Please note: This course is co-taught by Shobna Nijhawan (Fall) and Sailaja Krishnamurthi (Winter)
The objective of this course is to acquire an understanding of the diverse manifestations of South Asian culture in history and the present day through the medium of literature. Cultural images develop historically and undergo constant change. We will explore how South Asian culture is imagined and how cultural traditions are embedded in vernacular literature and the popular media. We will also investigate how mainstream cultural representations are transmitted, contested and/or reified in literature and film. A number of encounters (colonial, global, East-West) have concomitantly influenced South Asian cultural expressions and it will be one of our goals to analyze such processes.
On a theoretical level, we will discuss questions of ideology, representation and cultural memory. The course materials are drawn from fiction, film and autobiography. Along with secondary sources, we will read the literary sources from various South Asian vernaculars against the background of analytical concepts such as gender, identity and nationalism.
COURSE STRUCTURE AND REQUIREMENTS
The class meets once a week for three hours. The sessions will introduce students to South Asian writers and different literary genres (drama, short story, novel), mainstream and art movies of South Asian filmmakers, Internet representations of South Asian and diaspora communities, as well as cultural and literary theories developed in the discipline of South Asian Studies.
Readings: It is absolutely necessary that all students engage with the weekly reading assignments in order to participate in the class discussions. The reading load is reasonable and I expect every student to explore each text by means of close reading and write-ups of your thoughts before and after class. Per term, 4 write-ups are mandatory and will result in a journal that counts 20% towards the final grade (please see the handouts with reading and annotation exercises as well as the guidelines for your journal entries).
Presentations: There will be one group presentation, in which a selected topic will be introduced in 10-15 minutes (see list of topics and dates). Every presentation has to include an overview of the available (and unavailable) sources and briefly discuss the politics of selection, authorship and the own positioning within the topic as well as questions of methodology. The presentation shall not simply be read out from your notes; try to involve your classmates. Please make use of PowerPoint, the blackboard, an overhead projector or handouts to introduce the core information on the topic. Most important is a critical engagement with the source materials in the light of the “production of knowledge”. You will constantly be asked to question and historicize so-called facts. All presentations shall conclude with a few questions to launch the discussion. You have to discuss your outline of the presentation with me five days prior to the class meeting so that I can provide feedback and suggestions (without this feedback you will not be able to present).
The final grade will be calculated as follows
Attendance and Participation 20%
Group presentation 5 %
2 tests (fall), 1 test (winter) 30%
8 Journal entries (2.5% each) 20%
Essay (research paper) 25%
REQUIRED TEXTS (FALL TERM)
1. Course Kit (available at the York University bookstore)
2. Jhumpa Lahiri, Namesake
3. Urvashi Butalia, The Other Side of Silence. Voices of the Partition of India
Please note:
1. All readings are in English. The languages given in parentheses designate their original language.
2. This course is co-taught. The course director of the Winter Term is Dr. Sailaja Krishnamurti. There will be additional readings. The grade components will not change.
3. The most up-to-date course information along with the syllabus and handouts is available on WebCT.
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
FALL TERM
Week 1 September 5, 2008: “Imagining India”
“Fascinating South Asia” and the Discovery of India’s Past: Colonialism, Orientalism and Indian Histories
Recommended: Thapar A History of India I (pp. 15-49), Nehru The Discovery of India (table of contents, introduction), Basham The Wonder that was India (table of contents, introduction)
Mandatory: Rukhsana Ahmad (tr./ed.) We Sinful Women. Contemporary Urdu Feminist Poetry (Urdu), Schomer (tr./ed.) Poetry of Mahadevi Varma (Hindi)
Muhammad Iqbal (Urdu), Maithili Sharan Gupta (Hindi), Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (Bengali)
Week 2 September 12: An Introduction to South Asian Literatures: Vernacular public spheres in the wake of nationalism
Topics of South Asian Literature
Literature and Politics
Assignment: Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain Sultana’s Dream (English)
Jaya Mehta In a Democracy (Gujarati) (T&L, p. 366)
K. Saraswathi Amma Marriages are made in Heaven (Malayalam) (T&L, pp. 165-169) Anupama Niranjana The Incident – and After (Kannada) (T&L, pp. 384-391)
Assignment: Sumita Bhave Pan on Fire. Eight Dalit Women tell their Story (Marathi)
Rasheed Jahan That One (Urdu)
Week 3 September 19: “Creating a Nation”
Topics of South Asian Literature (ctnd.)
