ASIAN 1123 - FWS: Yogis, Sufis, and Poet Saints: South Asian Stories of Marvelous People

Fall. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

First-Year Writing Seminar.

D. Gold.

We will read stories about holy persons in different South Asian religious traditions and the often miraculous worlds they inhabit. Students will write interpretive essays about the significances of these stories for people within those traditions and beyond them. In examining different genres of religious story, we will find depictions of many sorts of remarkable persons - some who seem extremely wise, and others who just seem to act oddly. Stories that appear to present simply moral lessons may also be understood more complexly as puzzles or mysteries. In their writing, students will learn to craft arguments about religious texts, demonstrate how what seems simple may also be puzzling, and perhaps also how to evoke a mystery.