Angl-Am - User contributions [en]

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Gender

2010-01-29T16:48:04Z

Loulu86:

==Expert Group on Gender==

'''Group: Representations of Gender'''

'''''Kim'''''

- Keep in mind: Double iconography of the Hindu female

- Alternative female figures:

- Kim‘s caretaker (takes opium)

- The Kulu woman (“She was already ordering, haranguing, rebuking, and it must be said, cursing her servants for delays” (p. 74)
• Dominant BUT benevolent character (nurses Kim back to health, cf. “Mother, I [Kim] owe my life to thee.” (p. 277)

- Huneefa ( portrayed witch-like, cf. p. 179)

- The Woman of Shamlegh (dominating personality in her village, cf. p. 256 and pp. 263-264)

'''''Untouchable'''''

- Keep in mind: Double iconography of the Hindu female

- Female characters that meet the traditional ideal of a devote woman:

- Bakha‘s mother

“He [Bakha] often thought of his mother [...], crouching as she went
about cooking and cleaning the home, a bit too old-fashioned for his
then already growing modern tastes, [...] it seemed that she was not of
his world, had no connection with it.“ (p. 14)

- Sohini tries to replace her mother, inferior role

“[...] he saw that his [Bakha’s] sister was trying to light a fire between two bricks. She was blowing hard at it [...] as she crouched on the mud floor. [...]. She sat back helpless [...]. (p. 21)

“Her father was abusing her, as he now sat on his bed, puff-puffing away at the cane tube [...]” (p. 31)

- Other minor female characters are also bound to the household

'''''Midnight's Children'''''

- Focus on representation of Indian Muslim women

- Dominant characters who possess power to a varying degree and within a certain sector

- Naseem: conservative, religious, dominant partner within the relationship to Aadam;
avoids contact to Western culture

- Jamila: comes into contact with Christianity, becomes role model of “pure” Pakistan

- Padma: […], active audience of Saleem

-> The meaning of “Padma” is “dung”: Why might the author have chosen this name for one of his major female characters?

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Environment

2010-01-29T16:46:09Z

Loulu86:

==Expert Group on Environment==

'''''Group: Representations of India'''''

'''''Kim'''''

- Nostalgic representation of Kim‘s environment

“‘We shall get good lodgings at the Kashmir Serai,’ said Kim [...]. The hot and crowded bazaars blazed with light as they made their way through the press of all the races in Upper India, and the lama mooned through it like a man in a dream.” (p. 17)

- References to India’s past

“There is no city – except Bombay, the queen of all – more beautiful on her garish style than Lucknow [...]. Kings have adorned her with fantastic buildings, endowed her with charities, crammed her with pensioners, and drenched her with blood. She is the centre of all idleness, intrigue, and luxury, and shares with Dehli the claim to talk the only pure Urdu.” (p. 120)

- Nostalgia persists throughout the novel which covers several years and contains various settings all over India

- Surrounding dominated by British people is set apart

“The great old school of St. Xavier‘s in Partibus, block on block of low white buildings, stands in vast grounds over against the Gumti River, at some distance from the city“ (p. 120)

'''''Untouchable'''''

- Novel covers only one day

- Reader get immediately confronted with a description of the outcastes‘ colony

“The outcastes’ colony was a group of mud-walled houses [...]. And altogether the ramparts of human and animal refuse that lay on the outskirts of this little colony, and the squalor and the misery which lay within it, made it an ‘uncongenial’ place to live in.“ (p.9)”

- The environment outside the outcastes‘ colony is portrayed opposed to the description of the protagonist‘s home place

“The lane leading to the outcastes’ street was soon left behind. [...]. He sniffed at the clean, fresh air around the flat stretch of land before him and vaguely sensed a difference between the odorous, smoky world of refuse and the open, radiant world of the sun.” (p. 33)

- References to Indian past:

“It was as if the crowd had determined to crush everything, however ancient or beautiful, that lay in the way of their achievement of all that Ghandi stood for.” (p. 137)

- Separation of the environment into two worlds more tangible to the reader than to Bakha?

'''''Midnight's Children'''''

- Changing portrayal of environment

- Dependent on historical development

- Kashmir: beautiful place, no soldiers (cf. p.5)

- Pakistan (exile): environment marked by military presence (cf. p.396)

- Pakistan (Harachi): ugly & stinky (cf. p.427)

- Magican Ghetto: portrayal of poverty, though not negatively (cf. p.539)
-> “In the Shadow of a Mosque“

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on (Colonial) Power

2010-01-29T16:42:49Z

Loulu86:

==Expert Group on (Colonial) Power==

'''Group: Representations of India'''

'''''Kim'''''

- British colonizers represented as minor elite

'''- Kim'''
- Of Irish origin (Ireland as part of British empire)
• Parallel to colonized Indians?
- Called “The friend of all the World” has powerful native friends (e.g.
Mahbub Ali)
- Becomes part of the Great Game and the ruling elite although he comes from the lowest
level of society + receives education
• Reason: Kim’s heritage and his talents/abilities - natives like Mahbub Ali and
Hurree Babu are also educated according to Western standards and belong to
the Great Game
• BUT are portrayed inferior to the British?

“He [Hurree Babu] became thickly treasonous, and spoke in terms of sweeping indecency of a Government which had forced upon him a white man’s education and neglected to supply him with a white man’s salary.” (p. 237)

- REMEMBER: nostalgic and harmonious portrayal of India environment and society

=> British imperialism as a positive state?

