LM/37 LINGUE E LETTERATURE EUROAMERICANE Curriculum: Culture e letterature dei paesi di lingua inglese

1. LM/37LINGUE E LETTERATURE EUROAMERICANECurriculum: Culture e letterature dei paesi di lingua inglese L-LIN/10 LETTERATURE DEI PAESI di LINGUA INGLESE I 1 CORSO (CFU 8) Prof. Rossella Ciocca

2. Family and Indianness Tradizionale luogo di costruzione identitaria primaria sia in termini di genere sessuale che in termini di casta e di affiliazione religiosa, la famiglia occupa nella struttura sociale indiana un posto ancora centrale. Nella nuova India globalizzata e delle liberalizzazioni, essa diventa sito di potenziale contestazione dei modelli tradizionali ma anche, soprattutto nella dimensione diasporica, luogo di ricostruzione nostalgica di una indianità originaria incontaminata. Il corso mira a indagare in un immaginario narrativo e filmico contemporaneo la tensione tra la tendenza a rinnovare ruoli e valori della famiglia e quella a riconsacrarla come luogo deputato alla preservazione della indianità.

3. bibliografia • J. Lahiri, The Namesake, London and New York, Harper Perennial, 2004M. Ali, Brick Lane, London, Black Swan, 2004Manju Kapur, Home, London, faber & faber, 2006 Saadat Hasan Manto, “Toba Tek Singh” (photocopies) • Priyamvada Gopal, The Indian English Novel. Nation, History, and Narration, Oxford and New York, O. U. P., 2009 (chapters 1; 5; 7; 8)B. D. Metcalf and T. R. Metcalf, A Concise History of India, Cambridge, Cambridge U. P., 2002Jigna Desai, Beyond Bollywood: The cultural politics of South Asian Diasporic Film, London: Routledge, 2003 (chapters 6; 8) • R.Ciocca “Corpi di donne, storie di donne in Brick Lane di Monica Alì”

4. Materiali in fotocopia da : • B. Ashcroft, G. Griffiths, H. Tiffin (eds.), The Postcolonial Studies Reader, London, Routledge, 1995;M. Foucault, La volontà di sapere, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1988; H. K. Bhabha (ed.), The Location of Culture, London and New York, Routledge, 1994; S. Rushdie, Step Across this Lines, London, Vintage, 2003 ; FilmografiaFire (Deepa Mehta, 1996)Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair, 2001) Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (Karan Johar, 2001)

5. Indian states

6. INDIA: MOSAIC OF IDENTITIES • LINGUISTIC VARIETY • Indian languages, 2 main families: Indo-European (Hindi, Urdu, Hindustani, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi etc.) and Dravidian (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam et al.) • RELIGIOUS PLURALITY • Hinduism, Islamism, Christian creeds, Sikkism, Jainism, Buddhism, Animism, Parseeism (Zoroastrianism)

9. Indianreligions’ distribution

10. Indo-Arian and Dravidian

11. PLURAL but RIGID SOCIAL STRUCTURE • Caste: endogamous group or collection of groups bearing a common name and having the same traditional occupation, sharing the tradition of a common origin and common tutelary deities. • BRAHMANA (priests; today intellectuals and managers) mouth • KSHATRYA (warriors and kings) arms • VAISYA (land owners, traders) legs • SHUDRA (hand workers, peasants, servants,) • feet • Outcast people: • dalit (broken, oppressed) • Harijan (God’s son) introduced by Gandhi

12. The division of society into four ‘colours’ or castes (Varna) was developed in the Vedic period. (described in Manu’s code).The God Brahma created the primeval man from clay. The 4 varna derived from his limbs.

13. Origins of the system of castes Main literary works of the Vedic period(ancient age, c. 1600-600 B.C.) Rig-Veda (hymns, prayers and spells) Upanishads (explanatory comments on sacred texts) Mahabharata and Puranas (epic narrations)

14. The main story of Mahabharata deals with a conflict several generations long over dynastic succession in the Bharata family that is told in about 24.000 stanzas. The epic in its textual form contains numerous interpolated commentaries on matters of religion and philosophy, genealogy, history, folklore, and myth that quadruple its length to about 100.000 stanzas. Through oral transmission the epic saw an almost never-ending accretion.

15. Indian HistoryANCIENT INDIATraces of man from early PaleolithicAryan invasion theory (recently questioned): about the middle of II millennium B.C. India was invaded from northwest by the Aryans who established in the subcontinent a unifying civilization. The gradual change of color from light to dark skin as we move southwards fits in with a pattern of invasion which gradually pushed the previous populations before it.On the other hand modern excavations brought to light the existence of urban civilizations, antedating the Aryan period, extensively devoted to trade with Mesopotamia (about 2500-1900 B.C.)

16. INDUS VALLEY OR HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION

17. MOHENJO DARO

18. The Aryansoriginal home possibly south Russiapastoral and agricultural people living in villagesmade no attempt to occupy the cities they overcameinferior in material civilization superior in political and military organization

19. ARYAN INVASION OF INDIAARYAN MIGRATIONS

20. ARYANS AND DRAVIDIANS

21. The Aryan civilization moved eastwardSanskrit emerged as national languageVI century B.C. end of the Vedic period, a new intellectual and spiritual climate see the rise of Buddhism and Jainism327-25 B.C. Alexander the Great’ s invasion in North-west India

22. ALEXANDER the Great’s invasionof India

23. 180 B.C. – 200 A.D. foreign invasions in northern India (Greeks, Parthians, Tukhara)III century classical age of Indian civilization Literature, art, science and philosophy evolved the forms they were to retain in successive yearsNorthern India was reunited under the dynasty of the Guptas.

