Freedom Narratives in Indian Philosophy

This course stands on the borderline between philosophy and literature. We will read together classical texts, which include Upaniṣadic and Epic chapters. We will also visit the Sāṃkhya-Kārikā, a treatise closely connected to Patañjali's Yogasūtra, and discuss contemporary materials such as the literary work of Mahasweta Devi, Saadat Hasan Manto and Salman Rushdie. We will read these texts with and through contemporary Indian theory, namely papers by Daya Krishna, Gayatri Spivak and Arindam Chakrabarti. The connecting-thread that binds together the different materials which the course consists of is the concept of freedom, to be discussed, dissected and reinterpreted in each of our meetings.