Self-study
P1
Many critics agree that the primary characteristic of Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène's work is its sociopolitical commitment. ███
Intro topic ·
Filmmaker Ousmane Sembène's work and its political focus
Characteristics of Sembène's films ·
Influenced by socialist realism, designed to educate, adapted to West African culture
Key characteristic ·
Films draw on African oral tradition
Possibly the main point, though not yet clear
P2
█ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ███████████ ████ ███████ █████████████ ███ █████ ███ █████████ █████ ██ █████████ ████ ███████ █████ ██████████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ █ ███████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ ███████ █ █████████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ████████ ███ ████ ██ █ ██████ █ █████████ █████ ████████ ███ █ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████████ ███
Example connections ·
between Sembène's films and African oral tradition
Sembène uses West African tree motif and trickster characters
Generalize connections ·
between Sembène's films and African oral traditions
Sembène and African oral tradition both use archetypes (i.e., stock characters) that represent broader ideas and challenges
P3
█████████ ████ ██ ██████████ █████ ██████ █████ █████████ ████ ████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ████ ████████ █████████ ██████ ██ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ █████ ██ █████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ██ ██████████████ █████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████ ███████
Another connection ·
Dilemma tales
Stories where the outcome of the plot is open to audience interpretation
P4
████████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ ██
One more connection ·
Conflict between polar opposites leads to change in characters' perspectives
Sembène uses this to deliver his political messages
Contrast perspectives ·
between critics and author
Critics say Sembène's focus on polar opposites is due to Marxist (i.e., socialist) influence; author says it's due to West African influence
Passage Style
Single position
Spotlight
3.
Which one of the following ██████ ██ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██
a
Several African novelists ███ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ███████
This strengthens by providing evidence that dialectical elements (binary oppositions) are a part of West African storytelling. It also establishes that one can include dialectical elements in one’s work without being influenced by Marxist theory.
b
Folklorists who have ████████ ████ ████████████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ██████ ███████████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███████████
This doesn’t provide strong evidence that binary oppositions are part of West African storytelling. We don’t know whether the “many” traditions described in (B) include West African traditions.
c
When he trained ██ ███████ ████████ ████ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ████████████ ███████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████████ █████ █████████ ██ ████ ███████ █████████████
This undermines the claim by providing a further connection between Marxist ideology and Sembene’s work.
d
Very few filmmakers ██ ██████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ██ ██████ ███████████ ██ █████████ █████ ███████████
This doesn’t provide strong evidence that binary oppositions are part of West African storytelling. The fact that most Western filmmakers don’t use binary oppositions does not suggest that binary oppositions are a part of West African traditions.
e
Binary oppositions do ███ ████ ██ █████████ ███████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ███████████
This helps show that filmmakers with Marxist ideologies don’t always use binary oppositions in their work. But this doesn’t speak to whether binary oppositions, when present, always result from Marxist ideology. Even if Marxists don’t always use binary oppositions, it can still be the case that anyone who uses binary oppositions does so because of Marxism.