In addition to weekly journal entries, students are required to write two papers of 5 pages each - one analytical/expository essay and one creative narrative.
Reader Response Journals
You will maintain a diary every week writing a couple of paragraphs in response to the film you have seen or the text you have read and you will focus on any of the one the elements that struck you about the text. This may be the representation of a specific theme or a particular stylistic element, or even an image or a motif that made you think. For example, it can be the way a shot is framed in a particular song and dance in sequence in a film or it may be the representation of a particular character at a specific juncture of your text, or, when you are reading history or anthropology it may be the way you relate an idea to a film you have watched in class or a fictional text you read that week. You will maintain it in a journal and have it ready before coming to class. These will be your first reactions to the text, the writing as formal as in a "paper," the instructor may ask you to share your "responses" with the class. These "responses" will not be graded; these are aimed to assist you in organizing your thoughts for the class discussion to follow. At the end of the course the instructor will collect these responses.
Creative Essay Instructions
This is the creative paper and my suggestion is that you write it in the style of a memoir, but it should be specific enough, choosing to describe one or two precise events we have discussed in class, imagining yourself to be in India at a certain historical time or context. It could be the Partition, or the Emergency--the 70's in Delhi under Indira Gandhi, you as a landlord once the land reforms begin, you as a student when the Mandal Commission is announced, you as a Musilm Woman and/or a feminist during the Shah Bano case, or you as a hip upper class urban youth in post 90' Bombay. Or imagine yourself as a character in any of the films we've watched this term...
It's up to you--go ahead--play with ideas you have absorbed from your readings, be creative....
Student Work
The following papers were submitted by students in the course, and are used with permission.
Ruchi Jain - On the Other Side of the Water (PDF)
Mahreen Khan - The Night I Lost My Fajila (PDF)