'''''Untouchable'''''

'''- Bakha'''

- Apparently all ways out are blocked by Hindu society for Bakha since he is branded as ‘impure

(-> denied access to education, supposed to stay in the outcastes’ colony, ...)

'''- Positive portrayal of British colonial power?'''

- Bakha‘s affection for British and Western culture

“The Tommies had treated him as a human being [...]” (p. 9)

- Initial positive viewpoint of British colonial rule is counterbalanced at the end of the novel

“ ‘It is India’s genius to accept all things’, said the poet fiercely. ‘We have, throughout
our long history, been realists believing in the stuff of this world [...] The Victorians misinterpreted us. It was as if, in order to give a philosophical background to their exploitation of India, they ingeniously concocted a nice little fairy story: “You don’t believe in this world [...] Let us look after your country for you [...] We know life. [...] We can feel new feelings. [...] Our enslavers muddle through things. We can see things clearly. We will go the whole hog with regard to machines while they nervously fumble their way with the steam-engine. And we will keep our heads through it all.” (p. 152-153)

'''- The idea of inward colonialism'''

- Outcastes’ COLONY

'''''Midnight's Children'''''

'''''- Focus on Saleem and his counterpart Shiva'''''

- Due to the interchange after birth Shiva has to grow up in poor conditions while Saleem grows up in a wealthy family

- Shiva becomes a war hero

- Saleem is treated like an animal in the army

- Although Shiva had to grow up in poor circumstances he is more successful than Saleem

- Diverse social circumstances portrayed within the novel (Midnight’s Children conference)

- Equality among the members
-> Access to power determined by birth or fate?

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on (Post-)Colonialism

2010-01-29T16:39:07Z

Loulu86: /* Expert Group on (Post-)Colonialism */

==Expert Group on (Post-)Colonialism==

'''Group: Representations of India'''

'''''Kim'''''

- Kim‘s journey with the lama starts in Lahore (which today belongs to Pakistan)
- Come as far as Benares
- Make an excursion into the Himalayas, to the very edge of India (quests reach a climax)
- Return to the plains => No borders that hinder Kim‘s travel

- Connection of places through the Grand Trunk Road and by the railway
“The Grand Trunk Road at this point [at Benares] was built on an embankment [...], so that one walked, as it were, a little above the country, along a stately corridor, seeing all India spread out to left and right.” (p. 63)
- The Grand Trunk Road (former Sadak-e-Azam (“great road”) was improved by the British during their colonial rule and renamed “Grand Trunk Road”, one of the major roads in India and Pakistan)
- The “te-rain” (railway introduced by the British) ->essential to ensure British colonial rule? – readable as “terrain”?
“[...] at every few kos is a police-station.” (p. 57)

'''''Untouchable'''''

- Portrayal of outcaste colony of an unnamed town in colonial India
- Creation of two worlds
- After Bakha‘s talk to Colonel Hutchinson he comes to see a mass of different people who want to attend a speech by Ghandi
-> Grand Trunk Road and railway mentioned
“It was the Grand Trunk Road near the railway station of Bulalash.” (p. 134)

- Only situation in the novel in which social harmony is explicitly stated
“Men, women and children of all the different races, colours, castes and creeds, were running towards the oval.” (p. 136)

- Symbolic meaning of the Grand Trunk Road? (>comparable to its function in Kim ?)

- No major focus of British colonial rule?

'''''Midnight's Children'''''

- Significance of mobility
- Saleem’s family moves house frequently
-> Acts of moving house linked to negative events
- From Kashmir to Amritzar: People are killed during a peaceful morning (p.62), the hummingbird is killed (p.50)
- To Pakistan: Saleem’s family is killed by a bombing raid
- To India: Magican ghetto is destroyed (p.599), midnight’s children are sterilized (p.612)

- As opposed to Kim and Untouchable, Midnight’s Children does not only covers India’s colonial period

- Various settings linked to historical events
- Illustration of separation of India
- Representation of India and Pakistan
- Saleem and Shiva as opponents in India in every respect

- Position of the British?

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on (Colonial) Power

2010-01-29T16:36:58Z

Loulu86: Created page with ''''Group: Representations of India''' '''''Kim''''' - British colonizers represented as minor elite '''- Kim''' - Of Irish origin (Ireland as part of British empire) …'

'''Group: Representations of India'''

'''''Kim'''''

- British colonizers represented as minor elite

'''- Kim'''
- Of Irish origin (Ireland as part of British empire)
• Parallel to colonized Indians?
- Called “The friend of all the World” has powerful native friends (e.g.
Mahbub Ali)
- Becomes part of the Great Game and the ruling elite although he comes from the lowest
level of society + receives education
• Reason: Kim’s heritage and his talents/abilities - natives like Mahbub Ali and
Hurree Babu are also educated according to Western standards and belong to
the Great Game
• BUT are portrayed inferior to the British?

“He [Hurree Babu] became thickly treasonous, and spoke in terms of sweeping indecency of a Government which had forced upon him a white man’s education and neglected to supply him with a white man’s salary.” (p. 237)

- REMEMBER: nostalgic and harmonious portrayal of India environment and society

=> British imperialism as a positive state?

