Interpretating Literature on Stone, Paper, and Film

This course examines the interpretation of globally renowned epics and classic literary works in South Asia and in its diaspora. Beginning with the sculptural, performed (both in South and Southeast Asia), written, and Bollywood imaginings of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, we move into painted and cinematic re-tellings of West Asian classics such as Layla Majnun and tales from the Arabian Nights. Rounding up this course would be Bollywood interpretations of the Shakespearean plays Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth along with Kamila Shamsie’s novel Home Fire, a re-imagining of Sophocles’ play Antigone in the contemporary British Muslim community in the United Kingdom.