Friday, July 9, 2010
Apologies!
I have not been able to access the internet as I have been in the process of shifting from one residence to another, and the place where I stay across the Thames at Southwark neither has wireless internet nor a cybercafe anywhere nearby. Give me Calcutta's overabundance of cheap cybercafes at every street corner any day! End result: I have not been able to post the lecture notes for this week as scheduled on Thursday and Friday. I will be posting a longish lecture on Saturday instead, when I will be working at the (mercifully, totally wired) British Library.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Back to the Basics
Week 1
Some issues to mull over and look up as you read the texts for week 1. The list is not meant to be prescriptive, simply a checklist to guide you through the basic concepts. Try to weave in some responses to these questions into your reading journals, but as I said, that is not compulsory.
1. What is the meaning of 'subaltern'? How did the term originate? What was the need for subaltern studies?
2. What is the difference between a 'minority' and a 'subaltern'? Who would be subaltern in the following categories - gender, sexuality, class, race? Can one be 'subaltern' in one category and 'elite' in another at the same time?
3. Does the fact that a university educated scholar like Sekhar-da or Dipesh-da is writing a publishable book/article about a subaltern community, using academic language, help in getting the story of that community across to a wider readership that would otherwise not have known the story? What are the issues you think are highlighted by this?
4. In colonial/postcolonial states, why is the writing of history such a contentious matter?
5. When writing the (his)tory of any community (including the 'imaginary community' of the nation) does it matter from whose perspective the story is being told? Why?
6. Can a 'majority' community be subaltern?
7. Do you think that if a person from 'within' a community writes the (his)tory of his/her community, it will be a more 'authentic' narrative than one by an 'outsider'?
8. When the subaltern is a person or community from the past, and can no longer speak, and has left no written records, can the voice of the subaltern be retrieved? How can literature help in this matter?
9. Think about the epics that you have read - Ramayana and Mahabharata. Are certain figures being deliberately rendered marginal? Are there certain dominant attitudes and values in these texts that exclude/marginalise some people on the grounds of gender/caste/race/class? What figures might you term 'subaltern' in these epics?
10. Assuming that you have grown up in Bengal, what has been your experience of prejudices held by people around you, eg. in matters of intercaste marriage, or the persistence of caste differences in various religious ceremonies, etc? Do you think that Bengal is a 'peaceful' place where caste tensions are non-existent compared to Maharashtra, UP, Tamil Nadu etc. and why/not? Do you think 'caste' has been overshadowed by 'class' as the arena of struggle in Bengal?
Some issues to mull over and look up as you read the texts for week 1. The list is not meant to be prescriptive, simply a checklist to guide you through the basic concepts. Try to weave in some responses to these questions into your reading journals, but as I said, that is not compulsory.
1. What is the meaning of 'subaltern'? How did the term originate? What was the need for subaltern studies?
2. What is the difference between a 'minority' and a 'subaltern'? Who would be subaltern in the following categories - gender, sexuality, class, race? Can one be 'subaltern' in one category and 'elite' in another at the same time?
3. Does the fact that a university educated scholar like Sekhar-da or Dipesh-da is writing a publishable book/article about a subaltern community, using academic language, help in getting the story of that community across to a wider readership that would otherwise not have known the story? What are the issues you think are highlighted by this?
4. In colonial/postcolonial states, why is the writing of history such a contentious matter?
5. When writing the (his)tory of any community (including the 'imaginary community' of the nation) does it matter from whose perspective the story is being told? Why?
6. Can a 'majority' community be subaltern?
7. Do you think that if a person from 'within' a community writes the (his)tory of his/her community, it will be a more 'authentic' narrative than one by an 'outsider'?
8. When the subaltern is a person or community from the past, and can no longer speak, and has left no written records, can the voice of the subaltern be retrieved? How can literature help in this matter?
9. Think about the epics that you have read - Ramayana and Mahabharata. Are certain figures being deliberately rendered marginal? Are there certain dominant attitudes and values in these texts that exclude/marginalise some people on the grounds of gender/caste/race/class? What figures might you term 'subaltern' in these epics?
10. Assuming that you have grown up in Bengal, what has been your experience of prejudices held by people around you, eg. in matters of intercaste marriage, or the persistence of caste differences in various religious ceremonies, etc? Do you think that Bengal is a 'peaceful' place where caste tensions are non-existent compared to Maharashtra, UP, Tamil Nadu etc. and why/not? Do you think 'caste' has been overshadowed by 'class' as the arena of struggle in Bengal?
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Readings and Assignments, July 5-23
We begin in a rather freewheeling fashion, with some theory, poetry and non-fiction.
Attendance was sparse on day 1, but we're just getting started with the semester, and I'm sure that everyone will be tuned in by Monday the 5th of July (BANDH?!).
Since I will be at King's College, London for the next 3 weeks, we're going to do distance education. Do note that the time difference between Kolkata and London is 5.5 hours, meaning you're 5.5 hours ahead of me.
I. Classes
Format: Each week, starting from Monday the 5th till Friday the 23rd, I will be posting the class lectures on this blog on Thursdays and Fridays. You get 1 attendance point by posting your detailed comments at the end of each blog post - in other words, responding to two lectures gets you two attendance points.