'''''Untouchable'''''

'''- Bakha'''

- Apparently all ways out are blocked by Hindu society for Bakha since he is branded as ‘impure

(-> denied access to education, supposed to stay in the outcastes’ colony, ...)

'''- Positive portrayal of British colonial power?'''

- Bakha‘s affection for British and Western culture

“The Tommies had treated him as a human being [...]” (p. 9)

- Initial positive viewpoint of British colonial rule is counterbalanced at the end of the novel

“ ‘It is India’s genius to accept all things’, said the poet fiercely. ‘We have, throughout
our long history, been realists believing in the stuff of this world [...] The Victorians misinterpreted us. It was as if, in order to give a philosophical background to their exploitation of India, they ingeniously concocted a nice little fairy story: “You don’t believe in this world [...] Let us look after your country for you [...] We know life. [...] We can feel new feelings. [...] Our enslavers muddle through things. We can see things clearly. We will go the whole hog with regard to machines while they nervously fumble their way with the steam-engine. And we will keep our heads through it all.” (p. 152-153)

'''- The idea of inward colonialism'''

- Outcastes’ COLONY

'''''Midnight's Children'''''

'''''- Focus on Saleem and his counterpart Shiva'''''

- Due to the interchange after birth Shiva has to grow up in poor conditions while Saleem grows up in a wealthy family

- Shiva becomes a war hero

- Saleem is treated like an animal in the army

- Although Shiva had to grow up in poor circumstances he is more successful than Saleem

- Diverse social circumstances portrayed within the novel (Midnight’s Children conference)

- Equality among the members
-> Access to power determined by birth or fate?

2009-10 AM Fictions of India: Colonial, Postcolonial, Contemporary

2010-01-29T16:29:10Z

Loulu86: /* Expert Groups */

* '''Time:''' Tuesday 10-12

==Course Description==

Our seminar is organised around three novels in each of which the fate of a memorable young male protagonist is entangled with the political history of India. In reading Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the seminar provides the setting for an exemplary encounter with colonial, modernist and postmodernist fiction, as well as with the complex relationships that exist between historical backgrounds (colonialism, decolonisation, postcolonial politics) and literary discourse, not only in relation to topical and textual analysis, but also in relation to their cultural status and their conditions of production and circulation.

Students must purchase:
Rudyard Kipling, Kim [1901], ed. Alan Sandison, Oxford: OUP (World’s Classics), 1987 [current reprint].
Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable [1935], London: Penguin [current reprint, preface by E. M. Forster]
Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children [1981], London: Vintage, 2006.

[All texts may be had at a very competitive price at the CvO Bookshop]
Further materials will be made available on the course’s wiki-website.

As an introduction to key concepts and major regions and historical perspectives in postcolonial studies, I recommend Tobias Döring, Postcolonial Literatures in English, Stuttgart: Klett, 2008.

Requirements: for 3 KP: regular attendance, an oral contribution in the form of a presentation and participation in an ‘expert group’ that will prepare a certain aspect of the seminar’s topic for the final discussion.

Requirements for 6 KP: as above, with a term paper of ca. 10 pp. based on the topic of the presentation (deadline Feb 29, 2010).

==20.10.09==

Introduction. Technicalities.
Recalling “The White Man’s Burden”

==27.10.09==

Key terms in Postcolonial theory.
[cf. also J. McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism]
*[http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/anglistik/lit-wiss/intro-to-literature/d/2008_doering_postcolonial_key_terms.pdf T. Döring 2008, 15-37.]

==3.11.09==

Recap of Narratology: Analysing colonial, modernist and postmodern / postcolonial fiction.

==10.11.09==

Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1900-1) –
The structure of the plot: A colonial adventure story and its historical backgrounds. (Bose / Jalal 2004, chap. 10 and 11)

==17.11.09==

Kim: Representations of India and of Colonialism:
National Characteristics and Cultural Identities in Kim

==24.11.09==

Kim: Hybridity and the Ideology of Kim: Kim’s identity, his relation to other characters and his quest.

==01.12.09==

Anand, Untouchable (1935): “A Day in the Life of Bakha the Sweeper”: the protagonist and the structure of the text.

==08.12.09==

Untouchable:
Impersonal Narration and the Ideology of the Text: The Representation of India and of Bakha’s consciousness.

==15.12.09==

Untouchable and Kim: “Expert Perspectives” on the First Two Novels: Comparisons and Contrasts
(Topics might include: ‘Boy heroes,’ India’, ‘Colonialism’, ‘caste system’, ‘religion’, ‘nation’, ‘power’, ‘humanity’ etc. )

*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Perspectives]]

==05.01.10==

Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children (1987):
The Historical Background and the Structure of the Text.

==12.01.10==

Midnight’s Children. Narration: a Postmodern and Postcolonial Narrator-Protagonist.

==19.01.10==

Midnight’s Children: History and Identity, or: Politics and Hybritidy: Kim’s India, Bakha’s India, Saleem’s India.

==26.01.10==

Course Evaluation. – “Expert Perspectives” on the Three Novels: Comparisons and Contrasts

==02.02.10==

Feedback on Course Evaluation. – Final Discussion. Presentation and Student Discussion of Term Paper Projects

==Expert Groups==

The pages opening unde the following links are designed to enable more comparative perspectives on the three novels, on their specific textal qualities as well as on their major themes. There is no need to do any extra work, but please take the time to '''cut and paste the materials from your presentations and your summaries of discussion results under the headings under which they belong'''. (If you need formatting help, click on the "Help" button under "navigation", on the left of the screen.

