PASSAGE TO INDIA: INDIA AND THE WESTERN IMAGINATION

Religion 117 Nikky Singh

Fall 2005 Office: Lovejoy 349; X 3175

Office Hours: M 12-1;

T/Th 2.30-3.30

REQUIRED TEXTS:

1. E.M. Forster, A Passage to India

2. W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge

3. Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

4. Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

5. Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali

6. T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

7. Anita Desai, Clear Light of Day

8. Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

(Additional materials will be put on reserve in Miller)

REQUIREMENTS:

1. Regular Class attendance and active participation

2 Short response papers on books and films

(for Sept. 27: Desai novel)

3. Paper on The English Patient (Oct 18)

4. Mid-term Examination (Nov. 1)

5. Final Examination

SCHEDULE:

Sept. 8 Introduction

Objectives and Methodology

Distinction between diversity and pluralism

13 Walt Whitman, "A Passage to India"

Rudyard Kipling, "White Man's Burden"

Max Muller, "What Can India Teach Us?"

(On reserve in Miller)

15, 20 Forster, Passage to India

Discussion of Quran, Mosque, Mughal Emperors, and The Taj

22 "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and its Others" (on reserve)

27 Anita Desai, Clear Light of Day

Response Paper due!

29 Film: My Son the Fanatic

Reading: Introduction by Hanif Kureishi

October

4 Maugham, The Razor's Edge

Hindu concepts: aum, atman, brahman, ananda

6 Barbara Ramusack, "Indian Prices as Fantasy" (on reserve)

11, Break! (Read The English Patient over break!)

13,18, The English Patient

Paper Due: Oct. 18

(Issues of Race, Identity, Globalism, Pluralism)

20 Edward Said, introduction to "Orientalism"

25 Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

Buddhist ideals: anatman, anitya, nirvana, karma

27 Review

1 Midterm examination

3 Film: East is East

8 Tagore, Gitanjali

10 Rita Gross, "Hindu Female Deities as a Resource for the Contemporary Rediscovery of the Goddess" (on reserve)

15,17 Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

(Lead Class Discussions)

22 Film: XXX

Begin reading T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets over thanksgiving holiday

29 Discussion of film and Eliot

1,6 T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Slide show on Lord Krishna

8 George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant" (on reserve)

Octavio Paz, selections from A Tale of Two Gardens (on reserve)