Self-paced
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
████ █████ ███████ ████ ███ █ █████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ █████ ███████ █████ █
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
█████████ ███████ █████ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████████ ██████████ ██ ███████████ █████████████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ██ █████████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ███████ ██ ████████ █████ ███
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
7.
Which one of the following ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████
a
Mphahlele's stance as █ ████████ ███ ██ ██████████████ ███████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████████ █ █████ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ███ ██████████████
This is anti-supported by the passage. Mphahlele isn’t concerned with making sharp distinctions between fiction and autobiography.
b
The social vision █████████ ██ █ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████
This is such a tempting answer, because the author’s response to critics who don’t like Mphahlele’s blurring of literary categories is to say that these critics “inevitably miss the fact that Mphahlele manipulates different prose forms purely in service of the social message he advances.”
But this quote doesn’t mean the author thinks the critics find Mphahlele’s social message irrelevant. The point is that the critics are assessing Mphahlele’s work on a metric that Mphahlele doesn’t care about. The critics are either not aware of Mphahlele’s message, or don’t give it enough weight in their critical assessments of his work. If the critics knew what Mphahlele was trying to do, then maybe they would change their views about his work. So, although the author might think Mphahlele’s goal of conveying a social message should be more relevant to the critics than it is, that doesn’t mean it lacks all relevance to them.
c
Critics are concerned ████ ████████████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ███ ██ █ █████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██ █ ███ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ██████ ████████ ███████████
There’s no evidence that critics’ concern with categorization isn’t related to their judgments about the quality of works. Maybe if a work doesn’t fit a category well, the critics view the work as worse. The critics mentioned in the passage might view Mphahlele’s works as worse because they don’t adhere to sharp distinctions between autobiography and fiction.
d
If Mphahlele were ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ██ █████████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ███████████
This is strongly supported by the end of the second paragraph: “but critics often balk at [Mphahlele’s vision of the future] because Mphahlele provides no road maps for bringing such a future about.” If one of the reasons the critics don’t like Mphahlele’s vision is the lack of a road map, that suggests if Mphahlele did provide a road map, the critics might like his vision more.
If you don’t like this answer, it’s probably because you’re holding the correct answer to too high of a standard. (D) isn’t a “must be true” answer. But when we’re told the cause of a particular effect, that provides some evidence that if the cause weren’t present, there’s a possibility the effect might not be present.
e
For a work ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████████████ █████████
The passage suggests that some critics might hold this opinion. But that’s not the same as strongly suggesting that this opinion is true.