In preparing for our final meeting, please look through the pages that interest you most, and make a note of at least one observation or insight that results from the comparative view of these themes and aspects.

*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Nation (India)]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Identity/Hybridity]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on (Post-)Colonialism]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on (Colonial) Power]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Protagonists/Characters]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Narration]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Religion]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Plot Structures]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Language]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on History]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Environment]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Gender]]

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Gender

2010-01-29T16:26:10Z

Loulu86:

'''Group: Representations of Gender'''

'''''Kim'''''

- Keep in mind: Double iconography of the Hindu female

- Alternative female figures:

- Kim‘s caretaker (takes opium)

- The Kulu woman (“She was already ordering, haranguing, rebuking, and it must be said, cursing her servants for delays” (p. 74)
• Dominant BUT benevolent character (nurses Kim back to health, cf. “Mother, I [Kim] owe my life to thee.” (p. 277)

- Huneefa ( portrayed witch-like, cf. p. 179)

- The Woman of Shamlegh (dominating personality in her village, cf. p. 256 and pp. 263-264)

'''''Untouchable'''''

- Keep in mind: Double iconography of the Hindu female

- Female characters that meet the traditional ideal of a devote woman:

- Bakha‘s mother

“He [Bakha] often thought of his mother [...], crouching as she went
about cooking and cleaning the home, a bit too old-fashioned for his
then already growing modern tastes, [...] it seemed that she was not of
his world, had no connection with it.“ (p. 14)

- Sohini tries to replace her mother, inferior role

“[...] he saw that his [Bakha’s] sister was trying to light a fire between two bricks. She was blowing hard at it [...] as she crouched on the mud floor. [...]. She sat back helpless [...]. (p. 21)

“Her father was abusing her, as he now sat on his bed, puff-puffing away at the cane tube [...]” (p. 31)

- Other minor female characters are also bound to the household

'''''Midnight's Children'''''

- Focus on representation of Indian Muslim women

- Dominant characters who possess power to a varying degree and within a certain sector

- Naseem: conservative, religious, dominant partner within the relationship to Aadam;
avoids contact to Western culture

- Jamila: comes into contact with Christianity, becomes role model of “pure” Pakistan

- Padma: […], active audience of Saleem

-> The meaning of “Padma” is “dung”: Why might the author have chosen this name for one of his major female characters?

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Gender

2010-01-29T16:24:20Z

Loulu86: Created page with ''''Group: Representations of Gender''' '''''Kim''''' - Keep in mind: Double iconography of the Hindu female - Alternative female figures: - Kim‘s caretaker (takes opium) …'

2009-10 AM Fictions of India: Colonial, Postcolonial, Contemporary

2010-01-29T16:19:19Z

Loulu86: /* Expert Groups */

* '''Time:''' Tuesday 10-12

==Course Description==

Our seminar is organised around three novels in each of which the fate of a memorable young male protagonist is entangled with the political history of India. In reading Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the seminar provides the setting for an exemplary encounter with colonial, modernist and postmodernist fiction, as well as with the complex relationships that exist between historical backgrounds (colonialism, decolonisation, postcolonial politics) and literary discourse, not only in relation to topical and textual analysis, but also in relation to their cultural status and their conditions of production and circulation.

Students must purchase:
Rudyard Kipling, Kim [1901], ed. Alan Sandison, Oxford: OUP (World’s Classics), 1987 [current reprint].
Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable [1935], London: Penguin [current reprint, preface by E. M. Forster]
Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children [1981], London: Vintage, 2006.

[All texts may be had at a very competitive price at the CvO Bookshop]
Further materials will be made available on the course’s wiki-website.

As an introduction to key concepts and major regions and historical perspectives in postcolonial studies, I recommend Tobias Döring, Postcolonial Literatures in English, Stuttgart: Klett, 2008.

Requirements: for 3 KP: regular attendance, an oral contribution in the form of a presentation and participation in an ‘expert group’ that will prepare a certain aspect of the seminar’s topic for the final discussion.

Requirements for 6 KP: as above, with a term paper of ca. 10 pp. based on the topic of the presentation (deadline Feb 29, 2010).

==20.10.09==

Introduction. Technicalities.
Recalling “The White Man’s Burden”

==27.10.09==

Key terms in Postcolonial theory.
[cf. also J. McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism]
*[http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/anglistik/lit-wiss/intro-to-literature/d/2008_doering_postcolonial_key_terms.pdf T. Döring 2008, 15-37.]

==3.11.09==

Recap of Narratology: Analysing colonial, modernist and postmodern / postcolonial fiction.

==10.11.09==

Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1900-1) –
The structure of the plot: A colonial adventure story and its historical backgrounds. (Bose / Jalal 2004, chap. 10 and 11)

==17.11.09==

Kim: Representations of India and of Colonialism:
National Characteristics and Cultural Identities in Kim

==24.11.09==

Kim: Hybridity and the Ideology of Kim: Kim’s identity, his relation to other characters and his quest.

==01.12.09==

Anand, Untouchable (1935): “A Day in the Life of Bakha the Sweeper”: the protagonist and the structure of the text.

==08.12.09==

Untouchable:
Impersonal Narration and the Ideology of the Text: The Representation of India and of Bakha’s consciousness.

