LITR 5831 World / Multicultural Literature  Colonial-Postcolonial

13 October 2015

Reading Assignment: complete Train to Pakistan (through p. 181)

Discussion leader: Ashlea Massie

Outline for Train to Pakistan Ending

Beginning-End of Story and Outcome/ Identifying Morals- Ethnic Rules/ Conclusion to that with Jugga

Moral Dilemma- What can one person do? Can they fight against injustice and win? /I will die/Dietrich Bonhoeffer 'Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.'/Drafts- Would you want someone like that?

Discussion Questions:

1.) What is the novelistic and historical purpose or outcome of Nooran & Jugga's love? Compare/ contrast with Iqbal, Partition.

A.) Is their love just a bridge used for the purpose of the story?

2.) Hukum Chand isn't a pleasant character but he may be enigmatically heroic--is he? See page 158 & bottom of 175 & 178-179

3.) Instances of Self-Other- The stranger (boy)/Muslims vs. Sikhs

4.) Post-Colonialism Problems/Did Any Good Things Come Out of the British Leaving?

5.) Why the confusion over Iqbal's identity and ethnic heritage? > extend to Jugga and Nooran + child. What distinct roles do Jugga and Iqbal play?

6.) Is it possible to think beyond the nation-state as a defining identity? (For most Americans, no, but until recent centuries most human beings rarely thought of themselves as members of a nation.) Compare "empire" and local community? tribe? region? religion? (page 149)

7.) Our course's texts abound in outrages and atrocities. Reading a text like Train to Pakistan, what do we learn about how historical horrors occur? What opportunities are seen to counter them?