Week 7: Buck's Ramayana (pp. 325-432)Assignments - Reading Guide A - Reading Guide B - Ramayana Resources |
|
|
|
|
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. |
A Battle Song for Jambavan, Hanuman and Sugriva. Re-read Buck's account of Jambavan's battle with the demons, and how Hanuman and Sugriva united to defeat the demon magicians Lightning Tongue and Thunder Tooth. After you have visualized all the drama and details clearly in your mind, write the words to a ballad commemorating this battle!
A Battle Song for Kaikeyi. Were you surprised to learn about Kaikeyi's actions as Daśaratha's charioteer? Buck provides a detailed account of her participation in the battle against the drought demons. Re-read Buck's account of this battle and after you have visualized all the drama and details clearly in your mind, write the words to a ballad about Kaikeyi the charioteer!
Sita and the Ramayana. Buck describes in detail the night that Śatrughna spends in Valmiki's heritage, describing how he felt lying there listening to the song sung by Kusa and Lava. But what about Sita? How does she feel as she listens to Valmiki composing the words of the Ramayana, and teaching the song to her sons? What is she thinking when Śatrughna comes to the hermitage with the invitation to the festival? Imagine an inner monologue as Sita also spends that night listening to the singing of Kusa and Lava, and what she thinks and feels about that.
Trijata at the Festival. Buck tells us that Trijata, the old demon who had been kind to Sita in Lanka, comes to the festival together with Vibhishana, but that is all that Buck says about her. For your story, tell Trijata's experience at the festival. What does she expect to see? What does she find there? What does she think about what has happened to Sita? (Remember that it was Vibhishana who intervened with Narada to send Valmiki to help Sita: do you think Trijata knows about all of that too?). You can choose to tell your story in Trijata's own words, or using third-person narration.
Janaka and Sita . As you saw, Buck devotes considerable attention to Janaka, Sita's father, and his philosophical reflections about what is happening. He provides a long dialogue between Janaka and Rama, for example. Yet we do not see Janaka having a dialogue with Sita. Buck only tells us that: Janaka embraced his daughter Sita. 'I sowed seed in Earth and tended her, and she bore you to me from a plowed field. I've loved you all our life, though I let you marry and go.' - but Buck does not give Sita's reply. What do you think Sita would say to Janaka at this moment? What kind of dialogue would the two of them have?
The Statue of Sita. Rama had a golden statue of Sita, but when Sita was briefly restored to him the statue was "carried away" before she arrived. When he loses her again, he goes back to "keeping her golden statue by him in her palace rooms." What do you think finally happens to that statue after the story is over, after Rama and all his friends and followers have departed this earth? Tell a story about the fate of that statue. What happened to it? Where became of the golden image of Sita in the end?
 |
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 |