URD 330 & URD 384: Partition in Literature & Films S. Akbar Hyder Class Room#: WCH 4.118 Class Time: Tuesday, 7-10 pm [email protected] Office Hours: 4.104E WCH, W 3-5:30 and by appointment URD3302016231935.pdf
In August 1947, the South Asian subcontinent was partitioned into India and Pakistan. What followed this watershed event was murder, mayhem and bitter legacies that still haunt the region. As Ayesha Jalal and Sugata Bose, two prominent historians of South Asia, rightly point out, "the colossal human tragedy of the partition and its continuing aftermath has been better conveyed by sensitive creative writers and artists--for example in Saadat Hasan Manto's short stories and Ritwik Ghatak's films--than by historians." The objective of this course is to study the Partition and its extended legacies through a broad array of Urdu-Hindi literature and films. We will read short stories by Krishan Chandar, Rajendar Singh Bedi, Ismat Chughtai, Sadat Hasan Manto, along with poems by Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Ali Sardar Jafri, and Kaifi Azmi. Students are also required to watch Garam Hawa, Fiza, Mammo, Ghadar, Tamas, Khamosh Pani, and Earth. We will discuss literary image making in relation to filmmaking, while exploring the tropes that have colored Partition-related narrative spaces in Urdu and Hindi. The course intends to draw out the cross-regional “banal” mutualities in the narratives of trauma and devastation by taking into accounts works like Hannah Arendt’s Eichman in Jerusalem. A significant portion of the course concentrates on the discourses of cross-national and cross-communal literary and artistic comradeship that often belie state-sponsored nationalistic rhetoric. This is an upper-division language class: students enrolled in it are expected to have at least 6 semesters of language training in Hindi/Urdu.
Readings in Urdu:
Sadat Hasan Manto: “Toba Tek Singh”, “Khol Do”, “Thanda Gosht” Krishan Chandar: "Amritsar azadi se pahle," "Amritsar azadi ke bad" Rajendar Singh Bedi: "Lajwanti" Ismat Chughtai: "Jaren" Sadat Hasan Manto: "Khol Do," "Toba Tek Singh" Kaifi Azmi’s masnavi: Khana Jangi Faiz Ahmad Faiz: Subh-e Azadi Ali Sardar Jafri: Fareb
Secondary Readings:
All readings posted on the password-protected course webpage: http://hindiurduflagship.org/staff_member/syed-akbar-hyder/
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Grading:
70% Class Participation, Pop-quizzes, Reaction papers 30% Final Paper
UT’s Disability Policy
“Documented Disability Statement: Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice), 232-2937 (video phone) or http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/ddce/ssd).”
Class Attendance Policy:
With each unexcused absence, the student loses 10 pts from her/his semester grade. It is thus impossible to earn an "A" for the semester if the student has two or more unexcused absences. For an absence to count as "excused," the student MUST have a doctor's note. The student who misses a class will also need to write a 4-5 page reaction paper discussing the relevant class readings that s/he missed.
2 January 19
January 26 Film Gadar
February 2 Film Garam Hava
February 9 Film Earth
February 16 Serial Dastan 1-8
February 23 Serial Dastan 9-16
March 1 Serial Dastan 17-23
March 8 Serial Tamas 1-3
March 22 Serial Tamas 4-6
March 29 Film Khamosh Pani
April 5 Film Pinjar
April 12 Film Qissa
April 19 Film Gandhi
April 26
May 3 Final Presentations
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