Professor: Priti Joshi

Office Hours:  Tuesday 5-6 pm                                                         Office: Wyatt 338

 Wednesday 4:30-5:30 pm                                           Phone: 879-3515

                        Thursday 1-2 pm                                                         e-mail: pjoshi@ups.edu

                         and by appointment                                                   

 

This course is an introduction to the Indian novel.  The novel as a form – along with the English language – was introduced to the sub-continent by the British in the 19^th-century in an effort to fulfill Thomas Macaulay's infamous call to create a “class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, in intellect” (1835).  Despite this somewhat inauspicious beginning, the novel as a genre has become India's most prodigious literary form.  Our focus will be on 20^th c novels: we will begin with Nobel-prize winner Rabindranath Tagore’s The Home and the World (1915) to end with Arundhati Roy's Booker prize-winning The God of Small Things (1997). 

 

As the title of Tagore’s novel indicates,  two central themes around which much 20^th-century Indian fiction is organized are the world (or nation) and the home.  Beginning with these themes, we will consider a set of related questions:

 

•                     What role, if any, did the novel play in colonial, anti-colonial, and national struggles?

•                     Is the novel the “appropriate” form to represent “Indians”?  

•                     Is the novel in India a “colonial form” or can it be considered a flexible genre that has over the course of the century become “Indian”?        

•                     How do novels participate in definitions of what constitutes an “Indian” and do these definitions shift in the course of the century? 

•                     What is the role of the “home” in nationalist fictions?           

•                     How does the “home” constitute women?  How does the novel constitute women? 

•                     Is the novel form suitable for women writers?

•                     How might difficulties of “translation” (literal and metaphoric) complicate the use of this form by those marginal in India? 

 

Course Requirements

Two (2) Papers: Each paper will ask you to discuss multiple texts.  Topics will be provided.  The first paper is 7-10 pages, the second 12-15 pages.  Neither requires external research, although you are free to include information from your or your peers’ historical presentations (see next).

 

Historical Event Presentation and Bibliography: As much of the fiction we read refers to historical events or cultural and social structures, some basic knowledge of Indian history and society  is necessary.  Each student will work with a partner to offer a succinct 15 minute (I WILL bring a timer!) oral presentation.  More detailed directions follow; for now, I’ll just say that your task is NOT to march us through a dry series of dates.  You should briefly tell us “what happened,” but your focus should be on the relevance of the event.  You must research your event in scholarly sources, NOT the Internet (see course reserves list).  On the day of your presentation, you will also hand in a briefly annotated bibliography of your sources.  You will be graded on the quality of your research, the clarity of your presentation, and your ability to work as a team.

 

“Reading India” Paper: India is a large, multi-ethnic nation with over 1 billion people.  It has 28 states, 23 official languages, and 1,000+ different dialects.  Indian nationals can be Muslim, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, or Zoroastrian.  Given this diversity, it is difficult to make generalization about “Indians,” although the U.S. media regularly does just that.  This assignment is designed to introduce  you to some of the complexity of the country as it is experienced by Indians and represented in the India media.  I would like each of you to regularly read one of the several Indian daily papers or weekly journals, all of which are easily available on-line (see list of URLs on p 9).  Read around for a bit and find an issue or topic – political, economic, social, cultural – that interests you and follow it for a few weeks. You will write a 6-8 page paper reporting on this issue and its development, as well as assessing it.  You should cite at least four articles/sources in your paper.  (Caution: do not begin this assignment at the last moment)

 

Hobson-Jobson Presentation: In 1886, two enterprising Englishmen, Henry Yule and A. C. Burnell, complied an “Anglo-Indian Dictionary” in order to chart the rich infusion of “Indian” words into the English language.  The resulting book, Hobson-Jobson, is a fascinating text, more commentary than dictionary, a monument to the hybrid nature of colonialism.  In an effort to introduce you to this text and the linguistic complexity of the British-Indian encounter, I’d like each student to spend some time with this text and report to us on a word or set of words.  You can select your word(s) simply by nosing around in the text and alighting upon something that surprises or intrigues you, or based on something that comes up in our readings that you’d like to know more about.  

 

Participation: This is a seminar; it is YOUR class and it will be as rich and stimulating as you make it.  Our sessions will be conducted primarily on a discussion format, hence a large chunk of the responsibility for learning is placed on you.  Please come to class having carefully completed the readings and be prepared to fully and actively participate in class discussions, offer readings of the texts, listen to your peers, revise your readings, and pose questions that forward our discussion.  Your participation grade will be a reflection of your attendance, engagement, involvement, and contributions to forwarding and enriching our discussions. 

