2. lektion d. 03-04-2013

Til denne lektions referent:

Use these headlines to help you writing a few notes on today’s lesson. Upload your notes to the class blog before the next lesson.

Texts we have worked with today (homework and texts introduced in class)

“The Free Radio” by Salman Rushdie

A Danish article from Kristeligt Dagblad: Efter møde med Gandi: Jeg har fundet min styrke i enkelheden

How did we work with these texts?

We worked with the short story in pairs
We finished making the literary analysis of the text “The Free Radio” that we started in the last lesson

We started a translation exercise with the article
- reading the text and translating the red part of the text

What were the main topics of today’s lesson?

The meeting between the old and the modern India

India’s meeting with the western world

What did we discuss?

Literary Analysis:

Setting:
- India: town (small), old India>< Bombay = far-away city, expensive, modern India
- Takes place in the 70's: Youth movement, sterilisation, "State of Emergency"
- Social conditions: poor, language (not proper education)
- Mood: dark, sad, negative (at first at least)

Plot/conflict:
- The story revolves around a young man named Ramani
- The white caravan (entices the population into sterilisation)
- Ramani's attack on the men in the van - he realizes the fraud, he loses his trust in the government

Characters:

Ramani:
- a young naive man
- epiphany - doesn't get the radio
- round character (complex, different emotions, development)

The narrator (point of view):
- old man, retired teacher, 1st person narrator, conservative (old values), feels responsibility (honour, culture, tradition)
- interacts with Ramani and the thief's widow
- doesn't approve of modern tendencies/youth

The thief's widow:
- the name = government (India divorced from India) --> Modern India/representative of western moral >< old man = old culture
- thief: stealing
- physical characteristics: beautiful on the outside/rotten on the inside, poor, greedy

Theme:
- Meeting between cultures
- Old vs. New
- Governmental abusement of power

Anything else?

Not really

Lektion d. 03-04-2013

Lektion 03-04-2013 Texts we have worked with today (homework and texts introduced in class) “The Free Radio” by Salman Rushdie How did we work with these texts? 1) Background: - Salman Rushdie - Indira Gandhi - The sterilization – campaigns in the 70’s - Western (British) influence on the short story (western symbols) 2) Literary analysis - Setting - Plot/conflict - Characters: Ramani, the narrator (point of view) and The thief’s widow - Theme 3) Translation exercise

Lesson 3

Til denne lektions referent:

Use these headlines to help you writing a few notes on today’s lesson. Upload your notes to the class blog before the next lesson.

Texts we have worked with today (homework and texts introduced in class)
William Shakespeare: “The Tempest”
Madelung and Frederiksen: “Images of India”
Introduction to Salman Rushdie’s: “The Free Radio”

How did we work with these texts?
We saw a short animation of “The Tempest” to get a better understanding of its content. Thereafter we discussed it on the class regarding to the matter of civilized vs. uncivilized and put it in relation to other texts we have read (e.g. “A passage to India” and “The White Man’s Burden”).

What were the main topics of today’s lesson?
“The Tempest”:
Superiority vs. Inferiority
Equality between human beings

How India did manage to develop, as a country, after the independence in 1947?
- Soviet model with a series of 5-year plans
-Education, agriculture etc.

What did we discuss?
- How Prospero ended up in his situation (ship wrecked)
- What Prospero and Caliban have learned from each other and what they cannot learn from each other
- What they represent: (Caliban = hybrid, mimicry – Prospero = Jingoism, Social Darwinism)
- Whether Prospero uses Caliban or not and this seen in relation to the British occupation of India

- How it was to live in India before and after their independence
- Is it ethnically correct to sterilize people?
- The Indians rather unique caste system (officially abolished, but not in practice!)

Anything else?

Who is Salman Rushdie?
- Novelist, essayist
- Lives in US (exile, protected by Secret Service)
- Knight of British Empire
- Most infamous for his book “The Satanic Verses”

Lesson 2, Wednesday the 20th of March

Texts we have worked with today (homework and texts introduced in class)

-          Kanthapura by Raja Rao – class discussion

-          English For Better For Worse by Khushwant Singh – group work

 

How did we work with these texts?

-          Discussion in class

-          Group work

 

What were the main topics of today’s lesson?

India and the British

-          The language of the India people in England

 

What did we discuss?

1. What is the significance of gods in Indian culture? How do they behave, and how are they different to the Western concept of God?
- The Indians are polytheists, while the western, Christian populace is monotheist. The Indian gods often appear in mortal forms (human/animal), so that they have an identity, contrary to Christianity where god is an almighty being that is difficult to grasp. The Indian gods are assigned to different areas (f.eks. agriculture).

2. Why is it difficult for an Indian author to convey what he has to say in English?
- It is difficult, because of the language barrier between the two cultures. English is not a usable language to express the feelings and emotions of India, because they do not think alike. You cannot use a western language to express eastern lifestyle and feelings. = So some things will be lost in the translation.

3. What does Rao mean by “intellectual make-up” and “emotional make-up”?
- They wear the English language as make-up, because they will appear more intellectually. It is just like, we, in Denmark, utilize Latin to express ourselves, when we want to appear more intellectually. However they were not able to cloud their emotions through a mask.

4. What are the traits of the Indian language and Indian storytelling, according to Rao?
- “Not white, not quite” The Indians are trying to equalize the cultural differences with The British Empire by wearing “intellectual make-up”, because if they are able to speak as fluent and as proper as the English did, they are able to be equal to them – however this is hard, because they will never be as white as them.

Lesson 1, Monday the 18th of March

Texts we have worked with today (homework and texts introduced in class)

Today we have worked with:

·         The postcards from India (obviously not a text)

·         Raja Rao : “Kanthapura” from 1989

 

How did we work with these texts?

