A danger of a single story

Essay by icvikCollege, UndergraduateB+, April 2014

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Žoldáková 4

Comparison and Contrast Essay

Literature is something that matters. It has the power to change and shape our minds and opinions. It has the power to change the perception of the world around us and to boost our imagination. Take us far away from the reality to the world of illusions and let our minds flourished with imagination. One might think how amazing it is, but fiction as it is here today may often matter much more than it is meant to.

Žoldáková 1

TED is a non-profit global community whose mission is to spread ideas usually in the form of short talks which last no more than 18 minutes. TED began in 1984 as a conference, and today covers wide range of topics - from science to philosophy to global issues - in more than 100 languages welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world.

Both of the presenters whose ideas I will mention are novelists and story tellers. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian anglophone writer who succeeded in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature. In her novels, she is inspired by the history of her nation and its tragedies that are forgotten by recent generation of westerners. Elif Shafak is a Turkish novelist born in Strasbourg, France who is the most widely read female writer in Turkey. Her books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. Ch. N. Adichie in her talk warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. Things are not usually just black and white and we have to make every effort to open our minds and explore what is real. Elif Shafak talks about the danger into which writers...