Delivered at:: Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies

Course type:: Compulsory course

When:: 2 year, 3 module

Instructor

Dubyanskaya, Tatiana

Full Syllabus Ask Question

Abstract

The 200-plus-years-long history of intensive English-Indian literary relations brought into life a large number of important literary works, which describe India and Indians from the Western perspective and/or which are written by authors of South-Asian origin, primarily in English, as direct or indirect responses to the colonial situation. Many texts, created by South-Asian authors in the 19th-21st centuries, are also categorised as “Indian Writing in English”; this body of literature, which has constituted one of the key subject-matters of both Colonial and Postcolonial studies, is often recognized as “the best-known segment of Indian literature internationally” (H.Trivedi). The increasing popularity of Indian writing in English has made quite a few India-born or ethnically-Indian writers international literary celebrities in the modern world. The present course will try to look into the circumstances that made this outstanding growth in the role of English texts in the Subcontinent possible and led to the triumphant popularity of modern writers like Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Aravind Adiga, Rohinton Mistry et al in the international book-market.

Learning Objectives

To introduce the development of Western education in Colonial India, characterize the history of English language and literature in South Asia, the role of the colonizing language in Indian struggle for independence, the place of English in the context of the national languages, the cultural role of South-Asian diaspora in the global world, the biggest achievements of South-Asian literature in English, both within the subcontinent and in the world.
One of the major goals of the course is to introduce some key-concepts of the post-colonial theory, such as: hegemony, subaltern, exoticism, hybridity and 'chutnification', split identity of colonial subjects, language as an instrument of identity formation, at.al.
One of the goals of the course is to introduce South-Asian literature in English as a separate line, which has a very different history and very special character, compared to vernacular literature of the 19th-21st centuries. English-language books have become the "face" of contemporary Indian literature in the world. One of the reasons is that the works of Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan writers written in English can effortlessly enter international (predominantly English-language) book markets, as they do not require translation and, thanks to the cosmopolitanism of the authors, fit well into the modern globalised world. The course aims to explain the processes that lead to the present-day success of this segment of South-Asian literature, highlight its most characteristic features and outline possible directions of development in the nearest future.

Expected Learning Outcomes

know the history of English in India
Students will get acquainted with the history of colonial education in India
Students will learn facts about the role of English in the establishment of Indian press in the early 19th-century and the first Western educational institutions in Colonial India (the Hindu College, etc.)
Students will learn many facts from the literary history of India; will investigate the roots of new genres, such as a travelogue or an essay; will read examples from the English poetry of the 19th and early 20th century.
To identify some typical topics and imagery of early Indian poetry in English
To learn facts from the Indian literary history of the 1930s - 50s
Students will be able to identify the major themes of Indian prose in the mid-20th century
to critically discuss key features of the Indian postcolonial novel
To be acquainted with the most important names in Indian literature in English
To familiarise oneself with the linguistic situation in independent India
To identify cultural issues related to the life of the South Asian diaspora in the world

Course Contents

English literature in South-Asia: introduction
Orientalism and the Educational Policy of East India Company
Experiments with the Language
Anand, Rao, Narayan, and others
English in independent India
The emergence of Indian post-colonial novel
Literature of the South-Asian diaspora

Assessment Elements

Essay
Устные ответы во время лекций

Interim Assessment

2024/2025 3rd module
0.7 * Essay + 0.3 * Устные ответы во время лекций

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Community, empire and migration : South Asians in diaspora, , 2001
Morris, R. C., & Spivak, G. C. (2010). Can the Subaltern Speak? : Reflections on the History of an Idea. New York: Columbia University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=584675
Provincializing Europe: postcolonial thought and historical difference, Chakrabarty, D., 2000
Sailaja, P. (2009). Indian English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=268088
The meaning of white : race, class, and the "domiciled community" in British India 1858-1930, Mizutani, S., 2011
The Partition of India, Talbot, I., 2009
Ориентализм : западные концепции Востока, Саид, Э. В., 2006

Recommended Additional Bibliography

A short history of British India, Carlos, E. S., 2013
Metcalf, Barbara Daly; Metcalf, Thomas R. A Concise History of Modern India. Cambridge University Press, 2012. Pp. 364. ISBN: 978-1-107-02649-0, 978-1-107-67218-5, 978-1-139-20780-5, 978-1-139-52649-4, 978-1-139-52769-9, 978-1-139-52888-7, 978-1-139-53116-0, 978-1-139-54047-6, 978-1-283-57506-5. URL: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=977222.
Rini Bhattacharya Mehta, & Rajeshwari V. Pandharipande. (2011). Bollywood and Globalization : Indian Popular Cinema, Nation, and Diaspora. [N.p.]: Anthem Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1130788
Без оглядки на богов. Взлет современной Индии / пер. с англ. Б. Пинскер. — 2-е изд., эл. - 978-5-91603-576-6 - Льюс Эдвард - 2020 - Челябинск: Социум - https://ibooks.ru/bookshelf/368092 - 368092 - iBOOKS

Authors

DUBYANSKAYA TATYANA ALEKSANDROVNA
KHOMCHENKOVA VARVARA VALENTINOVNA

Bachelor’s Programme 'Indian Languages and Literature'

Contacts

South-Asian Literature in English