|
I. COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed
to fulfill the criteria for the “Global Issues General Education
Requirement.” It is a basic introduction to the two distinct cultures
and literatures of India and China and to the literatures of their global
diasporas during the modern period. It introduces the student to a comparative
study of Asian Indian and Chinese cultures and literatures, primarily
during the modern period. The importance of literature in cultural formation,
literature as both a reflection of and impetus for cultural change, and
literature as representation of cultural identity will be discussed in
the context of modern Asian Indian and Chinese literatures in the homeland
and in diaspora.
Besides introducing the student to literary works from India and China
and the literatures of their respective diasporas, this course will provide
students with the basic means of approaching and critically analyzing
literary texts through the lens of postcolonial theory. It will also provide
students with the opportunity to develop critical thinking and writing
skills.
|
|
II. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To understand how culture (India and China) contributes to a person’s
identity and to appreciate literature’s role in this process.
2. To know the basic organizing principles of Asian cultures and how these
sometimes change during modernization
3. To identify the fundamental literary texts embodying those organizing
principles.
4. To understand the six elements of fiction used to analyze literary
texts.
5. To identify major ways that “Asians” in diaspora both change
and are changed by their new environments.
6. To analyze how modern Asian diasporic literary texts manifest these
changes in terms of new conflicts
7. To develop critical thinking, communication, and writing skills
|
|
III. REQUIRED TEXTS
1. Course Reader.
2. R.K. Narayan, The Ramayana
3. Teri Yamada, Virtual Lotus: Modern Fiction from Southeast Asia
4. Gu Hua, Virgin Widows
5. Glen Cao, Kuei-Lin Ts'ao, Beijinger in New York
6. Natasha Chang, Bound Feet and Western Dress
7. Vineeta Vijayaraghavan, Motherland: A Novel.
|