Literature and Nationalism: Gender and the Depiction of Women
Assignment: Read at least one of the two plays: Karnad Hayavadana (Kannada), Rakesh Neither Half nor Whole (Hindi)
Week 4 September 26: “Staging South Asia”
Test 1 (1 hour)
South Asian Theatre forms: an introduction
Borrowed Fire: The Shadow Puppets of Kerala (Video selections)
Assignment: Kalidasa Shakuntala (Sanskrit)
Week 5 October 3: “Staging South Asia” ctnd.
Topics of South Asian theatre
Sanskrit Drama: Probing Shakuntala
The vision of Vasavadatta (by Bhasa, director M. Sarabhai, Video selections)
Assignment: Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaenge (Hindi/Urdu with English subtitles 189 min, the screening will be arranged outside class), Purnima Mankekar (Brides who travel), Sheena Malhotra and Tavishi Alagh (Dreaming the Nation. Domestic Dramas in Hindi Films post-1990)
Week 6 October 10: Bollywood Cinema
Student presentations on: 1. The beginnings of Indian cinema 2. The 1950s (RK studios, Navketan productions) 3. Topic of Bollywood and Tollywood cinema 4. Alternative Indian cinema, 5. Women images in Bollywood, 6. Religion and Ethnicity
Modern media and traditional performance: There'll always be stars in the sky (Video selections)
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaenge: Male control over female sexuality
Assignment: Start reading Lahiri (pages 1-100) (English)
Assignment for all: Journal entry (due next week) about a movie (follow the same guidelines as in the other journal entries but write about a movie you recently saw)
Week 7 October 17: Traveling Culture”
Sacred soaps: Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Indian diaspora
Music “between two worlds”: Ravi Shankar and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; Indo-British pop
Assignment: Finish reading Jhumpa Lahiri. Rohinton Mistry Swimming Lesson (English)
Week 8 October 24: Writing from “Abroad”
Migration and Anglo-Indian literature: Identity
Assignment: Shani Mootoo “Out on Main Street”, “Sushila’s Bhakti”, Jhumpa Lahiri “Interpreter of Maladies”, “Third and Final Continent”, M. G. Vassanji “The Expected One”
Week 9 October 31: Writing from “Abroad” (ctnd.)
Migration and Anglo-Indian literature: Belonging
Assignment: S.H. Manto (Toba Tek Singh), U. Butalia (The Other Side of Silence. Voices from the Partition of India, Chapters 1, 2)
Week 10 November 7: Writing about the Partition of India and the Creation of Pakistan
Remembering and silencing: Historical memories of Partition
Assignment: S.H. Manto (Khol Do), R.S. Bedi (Lajwanti), U. Butalia (Chapter 4 [mandatory], 5 [recommended])
Week 11 November 14: Writing about Partition (ctnd.)
Religion in secular nation-states
Communal Violence in Literature and Film
Assignment: Varadarajan (Gujarat. The Making of a Tragedy), D. Mehta & R. Chatterji (Boundaries, Names, Alterities: A Case Study of a “Communal Riot” in Dharavi, Bombay)
Week 12 November 21: Literature, religion and communal violence
Post-Godrah violence: Documentary Gujarat: A laboratory of Hindu Rashtra (selections)
Ram ke nam/In the name of God (documentary by Anand Patwardhan [selections])
Week 13 November 28
Test II
Movie: The Peace Tree