24. Gupta’s dynasties Classic art Gupta reigns

25. 650-1200 A.D. Dynastic rivalries, northern India was divided into a number of separate states (the Arab conquest of Sind in 712 was merely an episode and it was not until Islam had been firmly established in the area of modern Afghanistan that the Moslem conquest of India became possible)

26. ISLAMIC INDIAXIII- XVI cent. The Sultanate of Delhi was ruled by 5 successive dynasties (Metcalf, p.11- 15) In XIV cent. the sultanate attained its greater extent reaching Kashmir. After that it began to decline and divide into different regional reigns. Incursions led by Tamerlane occurred in 1399.

27. Sultanate of delhi

28. Mughal India 1526 beginning of the Mogul Empire Babur descended from Tamerlane and Jenghiz Khan, his ambition was to recover the territories of the vast Mongolian empire. Ousted from central Asia he had to take refuge in Afhganistan from which he attacked India. At his death in 1530 he controlled the greater part of northern India.

29. Phases of Mughal empires

30. Akbar (1556-1605) was the greatest Mogul emperor extending his dominions, practising a conciliatory policy towards Hindu subjects

31. Shah Jahan (reigns 1627-1658, imprisoned by his son 1658-1666) patronized culture, the arts and architecture Taj mahal, regal tomb and the red fort of Agra

32. Aurangzeb (1658-1707) is considered the chief cause of the decline of Mogul empire for his political as well as religious intolerance and bigotry. Hindus were excluded from public office, some of their schools and temples were destroyed, the tax on non-Moslems was reintroduced.

33. The successors were puppets controlled by favourites and court factions, Northern India was invaded by Nadir shah of Persia (Peacock throne and Koh-i-Nor diamond were ransacked). Foreign invasion were not the causes but the symptoms of Mogul decline.

34. Babur the conquerorand the decadent last emperor

35. Mughal islamic art miniatures Mosaics, majolica

36. Mughal Art(refined court life) watercolor watercolor

37. COLONIAL INDIA:europeansettlements Portoguese India • The quest for India was begun by Portugal. In 1498 Vasco da Gama anchored off Calicut, in 1500 Cochin became the first trading headquarters in India, Goa became the capital of Portuguese possessions.

38. British empire

39. British Raj

40. British Raj in XIXth century A mix ofdirect and indirectrule

41. In XVIII cent. the European rivals were English, French and Dutch. Gradually the East India company emerged as the dominant authority: it was able to obtain the concession to collect and administer the revenues in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa paying the emperor an annual tribute. • The English East India Company was established in 1600. In the first half of XVII cent. it obtained various concessions from the Mogul Empire: first trading posts were Surat, Agra, then Calcutta and later on Bombay. The commercial settlements were soon fortified. Rivalry arose with the Portuguese, defeated by the English fleet.

42. IndianMutiny Or IndianRebellion • Indian Mutiny 1857 the great revolt of the Bengal native army led to transference of government to the crown. Due to many causes it was accompanied by rebellion of the population and some of chieftains. The pretext for revolt was the introduction of a new rifle whose cartridges, lubricated with pig’s and cow’s grease, had to have their ends bitten off by the sepoys.

43. 1858 Government of India act1876 Victoria Empress of IndiaThe British empireCulture education politics society economy Pros? Paternalism Racism (town conception, admission to civil service) Militarism, authoritarianism (Amritsar massacre) Exploitation (colonial economy) Reinforcement of caste system and religious divisions (divide et impera) Against • Unification of the country • Codification of laws • Use of English as vehicular language • Cultural vitality of anglicised élites • Technological development (trains, telegraph, mail service) • Social reforms (age of consent bill, abolition of sati) • Unified Educational system

44. Towards independence:Gandhian non violent movementII world war The Congress and the Muslim League India Pakistan and civil war

45. In 1946 after a series of violent riots and fights between Hindu –Sikhs and Muslims, the Congress Party decided to accept the request of the Muslim League for a separate and independent Muslim state. The British authorities were informed and in three months Sir Cyril Radcliffe drew Wagah (successively sadly known as the line of hatred)

46. The narration of the nation:Gandhi and Nehru, the noble fathers of the nation 1947 NehruA Tryst with Destiny

48. The narrationof the nationIndia 1947-8 The bright side: Independence celebrations The dark side: Partition and civil war

49. “We crossed the border at Wagah. I don’t know what I had been expecting. Blue rivers and green plains, tigers and elephants, forest-covered mountains. All the wonders we had been promised about the Indian side. But the landscape didn’t change. It had the same scrub and wild brush, the same dirt and heat.” (Manil Suri, The Age of Shiva)

50. The territorial wound Muslims said the Hindus had planned and started the killing. According to the Hindus, the Muslims were to blame. The fact is, both sides killed. Both shot and stabbed and speared and clubbed. Both tortured. Both raped. (K. Singh, Train to Pakistan) Saadat Hasan Manto, Toba Tek Singh (photocopies)