II. Home Assignments - Reading Journals
Format: On Saturdays, beginning from the 3rd of July, and then on the 10th and 17th of July, I will put up on the blog some questions that might help you to get thinking about the readings that you have been assigned for the coming week. Of course, they are simply to start you off, to get you thinking. Please maintain lively reading journals that record your responses, doubts, questions, etc. with regard to the readings assigned for the week, also record any related reading that you have done that week. You will email the reading journal at the end of that week to me, on Sunday the 11th, 18th and 25th of July. For your week-wise journal submissions on these dates, you get 2 attendance points for that particular week.
Your reading for the week of 5th July includes:
Dipesh Chakrabarty, Subaltern Studies and Postcolonial Historiography (essay)
Kancha Ilaiah, Why I am Not a Hindu (book)
Sekhar Bandopadhyay, The Namasudras Of Bengal (essay)
The readings for the week of 12th July include:
The poetry of Namdeo Dhasal (feel free to respond to poems that you particularly enjoyed)
S. Anand, Touchable Tales: Publishing and Reading Dalit Literature
Your reading for the week of 19th July is:
Sharan Kumar Limbale, Towards An Aesthetic Of Dalit Literature: History, Controversies And Considerations (translated by Alok Mukherjee)
The master copies of the texts for the next three weeks are with the three troopers who turned up for class on day 1 : Sunrita Chakravarti, Doel Bose and Oindrila Mondal.
Get cracking, then. Any questions or clarifications?
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
First Things First: Locating Ourselves
Welcome to the interactive blog of the optional course on Subaltern Literatures at the Department of English Jadavpur University. This course challenges you to consider your own cultural conditioning and re-think your own subject position with respect to new literature and orature emerging out of marginalized communities in your own country and across the world. We are dealing with the Fourth World, as it were, communities that are severely disempowered in a range of contexts, from the First World to the Third.
Read the blogs carefully. Are there terms or concepts that seem new to you? Do you want to interject or comment or reflect on a blog post, or a class lecture? Please use the 'comments' section at the bottom of each post to express your thoughts., or report on new writing relevant to the course that you have read. Since this is an official course blog, you will be expected to avoid slang, and use appropriate language that you would employ in an actual class discussion.Please try to phrase what you are saying in a fashion that is not offensive,racist, violent, or objectionable. This course stands for healthy debate, for examining our own inbuilt biases, and a willingness to hear, accept and understand those different from us in a respectful but not condescending way.
One of the first things I would ask you to consider as you embark on this course is your own location - most of us are implicated in structures of power though we would not like to think about it - we often get influenced by the predominant attitudes of our class, caste, gender, regional and other positions even as we read new writing; hence our readings of new texts are often 'blighted' or biased by these ingrown attitudes. I would like each of you to honestly locate yourself in the context of what you read, and be self-critical and self-aware when you read.
Please post comments on the following questions after you've given them some thought:
1. In what way does your prior training in English literature affect the ways in which you read new writing, ie, your sense of what is 'good literature' or a work of 'aesthetic merit'?
2. How does the fact that the book you are reading is a translation from an Indian language affect your appreciation (or not) of it? If the book is originally in broken English or 'pidgin English', or not a good translation into English, what is your reaction?
3. What are the biases about tribal peoples/Adivasis/Aboriginal people/minorities/Dalits that commonly affect people's minds because of discussions that are heard in the home/family, comments by elders and peers, or seen in movies, on TV (news reportage of events etc.)?
4. What were the reasons you decided to try this optional course?Have you read any writing by people of historically underprivileged communities, for example, Afro-American writing?
Read the blogs carefully. Are there terms or concepts that seem new to you? Do you want to interject or comment or reflect on a blog post, or a class lecture? Please use the 'comments' section at the bottom of each post to express your thoughts., or report on new writing relevant to the course that you have read. Since this is an official course blog, you will be expected to avoid slang, and use appropriate language that you would employ in an actual class discussion.Please try to phrase what you are saying in a fashion that is not offensive,racist, violent, or objectionable. This course stands for healthy debate, for examining our own inbuilt biases, and a willingness to hear, accept and understand those different from us in a respectful but not condescending way.
One of the first things I would ask you to consider as you embark on this course is your own location - most of us are implicated in structures of power though we would not like to think about it - we often get influenced by the predominant attitudes of our class, caste, gender, regional and other positions even as we read new writing; hence our readings of new texts are often 'blighted' or biased by these ingrown attitudes. I would like each of you to honestly locate yourself in the context of what you read, and be self-critical and self-aware when you read.
Please post comments on the following questions after you've given them some thought:
1. In what way does your prior training in English literature affect the ways in which you read new writing, ie, your sense of what is 'good literature' or a work of 'aesthetic merit'?
2. How does the fact that the book you are reading is a translation from an Indian language affect your appreciation (or not) of it? If the book is originally in broken English or 'pidgin English', or not a good translation into English, what is your reaction?
3. What are the biases about tribal peoples/Adivasis/Aboriginal people/minorities/Dalits that commonly affect people's minds because of discussions that are heard in the home/family, comments by elders and peers, or seen in movies, on TV (news reportage of events etc.)?
4. What were the reasons you decided to try this optional course?Have you read any writing by people of historically underprivileged communities, for example, Afro-American writing?
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