Lecture 1: Representative Works from Hebrew Literature

Representative Literary Works:

 The Story of Joseph
 The Unique Love Story of Ruth and Boaz
 Psalm 23
 The Parable of the Prodigal Son

Basic Characteristics of Hebrew Literature:

 Bible-based and ethically oriented
 Reflection of Jewish culture and sensitivity
 Ethnocentrically oriented on Israel’s journey with God

The Story of Joseph

 The story is based on the patriarchal ancestry of the people of Israel.
 It is based on the patriarchal ancestry of the people of Israel.
 It deals with rivalry among siblings, slavery, treachery, forgiveness, and
predestination.

The Unique Love Story of Ruth and Boaz

 The story is about the ancestry of King David, famine, loyalty,
patriarchy, and obedience.
 The story is about great famine and the patriarchal ancestry of the
people of Israel, particularly of David and Jesus.

Psalm 23
 The psalm, a sacred song, is related from the perspective of a shepherd
boy who became the king of Israel.
 Psalm 23 is one of the most loved and quoted chapter in the bible.
 The psalm can be a source of inspiration or assurance to believers.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

 This parable of Jesus portrays God a loving and forgiving father.
 It explains how restoration becomes a crucial element of forgiveness.
 The parable deals with repentance and forgiveness.
 This parable of Jesus portrays God a loving and forgiving Father.
 Forgiveness is nothing if there is no restoration. The essence of
forgiveness is restoration.

Lecture 2: Literary Pieces from Persian and Arabic

Gibran Khalil Gibran (1883-1931) was an American immigrant poet. Born in a

time when poverty prevailed in a majority of the populace, so was the family of
Khalil Gibran. His mother was the daughter of a priest which played a critical
part in his life. As Gibran was a member of the poverty class, his education was
non-formal. The education which was received was from a visiting priest. Such
being the case, Khalil Gibran was strongly influenced by the bible, and such can
be seen in his work. Though his beginnings were much lacking in the scholastic
area, this was remedied throughout the remainder of his life. His studies in the
arts as well as in religions and his Lebanese heritage are ever clear in his most
popular work The Prophet.
 The Five Pillars

The Five Pillars of Islam are the shahadah (Statements of faith), salat (Prayer
five times a day), zakat (Giving a portion of one’s possession, usually 2.5% of
annual wealth, through local mosques or
associations), sawm (Fasting from sunrise to sunset in the month of
Ramadan), and Hajj (Pilgrimage to the Ka’bah in Mecca during the month of
Dhul-Hijjah). Righteousness does not consist in turning your face towards east
or west. The truly good are those who believe in God and the last day, in the
angels, the scripture, and the prophets, who give away some of their wealth,
however much they cherish it, to their relatives, to orphans, the needy,
travelers and beggars, and to liberate those in bondage, those who keep up
the prayer (Salat) and pay the prescribed alms (Zakat), who keep pledges
whenever they make them, who are steadfast in misfortune, adversity, and
times of danger. These are the ones who are true, and it is they who are
aware of God (Quran 2:177). Muslims are called to perform certain regular
acts of worship which increase their sense of God consciousness and discipline
their attitudes toward others as well as the use of their time and property.
These acts of worship, often called the Five Pillars of Islam, are based in the
Quran and Sunnah, and interpreted by the ulama in the first three centuries of
Islam. The Five Pillars are the shahadah, salat, zakat, sawm, and Hajj. These
grounding commitments shape the lives and practices of Muslims throughout
the world, including in America.

Shahadah
 The shahadah, witness or profession of faith, is repeated with every
prayer: “I bear witness that there is no god but God, and Muhammad is
God’s Messenger”. The belief in God’s oneness, or tauhid, and the
prophethood of Muhammad is the first step of a lifelong journey as a
Muslim.

Salat
 Muslims perform the ritual prayers, salat, five times a day, just as
Muhammad did. Standing, bowing, kneeling, and prostrating the body
before God and reciting Quranic passages teach humility and
dependence on God. Prayers are performed at dawn, midday,
afternoon, sunset, and nightfall. While it is preferable to pray in a
mosque with fellow believers, it is also permissible to pray alone in a
clean place. Many families pray together in their homes, at least in the
morning and evening. Before the prayers, Muslims remove their shoes,
perform ritual ablutions, and state their intention to worship. In the
mosque, prayers are often led by an imam, a learned community
member. Prayers are performed in cycles of bowing and prostration
called rakat. Muslims, wherever they are, pray in the direction of the
Ka’bah in Mecca (Qiblah), usually marked by a niche in a mosque wall
(Mihrab). Around the world, millions of Muslims pray five times daily,
orienting their lives, individually and collectively toward God.

Zakat
  Zakat literally means purification, a payment of a portion of one’s
wealth to purify the rest and to ensure justice in society. Used to help
the needy members of a community or those working for just causes,
the zakat is part of the larger Islamic vision of social justice. While
Muslims are encouraged to pursue economic and social gain, they are
also reminded to use their wealth unselfishly and to care for others less
fortunate. The rate of zakat is generally 2.5 percent of annual
accumulated wealth, including savings and nonessential property, in
some countries it is collected and distributed by the government.