==15.12.09==

Untouchable and Kim: “Expert Perspectives” on the First Two Novels: Comparisons and Contrasts
(Topics might include: ‘Boy heroes,’ India’, ‘Colonialism’, ‘caste system’, ‘religion’, ‘nation’, ‘power’, ‘humanity’ etc. )

*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Perspectives]]

==05.01.10==

Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children (1987):
The Historical Background and the Structure of the Text.

==12.01.10==

Midnight’s Children. Narration: a Postmodern and Postcolonial Narrator-Protagonist.

==19.01.10==

Midnight’s Children: History and Identity, or: Politics and Hybritidy: Kim’s India, Bakha’s India, Saleem’s India.

==26.01.10==

Course Evaluation. – “Expert Perspectives” on the Three Novels: Comparisons and Contrasts

==02.02.10==

Feedback on Course Evaluation. – Final Discussion. Presentation and Student Discussion of Term Paper Projects

==Expert Groups==

The pages opening unde the following links are designed to enable more comparative perspectives on the three novels, on their specific textal qualities as well as on their major themes. There is no need to do any extra work, but please take the time to '''cut and paste the materials from your presentations and your summaries of discussion results under the headings under which they belong'''. (If you need formatting help, click on the "Help" button under "navigation", on the left of the screen.

In preparing for our final meeting, please look through the pages that interest you most, and make a note of at least one observation or insight that results from the comparative view of these themes and aspects.

*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Nation (India)]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Identity/Hybridity]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on (Post-)Colonialism]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Protagonists/Characters]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Narration]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Religion]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Plot Structures]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Language]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on History]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Environment]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Gender]]

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Environment

2010-01-29T16:18:21Z

Loulu86: Created page with ''''''Group: Representations of India''''' '''''Kim''''' - Nostalgic representation of Kim‘s environment “‘We shall get good lodgings at the Kashmir Serai,’ said Kim …'

'''''Group: Representations of India'''''

'''''Kim'''''

- Nostalgic representation of Kim‘s environment

“‘We shall get good lodgings at the Kashmir Serai,’ said Kim [...]. The hot and crowded bazaars blazed with light as they made their way through the press of all the races in Upper India, and the lama mooned through it like a man in a dream.” (p. 17)

- References to India’s past

“There is no city – except Bombay, the queen of all – more beautiful on her garish style than Lucknow [...]. Kings have adorned her with fantastic buildings, endowed her with charities, crammed her with pensioners, and drenched her with blood. She is the centre of all idleness, intrigue, and luxury, and shares with Dehli the claim to talk the only pure Urdu.” (p. 120)

- Nostalgia persists throughout the novel which covers several years and contains various settings all over India

- Surrounding dominated by British people is set apart

“The great old school of St. Xavier‘s in Partibus, block on block of low white buildings, stands in vast grounds over against the Gumti River, at some distance from the city“ (p. 120)

'''''Untouchable'''''

- Novel covers only one day

- Reader get immediately confronted with a description of the outcastes‘ colony

“The outcastes’ colony was a group of mud-walled houses [...]. And altogether the ramparts of human and animal refuse that lay on the outskirts of this little colony, and the squalor and the misery which lay within it, made it an ‘uncongenial’ place to live in.“ (p.9)”

- The environment outside the outcastes‘ colony is portrayed opposed to the description of the protagonist‘s home place

“The lane leading to the outcastes’ street was soon left behind. [...]. He sniffed at the clean, fresh air around the flat stretch of land before him and vaguely sensed a difference between the odorous, smoky world of refuse and the open, radiant world of the sun.” (p. 33)

- References to Indian past:

“It was as if the crowd had determined to crush everything, however ancient or beautiful, that lay in the way of their achievement of all that Ghandi stood for.” (p. 137)

- Separation of the environment into two worlds more tangible to the reader than to Bakha?

'''''Midnight's Children'''''

- Changing portrayal of environment

- Dependent on historical development

- Kashmir: beautiful place, no soldiers (cf. p.5)

- Pakistan (exile): environment marked by military presence (cf. p.396)

- Pakistan (Harachi): ugly & stinky (cf. p.427)

- Magican Ghetto: portrayal of poverty, though not negatively (cf. p.539)
-> “In the Shadow of a Mosque“

2009-10 AM Fictions of India: Colonial, Postcolonial, Contemporary

2010-01-29T16:11:50Z

Loulu86: /* Expert Groups */

* '''Time:''' Tuesday 10-12

==Course Description==

Our seminar is organised around three novels in each of which the fate of a memorable young male protagonist is entangled with the political history of India. In reading Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the seminar provides the setting for an exemplary encounter with colonial, modernist and postmodernist fiction, as well as with the complex relationships that exist between historical backgrounds (colonialism, decolonisation, postcolonial politics) and literary discourse, not only in relation to topical and textual analysis, but also in relation to their cultural status and their conditions of production and circulation.

Students must purchase:
Rudyard Kipling, Kim [1901], ed. Alan Sandison, Oxford: OUP (World’s Classics), 1987 [current reprint].
Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable [1935], London: Penguin [current reprint, preface by E. M. Forster]
Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children [1981], London: Vintage, 2006.

[All texts may be had at a very competitive price at the CvO Bookshop]
Further materials will be made available on the course’s wiki-website.

