Introductory Topics in South Asian Literature and Culture (260-0-20)
Topic
Midnight's Children: South Asian Literature and Cu
Instructors
David Sol Boyk
847/467-0936
1880 Campus Drive, Kresge Hall, Office 4-425
Office Hours: varies by quarter, please contact instructor
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 2-410: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM
Overview of class
AY25 In August 1947, colonial India was divided into the newly independent nations of India and Pakistan. At the same moment as former colonial subjects celebrated their liberation, millions of people experienced, and perpetrated, violence and terror on a cataclysmic scale. As the strife of Partition continued to reverberate, the following years saw extremes of idealism, cynicism, invention, and ambition. In this course, we will examine the literature and culture of the decades after 1947, as the namesake children of Salman Rushdie's famous novel grew up in their new postcolonial nations.
In addition to reading Rushdie's Midnight's Children, we will spend time with a variety of literary and artistic works, including fiction, poetry, films, plays, and paintings. Secondary works by scholars in a variety of fields will help us get below the surface and to consider a variety of ways to think about themes including democracy, conflict, gender, literary and artistic modernism, and the postcolonial condition.
Teaching Method
Lecture, seminar
Evaluation Method
papers, presentations, participation
Class Materials (Required)
Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children (any edition)
Class Attributes
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area