ARTH789
Seminar: Gender and Identity in South Asian Film
Dr. Dina Bangdel
Virginia Commonwealth University
Department of Art History
Spring 2006
Wednesdays 1-3:45 pm

Office: 302 Buford Hall
Office Hrs: Thursdays 10-12 or by appointment
Phone: 628-7037
Email: dbangdel@vcu.edu

Course Description

This course will be an exploration of contemporary Indian film as narratives of cultural discourse, specifically the phenomena of “Bollywood,” India’s film and television industry and the largest film-producers in the world, generating more than 300 films annually. Focusing on the constructions of gender and identity in this visual discourse, the class will analyze nationalism and globalization that emerge from within these depictions of Indian cultural and social environments.  Through the films and readings, we will examine the ways in which Indian cinema addresses the issues of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, caste, class, and modernization as a cultural dialogue within Indian society.  At the same time, questions of hybridity, transnationalism, and "Indian-ness" within the South Asian diaspora will also be considered.

We will view films by Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, and Mani Rathnam, and particular attention will be given to films directed by the women of South Asian diaspora, such as Deepa Mehta, Mira Nair, and Gurinder Chadha.

Requirements

1. Film Viewing
You will be required to view the assigned films prior to the class schedule.  The films are in the Cabell Library Reserve section and can be checked out for 1 day and will as much as possible put 2 copies on reserve, so it may be circulated with all 10 students.  Please note, however, that NOT all the film have duplicate copies, so you will be responsible for viewing the film ahead of class.  What I would recommend is a group viewing in the Media Services (Basement of Cabell Library) during a time that may best work for the majority of the students. Those who miss the showing can then check out the film in the reserve. We will take a vote in the first day of class as to the times at may work for all students. The Media Services is open M-Th from 8am-10pm and Friday 8-4:30pm.  Note that  Hindi films, in general, are about 2 1/2 hours long.  It is very important that you attend the film screening, since a reaction paper and class discussions will be based on the specified film.   If you do miss the screening, make sure that you check out the film from the reserve section.

2. Film Viewing

The class following the viewing will be reserved for discussion.  For each discussion session, we will have 2 students who will serve as discussion leaders.  Pertinent readings will also be assigned.  You will be required to write a short reaction paper (1-2 undergrads; 2-3 pages grads) on the film we view in class. All readings are in Cabell Library Reserve section.

You will have a final research paper (10-15 pages) and a 20-minute formal presentation on your topic of choice.  Graduate students will be expected to write at least 15 pages.

Required Texts:

• Jigna Desai, Beyond Bollywood: The Cultural Politics of South Asian Diasporic Film (Routledge, 2004).
• Tesjasvini Ganti, Bollywood: A Guidebook to Popular Hindi Cinema (Routledge, 2004).
• Vijaya Mishra,  Bollywood Cinema: Temples of Desire (Routledge, 2001)

Grading

Classroom Discussion/Reports       35%     

Short Reaction Papers                  20%     
Final Paper / Presentation             45%

Blackboard

We will be using Blackboard for posting in-class Powerpoint lectures and e-mail address listed on the Blackboard site to get in touch with you if I need to notify you of any sudden changes in course policies or scheduling or if we have questions about your assignments.

Meetings
Each student will be expected to meet with me in my office at least once during the term to discuss the term paper. Sign-up sheets will be distributed for this in due course.

FILM LIST:

• Charulata
• Ankur
• Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gam
• Mother India
• Bombay
• Devdas
• Rudaali
• Dilwale Dulhaniya Lejange
• Mississipi Masala
• Fire
• Bhaji on the Beach

Week 1 :
Jan 18:  Introduction to Indian visual and narrative aesthetics 
            · Overview of the course
            · Introduction to Indian cinema
            · Constructing Visuality and Identity: Themes and Approaches
· Theory of Seeing: Darsan
· Concept of Rasa and Traditional of Performance
Readings :
Dehejia Vidya, Indian Art , London, Phaidon Press, 1997, pp. 11-22.

Stadtner, Donald, 'New approaches to South Asian art', Art Journal 49 (1990) pp. 359-362.

Mirzoeff, N, 'What is visual culture' in Mirzoeff, N (ed), The Visual Culture Reader, London, Routledge, 1998, pp. 3-13

Week 2: 
Jan 25: Cinema as Public Culture : Cultural Performances and Contexts

• Historical evolution
• Styles, modes and themes
• The narrative structures of the Hindi film
• 'Bollywood': the making of a genre

Freitag, Sandria B, 'Visions of the nation. Theorizing the nexus between creation, consumption, and participation in the public sphere', R. Dwyer and C. Pinney (ed), Pleasure and the nation. The History, politics and consumption of public culture in India', New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 35-75.