We spoke briefly about each postcard and analyzed them with focus on the main topics stated below.
As to Kanthapura, we read the foreword of the novel and thereafter worked with questions for the text. Anders went around to each group, listening to their answers for the questions (which I therefore cannot write down here). But Andreas and I wrote:

1. What is the significance of gods in Indian culture? How do they behave, and how are they different to the Western concept of God?

Gods are very significant because India is much more religious than any western country. They are depicted as heroes and there are a lot of legends written about them and their supernatural powers.

In the West we believe that there is one god and one god only. The Indians have a polytheistic society.

2. Why is it difficult for an Indian author to convey what he has to say in English?

Because his kind of English is different to the kind of English that is spoken in the West. Therefore some things can get lost in the process of understanding. The author believes that Indian English someday will be an accepted dialect like Irish English and American English.

3. What does Rao mean by “intellectual make-up” and “emotional make-up”?

He means that the English language is the more formal language but they are not yet comfortable with it so they use their native language to convey their message. Their feelings lie with their native language.

4. What are the traits of the Indian language and Indian storytelling, according to Rao?

The Indians does not have punctuation or the “ats” and “ons”. They just tell an interminable tale. Their texts are marked by informal every-day language… They write what they think.

The author has tried to copy these traits in his story.

 

What were the main topics of today’s lesson?

·         Post-colonialism

·         Colonialism

·         Social Darwinism

·         Superiority vs. inferiority

·         Equality vs. Inequality

·         India =production

·         White man’s burden

·         Hybridity vs. segregation

 

What did we discuss?

We discussed whether the postcards represented a colonial tendency of social Darwinism or whether the positive perspective on the white man’s burden was represented of the picture –whether the Brits were helping India or not by the colonization of India. This was done with the usage of the contrasts and different perceptions portrayed in the main topics and the terms stated under “useful terms”.

 

Useful terms:

·         Jingoism
”Is extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests. Colloquially, it refers to excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others—an extreme type of nationalism.”[1]

·         Post-colonialism
“An academic discipline featuring methods of intellectual discourse that analyse, explain, and respond to the cultural legacies of colonialism and of imperialism.” [2]

·         Hybridity
“Hybridity commonly refers to “the creation of new transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonization.” Hybridization takes many forms including cultural, political and linguistic.”[3]

·         Social Darwinism
“Is an ideology of society that seeks to apply biological concepts of Darwinism or of evolutionary theory to sociology and politics, often with the assumption that conflict between groups in society leads to social progress as superior groups outcompete inferior ones”[4]

·         Colonialism
“is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. Colonialism is a set of unequal relationships between the metropole and the colony and between the colonists and the indigenous population”[5]

·         Racial segregation
”Is separation of humans into racial groups in daily life.”[6]

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingoism

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcolonialism

[3] http://www.qub.ac.uk/imperial/key-concepts/Hybridity.htm

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation

Notes, A Passage to India (excerpt)

Romeo and Juliet - Mads, Anne-Sophie, Simon og Camilla K

Romeo: oh Juliet you are so lovely, like an angel from heaven. Juliet: Romeo let us forget our family names, because we cannot be together if we don't. Romeo: shall I speak, or will you continue ? Juliet: Your name is my enemy. It is not your family name who defines who you really are, what really defines you is your actions. Romeo: I will be baptis'ed and then I will no longer be called Romeo. I hate my name because it's an enemy to your family. Juliet: I have heard enough! Are you not a Romeo and Montague? Romeo: Neither if that does not please you. Juliet: How did you manage to get here, and more importantly why?

Quote, Othello

“If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, I can again thy former light restore”

Queen Elizabeth 1st

Queen Elizabeth 1^st 7^th Sep. 1533- 24^th march 1603.

Queen Elizabeth the 1st was the queen of England from 1558-1603. She was daughter of Henrik the VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn.

She succeeded to the throne on her half-sister’s (Maria or Bloody Mary) death in November 1558. She was called the Virgin-queen because she never was married and Good Queen Bess because she was loved by so many.

One of her first moves as a queen was the establishment of an English protestant church of which she became the supreme governor. Her sister Maria didn’t like her because she supported the Protestants, and therefore Maria imprisoned her.

Her time as a queen was known as the “The Golden Age”, because she made England strong and prosperous.  Her follower was Jakob the 1^st 1603-1625.

Sandy, Anne, Ditte og Celine

Inquisition

Definition: An Inquisition is an institution with the church, which generally was concerned only with the heretical behaviour of Catholic adherents or converts. There have been several Inquisition since dawn of the church, but the Spanish Inquisition was the most prominent, therefore it is also the one we base our analysis upon.

Spanish Inquisition:
The organization set up by the Roman Catholic Church in Spain in the 15th century to punish people who opposed its beliefs, known for its cruel and severe methods.
The purpose for inquisitional penalties were described in the handbook of inquisitors from 1578: “"... for punishment does not take place primarily and per se for the correction and good of the person punished, but for the public good in order that others may become terrified and weaned away from the evils they would commit."

Goal: The goal of the Inqusition was to purify the European countries from people who denied the Catholic god and law. The inquisition used torture as a tool to achieve this purpose, thereby protecting and preserving religion and believes.

Target group: The people who were deemed criminals by the Inquisition was Heretics, people who denied canon law, Jews, witches and islamists. The Inquisition did even persecute people, who believed in natural medicine, because it was against the established Catholic laws.

Role of the inquisition: The inquisition handed over convicted and prominent heretics to secular authorities for judgmental purposes. The remaining convicts and people characterized as criminals by the Inquisition, was dealt with by the inquisition themselves.

Made by Jeppe, Mads Martin and Tubbe (taber).