Week I - September 4: Introduction: The Divine Feminine
- The Divine Feminine: two definitions of religion, four levels
of interpretation
- Asian Goddess Traditions: Contending Narratives
- Overview of the Seminar and its Methods
- Recommended:
- Ramanujan, "Is There an Indian Way of Thinking?" (
reserve)
- Gross, "Hindu Female Deities as a Resource for the
Contemporary Rediscovery of the Goddess" (on reserve)
Week II - September 11: Devã: The One and the
Many
- Theologies of the Goddess: ÷aktã,
prakçti , and màyà
- Streams of Tradition in India, China, Tibet, and Beyond
- Sacred Speech (Vàc) and the mother of the gods
- Reading:
- Kinsley, Ch. 9.
- Coburn, Devã: "The Great Goddess" (in
Devã)
- èg Veda, 10.71, 10.125 (reserve)
- Recommended:
- Brown, "The Creative Role of the Goddess Vàc
in the èg Veda" (on reserve)
- Panikkar, The Vedic Experience, pp. 88-112.
Week III - September 18: Goddesses of Nature
- The Goddess as Sacred Ceography
- Goddess as River, as Earth, as Mother
- Amaterasu and the Female Sun
- Reading:
- Eck, "Gaïgà" (Devã)
- Kinsley, Chs. 1, 12 "Amaterasu, "The Japanese Ancestral
Goddess"
- èg Veda, (Selections on Reserve)
Week IV - September 25: Goddesses of Culture
- Lakùmã and Royal Soveregnty
- Saraswatã and the Aquisition of Wisdom
- Reading:
- Kinsley, Chs. 2,4
- Yogavasiùñha (excerpts on
reserve)
- Narayanan, "ørã: Giver of Fortune, Bestower
of Grace" (Devã)
Week V - October 2: The Goddess as Wife
- Sãtà: the ideal wife
- The incarnations of ørã
- Reading:
- Dimmit, "Sãtà: Fertility Goddess and
øaktã" ( reserve)
- Kinsley, Ch.,5
- Sutherland, "Sãtà and Draupadã" (on
reserve)
- Recommended:
- Peter Brook's Film, The Mahàbhàrata
(Part I)
Week VI - October 9: The Divine Consort and the Lover of the
Goddess
- Why "Everyone in Braj is a Woman,"
- The Cult of Ràdhà and The Indian Goddess of
Love
- The Lovers of Kàlã
- Reading:
- Miller (tr.), The Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva's
Gãtagovinda
- Wulff, "Ràdhà: Consort and Conqueror of
Krishna" (Devã))
- Goswami, "Ràdhà: The Play and Perfection of
Rasa" (reserve)
- McLean, Devoted to the Goddess: The Life and Work of
Ramprasad (selections)
- Recommended:
- Kinsley, Chapter 6,
- Hein, "Ràdhà and the Erotic Community"
(reserve)
- Vaudeville, "Krishna Gopàla, Ràdhà,
and the Great Goddess" (DC)
- Mcdaniel, "The Tantric Ràdhà" (reserve)
Week VII - October 23: The Tears of Tàrà
- The Goddess as the giver of grace
- Kuan- Yin and the Chinese Goddess Tradition
- Tàrà, the óakinis and Tibetan
Tantra
- Reading:
- Beyer, The Cult of Tàrà (selections on
reserve)
- Kinsley, Ch. 11, "Kuan-yin, the Chinese Goddess of
Mercy"(reserve)
- Paper, "The Persistence of Female Deities in Patriarchal
China" (reserve)
- Wilson, In Praise of Tara (selections on
reserve)
- Recommended:
- "The Gender Symbolism, of Kuan-Yin Bodhisattva"
(reserve)
- "Red Tàrà" (reserve)
>Field-Work Analysis
Due
Week VIII: October 30: The Daughter of the Mountain
- Satã and the Sacrifice of Dakùa
- øiva and
Parvatã-øiva/øaktã
- Reading:
- Kalidasa, Kumàrasa§bhava (selections on
reserve)
- Kinsley, Ch. 3
- Harlin, "Satã, The Story of Godàvarã"
(Devã)
- Recommended:
- Hawley, Satã, The Blessing & The Curse: The
Burning of Wives in Village India
- Courtright, Satã, Sacrifice, and Marriage: The
Modernity of Tradition
Week IX - Nov. 6: At The Left Hand of the Goddess
Week X - Nov. 13: The Goddess at War: From Durgà
to Kàlã
- Mahiùa-mardinã: the Goddess and her Weapons
- The Blissful Wrath of Kàlã
- Weaver, "India's Bandit Queen" (on reserve)
- Reading:
- Kinsley, Chs. 7,8, "Blood and Death out of Place"
(Devã)
- Caldwell, "Bhagavati: Ball of Fire"
(Devã)
- Recommended:
- Kripal, Kinsley, Chs.9,10
- Berkson, The Divine and the Demoniac: Mahi÷a's
Struggle with Durgà
Week XI - November 20: Goddess as Mother
- The Making of a Goddess
- The Politics of Divinity
- Reading:
- Kurtz: All The Mothers are One
- Mckean, "Bhàrat Màtà: Mother India and
Her Militant Matriots"
- Film:
- Recommended:
- Neumann, The Great Mother
- Downing, The Goddess: Mythological Images of the
Feminine
- Erndl, Victory to the Mother
Week XII - November 27: Goddesses of Possession, Healing, and
Disease
Class Presentations Begin
- Goddesses of Death, Disease, and Transformation
- Shamanism and Spirit Possession: Bearing the Heat
- The Devã Bhàv of Amritananda Mayi Ma
- Reading:
- Dimock, "A Theology of the Repulsive: The Myth of the
Goddess øãtalà" (reserve)
- Erndl, "øeràïvàlã: The
Mother Who Possesses" (Devi)
- Kinsley, Ch. 11
- "Ammachi" (selections on reserve)
- Recommended:
- Dimock, "The Goddess of Snakes in Medieval Bengali
Literature" (History of Religions 1, no.2, Winter 1962)
, Part two with A.K. Ramanujan in History of Religions
(3, no.2. Winter, 1964)
- Wed Evening Film Festival:
- øãtalà in Spring, Bearing the
Heat
Week XIII- Dec. 4: Kàlã Beyond All Borders
December 11, 12. 7:30pm: Class Presentations