Eck, Diana, Darsana : Seeing the Divine Image in India, Chambersburg, Anima Books , 1985, pp. 3 – 22

abb, Lawrence A. 1981 'Glancing: Visual Interaction in Hinduism,' Journal of Anthropological Research 37

Week 3:
New Indian Cinema: Women in Art Films
Film: Charulata (1960). 93 minutes.          Director Satyajit Ray:
Film Clips: Pather Panchali, Mahanagar
            Awarded President’s Gold Medal, New Delhi
            The film generated considerable controversy
on its release in India.
           
Discussion /Readings:

· Darius Cooper, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray: Between
Tradition and Modernity (Cambridge University Press, 2000). Introduction and Chapter 2, “From Gazes to Threat: The Odyssean Yatra (Journey) of the Ray Women.” pp.75-132. In Reserve

· Ganguly, Suranjan, Satyajit Ray: In Search of the Modern. (London: The Scarecrow Press, 2000). Select pages. In Reserve
· See also: http://www.satyajitray.org/

Week 4:  Feb 15: “Art Film”: Tensions of Tradition and Modernity

Film: Ankur ("The Seedling").1974. Director: Shyam Benegal,           
Film Clips: Bhumika, Nishant, Zubeidaa. Chokar Bali

"Ankur" is credited with being the catalyst that began the independent 'art film' movement in India that flourished in the 1970s. Shabhana Azmi won the National Film Award for Best Actress 1974 for her first film role.

Excerpt from Bengali director Ritwik Ghatak’s book Films and I (2004) on the meaning “art films” in contemporary cinema:

"The word 'art' in films is much abused, both by its friends and its foes... whatever is pretentiously dull or breathtakingly spectacular is not necessarily art. Art does not consist merely of ambitious subjects or outlandish propositions or extensive use of a newly available extreme wide-angle lens. It does not consist of montage and manipulation of filmic time and de-dramatization solely. Rather, it consists of bursts of fancy. Whatever the genre, art brings with it the feeling of being in the presence of living truth, always coupled with enjoyment."

            Discussion /Readings:
 ·John Hood, “Shyam Benegal” in The Essential Mystery: Major
Filmmakers in Indian Art Cinema.  In Reserve.

·Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” in Visual and Other Pleasures (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1989). In Reserve.

· “Hidden Pleasures: Negotiation the Myth of the Female Ideal in Popular Hindi Cinema” by Asha Kaskekar in Pleasure and the Nation: The History, Politics, and Consumption of Popular Culture in India. Oxford U. Press. In Reserve.

· Sangeeta Datta, “Introduction;” Ch. 1: “Parallel Cinema;” Ch. 3: “The First Trilogy” in Shyam Benegal, (BFI World Directors, 2003). In Reserve.

Week 5:Feb 8

Constructing the Formula:
The Blockbuster
Yash Chopra’s Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gam (2002)
Film Clips: Deewar, Lagaan, Khalnayak

**Rating by Bollywood501-Movies-Quick Glances
(www.www.bollywood501.com)

Readings:
Mishra, Vijay Bollywood cinema : Temples of desire, Chapters 1 and 2.
Ganti, Bollywood. (Finish the book by the end of Week 2)

· Prasad, Madhav, Ideology of the Hindi film. A historical reconstruction, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 1-26.

·  Uberoi Patricia, 'Imagining the family. An ethnography of viewing Hum Aaapke Hain Kaun' in R. Dwyer and C. Pinney (ed), Pleasure and the Nation. The History, politics and consumption of public culture in India', New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 309- 329.

· Steve Derne, “Liminal Escape: Sober Return to Reality” in Movies, Masculinity, and Modernity. Chapter 4. In Reserve.

Week 6:
Feb 22
Imagining the “Nation” in Visual Culture: India as Goddess
 Film: Mother India (1957). Directed by Mehboob Khan

“Heralded as India's Gone with the Wind, Mother India is indeed a Bollywood blockbuster of epic proportions on a kin with David O'Selznick's 1939 classic. Considered by many as the cornerstone of Indian commercial cinema and described by Salman Rushdie as "all-conquering", this remarkable film became the first Indian Film to be nominated for an Academy Award”

Discussion / Reading: Mother India (1957)
            ·Misra, Chapter 3 “The Texts of Mother India: , Bollywood Cinema.

· Sumita S. Chakravarty, National Identity in Indian Popular Cinema, chapter 5. In Reserve.

·Parama Roy, “Becoming Women: The Genders of Nationalism” (Chapter 5) and “Figuring Mother India: The Case of Nargis,” (Chapter 6) Indian Traffic: Identities in Question in Colonial and Post-colonial India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). In Reserve.