As an introduction to key concepts and major regions and historical perspectives in postcolonial studies, I recommend Tobias Döring, Postcolonial Literatures in English, Stuttgart: Klett, 2008.

Requirements: for 3 KP: regular attendance, an oral contribution in the form of a presentation and participation in an ‘expert group’ that will prepare a certain aspect of the seminar’s topic for the final discussion.

Requirements for 6 KP: as above, with a term paper of ca. 10 pp. based on the topic of the presentation (deadline Feb 29, 2010).

==20.10.09==

Introduction. Technicalities.
Recalling “The White Man’s Burden”

==27.10.09==

Key terms in Postcolonial theory.
[cf. also J. McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism]
*[http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/anglistik/lit-wiss/intro-to-literature/d/2008_doering_postcolonial_key_terms.pdf T. Döring 2008, 15-37.]

==3.11.09==

Recap of Narratology: Analysing colonial, modernist and postmodern / postcolonial fiction.

==10.11.09==

Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1900-1) –
The structure of the plot: A colonial adventure story and its historical backgrounds. (Bose / Jalal 2004, chap. 10 and 11)

==17.11.09==

Kim: Representations of India and of Colonialism:
National Characteristics and Cultural Identities in Kim

==24.11.09==

Kim: Hybridity and the Ideology of Kim: Kim’s identity, his relation to other characters and his quest.

==01.12.09==

Anand, Untouchable (1935): “A Day in the Life of Bakha the Sweeper”: the protagonist and the structure of the text.

==08.12.09==

Untouchable:
Impersonal Narration and the Ideology of the Text: The Representation of India and of Bakha’s consciousness.

==15.12.09==

Untouchable and Kim: “Expert Perspectives” on the First Two Novels: Comparisons and Contrasts
(Topics might include: ‘Boy heroes,’ India’, ‘Colonialism’, ‘caste system’, ‘religion’, ‘nation’, ‘power’, ‘humanity’ etc. )

*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Perspectives]]

==05.01.10==

Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children (1987):
The Historical Background and the Structure of the Text.

==12.01.10==

Midnight’s Children. Narration: a Postmodern and Postcolonial Narrator-Protagonist.

==19.01.10==

Midnight’s Children: History and Identity, or: Politics and Hybritidy: Kim’s India, Bakha’s India, Saleem’s India.

==26.01.10==

Course Evaluation. – “Expert Perspectives” on the Three Novels: Comparisons and Contrasts

==02.02.10==

Feedback on Course Evaluation. – Final Discussion. Presentation and Student Discussion of Term Paper Projects

==Expert Groups==

The pages opening unde the following links are designed to enable more comparative perspectives on the three novels, on their specific textal qualities as well as on their major themes. There is no need to do any extra work, but please take the time to '''cut and paste the materials from your presentations and your summaries of discussion results under the headings under which they belong'''. (If you need formatting help, click on the "Help" button under "navigation", on the left of the screen.

In preparing for our final meeting, please look through the pages that interest you most, and make a note of at least one observation or insight that results from the comparative view of these themes and aspects.

*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Nation (India)]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Identity/Hybridity]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on (Post-)Colonialism]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Protagonists/Characters]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Narration]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Religion]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Plot Structures]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Language]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on History]]
*[[2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Environment]]

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Religion

2010-01-29T16:08:08Z

Loulu86: /* Expert Group on Religion */

==Expert Group on Religion==

'''Group: Representations of India'''

'''''Kim'''''

- Apparently no religious discrimination within native population

'''- Buddhism'''

- Teshoo Lama

- Respected person who receives food and shelter by the native population

- Less respect paid by the British
“holy man” (p. 87) vs. “old beggar man” (p. 112), “a heathen’s money” (p. 112)

'''- Christianity'''

- Father Victor and Reverend Bennett
“Between himself and the Roman Catholic chaplain of the Irish contingent lay, as Bennett believed, an unbridgeable gulf [...] whenever the Church of England dealt with a human problem she was very likely to call in the Church of Rome.” (p. 85)

- Betrayal of Woman of Shamlegh by a Christian missionary (cf. p. 264)

'''- Portrayal of native “superstition”?'''

- Kim’s search for the Red Bull
“[...] I saw the Bull again with the – the Sahibs praying to it. [...] ‘Officers praying to a bull!’ What in the world do you make of that?’ said Bennett.” (p. 87)

- Huneefa’s rituals

'''''Untouchable'''''

- Religious discrimination of low-caste Hindus and religious minorities (e.g. Muslims) by upper-caste Hindus

- Outcaste Hindus are not able to practice or forget about religious practices
- Religious duty of keeping pure
• Bakha’s attitude towards cleanliness vs. Hindu purity rituals
“[...] those laws of hygiene which are the basis of Hindu piety. [...] Besides there was
scarcity of water [...] they just did without; till sanitation, cleanliness and hygiene had lost
its meaning for them.” (p. 76)

'''- Solutions to religious discrimination'''
- Christian belief presented by Colonel Hutchinson
• Henpecked by his wife, fails to acquaint Bakha with Christianity
- Renewed Hinduism propelled by Ghandi -> joins various social and cultural groups
• Ghandian speech not fully understandable to Bakha, seems unreachable
• critique
“ ‘Ghandi is a humbug [...] In one breath he says he wants to abolish untouchability, in
the other he asserts he is an orthodox Hindu. He is running counter to the spirit of our age, which is democracy. [...] (p. 150)

