SE2283: Fiction of the Indian Subcontinent

School English Literature
Department Code ENCAP
Module Code SE2283
External Subject Code 100319
Number of Credits 20
Level L6
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader Professor Radhika Mohanram
Semester Autumn Semester
Academic Year 2015/6

Outline Description of Module

This module will introduce students to the fiction of the Indian subcontinent and will examine relationships between nation, trauma and politics.

 

On completion of the module a student should be able to

By the end of the semester, students will be able to analyse the relationship between gender, memory, national politics and trauma in their geopolitical and historical specificities.  They will also work on writing an expository essay.

 

How the module will be delivered

Timetabled sessions include lectures and discussion sessions where students may have the opportunity to make presentations and/or lead discussion. There will be a weekly lecture during the semester supported by a weekly seminar. The lectures aim to provide key knowledge and critical perspectives on all the texts on the module; the seminars provide the opportunity for close analysis and small group discussion. The module essentially comprises two units of intense study to be completed in one semester.

WHAT IS EXPECTED OF ME?

Students are expected to attend and participate in the lectures and seminars for all modules on which they are enrolled. Students with good cause to be absent should inform their module leaders, who will provide the necessary support. Students with extenuating circumstances should submit the Extenuating Circumstances Form in accordance with the School’s procedures.

The total number of hours which students are expected to devote to each 20-credit module is 200. Of these, 30 hours will be contact hours with staff (lectures and seminars); the remaining 170 hours should be spent on self-directed learning for that module (reading, preparation for seminars, research, reflection, formative writing, assessed work, exam revision).  There are also additional seminars and workshops that students are able to attend.

 

Skills that will be practised and developed

The particular skills of the module bear upon reading and understanding fiction written in English by Pakistani, Indian and Sri Lankan writers which focus on the theme of trauma and memory.  Questions analysed are: how do national politics construct gendered identity in the subcontinent? How does memory shape identity?  How do traumatic political incidents shape personal and national identity?  How does trauma shape memory?  Examining these questions requires careful scholarship, sensitivity to different forms of English usage, and historical and political awareness. Employability skills include the ability to synthesise information, operating in group-based discussion involving negotiating ideas and producing clear, informed arguments in a professional manner.

How the module will be assessed

There will be one final essay submitted at the end of the semester which will require the student to work with the theoretical framework on trauma and memory and refract two different texts through the framework.  Students will start preparing to write this essay after Reading week and will write at least drafts of it and spend time workshopping their essays with a peer under the module leader’s guidance.  This module is assessed according to the Marking Criteria set out in the English Literature Student Handbook. There are otherwise no academic or competence standards which limit the availability of adjustments or alternative assessments for students with disabilities.

Essay (3200 words) = 100%
Approx date of assessment in January

 

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Written Assessment 100 Coursework - Essay N/A

Syllabus content

The main readings for this module are texts and journal articles. Students should contact the module leader as early as possible if they will require readings in an alternative format

Syllabus Content

1.  Raja Rao, Kanthapura

2.  Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice-Candy Man (also published under title of Cracking India)

3.  Arundhati Roy, God of Small Things (Harper Collins)

4.  Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost (Vintage)

Essential Reading and Resource List

INDICATIVE READING AND RESOURCE LIST

Bill Ashcroft et al, The Empire Writes Back (Routledge)

Bill Ashcroft et al, Key Concepts in Postcolonial Studies (Routledge)

Meenakshi Mukherjee, Realism and Reality

Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Real and Imagined Women

Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question" in Recasting Women ed Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid

Cathy Caruth, “Trauma and Experience: Introduction” in Cathy Caruth, Trauma: Explorations in Memory.

Jenny Edkins, Trauma and the Memory of Politics

Veena Das, “The Act of Witnessing: Violence, Gender and Subjectivity” in Veena Das, Life and Words: Violence and the Descent into the Ordinary

Ann Cvetkovich, “The Everyday Life of Queer Trauma” in Cvetkovich, An Archive of Feelings.


Copyright Cardiff University. Registered charity no. 1136855