ASIAN 1106 - FWS: The Great Epic of India

(EC-SAP, EC-SEAP)

Fall. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

First-Year Writing Seminar.

L. McCrea.

The great Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, is one of the principal monuments of world literature. This vast, enthralling, and powerful tale of intra-familial war and world historical decline (of which the famous Bhagavad Gita forms but a small part) transformed the religious and literary consciousness of India, and exercised a broad impact throughout South and Southeast Asia. This course will introduce students to this remarkable text and the literary tradition it inaugurated, through selected readings from the epic itself, along with samples of later renditions of its narrative (including contemporary theatrical, TV, and comic book versions).