ASIAN 3333 - Revisiting Kashmir: A Survey of Literature and Cultures

(crosslisted) ENGL 3933
(GHB) (LA-AS, ALC-AS)

Fall. 4 credits. Student option grading.

A. Zahoor.

Kashmir occupies a crucial geopolitical position in the South-Asian region. The emphasis on “territorial integrity” in the media on Kashmir, both in South Asia and the West is such that lived reality is subdued completely. This course aims to present various themes and motifs of Kashmiri Literature and the alternative cinema produced in Kashmir with the objective of exploring the long-term processes of culture and literature through which Kashmir has constituted itself. No prior knowledge of Kashmir and its languages or literature is required. In this course, we shall explore a range of texts and authors, from Anglophone writers such as Salam Rushdie and Arundhati Roy to those writing in vernacular such as Akthar Mohi-ud-Din whom we shall read in translation. We shall also analyze films in both Bollywood and alternative cinema. The course builds on paradigms of area studies with an emphasis on linguistic, literary, and visual materials as this helps build a modern archive of cultural forms, trends, and movements in a part of the world saturated with the imagery and discourse of nationalism and political violence. (SC)

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