URDU LITERATURE 1

This course intends to provide students with an insight into the cultural, linguistic and literary developments that took place in the hindi-urdu speaking areas of Northern and Central India during the period of Muslim and (partially) European colonial rule in South Asia roughly during the period XIII-XVII centuries. Particular emphasis is thereby laid on highlighting the contribution made by Muslims and Hindus poets and intellectuals alike to the development of a specific Indo-Islamic civilization that found in the vernacular language now known as hindi-urdu one of its happiest and most fertile expressions. The course thus wants to introduce students to the complex and highly diversified (multi-) cultural environment that distinguished large parts of South Asia during the centuries leading up to the arrival of European colonization, which owes much to the intensive and fruitful collaboration of intellectuals and literary authorities of the country's numerous religious, social and ethnic communities.
It is the aim of this course to stress the peculiarities that distinguish the language and the literary environment typical of hindi-urdu in singling out and bringing together elements pertaining to the cultural and literary environment of the Islamicate world and those more intimately related to the pre-Muslim Indian civilization.

On the basis of the issues raised and discussed during classes and the additional information provided by the texts included in the bibliography, students are expected to acquire a solid complementary knowledge of the richness that characterizes the cultural and the literary environment of South Asia. Moreover, it is intended to arise the awareness among students attending the course of the complexity that characterizes the intellectual environment and the causes for its development continuously kept alive by the protagonists involved in the process. In this way, the role and interaction played and displayed by Islamic civilization on one side and pre-Islamic Indian culture on the other should become clear thus contributing to the understanding of some key factors and core elements defining the literary culture of South Asia in particular and the implications for shaping Indian civilization in particular.

A preliminary knowledge of the history and principal characteristics of Hindi literature, as taught in the Hindi Literature 1 course (renamed Vernacular Literatures of India), is desirable but not essential.

-Meaning and implication of the words 'hindi' and 'urdu' and analysis of the wide range of terms employed by different people in different times to define the language today known by this word; analysis and setting into the historical context of alternative terms applied over history to this language: hindui, dihlawi, gujri, dakhani, rekhta, hindustani, hindi.
-history of the urdu language, from the outset of Muslim presence in the Subcontinent until its partition in 1947, and afterwards in the newly-emerged nation-states of India and Pakistan;
-the emergence of a rich and complex literary culture that brings together and, in some cases, synthesizes elements of Islamic civilization and concepts pertaining to the Indian cultural context;
-the role of Sufism and Hindu devotionalism (bhakti) in defining the common formal and symbolical features encountered in hindi-urdu literature.
-the first traceable encounters with an urdu literary tradition in Northern India and in the Deccan;
-the cultural environment and linguistic developments during the centuries of Mughal rule (XVIth-XIXth centuries AD);
-the impact of colonialism on the re-definition of language and religious identity;
-an analysis of the intrinsic values that characterize the different literary genres used by urdu speakers and writers;
-an overview of the principal literary genres in hindi-urdu, the principal literary achievements and works and its authors.

Selected Bibliography:

-Faruqi, Shamsur Rahman: "A Long History of Urdu Literary Culture, Part 1: naming and placing a Literary Culture", in Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia (S. Pollock editor), New Delhi: OUP, 2004, pp.805-863. (a printed copy is available for consultance in the university's library at: Ca' Foscari BALI-Studi Europei e Postcoloniali : COMMONW (D 820 POL/Lit)
Mc Gregor, R.S.: Hindi Literature of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Volume 8, Edizione 2, Wiesbaden: Otto Harassowitz. (a printed copy of the text is available for reference in the department's library at Ca' Cappello)
-Pritchett, Frances W.: "A Long History of Urdu Literary Culture, Part 2: histories, performances and masters", in Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia (S. Pollock editor), New Delhi: OUP, 2004, pp.864-911. (a printed copy is available for consultance in the university's library at: Ca' Foscari BALI-Studi Europei e Postcoloniali : COMMONW (D 820 POL/Lit)
-Qureshi, Omar (1996): "Twentieth Century Urdu Literature", in Handbook of Twentieth Century Literatures of India (ed. Nalini Natarajan, Westport, 1996. (an electronic version of the text is available at the Columbia University's website: www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urdu/3mod/txt
-Schimmel, Annemarie (1975): Classical Urdu Literature from the Beginning to Iqbal, in A History of Indian Literature Series (edited by Jan Gonda), Vol. VII, Fasc. 3, Wiesbaden: Otto Harassowitz. ISBN 3-447-01671-X (reperibile presso la biblioteca di Ca' Cappello)

The oral exam will consist of a discussion of about 20-25 minutes during which students are expected to focus their attention on the main topics dealt with during classes and dealt with in the texts provided through the bibliography listed. Special emphasis will be put on the topics as discussed and addressed during classes and capacity of interpretation and independent analysis will be appreciated.

Frontal classes, possibly complemented by the discussion of issues raised by students in the course of each class.

Italian

Students are strongly advised to attend classes regularly and punctually.

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development