Sawm
 The first revelation of the Quran came to Muhammad during the lunar
month of Ramadan. Every year during this month, Muslims perform a
daily fast (Sawm). They are obliged to abstain from food, water, sexual
activity, and evil thoughts during the daylight fasting hours. Ramadan
is a time of discipline for the spirit as well as the body, a time to
cultivate patience and commitment. The fast also reminds the faithful
of those who are hungry every day, underscoring the need for social
justice. Many Muslims perform special prayers and attend
Quranic recitation sessions every night. Ramadan is also a time of
community solidarity, as meals and festivities are shared with family
and friends after dark.

Hajj
 The final pillar of Islam is the Hajj, or pilgrimage to the Ka’bah in Mecca,
performed during Dhul Hijjah, the last lunar month of the Muslim year.
The Hajj recalls the faithfulness of prophet Abraham who was ready to
sacrifice his son Ishmael at God’s command, but it was not God’s will. It
is both joy and faithfulness that bring millions of Muslims from all over
the world to Mecca for this pilgrimage. The Hajj is required at least once
of every Muslim in good health and with the financial means. It brings
together the world-wide ummah, making clear that Muslims of all races,
ethnic groups, and cultures are equal in God’s presence, all wearing the
same simple white garment, walking, and praying and eating together in
the most holy places.

Lecture 3: Indian/Hindu Literature

According to the Asia Society Museum, Buddhism is a religion that is still widely
practiced across Asia. It offers a spiritual path for transcending the suffering of
existence. The endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth (Samsara), to which all
living beings are subject, renews the suffering incurred by one's karma, the
sum of good and bad actions that accumulates over many lives. Release from
this endless cycle is achieved only by attaining enlightenment, the goal for
which Buddhists strive.

Nagarjuna
 Often referred to as the second Buddha by Tibetan and East
Asian Mahayana (Great Vehicle) traditions of Buddhism.
  Nagarjuna offered sharp criticisms of Brahminical and Buddhist
substantialist philosophy, theory of knowledge, and approaches to
practice.
 Nagarjuna’s philosophy represents something of a watershed not only in
the history of Indian philosophy but in the history of philosophy as a
whole, as it calls into questions certain philosophical assumptions so
easily resorted to in our attempt to understand the world.
 Among these assumptions are the existence of stable substances, the
linear and one directional movement of causation, the atomic
individuality of persons, the belief in a fixed identity or selfhood, and the
strict separations between good and bad conduct and the blessed and
fettered life.
 All such assumptions are called into fundamental question by
Nagarjuna’s unique perspective which is grounded in the insight of
emptiness (Sunyata), a concept which does not mean non-existence or
nihility (Abhava), but rather the lack of autonomous existence
(Nihsvabhava)
 Denial of autonomy according to Nagarjuna does not leave us with a
sense of metaphysical or existential privation, a loss of some hoped-for
independence and freedom, but instead offers us a sense of liberation
through demonstrating the interconnectedness of all things, including
human beings and the manner in which human life unfolds in the
natural and social worlds.
 Nagarjuna’s central concept of the emptiness (Sunyata) of all things
(Dharmas), which pointed to the incessantly changing and so never
fixed nature of all phenomena, served as much as the terminological
prop of subsequent Buddhist philosophical thinking as the vexation of
opposed Vedic systems.
 The concept had fundamental implications for Indian philosophical
models of causation, substance ontology, epistemology,
conceptualizations of language, ethics, and theories of world-liberating
salvation, and proved seminal even for Buddhist philosophies in India,
Tibet, China, and Japan very different from Nagarjuna’s own.
 Indeed, it would not be an overstatement to say that Nagarjuna’s
innovative concept of emptiness, though it was hermeneutically
appropriated in many different ways by subsequent
philosophers in both South and East Asia, was to profoundly influence
the character of Buddhist thought.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Buddhism is a philosophical and

ethical system with the Buddha as its greatly revered founder. Guided by the
Middle Path, which rejects both luxury and asceticism, Buddhism proposes a
life of good thoughts, good intentions, and straight living, all with the ultimate
aim of achieving nirvana, release from earthly existence. For most beings,
nirvana lies in the distant future, because Buddhism, like other faiths that
originated in India, believes in a cycle of rebirth. Humans are born many times
on earth, each time with the opportunity to perfect themselves further. And it
is their own karma, the sum total of deeds, good and bad-that determines the
circumstances of a future birth.
According to the BBC, Buddhism is a spiritual tradition that focuses on
personal spiritual development and the attainment of a deep insight into the
true nature of life. Buddhists seek to reach a state of nirvana, following the
path of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, who went on a quest for
enlightenment around the sixth century before Christ. The history of
Buddhism is the story of one man's spiritual journey to enlightenment, and of
the teachings and ways of living that developed from it.

