled to draw a sharp distinction between autobiography and fiction. ███
Intro topic ·
Writer Ezekiel Mphahlele and how to classify his work
If critics who want a sharp distinction between autobiography and fiction are "confounded" by Mphahlele, then Mphahlele's work probably doesn't fit those categories
Critics' perspective ·
Difficult to categorize Mphahlele's work
Two examples: an autobiography and a novel, with the novel apparently including autobiographical details
Author's response to critics ·
Mphahlele intentionally defies categorization
Critics say Mphahlele's autobiography is too fictional and his novel too autobiographical, but they miss the point
P2
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Expand on critics' perspective ·
Backhanded praise for novel
Critics imply that "The Wanderers" isn't great literature, dismiss it because it features real people
Mphahlele's response to critics ·
They're wrong; novel does feature an important fictional element
Author's explanation of Mphahlele's motivation ·
Social ideals underlie his work
Unclear what "humanist" and "integrationist" mean, but they're social ideals, and the author thinks they come through well in Mphahlele's writing; meanwhile, critics think Mphahlele's vision is incomplete
P3
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Contrast ·
Mphahlele's views against critics' views mentioned earlier
Critics concerned with categorizing Mphahlele's work as autobiography (fact) v. fiction, but Mphahlele says there's no such thing as pure fiction or absolute fact in novels
More on Mphahlele's motivation ·
Melds fact and fiction
Takes real experiences and then works in fictional elements to convey his social message
Main point ·
Mphahlele intentionally melds fact and fiction in order to get his social message across
Differences between autobiography and fictional novel don't matter
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Spotlight
5.
At the end of the ████████ ███ ██████
a
demonstrate Mphahlele's eloquence ██ █ ██████
The author didn’t introduce the quote as an example of the quality of Mphahlele’s word choice or the beauty of his phrasing. So there’s no evidence that (A) is the purpose.
b
provide a common ████ ██ ███████ █████ █████████
The author told us about Mphahlele’s goal when writing. But that doesn’t mean the author thinks this goal should be a goal in common for other novelists. We don’t know whether other novelists agree with Mphahlele or whether the author thinks they should agree with him. We’re simply getting a description of Mphahlele’s own view
c
further elaborate the ████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██████
This best captures the purpose of the quote. The rest of the paragraph tells us Mphahlele’s thoughts about what writing should do. The quote tells us more about that same topic.
d
introduce the three ████████ █████ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ █████████
Although Mphahlele mentions prose, poetry, and drama, that doesn’t mean he wrote in all three forms. And, even if he did, the purpose of the quote isn’t to tell us the forms in which Mphahlele wrote. These three forms are simply brought up to show that Mphahlele thought, no matter the kind of writing, it should provide social criticism.
e
show that Mphahlele █████ ██ ███████████ █████ ██████ ███████ ███ █████
Perhaps Mphahlele believes all three kinds of writing should deliver social criticism. But that doesn’t mean he sees no distinction among these genres. Maybe views them as distinct in that poetry follows certain rules about rhyming or number of syllables, and drama is designed to be performed on stage. In any case, even if he did think that there wasn’t a distinction among these forms of writing, that wasn’t the purpose of the quote. The quote was designed to show us Mphahlele’s thoughts on the goal of writing, not to show that he thinks prose, poetry, and drama are the same.