TOPICS, S,SEASN - Representation and the Real in South Asian Literature

What is the relationship between literary representation and the "real world" in South Asian literature?  What assumptions about truth, art and language are implied in this question?  This class looks at over 2000 years of reflection on this question in both literature and literary and linguistic theory produced in the scholarly and literary traditions of South Asia.  We will also draw on texts from the Euro-American tradition on topics ranging from mimesis to performativity and magical language in order to have a better understanding of concerns shared across linguistic and geographic boundaries as well as the diverse cultural and historical contexts that produced a particular theoretical framework.