Oriental languages and civilizations

General Objectives The main objective of the course is to provide students with an in-depth knowledge of the main literary movements and of the most relevant authors of modern and contemporary South Asia. The classes are organized through interactive lectures where students are asked to read literary texts and critical essays and are encouraged to carry out preliminary researches on assigned topics, in order to share their findings, ideas and comments with their peers, under the supervision of the professor. Rather than transferring knowledge in a passive way, the course aims to stimulate students’ individual interests and to create a constructive and thought-provoking environment where scientific curiosity towards the literatures of the Indian subcontinent is constantly elicited and provocatively addressed. Through the use of audiovisual sources to support written and oral literatures, students are encouraged to draw useful links between various forms of literary and artistic narrations. Watching and analyzing films based on novels and/or literary figures, reading and critically engaging with theatrical works adapted into experimental plays, tracing and working through migrant narratives, interacting with literary materials produced in diasporic contexts are also encouraged and stimulated as a way to further deepen the critical knowledge of modern and contemporary literatures of the Indian subcontinent. This can be more easily achieved if the students are willing to take as propaedeutic courses the teachings of Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit and/or Tibetan languages. Moreover, the courses of History of India, Religions and Philosophies of India and Archeology and Art History of India and Central Asia are extremely relevant for the understanding of the historical, artistic and philosophical contexts that underly the production of literary works. Specific Objectives The students are supposed to acquire the following skills and competencies: • Demonstrate commanding knowledge and a deep understanding of the main literary currents of the Indian subcontinent in modern and contemporary times; • Analyze and critically interpret a literary text (written, oral, performed, or adapted for cinema); • Develop good analytical skills and formulate critical comments on the proposed texts, studying their form in relation to the content; • Critically proposing, through short essays and presentations, arguments and thought-provoking ideas regarding the main authors and the most important works of the Indian subcontinent from the mid-19th century to the present day; • Acquire a deep knowledge of the modern literatures of the Indian subcontinent in an interdisciplinary perspective, without neglecting contemporaneity and the relationship with the diasporic communities of the subcontinent living in Italy.