 

Grade Breakdown:

Paper #1 (7-10 pages)                                     20%

Paper #2 (12-15 pages)                                   30%

            “Reading India”  Paper                                    20%

Historical Presentation & Bibliography           10%

Hobson-Jobson Presentation                                 5%

            Participation                                                    15%

 

Required Texts

Mulk Raj ANAND Untouchable (1935)

            Amitav GHOSH The Shadow Lines (1988)

            R.K. NARAYAN, The Guide (1958)

            Arundhati ROY The God of Small Things (1997)

Salman RUSHDIE Midnight's Children (1981)

            Rabindranath TAGORE The Home and the World (1915)

            Coursepacket

Materials on Blackboard (please set up a Bb account [blackboard.ups.edu] and check it regularly.  The course code is india.  Readings are under “Course Documents”)

 

Policies

∙           Attendance: You are required to attend every class (I take roll at the beginning of class; if you are late, it is your responsibility to make sure I have marked you).  If you are absent, particularly for more than one consecutive class, I appreciate the courtesy of a call or email.  This is not a distance-learning university: you cannot pass this class with more than 4 absences – excused or unescused.  If you have an emergency that will require you to miss a week or more of classes, please contact Academic and Career Advising at 879-3250.  

 

∙           Absences: It is your responsibility to get the notes for a class you have missed from a peer.  If you need further elucidation on the material, I will be happy to help.  Please make sure you get the telephone number and e-mail of at least three of your peers. 

 

∙           Punctuality: Please come to class on time; it is disturbing and discourteous to me and to your peers to arrive late.  Excessive lateness will count as an absence. 

 

∙           Preparedness: Please come to each class having completed the reading assign­ment, thought about it in relation to previous readings, and prepared to discuss it.

 

∙           Papers/Grades: Papers must be typed and handed in on time.  Late papers will be marked down one grade (i.e. A to B+) for each class period they are late.  You must complete all written assignments.  Papers will be graded for their argument, supporting evidence, analysis, and style (consult “Grading Criteria” and “Academic Papers” in the CP).  Letter grades on papers and assignments will be converted to the following numerical equivalents:

                            A+ = 99                     B+ = 89                      C+ = 79                      D+ = 69

                            A = 95                        B = 85                         C = 75                         D = 65

                                        A- = 92                       B- = 82                       C- = 72                        F = 0

 

Your final numerical score will be converted to a letter equivalent thus:

                                     A = 94 - 100                           B- = 80 - 83.9                        D+ = 67 - 69.9

                                     A- = 90 - 93.9                         C+ = 77 - 79.9                       D = 64 - 66.9

                                     B+ = 87 - 89.9                        C = 74 - 76.9                          D- = 60 - 63.9

                                     B = 84 - 86.9                           C- = 70 - 73.9                         F = below 60  

 

∙           Academic Honesty: The full promise of the academic community and learning in it only emerges when all participants act with academic honesty.  There are many forms of academic dishonesty (please consult The Logger at http://www.ups.edu/x4718.xml for a complete list); here I will highlight only three:

 

 

·        Plagiarism

·        Submitting the same work for credit in more than one course without prior consultation with the professor

·        Asking or contracting someone else to write a paper or do other course work for you 

 

To plagiarize means to pass along someone else's words or ideas as if they were your own.  In the educational community, this is considered a theft – of intellectual property – and is unacceptable.  Please be aware that both the university and I take plagiarism seriously and will not tolerate it.  There are many forms of plagiarism, but even the most “innocent” carries penalties (which range from failing the paper or class to suspension for a semester or expulsion).  If you keep the following in mind, you will steer clear of trouble:

 

1.                  Always put quotation marks around any statement written by somebody else and provide a full citation that includes the full source and page number.

2.                  Cite the author even if you paraphrase or summarize her/his ideas.  The general rule is that any ideas or arguments that are not common knowledge must be given their due and acknowledged. 

3.                  The Internet IS  a “source” and ideas or materials gathered from it should be properly cited (see http://library.ups.edu/research/guides/citeurls.htm for instructions on how to cite internet sources)

4.                  Never ask or contract someone else to write a paper for you or hand in as your own work somebody’s else’s writing.

5.                  Never hand in a paper that you have written and previously submitted for a different class/professor without first consulting with your professor(s).          

 

If the stick of failure or suspension is not enough, here is the carrot: properly citing your work  (please consult the “Citation Guidelines” in the Course Packet) is not only intellectually honest and keeps you free of the university’s judicial system, but also allows you to develop more robust arguments of your own that may build upon others' ideas but that allow you to develop your own voice and independence as a thinker. 

