This class on South Asian literature seeks to explore texts that grapple with diverse forces of colonialism, tradition and modernity over the course of various historical and social movements of the last one hundred years in India. The readings are a combination of Anglophone texts and texts in English translation from regional languages and all the texts highlight different ways in which the society and literature of India has grappled with the question of national identity. Through this intensive reading of Indian literature in English, students will encounter the various social processes and the disparate cultural pressures that mold the worldview of Indian writers of the twentieth and the twenty first century. This study will span all the major genres of fiction, drama and poetry and it will range from texts published at the beginning of the 20th century to ones that were published in the present year.
