ENGL46430: The Partition of India: Creative Responses

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• To explore the significance of the Partition of India as a defining political and socio-cultural event in South Asian history.
• To examine, through an interdisciplinary lens, how a range of works in different genres address the trauma of Partition and problematize the idea of official history.
• To analyse the ways in which the works under discussion shed light on the experiences of women at the time of Partition, and compel us to confront the various kinds of gendered violence that marked not only the months leading up to Partition in August 1947 but also the years that followed.
• To explore how Partition and the politics underpinning it continue to inform the cultural and literary landscape of the region.
• To reflect on the poetics of Partition literature in the light of relevant postcolonial scholarship.

• Focuses on Anglophone writings by South Asian writers, such as Salman Rushdie, Manju Kapur, Bapsi Sidhwa, Moniza Alvi and Kushwant Singh.
• Explores some works in translation, such as the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and short stories by Saadat Hasan Manto.
• Engages with a broad range of literary genres, including the novel, the short story, poetry, life writing and the essay. A small number of cinematic representations of Partition will also be explored.
• Invites close-readings of literary works in the light of trauma theory as well as postcolonial and feminist theoretical perspectives.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students will:
• Gain in-depth understanding of the ways in which Partition has been addressed and represented in a range of literary texts, and on film.
• Become aware of the continuing political and cultural significance of Partition in South Asia.
• Be able to demonstrate familiarity with a number of literary, feminist, postcolonial, and other theoretical perspectives that enhance our appreciation of Partition literature.

Subject-specific Skills:

Key Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• an advanced ability to analyse critically;
• an advanced ability to acquire complex information of diverse kinds in structured and systematic ways;
• an advanced ability to interpret complex information of diverse kinds through the distinctive skills derived from the subject;
• expertise in conventions of scholarly presentation and bibliographical skills;
• an independence of thought and judgement, and ability to assess acutely the critical ideas of others;
• sophisticated skills in critical reasoning;
• an advanced ability to handle information and argument critically;
• a competence in information-technology skills such as word-processing and electronic data access;
• professional organisation and time-management skills.

• Students are encouraged to develop advanced conceptual abilities and analytical skills as well as the ability to communicate an advanced knowledge and conceptual understanding within seminars; the capacity for advanced independent study is demonstrated through the completion of two assessed pieces of work.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning student(s) an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor. This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers and tutor in the context of a seminar.

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