 

∙           And Finally ...: Please turn off all noise-making devices you may carry; hearing even the most sublime of musical arrangements converted into a tinny ringtone can set one’s teeth on edge, not to mention distract us from the high-brow pursuit of knowledge.

 

Schedule of Readings

 

 

Mon, Aug 28             •  Introduction

 

Introduction – Colonial India & Postcolonial Studies

Wed, Aug 30             • Ania Loomba, “Situating Colonial and Postcolonial Studies” from Colonialism/Postcolonialism (1998); 1-19.  (Bb)

                                    •  Shashi Tharoor, “A Myth and an Idea” from India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997);  7-13.  (CP)

•  Ranbir Vohra, “Indian Civilization: From Pre-History to the Eighteenth Century” from The Making of India (2000); 17-48 (skim 32-40).  (CP).

 

Mon, Sept 5                No Class - Labor Day; take it easy

 

Wed, Sept 6                •  Gauri Viswanathan, “The Beginnings of English Literary Study” & “The Failure of English” from Masks of Conquest (1989); 23-44,142-65.  (CP)        

• Priya Joshi, from “The Poetical Economy of Consumption” from In Another Country (2002); 3-11. (Bb)

 

Defining 'India'?: Nation/Home; Men/Women; British/Indian; Hindu/Muslim

Mon, Sept 11               •  Rabindranath Tagore, The Home and the World (1915); 1-103

 

Wed, Sept 13               •  Hajira Shakoor, “Umr Qaid (Life Sentence)” (1977) from Women Writing in India, vol 2 (1993).  (CP)           

•  Radha Kumar, “Towards Becoming 'The Mothers of the Nation,'” from The History of Doing: Women's Rights and Feminism in India, 1800-1990 (1993); pp 32-52 (skip all the boxes).  (CP)  •  Pratha Chatterjee, “The Nationalist Resolution of the Women’s Question,” from Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (1990); 233-49.  (CP)

 

Mon, Sept 18              •  The Home and the World; 104-203

 

Wed, Sept 20              The Legacy: “Mother India” & Communalism

• In-class screening of Mirch Masala (Spices) (1990; 98 min; please note: This film is 18 min longer than our assigned time.  I would appreciate it if you can plan to stay the extra time to view the riveting end.  The film will be also be on reserve in the library)

 

Mon, Sept 25              India’s “Communal” Legacy

•  Sadat Hasan Manto, “It Happened in 1919” from Kingdom’s End and Other Stories (1987).  (CP)

•  Vikram Chandra, “Kama” from Love and Longing in Bombay (1997).  (CP)

• [Optional but highly recommended: Suketu Mehta, “Number Two After Scotland Yard” from Maximum City (2004)]

 

The Nation and its Fragments

Wed, Sept 27              • Priya Joshi, “By Way of Transition: ... Indigenizing the Novel in India”  from In Another Country (2002); 141-52 & 168-71. (Bb)

•  Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable (1935); please complete it    

 

Mon, Oct 2                 • Mahasweta Devi, “Draupadi,” “The Breast-Giver” and “Dhowli” (first two from Gayatri Spivak, In Other Worlds (1987), third from Of Women, Outcasts, Peasants, and Rebels (1990). (Bb; note the stories are in two separate files)

 

Wed, Oct 4                 • R.  K.  Narayan, The Guide (1958); please complete it                             

 

The Empire Writes Back

Mon, Oct 9                 •  Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children (1981); 3-85

 

Wed, Oct 11                •  Bill Ashcroft et al  “Cutting the Ground: Critical Models of Post-colonial Literatures” & “Re-placing Language: Textual Strategies in Post-colonial Writing” from The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literatures (1989); 15-77 (focus on 15-37; skim the rest to get definitions and range). (CP)

 

 

Mon, Oct 16               No Class - Fall Break

 

Wed, Oct 18               •  Midnight's Children; 86-188

 

Mon, Oct 23              •  Sadat Hasan Manto, “The Return,” “Colder than Ice,” “The Dutiful Daughter,” “The Woman in the Red Raincoat,” “Mozail,” “Toka Tek Singh,” The Dog of Titwal” from Kingdom’s End and Other Stories (1987).  (CP)

 

Wed, Oct 25              •  Midnight's Children; 189-288

                                                                                               

Mon, Oct 30              •  Midnight's Children; 289-393

 

Wed, Nov 1                •  Midnight's Children; 397-464

 

Mon, Nov 6               •  Midnight's Children; 465-533

 

