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
4.
According to the passage, critics █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████
a
It should not ████ ████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ███████████
This is supported by
b
It should have ████ █████████ ██ ██ ██████████████
(B) twists the critics’ opinion. They think the novel had too many autobiographical elements. That doesn’t mean they think the novel should have been called or presented as an autobiography. Instead, the critics may have preferred that the novel simply remove the autobiographical elements.
c
It does not ███████ ███████ ███████████ ███████
The last sentence of the second paragraph tells us that critics didn’t like how Mphahlele’s work didn’t provide a “road map” for bringing his vision about. But that doesn’t mean they think Mphahlele’s work didn’t display a vision. They saw Mphahlele’s vision, but just didn’t see a way to get there.
d
It intends to ███████ █████████████ ██████ ███████████
We’re not told that critics dismissed Mphahlele’s work because it delivered social criticisms. They didn’t have a problem with the fact that he criticized society, only with the lack of a road map to get to Mphahlele’s vision of the future.
e
It places too ████ ████████ ██ ██████████████
This isn’t listed as one of the reasons critics dismissed The Wanderers. The critics didn’t have a problem with the presence of relationships in the work; they didn’t like that these relationships involved autobiographical elements.