Existentialism--

[Swarna Rangarajan]

Dear Students,
This is for those of you who debate existentialism with a lot of
passion. It is a great essay by Sartre on why existentialism is a kind
of humanism.
Sending it along as an attachment!

On 10/13/12, Swarna Rangarajan <swarn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>
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> 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.
>>>
>>> --
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>