…as seen by the people around him, namely Mrs. Minnies and Mrs. Crawford as well as Douglas, Olivia, and Harry. Your lesson results are ready to be downloaded.

Download doesn’t mean save and forget. Use them as a starting point for your own ideas. Add to them, comment on them in your blogs.

The mindmap we made on the relationships will be published soon.

@home:

• read up to page 76 and pay special attention to “the Harry situation”
• in that especially to the Nawab and Douglas’ behaviour towards Harry and each other
• also, look out for moments of foreshadowing

The suttee

“Being in favour of a barbaric ritual like the suttee reveals Olivia to be unreasonable, naive and disloyal. Her infatuation with the Indian culture makes her ignore that oppression, barbarism and cruelty are rife in this country.”

Read pages 56 to 61 again and comment on the thesis above.

Links

If you haven’t already, skim through the pages you’ve read so far again and create a list of the links between the two plotlines. Do not only look at places but also at people, people’s behaviour and situations in the two plotlines.

Hey Course,

unfortunately, as you probably read in the email by now, I have been struck down by the flu and won’t be able to attend school tomorrow. So, consider this an early warning. No lessons on Monday.

As far as the missed lessons are concerned, please check the blog tomorrow afternoon as I will have managed to post some things for you to do by then.

We got into the novel during the last few lessons and had a really close look at the characters. I don’t know if you also got that feeling but I think we definitely need to do something on the background, the setting of the two plotlines. So, homework for Monday is to create pages in your blogs which contain information on Satipur and Simla, as well as the Hippies in India in the seventies (Goa might be a starting point). As Satipur, as you might want to point out, is fictional places, you have to use what you can get from the text and what you can find on the net about similar places to complete this task.

Also, read on to page 76. Keep working on your blog, i.e. present summaries, information on the characters, your thoughts on what you read (e.g. the development of the plot, behaviour of the characters, stylistic features).

A comment concerning pictures: Remember, there is a copyright on almost everything on the net. Be careful not to just use any picture you find. Try the Wikimedia Commons for free material that you are allowed to use without any copyright inflictions. There also is Stock Xchng where you have to register and then usually only inform the owner of a picture to be okay to use it without any copyright problems.

Continue reading up to page 49 for those lessons on Monday. Also, work on your reading blogs, adding summaries, information on characters, and the setting. Try to make this a regular thing, publish something at least once a week. Remember, this is to help you when revising for the final exams.

And again, please visit your course mates’ blogs and leave comments there. Discuss what they have written and what you’ve written with them.

One thing to publish might be a short text about the author including some advice on how to pronounce her name.

Also, make notes on points worth discussion in course.

Right, you’ve written your exam and I am sure you did well!

So, now, something fun for you to do:

Relax!

On Wednesday I will be in the Felix Nussbaum Haus in Osnabrück. (If you want to know more about is, look here.)

So, we meet again on Thursday.

Please finish reading the first three diary entries if you haven’t already.

Then …

1. Fill all the blanks in the table concerning the people mentioned in the first diary entry you started in the lesson today. Maybe you could publish some or all of it in your blog.

2. Imagine the unkempt European described in the diary (the one with the monkey) summons the energy to write a very short biography. In the biography he tells us about when he came to India, why he came and what makes him live the way he lives. It should also become visible what his attitude towards India is now. Publish it in your blog and let others comment on it as you comment on the work of your course mates. Additional: Tobi reminded me that I should specify the parameters on this one. So, keep it short, about a third of a page. That should be enough to get the main aspects in and give everybody enough to comment on.

3. Do a research on the internet to find out more about the life of the Europeans in India after 1947. Try to find out about the lifestyles of middle-class and upper-class people, something on the British behaviour in the Indian colony. (You could start here, here or there (search for 1947 and read on from where you found it) with the first introductory comment in the novel on “The British Administration …”. In the second and the third diary entry you also get some information on living conditions and something on Indian society. Post good websites you find in your blog and post them here as a comment for the rest to find them.)

4. Only do this if you have finished task three! Download the word document My life in India and using the information you got from you research and the ideas you’ve used in you fictitious biography to comment on the text. Make suggestions how to improve it.

5. Start your online reading blog. An example of what could be put in there and how it could be presented can be found here. Remember that the blog is meant to be an aid during reading and also for the revision before the final exams next spring. Also, I will check you blogs to see whether you do your homework and the reading journal bit - which is to be considered to be a long term homework. Thus, the blog will be part of your oral mark.

Right, although those quotations weren’t easy, some of them should be understandable, e.g II, III, IV-2.

1. Choose one stereotyped or illusory quote from the list (copy you got today) and comment on it in your blog.

2. Make up a wise as well as concise statement that defines Anglo-Indian relationships in the past and in the present and publish it in your blog.

3. Read the definitions in at least four of your course mates’ blogs and comment on them.

4. Publish at least two comments you received.

5. If you haven’t already, do the pre-reading task in your blog and then start reading the novel.

All right, I decided against watching “Gandhi” before the easter holiday as it seems better to do something on the British Empire first. Those of you who had history last semester should be pretty well informed but I don’t know whether this is everyone or just a part of the course. So, we will do some stuff on it together, to make sure we all know what the British Empire is all about.

Monday 3rd: We’ll have an in depth look at “A Pair of Jeans” using the worksheets you did in the last lesson and at home. Discussion between Farook’s parents and the unhappy couple.

Wednesday 5th: A quick word on point of view in the story “A Pair of Jeans” and maybe on its theme. (Think about it at home.) Then we take a look at the British Empire.

@home for this lesson:

• look up what a “sari” is and what it looks like
• read the copies on “The Rise and Fall of the British Empire” (basics can also be found here), read all but be an expert on you specific part