There is no belief in a personal god. Buddhists believe that nothing is fixed or

permanent and that change is always possible. The path to enlightenment is
through the practice and development of morality, meditation, and wisdom.
Buddhists believe that life is both endless and subject to impermanence,
suffering, and uncertainty. These states are called the tilakhana or the three
signs of existence. Existence is endless because individuals are reincarnated
over and over again, experiencing suffering throughout many lives. It is
impermanent because no state, good or bad, lasts forever. Our mistaken belief
that things can last is a chief cause of suffering.

Hinduism
 Believed in the caste system.
 No founder.
 People were born into their caste or varna, because of the conduct in a
previous life.
 Beliefs in the sacred texts, the Vedas.
 Older religion and most popular (200 before Christ)

Buddhism
 Opposed to the caste system.
 Founder is Siddartha Gautama.
 Did not believe people should be stuck in just one caste, that they
have the power to change their lives.
 Beliefs in the writings of the Buddha. Told people not to follow the
Vedas.
 Newer religion (500 before Christ)

Santha Rama Rau (January 24, 1923-April 21, 2009)

 One of the best known South Asian writers in postwar America.
 Born into India’s elite in 1923, Rama Rau has lived in the United States
since the 1940. Although she is no longer well known, she was for
several decades a popular expert on India.
 She provided an insider’s view of Indian cultures, traditions, and
history to an American public increasingly aware of the expanded role
of the United States on the world stage.
 Between 1945 and 1970, Rama Rau published half a dozen books,
including travelogues, novels, a memoir, and a Time-Life cookbook,
she was a regular contributor to periodicals such as the New Yorker,
the New York Times, and Reader’s Digest.
By Any Other Name by Santha Rama Rau:
 The work alludes Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, what is in a name?
 The short story is autobiographical, based on the childhood experience
of Santha Rama Rau, who being a girl of five and a half was introduced
 to the English school system back in India when it was under the British
rule.
 It deals with the clash of values and beliefs and the residues of
colonialism or imperialism.
 This short story is one of the pioneering non-hegemonic works of a
subaltern writer.
 It deals with an unforgettable and traumatic experience of Indian girls
who were accused of being cheaters by their British teacher simply
because they were Indians.
 It addresses the question what is politically correct and how it affects
our daily lives.

Lecture 4: Contemporary African Literature

David Diop
 One of the most talented of the younger French West African poets of
the 1950s, whose tragic death in an airplane crash cut short a promising
career.
 Diop’s works in Coups de pilon, his only surviving collection, are angry
poems of protest against European cultural values, enumerating the
sufferings of his people first under the slave trade and then under the
domination of colonial rule and calling for revolution to lead to a glorious
future for Africa. That he was the most extreme of the Negritude writers
(Who were reacting against the assumption underlying the French policy
of assimilation that Africa was a deprived land possessing neither
culture nor history) can be seen in his rejection of the idea that any
good could have come to Africa through the colonial experience and in
his belief that political freedom must precede a cultural and economic
revival. He wrote during the period when the struggle for independence
in many African countries was at its height.

Negritude is a framework of critique and literary theory, developed mainly by

francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians of the African diaspora during
the 1930, aimed at raising and cultivating black consciousness across Africa
and its diaspora.

Connecting to Africa:
 First and foremost, we must examine how Diop connects the reader to
Africa using himself as the medium. There are two main poetic devices
at work here. The first is apostrophe, in which a poet addresses a person
or abstract idea as if it were there. This starts in the very first line, Africa
my Africa, Diop is talking to Africa as if he were sitting with it and having
a conversation. We see this in lines like, I have never known you and is
this you this back that is bent, as well as consistent use of you and your.
 This is coupled with Diop's use of personification, in which non-human
things are given human characteristics. Africa, the continent, is
anthropomorphized and treated like a human. Not only does Diop
attribute human traits to Africa (Like an unbent back, blood, and sweat)
but he also gives it a grave voice that can respond to him, calling him an
impetuous child. These poetic devices help us appreciate Diop's
connection to Africa as an ancestor, a family member. Many critics
 believe that Diop is utilizing an old trope of Africa as a woman and a
mother to the African people. This interpretation partly comes from
Diop's original version of the poem, which was written in French.

Gabriel Okara
 A Nigerian poet and novelist whose verse had been translated into
several languages by the early 1960.
 A largely self-educated man, Okara became a bookbinder after leaving
school and soon began writing plays and features for radio. In 1953 his
poem “The Call of the River Nun” won an award
at the Nigerian Festival of Arts. Some of his poems were published in
the influential periodical Black Orpheus, and by 1960 he was
recognized as an accomplished literary craftsman.

Jomo Kenyatta was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed
Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its
first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He was the country's first
indigenous head of government and played a significant role in the
transformation of Kenya from a colony of the British Empire into an
independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and conservative, he
led the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party from 1961 until his death.