READ THIS: PRESENTATIONS

PRESENTATIONS: please take these seriously: they are an important part of your participation in the class. Your job when you present is to lead the discussion on the reading for that day. You may bring in some research, but most of all, you should be very well-prepared with insights, interpretations, and questions about the reading at hand. You may want to begin by summarizing the progress of the plot represented by the excerpt assigned on that day. Then you should have passages picked out for the class to discuss. You may want to be ready, also, with the posts for the day (you can copy and paste them and print them out). The purpose of the presentation is to give more responsibility to the classmembers and de-center the discussion a little bit (although I will still chime in). Here are your assignments, mostly random. 1. Wed. 3/30 Small Things, 84-147, Eidia. 2. 4/4 Small Things, 148-225, Hannah. 3. 4/6 Small Things, ending, Anna. 4. 4/11 Ondaatje, Dan. 5. 4/13 Mukherjee, Michael. 6. 4/18 Poppies, 3-87, Karol. 7. 4/20 Poppies, 88-156, Jason. 8. 4/25 Poppies, 157-226, Joe. 9. 4/27, Poppies, 227-342, Will. 10. 5/2 Poppies, 343-446, Rachel. 11. 5/4 Poppies, finish, Jane.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Rachel - Ghosh, 5/4

...not to hate on Mr. Ghosh, but he has an incredibly irritating voice when he reads aloud.

ANYWAY.

Over the past two days, I've extracted a few scenes from Sea of Poppies, A Bend in the River, The God of Small Things, and Midnight's Children.  All of them focus on the subjugation of women via removal of bodily integrity, since this the theme I'm choosing to examine in South Asian literature.

A few scenes I'm looking at in particular are Deeti's rape/subsequent pregnancy (removal of reproductive choice) when Neel is examined by the prison guard (being reduced to a "womanly" state of powerlessness, not having bodily control) and Deeti's near-rape while her husband is dying.  After watching the YouTube interview, though, I think I might want to incorporate the opium production scene...not sure.  Control over being touched is definitely a "masculine" trait - not just in South Asian literature, but in all literature.

A few others I'm going to be close reading include Ammu's interaction with the police officer (when he taps her breast) from The God of Small Things, the emasculating "monkey speech" in A Bend in the River.

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