COML628 - Esstial Txts Mdrn S.Asia: Essential Texts From Modern South Asia

This course will read, together, the literatures of northern India from approximately 1500–1947, as part of an effort to form a literary history of a multilingual space. How do literary cultures interact across time and in space? How can this interaction be tracked and analyzed? And how can a consideration of geographic scale, world-systems theory, and the idea of the “multilingual local” be brought to bear on the study of literature? This course will function as a laboratory for the exploration of these concepts, while allowing new ideas of literary history to emerge through the granular analysis of literature itself. Major subjects of interest will include the genesis of the Urdu language, the role of Bhakti religious movements in literary history, the establishment of Braj as a literary standard, and the development of Hindi and the language debates of the nationalist period. Readings will include primary sources in translation from Urdu, Braj, Avadhi, Hindi, and other relevant languages, as well as secondary literature in translation and in English. Expertise in South Asian languages or literatures is not required. Students will finish the course with a thorough understanding of the literary history of North India, as well as insight into problems of literature and geography.