Exploring Bengali Literature
LIT3-5a-Mon3
Bennett Comerford
This course will take place virtually on Zoom. Participation in this course requires a device (ideally a computer or tablet, rather than a cell phone) with a camera and microphone in good working order and basic familiarity with using Zoom and accessing email.
September 9 - October 7
Bengali literature is rich and vast. This course will include an overview of the history of Bengali literary culture, culminating with the rise of Asia’s first Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. In addition to developing familiarity with the history of Bengali literature and the Bengal Renaissance, we will engage in close reading and facilitated discussion of a handful of classic Bengali literary texts. The bulk of the course will be focused on the reading and discussion of these particularly influential and celebrated works, with a focus on contributions from the nineteenth and twentieth century.
Class meetings will consist of short lectures designed to provide a basic entry-point for grasping the meaning of Bengali texts in translation and the broader socio-cultural world they engage. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on the intersections between Bengali literature, South Asian religions (particularly Hinduism and Islam), and Indian politics (with a focus on the colonial period). Together as a community of thoughtful individuals, we will read closely, think comparatively, and question broadly as we interpret and explore a range of perspectives from an underrepresented literary tradition.
More facilitated discussion than lecture.
Materials will be provided by the Study Group Leader.
Assigned readings should take approximately 2 hours, with additional optional readings suggested for those interested in further learning.
Bennett DiDente Comerford is a recent graduate of the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University specializing in South Asian religions and comparative religious studies. His research focuses on the intersections of religion, literature, race and coloniality in nineteenth-century Bengal. Bennett has spent over a year and a half living and studying in India and Bangladesh with fellowship support from the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Critical Language Scholarship Program and the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College.