Autumn 2023
SALC 22604/32605
MDVL 22604
Wednesdays, 1:30-4:20pm
Wieboldt Hall 230
Office Hours: Thursdays 11am to 1:30pm (to schedule a meeting, CLICK HERE and pick a 15mn slot in my calendar)
NB:
- Please, don’t book more than two slots.
- ! If your computer’s clock is not set on “Central Time – Chicago”, the time of the meeting in your calendar will be wrong.
Detailed reading schedule: https://uchicago.box.com/s/qdu4ilk38xj7w64hawplczdyv05ldktv
Texts: https://uchicago.box.com/s/59oezokii5a8i6ampjitpwvmvlo31vza
Google doc with the schedule of the presentations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17Lp29Is1_kcrpPMAE_5uj4R2s52QOS4IrYk2lig3hME/edit?usp=sharing
Week 1.a: Perso-Arabic and vernacular traditions, ca. 1000-1900
Week 1.b: Arabic, Persian, and the language order of early modern South Asia (see handout)
Quizlet: Terminology of Persian literary forms
PERSO-ARABIC LITERATURE IN SOUTH ASIA
Week 2.a: The making of the Indo-Persian literary domain
Week 2.b: Fundamentals of Perso-Arabic poetics
Quizlet: Persian figures of speech
Week 3.a: Arabic and the Islamicate language order in South Asia
Week 3.b: Literary anthologies and lexicography in the Sultanate period
Week 4.a: Indo-Afghan literary culture (part 1): Persian in deśī courtly culture
Week 4.b: Timurid culture and the refashioning of literary traditions, c. 16th-18th AD (NB: I will be attending a conference, so we will have to reschedule this class)
Week 5.a: Emperor Akbar and his poets
Week 5.b: The “Fresh Style” and literary debates, ca. 16th-18th AD
VERNACULAR LITERATURE IN THE NORTH AND THE DECCAN
Week 6.a: Breaking the mold: Apabhraṃśa and the formation of northern vernacular poetry
Week 6.b: West: Hindavi
Week 7.a: Indo-Afghan literary culture (part2)
Week 7.b: Mirigavati (selection)
Week 8.a: South: Dakani in Bijapur and Golkonda
Week 8.b: North meets South: Wajhī’s prose and poetry
Week 9: Thanksgiving break
Week 10.a: East: Vidyāpati: literary multilingualism in eastern India
Week 10.b: East meets West: Ālāol and Middle Bengali poetry in Arakan