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”