- Progressive Indian philosophy
- Alternative solution presented by the poet (cf. p. 152-156)

'''''Midnight's Children'''''

- A lot of different religious groups within Indian society

- No consensus within these groups

'''Muslim:'''
- Aadam Aziz: loses his faith right in the beginning (cf. p.4)
- Naseem: conservative, wants the children to be taught according to Islamic
tradition and religion
- Free Islamic Convocation: speaks up against partition of India, is ended by the
assassination of the hummingbird by the Muslim League
- Muslim league: radical Muslims, fighting for partition of India and an own
Muslim state

'''Hindu:'''
- Shiva: Hindu fighting in the Indian army, named after the Hindu god of destruction
- Ravana gang: radical Hindu, terrorizing the Muslims, fighting for partition of
India

'''Saleem:''' although he grows up in a Muslim family he is not interested in religion
-> To which group, if to any of these, does he belong?

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Nation (India)

2010-01-29T16:03:00Z

Loulu86: /* Expert Group on Nation (India) */

==Expert Group on Nation (India)==

'''''Group: Representations of India'''''

'''''Kim'''''

- Crowded societies composed of very different ethnic and cultural groups that live in mixed communities or close proximity

- Less social tension between these groups than between single individuals (cf. Lurgan Sahib‘s hatred on Kim) or between different nations (cf. British vs. Russians in the Great Game)

- British colonial power ensuring harmony?

'''''Untouchable'''''

- High social tension between outcastes and upper castes

- Most prominent example: Bakha touches an upper caste member by accident (cf. p. 46)

- Outcastes forced to announce their approach when they leave their colony

- Social exclusion of other minorities apart from low-caste Hindus (e.g. Mohammedans)

- Injustice and discrimination exerted by upper castes

- Few exceptions (eg. the high-caste Hindu Charat Singh, cf. p. 105-110))

- Counter-movements (Only the Ghandian movement is portrayed in the novel!)

- Role of British colonial power in this conflict?

'''''Midnight's Children'''''

- Multiple ethnic and social groups

- At the beginning of the novel: relative peace between those groups

- Considerable change of this relative harmony as the plot unfolds

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on (Post-)Colonialism

2010-01-29T15:57:17Z

Loulu86: /* Expert Group on (Post-)Colonialism */

==Expert Group on (Post-)Colonialism==

'''''Group: Representations of India'''''

'''''Kim'''''

- Kim‘s journey with the lama starts in Lahore (which today belongs to Pakistan)
- Come as far as Benares
- Make an excursion into the Himalayas, to the very edge of India (quests reach a climax)
- Return to the plains => No borders that hinder Kim‘s travel

- Connection of places through the Grand Trunk Road and by the railway
“The Grand Trunk Road at this point [at Benares] was built on an embankment [...], so that one walked, as it were, a little above the country, along a stately corridor, seeing all India spread out to left and right.” (p. 63)
- The Grand Trunk Road (former Sadak-e-Azam (“great road”) was improved by the British during their colonial rule and renamed “Grand Trunk Road”, one of the major roads in India and Pakistan)
- The “te-rain” (railway introduced by the British) ->essential to ensure British colonial rule? – readable as “terrain”?
“[...] at every few kos is a police-station.” (p. 57)

'''''Untouchable'''''

- Portrayal of outcaste colony of an unnamed town in colonial India
- Creation of two worlds
- After Bakha‘s talk to Colonel Hutchinson he comes to see a mass of different people who want to attend a speech by Ghandi
-> Grand Trunk Road and railway mentioned
“It was the Grand Trunk Road near the railway station of Bulalash.” (p. 134)

- Only situation in the novel in which social harmony is explicitly stated
“Men, women and children of all the different races, colours, castes and creeds, were running towards the oval.” (p. 136)

- Symbolic meaning of the Grand Trunk Road? (>comparable to its function in Kim ?)

- No major focus of British colonial rule?

'''''Midnight's Children'''''

- Significance of mobility
- Saleem’s family moves house frequently
-> Acts of moving house linked to negative events
- From Kashmir to Amritzar: People are killed during a peaceful morning (p.62), the hummingbird is killed (p.50)
- To Pakistan: Saleem’s family is killed by a bombing raid
- To India: Magican ghetto is destroyed (p.599), midnight’s children are sterilized (p.612)

- As opposed to Kim and Untouchable, Midnight’s Children does not only covers India’s colonial period

- Various settings linked to historical events
- Illustration of separation of India
- Representation of India and Pakistan
- Saleem and Shiva as opponents in India in every respect

- Position of the British?

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Language

2010-01-29T15:50:15Z

Loulu86: /* Expert Group on Language */

==Expert Group on Language==

'''Group: Representations of India'''

'''''Kim'''''

Language of narration and characters: English (language of the colonizing nation)

Language as means to characterize

Portrayal of cultural or social differences through word choice and varying style

Use of words that derive from languages spoken by the natives
“ ‘ But my yogi is not a cow,’ said Kim [...]” (p. 14)
“ ‘Pardesi (a foreigner),’ Kim explained, [...] (p. 15)

Literal translations
“ ‘Two arrows in the quiver are better than one; and three are better still,’ Kim quoted the proverb with a meditative cough [...] (p. 69)

Circumscribing the manner in which language is used
“ [...] Kim translated into the vernacular the clinch-ing sentences he had heard in the
dressing room at Umballa [...] (p. 48)

No portrayal of faulty grammar or other indications for bad knowledge of a language
exception:
“You’re a thief. Choor? Mallum?’ His Hindustanee was limited, and disgusted Kim
intended to keep to the character laid down for him.” (p. 84)

Status of language
-> favourizing of Hindustanee?

