Charles H. Sylvester - "Journeys Through Bookland"

Various - "Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860"

Lorin Low Dame - "Handbook of the Trees of New England"

Richard F. Burton - "The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Blunderer

M >> Moliere >> The Blunderer




CEL. Such tidings perfectly amaze me.

MASC. The whole company follow me, except the two female champions, who
are adjusting their toilet after the fray. Leander and your father are
also coming. I shall go and inform my master of this, and let him know
that when we thought obstacles were increasing, Heaven almost wrought a
miracle in his favour. (_Exit Mascarille_).

HIPP. This fortunate event fills me with as much as joy as if it were my
own case. But here they come.




SCENE XV.--TRUFALDIN, ANSELMO, ANDRES, CELIA, HIPPOLYTA, LEANDER.


TRUF. My child!

CEL. Father!

TRUF. Do you already know how Heaven has blest us?

CEL. I have just now heard this wonderful event.

HIPP. (_To Leander_). You need not find excuses for your past
infidelity. The cause of it, which I have before my eyes, is a
sufficient excuse.

LEAND. I crave nothing but a generous pardon. I call Heaven to witness
that, though I return to my duty suddenly, my father's authority has
influenced me less than my own inclination.

AND. (_To Celia_). Who could ever have supposed that so chaste a
love would one day be condemned by nature? However, honour swayed it
always so much, that with a little alteration it may still continue.

CEL. As for me, I blamed myself, and thought I was wrong, because I felt
nothing but a very sincere esteem for you. I could not tell what
powerful obstacle stopped me in a path so agreeable and so dangerous,
and diverted my heart from acknowledging a love which my senses
endeavoured to communicate to my soul.

TRUF. (_To Celia_). But what would you say of me if, as soon as I
have found you, I should be thinking of parting with you? I promised
your hand to this gentleman's son.

CEL. I know no will but yours.




SCENE XVI.--TRUFALDIN, ANSELMO, PANDOLPHUS, CELIA, HIPPOLYTA, LELIO,
LEANDER, ANDRES, MASCARILLE.


MASC. Now, let us see whether this devil of yours will have the power to
destroy so solid a foundation as this; and whether your inventive powers
will again strive against this great good luck that befalls you. Through
a most unexpected favourable turn of fortune your desires are crowned
with success, and Celia is yours.

LEL. Am I to believe that the omnipotence of Heaven...?

TRUF. Yes, son-in-law, it is really so.

PAND. The matter is settled.

AND. (_To Lelio_). By this I repay the obligation you lay me under.

LEL. (_To Mascarille_). I must embrace you ever so many times in
this great joy...

MASC. Oh! oh! gently, I beseech you; he has almost choked me. I am very
much afraid for Celia if you embrace her so forcibly. One can do very
well without such proofs of affection.

TRUF. (_To Lelio_). You know the happiness with which Heaven has
blessed me; but since the same day has caused us all to rejoice, let us
not part until it is ended, and let Leander's father also be sent for
quickly.

MASC. You are all provided for. Is there not some girl who might suit
poor Mascarille? As I see, every Jack has his Gill, I also want to be
married.

ANS. I have a wife for you.

MASC. Let us go, then; and may propitious Heaven give us children, whose
fathers we really are.

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