                                    Translating Women: Language, Form, and Content

Wed, Nov 8               • Meenakshi Mukerjee, from “Divided by a Common Language” from The Perishable Empire (2000); 194-202.  (Bb)               

• Shashi Deshpande, “Of Concerns, Of Anxieties” (Bb)

•  Ismat Chugtai, “Lihaf (The Quilt)”(1941) from The Quilt and Other Stories (1990).  (CP)

• Vishwapriya Iyengar, “No Letter From Mother” from In Other Words: New Writing by Indian Women, eds Urvashi Butalia & Ritu Menon (1994).  (Bb)

• Bani Basu, “Aunty” from The Slate of Life (Kali for Women, 1990).  (Bb)

• Pratibha Ray, “Kambala” (The Blanket) from Women Writing in India, vol 2 (1993).  (Bb)

• Nabaneeta Dev Sen, “Monsieur Hulor Holiday” from Women Writing in India, vol 2 (1993).  (Bb)

 

The Nation and its Fragments, II

Mon, Nov 13             •  Amitav Ghosh, The Shadow Lines (1988); 3-89

 

Wed, Nov 15             •  The Shadow Lines; 90-154

 

Mon, Nov 20            •  The Shadow Lines; 154-252

 

Wed, Nov 22            No Class - Thanksgiving Break

 

Forbidden Territory

Mon, Nov 27            •  Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (1997); (3-177)

 

Wed, Nov 29            •  The God of Small Things; 178-321

 

Whose India?

Mon, Dec 4                • Meenakshi Mukherjee, “The Anxiety of Indianness” from The Perishable Empire (2000); 166-86.  (Bb)

• Vikram Chandra, “The Cult of Authenticity” Boston Review Feb/March 2000.  (Bb)http://bostonreview.mit.edu/BR25.1/chandra.html 

• In-class screening of Fire (1996; 104 min; as with the previous film...)

                                   

Wed, Dec 6                • Final paper presentations

 

 

                                                                                                             

Topics and Dates for Presentations

                                               

Mon, Sept 11 Swadeshi Movement	Wed, Sept 27 Gandhi	Wed, Oct 11 1.  Independence:	Wed, Nov 1 Indira Gandhi & Emergency
Wed, Sept 13 Sati	Mon, Oct 2 Tribal & Schedule Castes	Wed, Oct 11 2.  Partition	Mon, Nov 13 East & West Pakistan
Mon, Sept 25 Caste: Structure & History	Mon, Oct 9 Jallianwallah Bagh Massacre	Wed, Oct 25 India-Pakistan Wars

 

Books on Reserve

The following books are on reserve in Collins Library under Engl 484.  They are on a 24 hour loan period and many are library use only.  Please be considerate of your peers’ needs and return books as soon as you are done with them.  Remember to consult more than one source.  This list is by no means complete.  Your topic may require other more specific books.  Make liberal use of SIMON’s and ORBIS’s search engines.  For journal articles, the  Bibliography of Asian Studies is very useful.

 

The Cambridge History of India.  Vols 5 & 6.  1962-

 

Kulke, Hermann and Dietmar Rothermund.  A History of India.  Barnes & Noble, 1986.

 

Lall, Arthur S. The emergence of modern India.  Columbia University Press, 1981.

 

Sarkar, Sumit.   Modern India: 1885-1947.  Macmillan, 1983

 

Stein, Burton.  A history of India.  Blackwell, 1998.

 

Tharoor, Shashi.  India: From  Midnight to the Millenium.  Arcade, 1997. 

 

Yule, Henry and A.C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson: An Anglo-Indian Dictionary (1886; 1996).

 

Vohra, Ranbir.  The making of India : a historical survey.  M.E. Sharpe, 1997.

 

Wolpert, Stanley A.  A new history of India.  6th ed.  Oxford University Press, 2000.

 

The following book is in the reference section of the Library: The Cambridge encyclopedia of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives.  Editor, Francis Robinson.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

 

 

URL’s for Indian Newspapers and Magazines

 

The following is an excellent general source with links to various Indian dailies and weeklies, including specialized journals: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/ind/news.htm

 

Daily Papers

The Times of India:  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/default.asp

The Hindu:  http://www.hinduonnet.com

Hindustan Times:  http://www.hindustantimes.com/

Indian Express: http://www.expressindia.com

The Statesman: http://www.thestatesman.net

 

Weekly Journals/Magazines

Frontline: http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/

India Today:  http://www.india-today.com/itoday/

The Week: http://the-week.com

Outlook: http://www.outlookindia.com

Economic and Political Weekly: http://www.epw.org.in/

Tehelka: http://tehelka.com/