Cinema of the South Asian Diasporas

UTEACH COURSE: ______

Class: Friday 12:00-1:00 pm

Instructor: Mohammed Shariff

Faculty Mentor: Professor Glen Mimura: Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course will analyze cinema from South Asia and its diasporas. We will examine the films as historical, social and cultural texts that represent a national or a diasporic consciousness. Each specific film will have a topic that will be discussed and analyzed: Topics include: Queer identity, interracial relationships, Religion, and the Indian Courtesan. However, the topic and focus are not exclusive this class urges broad discussions. This course will foster students’ ability to analyze film narrative and its historical context.

The course will look at the diasporic Indo-Pak/family/community and how they deal or try to hold on to traditional Indo-Pak values and traditions outside of India/Pakistan and how they reconstruct ‘home land’ in their lives. Most of the films will take place in the UK, Canada, and US. Further Questions that will be addressed are: How are these films interconnected not only through a diasporic lens, but also through a nationalistic thread. Also introduce a new filmic vocabulary concomitant to South Asian cinema, and its filmic constructions.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND ASSIGNMENTS:

Attendance is Mandatory.

A 300-500 word discussion post, every other week on the film screened the week before.

TEXT:

Will be provided via PDF, or passed out in class.

GRADES:

1.) Attendance: 50%, 2.) Posts and two quizzes: 50%.

Week 1-2:

Topic: Introduction/Queer identity

Film: My Beautiful Launderette (1986) –Stephen Frears Writer—Hanif Kureishi

TEXT: Impossible Desires by Gayatri Gopinath: CH.1, and http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4178849

Week 3-4:

TOPIC: Bollywood and the Courtesan: Gender and tradition.

FILM: Pakeezah (1972) - Kamal Amrohi writer and director

TEXT: Muslim Socials and the Female Protagonist: seeking a dominate discourse at work by Fareed Kazmi.

Week 5-6:

TOPIC: Youths and traditional roles contested

FILM: Masala (1991) -Srinivas Krishna writer and director

TEXT: Beyond Bollywood by Jigna Desai: CH.4, Reel a State: Diaspora, Homeland, and Nation-state in Srinivas Krishna’s Masala. - Quiz week 6

Week 7-8:

TOPIC: Interracial Relationships

FILM: Mississippi Masala (1992) –Mira Nair Writer—Sooni Taraporevala

TEXT: Essay from Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality, and Transitional media: Emigrants Twice Displaces: Race, Color, and Identity in Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala.

Week 9-10:

TOPIC: Religion, and final thoughts on diaspora/ cultural identity

FILM: My Son the Fanatic (1998) –Udayan Prasad Writer—Hanif Kureishi

TEXT: Chapters 1 (Construction of ‘the Asian’ in post war Britain), 5 (‘Race’ and ‘culture’ in the gendering of labour markets), and 8 (Diaspora, border and transnational identities), from, Cartographies of Diaspora contesting identities. (One of these chapters will be assigned). -Quiz week 9