Fall 2024 Middle East GU4825 section 001

Indo-Islamic Culture in Literature

Indo-Islamic Culture in L

Call Number 17480
Day & Time
Location
F 10:10am-12:00pm
114 Knox Hall
Points 4
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Timsal Masud
Type SEMINAR
Method of Instruction In-Person
Course Description

This course will focus on the Indo-Islamic literary traditions in South Asia, and particularly in what is now India and Pakistan, focusing on Urdu literature from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The course will emphasize the rhetorical and performative history of poetic forms in the subcontinent (including the forms of the Ghazal and Nauha, among others) and will consider how classical poetic tropes continue to inform contemporary mass culture in India and Pakistan—particularly in the song lyrics of Hindi/Bollywood cinema. The course will also consider more contemporary prose genres of Urdu-language writing (in English translation), including the literature of the Partition and the works of contemporary authors such as Naiyer Masud and Saima Iram.

Through a comparative study of texts in different genres and at different moments in history, students will consider questions such as: What aspects of contemporary literary culture in India and Pakistan can be traced to early establishment of Islamic culture in the region? How have the poetic conventions of Indo-Islamic poetry continued to resonate? How did the interaction of Hindu and Muslim literary, musical, visual, and religious cultures in the Mughal era help to generate the rich profusion of literature and music and cultural tolerance in this period?

Most of our readings in this course will Urdu literature in English translation. We will also, however, read some secondary sources in order to help us better understand the primary sources.

Web Site Vergil
Department Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies
Enrollment 12 students (16 max) as of 8:06PM Friday, December 6, 2024
Subject Middle East
Number GU4825
Section 001
Division Interfaculty
Section key 20243MDES4825W001