COML629 - South Asian Modernisms: Literature,History,Theory

This course will explore the multiple literary modernisms of South Asia, interpreted broadly to include the wide range of literary movements in South Asia during the mid-twentieth century. We will begin with the question of definitions before exploring key moments and problems in the complex histories of these literatures. What is literary modernism in South Asian literature? How can it be contextualized within a larger framework of literary modernity? What are the key conceptual problems brought up within these literatures and the critical discourses associated with them, and how can they be seen in a common framework? How can South Asian modernisms be viewed in relation to modernist periods elsewhere in the world? Key points of methodological inquiry will include the literary history of modern South Asian literatures, the role of translation, and the interaction between artistic movements and global politics. Readings will be in English or in translation, and will include both primary documents as well as other literatures when relevant, and will include works by Rabindranath tagore, Gajana Madhav Muktibodh, Satyajit Ray, Bal Sitaram Mardhekar, Ezra Pound, Virginia Woolf, Bertold Brecht, O.V. Vijayan, Cesar vellejo, Dilip Chitre, and Arun Kolatkar.