ENGL 295Health, South As Lit

Catalog

(PH,G) This course will focus on how South Asian women writers examine the interaction among biological, behavioral, and sociocultural factors in women's health. In particular, the class will examine the representation (in fiction, non-fiction, and films) of the challenges local communities face in managing education, health care, their environment, borders, capital, and families in the context of increasing urbanization, immigration and digitization. We will be motivated by two interrelated concerns: 1) how can we understand the question of women's voices and "agency" in the South Asian context? And 2) how do women writers mobilize the category of gender to define alternative understandings of "individual" and "community" in this region? In order to answer these questions, we will trace the intersections between gender, caste, class, religion, and sexuality in women's fiction and non-fiction writing, giving particular regard to concepts such as "tradition," "modernity," "nation," and "genre."