Presentation: A few thoughts to be considered before you come up on the pulpit:)

[Swarna Rangarajan]

Dear Students,
I have been receiving mails regarding the content and focus of the
presentations.
So I am going to reiterate a couple of points.

Understanding the Course Objective( Better late than never :))
Question: Why was the course mandated?
To teach values through literature. Obvious isn't it?

Question Nah! So why am I reading Camus, Kafka and all those absurd
guys not to mention the bits and pieces character, Mr.Eliot?
Ans: To piece together the debris of the universe. Pompous words
again. But this is what literature is supposed to do. Mathew Arnold
one of the most respect poets of the Victorian era who wrote in doubt
since there were typhoons like Darwin et al who upset the serenity of
certitude spoke of literature as "sweetness and light". Obviously he
did not just mean happy, neat stuff but literature's capacity to
clarify and open up ways of imagining the world and make sense of who
we are.
One of the recent presentations we had evoked the image of the
musicians playing on the deck of the sinking Titanic. Do we see this
a thumbs down gesture to Mr.death or do we see it as a reaffirmation
of beauty in the face of death or do we see it ...
Wallace Stevens has a poem about 13 ways of looking at a blackbird. We can
outdo thirteen.
The ways of perceiving are infinite.

Question: So it is ok to talk about black humour and scatological
literature? Will that qualify?
Ans. As long as you can talk about a value.
So what do this mean?
Ans: The course work can be broadly divided into two major value clusters.
1. Making sense of being in the world( Kafka, buddha, camus, hesse, eliot et al)
2. Making sense of the other ( black writing, dalit writing, feminist
writing, environmental writing etc)
There are values within values-- it is turtles all the way--
The course is a labyrinth ( where all paths have to lead to a centre)
and not a maze ( where there is no centre but only plurality, despair,
chaos and minotaurs)

Question: So can you give me an example.
Ans: Sure. i am sending along the A.V. Krishnarao Memorial lecture by
Gandhi.It is a deconstructionist act in the sense it plays around with
a sacred text. But it has VALUE since it "it offers not one
hypothesis but , in its seeming contrarinesses and contradictions,
several schools and in fact faculties of enquiry." Do read it.

Question: Any more draconian rules:)?
Ans: Yes, I was pleasantly surprised to get a mail from a friend in
the lit and values class who acknowledged the need to be sensitive to
the other's sensibility and the need to use decorous language in the
classroom .


POST SCRIPT: As an instructor, I repose great value in these
individual presentations. That is why I take the time to assign slots
to every student in the class whereas lecturing for a couple of weeks
and offering a quiz 2 would have been the easier thing to do.
I request all of you to engage with this as authentically as you can.

Thanks

and
My best wishes
Swarnalatha











On 10/8/12, Swarna Rangarajan <swarn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear All,
> Kindly note these changes in the presentation schedule. The rest
> remains the same. I request Vaishali to take a printout of this
> revised schedule and also share it as a google document. Do put up the
> chart on the notice board in class.
> November 7th Arun M.S & Karthik ( NA08B022)
> November 8th Arjit Banerjee and Lakshmi Kanth
>
> Best, Swarnalatha
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Swarna Rangarajan <swarn...@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, Oct 6, 2012 at 10:16 PM
> Subject: Re: Presentation dates and topics
> (literature-and...@googlegroups.com)
> To: literature-and...@googlegroups.com
>
>
> Dear All,
> There will be a lecture class on 9th October since I need to wrap up
> Ellison and also do a Dalit short story.
> So the two of you who were scheduled to do it on 9th ( Karan Singh and
> ?)have some more time. I am resheduling the 9th October presentation
> to 7th November.
> Best, Swarnalatha
>
>
> On 9/26/12, Vaishali V (Google Drive) <vaish...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I've shared an item with you:
>>
>> Presentation dates and topics
>> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ai37qKNZ6H57dE1oNFQ1N3BHRXY1TWdsNnZsVVFiOXc
>>
>> It's not an attachment -- it's stored online at Google Docs. To open this
>> document, just click the link above.
>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>> "Literature and Values Odd Sem" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
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>>
>>
>>
>