Welcome to Module 5! (1.5 – 2 hours)
Here’s what you need to do by next class:
- Last week, you chose your text and your format for your class project. On Tuesday, March 22nd (Snitha, Shayla, Ying, Laura, JP, Kadija), Tuesday, March 29th (Tanya, James, Hana, Darius, Alessio, Maimouna, Arthur), and Tuesday, April 5th (Pushpita, Kimberly, Luygi, Sky, Orlando, Uzair, Crystal) everyone will be briefly presenting their topics in class. Please go to the Assessment page to look at the presentation instructions. Let me know if you have any questions, and please don’t leave it to the last minute. Unfortunately, there will be no way to make up for this presentation as we will then have to move on with the class content ,and you will not get a checkmark if you have not presented.
- Read from the Anthology:
– “At the Crossroads of Empire” (6 pages)
– “Kabuliwala,” by Rabindranath Tagore (7 pages inc. author intro) also available here. - Watch the lecture below.
- Come up with one question about the readings and write it in the comments below: Has anything confused you? Struck you? Awed you? Revolted you? Interested you, in any way? We will use your questions for discussion in class.
NB: you can’t write the same question as anyone else that has already commented before you. - Fill out the exit ticket for this lecture so I can count your participation.
- After our Module-5 meeting, please take 5-10 min to fill in this midterm feedback form on how things are going so far for you in the course (anonymous). It helps me nip any issues in the bud and tailor the rest of the course to your needs, so I’d greatly appreciate your thoughts!
**I apologize, there was a bug while I recorded the video: the screen share stayed stuck on the first slide, and the captions were not recorded. I edited the video and added slide numbers to let you know when I transition from slide to slide. Please follow along with the PDF slides below. I have also written a transcript. My apologies again!**
Below is the lecture transcript:
Below are the PDF slides:
Wanna do more?
- Have a listen at the music by Tagore which inspired national anthems in Bangladesh and India: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dLDGffInGs&ab_channel=BengaliLatestHits
- If you were curious about what the wedding music sounds like in the story, here is a sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg6KFamxXkA&ab_channel=MarathiGaurav
- A preview of the foundational book Orientalism by Edward Said (1978). An absolute pillar of postoclonialism studies!
- Crash Course History, by John Green – “Imperialism”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alJaltUmrGo&ab_channel=CrashCourse
Feel free to write a second comment or reply to any of your classmates’ comments if you feel like saying anything else about the module content 🙂
I am wondering if India still has surrogate husbands for widows? Are they gonna marry or the brother-in-law just take care of her and her children?
Good question, Laura. I don’t know, it seems like an orthodox Hindu tradition, so perhaps strictly practicing communities would.
What caused the narrator and Mini’s mother’s distrust of Rahmat?
The theme of “no two human beings are the same” is prelevant in the Kabuliwala reading, so how is this reflected in the parents’ differing atittudes toward daughter?
Excellent question, Snitha! Keep the focus on human equality and mutual fear of otherness for the class discussion today.
Does the narrator and Mini’s mother have a romantic relationship or is it strictly just for the sake of the family?
I actually hadn’t thought of that, Tanya. You’re right: they could be (surrogate) husband and wife without having a romantic relationship. It is not clear in the story whether they do.
I was confused about what Rahmat meant by ” ‘I’ll wallop my in-law”?
He’s pretending to punch his in-law in the face, so as to make a point against the in-law, but this is only playful. By constantly mentioning in-laws in a negative light, Rahmat subconsciously “fights” the idea that Mini grows up and becomes old enough to marry and have in-laws. It si revealed at the end of the story that Mini is about the same age as Rahmat’s own daughter, who lives back in Afghanistan, where he’s from. All these years in India, and in prison, he did not get to see his own daughter grow up, and does not want her to (as all parents do, because it means time passes and our children will eventually leave us). He associates Mini with his own daughter.
Although themes of friendship, fatherly love, and connection in this story can be tied to the realist movement, do they tie more strongly towards romanticism or are there other stronger elements in this story that connect more with the romanticism movement?
A common theme I am noticing in these readings such as “Candide” and this reading, “Kabuliwala” is the idea of misfortune. Is misfortune a key theme in Realism? Does misfortune have more to do with fate or does it push characters, and writers, to believe more in the idea of free-will?
Yes, very true. I think necessarily, if a text is Realist (and realistic), it’s gonna have to address miusfortune, because there is always some misfortune in life. This automatically tie in the theme of fate vs free will, in any period.
The parents grew suspicion and had negative attitude towards the Kabuliwala. How can the issue of judging others based on class and race change for the better?
What do you think the season of Autumn represents in the story?
What do you believe made the narrator behave more like Mini’s mother once Rahamat came back from prison?
The narrator does not treat rahmat as an equal due to their cultural difference, how do we continue to see situations such as this one play out in present society?
Why would Mini’s own mom scold her for her curiosity? I would assume parents would be most patient with a chatty child than anyone else.
Fear. A curious child is an adventurous one!
I was confused with the line “on returning home, I found that a full-scale row had broken out over the coin”. I wasn’t quite sure what the author meant by that.
Yes, the structure of this sentence is a bit confusing. The surrounding sentences indicate that the row was about (“over”) the coin that Rahmat had given Mini. Mini’s mum is upset that she took a coin from a stranger (could have meant that they now owe that stramnger his coin back, or that the stranger “paid” Mini for something. Understandably worrying for a parent).
I’d liked the story to have a few more pages because I was enjoying reading it.
Excellent questions, everyone! Thank you for another week of great discussion prompts!
Why did the speaker not let Kabuliwala meet his daughter at the beginning? He was quite hesitant about that.