English Teachers’ Accounts : Essays on the Teacher, the Text and the Indian Classroom

This book looks at the figure of the English teacher in Indian classrooms and examines the practice and relevance of English and India’s colonial legacy, many decades after liberalization. The book is an account of the varied experiences of teaching English in universities in different parts of the country. It highlights the shifts in curriculum and teaching practices and how the discipline lent itself to a study of culture, historical contexts, the fashioning of identities or reform over the years. The volume also analyses the dramatic changes in the composition of the English classroom in terms of gender, class, caste and indigenous communities in recent decades, as well as the shifts in teaching strategies and curriculum which the new diversity necessitated. The essays in the collection also examine the distinctiveness of English practice in India through classroom accounts which explore themes like post-coloniality, feminism and human rights through the study of texts from Shakespeare, Beckett, Doris Lessing and poetry from the Northeast. This book will be of interest to academics, researchers, students and practitioners of English Studies, education, colonial studies, cultural studies and South Asian studies, as well as those concerned with the history of higher education and the establishment of disciplines and institutions. This book looks at the figure of the English teacher in Indian classrooms and examines the practice and relevance of English and India’s colonial legacy, many decades after liberalization. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 List of contributors 10 Preface and acknowledgements 13 Introduction: The teacher, the text and the Indian classroom 16 Whose business is it to think about the discipline? 23 Writing about oneself in the classroom 24 Works cited 33 Chapter 1: The haunted classroom: The afterlife of allusions 35 Notes 48 Works cited 48 Chapter 2: Teaching Cymbeline during India’s #MeToo moment 50 When women choose 51 When men talk ... 53 Interim 57 And we all live happily ever after 58 Notes 60 Works cited 61 Chapter 3: English, human rights and literature in the postcolonial classroom 62 I 63 II 65 III 67 IV 70 Conclusion 72 Works cited 73 Chapter 4: Critical pedagogy: Theorizing the literatures of Northeast India 75 Work cited 90 Chapter 5: The fissured surface of the text: Reading the gaps and silences in A Passage to India 92 The theoretical manifesto for reading 94 Reading A Passage to India in the classroom 96 Close reading, students’ interpretation and filling in gaps 97 Students’ misconception about the “assault” on Adela Quested 98 Students’ participation in the discussion 99 Students’ presentation and a close reading of the text 100 Students’ identification of the sections that best illustrate Ronny’s traits 102 Students’ presentation of Mrs Moore’s experience in the caves 106 A dialogical response from a student 108 David Lean’s screen adaptation and its deviation from Forster’s text 108 Students’ reaction to Professor Godbole 112 Works cited 114 Chapter 6: Cultural intersections and nature writing: Teaching nature poetry 117 I 119 II 120 III 122 IV 123 V 127 Notes 131 Works cited 132 Chapter 7: Traversing distances and differences: Teaching Kanthapura 133 Introduction 133 Situating the text in the larger context 135 Challenges of bridging the cultural interspace 138 The troubled reception of a nationalist text in an NE classroom 141 Boring Sthalapurana and post/modern engagements 143 Too long; read only the summary and important aspects 144 Conclusion 146 Works cited 147 Chapter 8: Pedagogy, performance and transgression: Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot 149 Waiting for Godot in the class 149 Waiting for Godot in the Garo Hills 152 The classroom as performance space 154 Teaching or facilitating? 156 Turning Beckett’s language upside down 158 Digressions and divergences 160 Abil and Bile as agents of change 164 Not waiting for Godot 166 Notes 166 Works cited 167 Chapter 9: Teaching postcoloniality through The Grass Is Singing 168 I 171 II 173 III 177 IV 180 V 182 Works cited 184 Chapter 10: Uncomfortable questions and answers: Teaching Death in Venice 185 I 185 II 186 III 188 IV 191 V 193 Works cited 196 Chapter 11: A portrait of the researcher as a young teacher: James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in the classroom 1 198 “Preparatory to anything else”: decisions and revisions prior to teaching 200 Class on Portrait at the University of Hyderabad, October 2018 201 On the shores of Ireland: Contextualizing Portrait 203 Playing with words: classrooms as portals of discovery 205 Portraits of Portrait : classroom activities and exercises 207 Thinking about race, gender, class, and language 209 The “smithy” of the Joyce text: final reflections on teaching and research 211 Notes 213 Works cited 213 Index 215 #MeToo,moment;,critical,pedagogy;,cultural,intersections;,Cymbeline;,Death,in,Venice;,English,Literature;,English,teacher;,human,rights;,Indian,classrooms;,Kanthapura;,nature,poetry;,nature,writing;,Northeast,India;,performance,studies;,postcolonial,classroom;,postcoloniality;,The,Grass,Is,Singing;,Waiting,for,Godot #MeToo moment,critical pedagogy,cultural intersections,Cymbeline,Death in Venice,English Literature,English teacher,human rights,Indian classrooms,Kanthapura,nature poetry,nature writing,Northeast India,performance studies,postcolonial classroom,postcoloniality,The Grass Is Singing,Waiting for Godot This book looks at the figure of the English teacher in Indian classrooms and examines the practice and relevance of English and India's colonial legacy, many decades after independence. The book is an account of the varied experiences of teaching English in universities in different parts of the country. It highlights the changes in curriculum and teaching practices and how the discipline lent itself to a study of culture, historical contexts, the fashioning of identities or reform over the years. The volume presents the dramatic changes in the composition of the English classroom in terms of gender, class, caste and indigenous communities in recent decades, as well as the shifts in teaching strategies and curriculum which the new diversity necessitated. The essays in the collection also examine the distinctiveness of English practice in India through classroom accounts which explore themes like post-coloniality, feminism and human rights through the study of texts by Shakespeare, Beckett, Doris Lessing and poetry from the Northeast. This book will be of interest to academics, researchers, students and practitioners of English Studies, education, colonial studies, cultural studies and south Asian studies, as well as those concerned with the history of higher education and the establishment of disciplines and institutions