Fall 2010

Mother India: Reading Gender and Nation in South Asia 

Listed in: Asian Languages and Civilizations, as ASLC-51  |  Film and Media Studies, as FAMS-30

Faculty

Krupa Shandilya (Section 01)

Description

(Offered as WAGS 66, ASLC 51, and FAMS 30-01.)  Do you often wonder why some countries are referred to as the “motherland” and others as the “fatherland”? What and who decides how we refer to a country? In this course, we will examine seismic changes over time in gendered imaginings of the Indian subcontinent. As women stepped out of the domestic sphere to participate in the nationalist struggle of the late 19th century, the idea of the nation swayed dramatically between the nation as wife and the nation as mother in the Indian popular imagination. Readings will include novels such as Rabindranath Tagore’s Home and the World and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. We will also study a range of cinematic texts from the classic Mother India to the recent feminist film Silent Waters.

Limited to 20 students.  Fall semester.  Professor Shandilya.

If Overenrolled: contact instructor

Cost: $25.00 ?

WAGS 66 - L/D

Section 01
Tu 10:00 AM - 11:20 AM CHAP 103
Th 10:00 AM - 11:20 AM CHAP 103

This is preliminary information about books for this course. Please contact your instructor or the Academic Coordinator for the department, before attempting to purchase these books.

ISBN Title Publisher Author(s) Comment Book Store Price
Modern South Asia Routledge Bose & Jalal Amherst Books TBD
Anandamath Oxford University Press Chatterji Amherst Books TBD
The Tagore Omnibus V. I Penguin Classics Tagore Amherst Books TBD
Cracking India Milkweed Editions Sidhwa Amherst Books TBD
Midnight's Children Random House Rushdie Amherst Books TBD
The God of Small Things Random House Roy Amherst Books TBD
Make Me a Man SUNY Press Bannerjee Amherst Books TBD
Imaginary Maps Routledge Devi Amherst Books TBD

These books are available locally at Amherst Books.

Offerings

2024-25: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2010