Kim is able to speak many languages which enables him to move freely in his world + able to understand the codes used within the Great Game ( “ tarkeean”, cf. p. 183 and p. 198-199)

'''''Untouchable'''''

Language of narration and characters: English (language of the colonizing nation)

Language as means to characterize

Portrayal of cultural or social differences through word choice and varying style

Use of words that derive from languages spoken by the natives
“ ‘ But Pundit ji!’ said Sohini [...]” (p. 29)

Literal translations
“ ‘You eater of your masters’, she shouted, ‘may the vessel of your life never float in the sea of existence! [...]” (p. 71)
- Circumscribing the manner in which language is used
“ ‘Ham desi sahib (I, native sahib), don’t stare at me,’ said the man deliberately using the wrong Hindustani spoken by the English [...]” (p. 151)

No portrayal of faulty grammar or other indications for bad knowledge of a language
Bhaka’s thoughts are portrayed in the same flawless English as is e.g. the well-educated poem’s speech although Bakha is illiterate

Exception:
“The impulse that had made him [Colonel Hutchinson] think of learning Hindustani before he started his mission was a noble one considering that his work lay among the ; the habit of muddling through the language, and never learning it properly during his thirty years of his stay in India, was most disastrous in its consequences.” (p. 122-123)

Why does Mrs Hutchinon use Hindi words when she talks to her husband in a fury?
“ ‘I can’t keep waiting for you all day while you go messing about with all those dirty bhangis and charmars,’ [...] (p. 132)

'''''Midnight's Children'''''

Language of narration and characters: English (language of the colonizing nation)

Language as means to characterize

Portrayal of cultural or social differences through word choice and varying style

Use of words that derive from languages spoken by the natives
“doctor sahib ” = form of addressing a male person (p. 25 )
“yara” = friend (p. 13)
“maulvi” = expert in islamic law (p. 51)

No portrayal of faulty grammar or other indications for bad knowledge of a language
BUT use of run-on-words
“whatsitsname” (p. 50)

2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Religion

2010-01-29T15:39:54Z

Loulu86: /* Expert Group on Religion */

==Expert Group on Religion==

'''Group: Representations of India'''

'''''Kim'''''

Apparently no religious discrimination within native population

Buddhism
Teshoo Lama
Respected person who receives food and shelter by the native population
Less respect paid by the British
“holy man” (p. 87) vs. “old beggar man” (p. 112), “a heathen’s money” (p. 112)

Christianity
- Father Victor and Reverend Bennett
“Between himself and the Roman Catholic chaplain of the Irish contingent lay, as Bennett believed, an unbridgeable gulf [...] whenever the Church of England dealt with a human problem she was very likely to call in the Church of Rome.” (p. 85)
Betrayal of Woman of Shamlegh by a Christian missionary (cf. p. 264)

Portrayal of native “superstition”?
Kim’s search for the Red Bull
“[...] I saw the Bull again with the – the Sahibs praying to it. [...] ‘Officers praying to a bull!’ What in the world do you make of that?’ said Bennett.” (p. 87)
Huneefa’s rituals
Mahbub Ali vs. Hurree Babu (cf. p. 178-180)

'''''Untouchable'''''

Religious discrimination of low-caste Hindus and religious minorities (e.g. Muslims) by upper-caste Hindus
Outcaste Hindus are not able to practice or forget about religious practices
- Religious duty of keeping pure
• Bakha’s attitude towards cleanliness vs. Hindu purity rituals
“[...] those laws of hygiene which are the basis of Hindu piety. [...] Besides there was
scarcity of water [...] they just did without; till sanitation, cleanliness and hygiene had lost
its meaning for them.” (p. 76)
Solutions to religious discrimination
- Christian belief presented by Colonel Hutchinson
• Henpecked by his wife, fails to acquaint Bakha with Christianity
- Renewed Hinduism propelled by Ghandi -> joins various social and cultural groups
• Ghandian speech not fully understandable to Bakha, seems unreachable
• critique
“ ‘Ghandi is a humbug [...] In one breath he says he wants to abolish untouchability, in
the other he asserts he is an orthodox Hindu. He is running counter to the spirit of our
age, which is democracy. [...] (p. 150)
Progressive Indian philosophy
- Alternative solution presented by the poet (cf. p. 152-156)

'''''Midnight's Children'''''

A lot of different religious groups within Indian society
No consensus within these groups

Muslim:
- Aadam Aziz: loses his faith right in the beginning (cf. p.4)
- Naseem: conservative, wants the children to be taught according to Islamic
tradition and religion
- Free Islamic Convocation: speaks up against partition of India, is ended by the
assassination of the hummingbird by the Muslim League
- Muslim league: radical Muslims, fighting for partition of India and an own
Muslim state

Hindu:
- Shiva: Hindu fighting in the Indian army, named after the Hindu god of destruction
- Ravana gang: radical Hindu, terrorizing the Muslims, fighting for partition of
India

Saleem: although he grows up in a Muslim family he is not interested in religion
-> To which group, if to any of these, does he belong?