Papers

 

First paper on the Bhagavad Gita (due 6 March 2 PM).

You should answer all the questions.

1. Against what kind of religious background was the Bhagavad Gita constructed?  What kinds of social and religious questions was the Bhagavad Gita trying to address?  Were there several options for the ideal behavior that Krishna mentions? What place do the emotions have in these options?

2. For what social group or groups was the Bhagavad Gita primarily meant? Was it intended for women, men, serfs, artisans, warriors, brahmans?

3.  What was the ideal person according to Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita?  Was this ideal person a man, woman, a high status person, a low status person?  What kind of body would the ideal person have?

4. To what degree does the Bhagavad Gita seek to introduce clarity at the same time that it introduces ambivalence, particularly over the issue of the Vedas and the sacrifice?

5. What is the position of women in ancient India as depicted by the Bhagavad Gita?  Give the evidence for your answer. What is the nature of the societal disarray that Krishna has arrived to set right?

6. How are texts like the Bhagavad Gita composed?  Are there any true authors?

7. To what extent is the Bhagavad Gita a repressive, conservative text that was bound to produce a great deal of resistance and therefore alternate ideals of behavior?

Second Paper on “Normalizing Women's and Men's Bodies.” This is due 1 May 2 PM

In the second paper you should try to apply your knowledge of what you have learned about colonial regimes from Said and Foucault to an analysis of the materials on normalizing women's and men's bodies in India. (Samskara, Burmese Days, The High Caste Hindu Woman, "The Quilt," "In Family Courtyards.”  In your paper you should answer all these questions.

1. Your main goal should be to apply Foucault and Said to the materials you have read on the construction of discourse about women's and men's bodies.

2. According to Said and Foucault, what is power and how is it created in the colonial context or in any system of juridical power relations?  How does Foucault argue that sex is created by the discourse on sexuality in Europe after the eighteenth century? To what extent is the discourse about women's and men's bodies in India a product of a cultural and power or discursive negotiation, which has been analyzed by Said and Foucault?  What does Foucault mean by “normalization? and “biopower?”

3. To what extent do women and men in India and elsewhere (Indian as well as others) participate in one way or another in the production of this discourse about bodily normalization? What is the function of sex in these normalizing constructions? Do some women authors (western as well as Indian) downplay the pursuit of sex by women or men?  Do “repressive texts” such as the Bhagavad Gita of the Laws of Manu play a role in helping to produce discourse, for instance, in High Caste Hindu Woman?

All citations to page numbers should be within parentheses in the text itself.  Do not use footnotes.