This is a Pathway Approved Option for the World and Comparative Literature Pathway and one of the Distributional Requirements for the English Pathway. Can also be selected as an option under the remaining Pathways.

2020-2021

LECTURES (online pre-recorded: Thursdays, 2-3 pm). Lectures will be uploaded on Teams each Thursday afternoon.

SEMINARS IN WEEKS 1-3, 5, 8 and 10 are ONLINE on TEAMS.

SEMINARS IN WEEKS 4, 7 and 9 will be offered face-to-face, depending on the pandemic situation.

WED 11-12 PM

WED 12-1 PM

MON 10-11 RV

MON 11-12 RV

Convenors:

Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee

Rashmi Varma (Rashmi.Varma@warwick.ac.uk)

Office hours: 

Term 2

RV: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12-1 Sign Up Here

 

Aim

Through the medium of English, writers from Africa and Asia today confront a (prospectively) global audience. This module aims to introduce students to the emergent body of literature being produced by writers (and film-makers) from South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa generally, and South Asia, and to situate it in terms of the historical circumstances that have engendered it and to which it constitutes a response. The module will examine the various ways in which different writers negotiate and represent social conditions -- local and global -- in their work, and the ways in which they incorporate and work with domestic and foreign literary forms and conventions. The works will be read comparatively, in relation to one another, and as contributions to particular literary and cultural traditions. Social issues under review will range very widely: for example, race, violence, religion and communalism, land, ‘development’ and the environment, sex and gendered identity, nation and state, memory, trauma and prolepsis, English as a world language and English as a language of cultural imperialism.

Method of Assessment

Intermediate Years:
2 x 2500-word essays (40% each)
Creative/Critical Project (20%)

Final Years:
2 x 3000-word essays on topics generated by the student (40% each)
Creative/Critical Project (20%)

Essays will be due Term 2, Week 1; Term 3, Week 1. The Creative/Critical Project will be due Term 3, Week 3.

TERM ONE: South Asia

Required texts:

Salman Rushdie, Shame (1983)

Mirza Waheed, The Collaborator (2011)

Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (1997)

Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide (2004)

Amruta Patil, Kari (2008)

Arvind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008)

Weekly Schedule

Week One: Introductory Seminars

Week Two: Introduction to the Module (PM)

Week Three: Partition Narratives (RV)

Urvashi Butalia, excerpt from The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India (2000) Butalia, The Other Side of Silence

Saadat Hasan Manto, 'Toba Tek Singh' (1955). Kingdom's End and Other Stories (1987) manto_toba_tek_singh.pdf

Manto, 'Khol Do' (1950). The Annual of Urdu Studies 27 (2012) Manto, Khol Do

Kamleshwar, 'Kitne Pakistan' (1966-7). Tarun K. Saint, ed. Translating Partition: Essays, Stories, Criticism (2001) Kamleshwar, Kitne Pakistan

Faiz Ahmed Faiz, 'The Dawn of Freedom' (1947). Tr. Agha Shahid Ali. The Annual of Urdu Studies 11 (1996) Faiz, The Dawn of Freedom

TO WATCH: Film: Garm Hawa (1974) (dir., M.S. Sathyu, Urdu, with English subtitles, film)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO1EIEG_fc

Week Four: Salman Rushdie, Shame (1983) (PM)

Week Five: Mirza Waheed, The Collaborator (2011) (RV)

Week Six: No class. Reading Week

Week Seven: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (1997) (RV)

Week Eight: Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide (2004) (PM)

Week Nine: Amruta Patil, Kari (2008) (RV)

Week Ten: Arvind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008) (PM)

Week Eleven: Mahasweta Devi, ‘Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha’. Imaginary Maps (1995) Pterodactyl

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, ‘November is the Month of Migrations’, ‘Baso-jhi’ and 'The Adivasi Will Not Dance' from The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories (2015)

Film: Satyajit Ray, dir. Days and Nights in the Forest (available on YouTube) (PM/RV)

TERM TWO: Sub-Saharan Africa

Required Texts:

Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions

Nadine Gordimer, The House Gun

Chimamanda Negozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun

Mia Couto, Confession of the Lioness

No Violet Bulawayo, We Need New Names

Zoe Wicomb, Playing in the Light

Weekly Schedule:

Week One: Introduction to the Term (RV)

Week Two: Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (1988) (RV)

Week Three: Nadine Gordimer, The House Gun (1998) (PM)

Week Four: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) (PM)

Week Five: Tsotsi (dir. Gavin Hood, 2005) (PM) Available for streaming on Talis AspireTsotsi film

Week Six: No class. Reading Week

Week Seven: Mia Couto, Confession of the Lioness (2012) (RV)

Week Eight: District 9 (film) (PM)

Week Nine: NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names (2013) (RV)

Week Ten: Zoë Wicomb, Playing in the Light (2006) (RV)