Tuesday, 6 January 2004. Introduction and description of course. What is poetry?
8 Jan. South Asia: Vedic period. Agni. Genesis Hymns. Frogs. Purusha. Gambler's Lament.
13 Jan. Sanskrit court poetry and the notion of rasa.
15 Jan. Ingalls reading. Presentation on Kalidasa. Bring Essay 1.
20 Jan. rasa: Read the selections from Vidyaakara's Treasury and select one which you like and which you are ready to read and discuss in class. Then select an English poem that you consider to be a good example of the use of rasa and bring that to class. More on rasa (suggested by Lydia Yeung).
22 Jan. Sangam poetry and the notion of
27 Jan. Read selected Sangam poems and bring an example of an English (or other non-South-Asian) poem that you regard as illustrating the technique of dhvani. Coursetools link for Sangam poetry.
29 Jan. The Alvars and Tamil Bhakti poetry. Nammalvar. Basavanna and Kannada Bhakti poetry.
3 Feb. North Indian bhakti. Oral presentation on Mirabai. Bring Essay 3: Applications of dhvani.
5. Feb. Read essay by A.K. Ramanujan. padams. Oral presentation on Kabir and Nanak.
10 Feb. Southwest Asia: Arabia. Pre-Islamic poetry. The 'Udharis and the 'Umaris.
12 Feb. Southwest Asia: Arabia and Persia. Sufism. Presentation on Rabi'a al-Basri.
17 Feb. Southwest Asia: Persia. Omar Khayyam. Rumi. The ghazal. Read Russell's essay on "Understanding the Urdu Ghazal. Assignment 4: first draft of ghazal.
19 Feb. Mir and Ghalib. Ghalib. Zafar and Iqbal.
24-26 Feb. Spring break.
2 Mar. Modern South Asia. Rabindranath Tagore .
4 Mar. First hour exam. Format of hour exam.
9 Mar. Sir Mohd. Iqbal. Kazi Nazrul Islam.
11 Mar. Attiya Dawood. Anglo-Indian poetry: Kamla Das. Class mushaira.
11 Mar. Evening, 7 pm at Rackham Auditorium: Lecture and reading by Bei Dao.
16 Mar. Early China: shih ching. Late Chine: Mao Tse-tung.
18 Mar. High T'ang: Wang Wei, Li Bai.
23 Mar. Sung tz'u: Guest lecture by Shuen-fu Lin on Su Shih, Li Ch'ing-chao. Assignment 5: Bring draft of a lu shih or an essay on parallels and antitheses in Chinese and English poetry.
25 Mar. Part II of Guest Lecture by Shuen-fu Lin.
30 Mar. Du Fu. Women poets of China.
1 April. Han Shan and other poet monks of China.
6 April. Japanese haiku and haibun. (Guest lecture by Johnathan Zwicker).
8 Apr. Renga and renku: (Guest lecture by Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen. Assignment 6: Defining the haiku moment. (option: a day-cycle of four reasoned English haiku plus a ji sei).
13 Apr. Haiku poetry: Basho, Issa, Shiki.
15 Apr. Southeast Asia: Philippines: (Guest lecture by Deling Weller) Jose Rizal and Amado Hernandez.
20 Apr. Southeast Asia: Vietnam. ca dao, Ho Xuan Huong. Modern poetry and poetry of the Asian diaspora: Kurihara Sadako and Agha Shahid Ali. Course evaluations.
27 Apr. Write-up of course presentation due by 4:30 in 3070 Frieze Building.
Wednesday, 28 April, 4 pm. Second hour exam. Normal classroom (3527 Frieze Bldg.)
Back to course description.
Last updated 21 April 2004.