This course is for students who have successfully completed third- and fourth-year Urdu. It is typically tailored to student needs in terms of the selection of texts to be addressed and discussed. Depending on their interest, students may choose to read Urdu texts from any time period, country or genre. Prior consent of instructor is required.
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First year Urdu or comparable level of language skills. This sequence is a continuation of URDU 10100-10200-10300. There is increased emphasis on vocabulary building and reading progressively complex texts. Depending on ability levels and interests of the students, readings can include selections from various original sources.
TBD
TBD
TBD
First year Urdu or comparable level of language skills. This sequence is a continuation of URDU 10100-10200-10300. There is increased emphasis on vocabulary building and reading progressively complex texts. Depending on ability levels and interests of the students, readings can include selections from various original sources.
The third- and fourth-year sequence is meant to expose students to a range of genres in Tibetan literature, including religious, historical, philosophical, scientific, and literary works. Instruction consists in guided readings, with continuing grammar review, practice in speaking, and application of philological methods.
The grammar of modern Tamil, in its manifestation both in colloquial and formal styles, and a good amount of vocabulary needed for referring to the immediate environment and using in day today transactions will be acquired. The four language skills acquired will be at different levels of proficiency with listening and speaking at the top followed by reading of formal texts and ending with basic writing skills in the formal style. The gradual progression in listening will be from teacher-student to speaker-speaker; in speaking it will be from articulation of sounds and intonation to expressing personal needs and interests, performing practical tasks, narrating experience and expressing emotions; in reading it will be from alphabet and spelling in the two styles to sign boards, controlled texts, factual news stories, interpretive reports and jokes; in writing from conversion of colloquial style into conventional style to personal letters, paraphrasing and translation of sentences. The tools used are classroom conversations, conversational tapes, videos, graded print materials, select materials from the print media including tales, which are complemented by exercises and quizzes.
Padavali (vernacular lyric poetry) is one of the threads that tied together the cultural region of eastern India from Tripura to Bihar, and from Assam to Odisha. In this course, we will study the making of this tradition rooted in the courtly poems of Vidyapati (ca. 1370-1460, Mithila) and follow its spread in Nepal, Assam, Bengal, and Odisha. We will discuss the very close relation between form and content in this poetic tradition that was closely connected with music. We will also study the expressive use of a complex prosodic system that was never described in the form of treatises and the many debates around the trans-regional aspects of Brajabuli as an artificial vernacular poetic idiom. Moreover, we will compare padavali literature with other premodern traditions from Medieval Europe, especially Old Occitan troubadour poetry and lyric poetry in Andalusian Arabic. This comparative approach is motivated by the many parallels one can observe between Medieval southern Europe and eastern South Asia, starting with the conscious crafting of lyric vernacular traditions in multilingual contexts against the background of classical literary cultures.
