Week 5: Buck's Ramayana (pp. 110-218)Assignments - Reading Guide A - Reading Guide B - Ramayana Resources |
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Your assignment is to choose one of the story retelling suggestions listed below. If you want to write on a different topic, contact the instructor first (make sure you do that at least one day before the deadline so that you can receive an answer back in time).
Author's Note. You need to include a brief author's note in which you explain the storytelling style you chose along with any important changes you made to the original story in creating your own version.
Image. You are required to include at least one image with the story, along with a link to the webpage where you found the image, plus information about the image. You are free to re-use the images you find at the course website, or you can choose some other image to use that you find on the internet. Remember: even if you are re-using an image from the course website, you need to provide image information about it.
Title. You need to include the words "Storytelling for Week ___" in the title you give to the post, along with a title for your actual story (for example, "Storytelling for Week 2: Inside the Mind of Manthara")
Length. Your Storytelling post needs to be a minimum of 300 words long (maximum 1000 words). Make sure you do a spellcheck and a word count, and that you proofread your post by reading it out loud.
When you are done, complete the Gradebook Declaration.
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY: I have published a blog post with the words "Storytelling for Week ___" in the title, along with a specific title for my story. My post is between 300 words minimum and 1000 words maximum. I have spellchecked and proofread the post. I have included an author's note. I have included an image, along with Image Information. |
Jatayu's funeral. Describe Jatayu's funeral, with specific details you can imagine about the setting and about the ritual that might have been performed, along with the words spoken by Rama and Lakshmana. You can include the reactions of the gods too (and remember what Indra says to Sita about Jatayu, p. 180).
Vatapi and Ilwala. Tell the story of the demon brothers in a new setting, and make it clear who the storyteller is and who the audience is. Is this a mother trying to tell her little boys a story to make sure they behave? Is this someone trying to tell a scary story about the forest to keep someone from going into the forest? Is this someone praising the sage Agastya and his powers? Be very clear about who is telling the story, to whom and why.
Śurpanakha. Buck tells us that "Surpanakha left Lanka and went to the Asura underworlds beneath the sea, and there she married." Imagine your version of what happens to Śurpanakha in her life after she leaves Lanka. Why did she go to the underworlds? What kind of creature did she marry? How did she look back on her life? (You might compare/contrast what you know about Maricha after his encounter with Rama.)
Rambha and Nalakubara. Tell your version of the story of Rambha and Nalakubara, either in Rambha's words, or in Nalakubara's words, or in a dialogue between the two of them. You can include as much or as little of the story as you want (Buck tells the story beginning with Rambha being sent to Viśwamitra up to Nalakubara's cursing of Ravana.)
Birth of Hanuman. Choose a moment in the story of the creation of monkeys and the birth of Hanuman and write it using a rich physical description of the setting and of the characters in the story. The idea in this story is not to focus on words and dialogue, but on coming up with a rich description. There are many "moments" in the story you could choose from: how Riksharaja fought with the reflected monkey and changed gender; how the gods Indra and Surya fell for Riksharaja; how Vayu chose Anjana; how Anjana abandoned Hanuman; how Hanuman reached for the sun; how Indra knocked Hanuman from the sky; how the wind ceased moving when it cradled Hanuman. Choose just one of these moments (or some other specific moment in the story), and provide a rich physical description of it.
The death of Vali. You probably noticed the dramatic differences between Narayan's version of the death of Vali (following the Ramayana by the Tamil poet Kamban) and Buck's version of the death of Vali (following the Ramayana by the legendary Sanskrit poet Valmiki). Write your own version of the death of Vali drawing on both of these versions.
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Modern Languages MLLL-4993. Indian Epics. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. The textual material made available at this website is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. No claims are made regarding the status of images used at this website; if you own the copyright privileges to any of these images and believe your copyright privileges have been violated, please contact the webmaster. Page last updated: January 15, 2005 1:35 AM |