            Guha-Thakurta, Tapati, 'Instituting the nation in art' in Partha Chatterjee (ed), Wages of Freedom. Fifty years of the Indian nation state, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 89-122.

Partha Mitter, Art and nationalism in colonial India, 1850-1922 : occidental orientations, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press , 1994.

Week 7

March 1:
Nationalism and Ethnicity through the Eyes of Bollywood
Film: Bombay (1995). Directed by Mani Rathnam

Discussion / Reading
            ·Misra, Chapter 7 “After Ayodhya: The Sublime Object of
Fundamentalism, Bollywood Cinema.

·Chakravarty, National Identity in Indian Popular Cinema,
Chapter 7. In Reserve.

· “Bombay and Its Public” by Ravi Vasudevan in Pleasure and the Nation: The History, Politics, and Consumption of Popular Culture in India. Oxford, 2003. In Reserve.

Week 8:
March 8: Post-Colonialism and Displacement                  
Film: Dev Das

Film Clips: Umrao Jaan  (1985). Directed by Muzaffar Ali.
145 minutes.

“Ultra-serious, ultra-depressing, ultra-emotional... Umrao Jaan is perfect.”
--web review

Discussion /Readings:
·Sumitra Chakravarti, "Women and the Burden of Postcoloniality: The Courtesan Film Genre" National Identity in Indian Popular Cinema, 1947-1987. In Reserve.

Week 9: March  15: Spring Break

Week 10: March 22

The Subaltern Voice:
Film: Rudaali

Readings:

· Chakravarty, Sumita S. "'Can the Subaltern Weep?' Mourning as Metaphor in Rudaali (The Crier)." In Diana Robin and Ira Jaffe, eds., Redirecting the Gaze: Gender, Theory, and Cinema in the Third World, pp.283-285, 293-294, 303n1, 304n2, 305n23. The SUNY Series: Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.

· Gayatri Spivak, “Can Subaltern Speak”, Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory,  Williams, Patrick and Laura Chrisman (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), pp. 66-111. In Reserve.

Diasporic Identities Retaining Indianness While Foreign
Film: Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge

           
Discussion /Readings:   
·Jigna Desai, Beyond Bollywood: The Cultural Politics of South Asian Diasporic Film.
Chapter 1 “South Asian Diasporas and Transnational Cultural Studies”
Chapter 2 “Between Hollywood and Bollywood” Chapter 2

·Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture, Select pages. In Reserve.

Week 11: March 29
Transnationalism, Displacement, and Identity:
Films:  Salaam Bombay / Mississippi Masala  Director Mira Nair
           
            Discussion / Reading
· Desai, Beyond Bollywood, Chapter 3. “When Indians Play Cowboys”Diaspora and Post-Coloniality in Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala”
· “Visualizing Three Continents: An Interview with Mira Nair” in Contours of the Heart. In Reserve.
 · “Moments of Identity in Film” in Contours of the Heart. In Reserve.
· “Mira Nair: Exiles, Expatriates and Life in the Margins”. African  and
Asian-American Woman Filmmakers

Week 12: April 5
Politics of Gender and Sexuality
Film: Fire.  Directed by Deepa Mehta

Film Clips: Popcorn/Chutney; Earth
            Discussion /Readings:
            · Chapter 6, Beyond Bollywood. “Homo on the Range: Queering Postcoloniality and Globalization in Deepa Mehta’s Fire”
· Sara Suleri, "Woman Skin Deep: Feminism and the Postcolonial Condition" in Colonial Discouse/Post-Colonial Theory. pp. 224-257.  In Reserve
            · “Nostalgia, Desire, and Diaspora: South Asian Sexualities in Motion” by Gayatri Gopinath (Chapter 11) in Theorizing Diaspora, 2003.
· “Women in Exile” in Contours of the Heart. In Reserve.

Week 13: April 12                
DIASPORIC IDENTITIES:
Film: Bhaji on the Beach .  Directed by Gurindar Chada.

·Jigna Desai, Beyond Bollywood: The Cultural Politics of South Asian Diasporic Film.
Chapter 5 “Homesickness and Motion Sickness: Embodies Migratory Subjectivities in Gurinder Chadha’s Bhaji on the Beach”

· Moya Luckett, “Travel and mobility: feminity and national identity in Swinging London films” in British Cinema: Past and Present. Pp 233-246.

Week 14: April  19
Wrap-up Discussion:  Constructing Gender and Identity in South Asian Cinema  

Week 15: April 26
Final Presentations

Week 16: FINAL EXAM WEEK
Final Presentations