ASIA 283 - Transnational India/South Asia

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

Beginning with the Bhagavad Gita, “the Bible of Hinduism,” we trace Vedic culture through Western (mis)appropriations via the Transcendentalists and Hermann Hesse (in Siddhartha). From there we move to responses by writers like R.K. Narayan and the phenomenon of real and fake gurus, followed by the florescence of American works by writers of South Asian origin, particularly women writers like Bharati Mukherjee, Indira Ganesan, and Jhumpa Lahari. We also examine the new expression of South Asian mythos in American popular culture (Steven Universe and My Little Pony) as well as the unique intersection of genre and identity in the speculative fictional works of Vandana Singh and Amitav Ghosh. The Department.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS