Time Required: At least 3-6 class periods plus reading at home. An introductory lesson or two might be needed to give background information to students on the history, culture, tradition, and religion of the Himalayan region before reading the literature. Also, depending on the students, honors, modified, ESL, etc., lessons can be and should be modified to accommodate their reading and writing level.

Background Information:

(Appendix A) Background Material on Nepal (for those educators who do not have a background on Nepal)
(Appendix A1) Map
(Appendix A1a) Background Note
(Appendix A2) History (given for those educators who do not have a background on Nepal)
(Appendix A2a): Religion: Hinduism
(Appendix A2b): Religion: Buddhism
(Appendix A3)Values of family, family ideals; variations in family structure
(Appendix A4) Languages
(Appendix A4a) Scripts
(Appendix A5) Literary History of Nepal
(Appendix A5a) Contemporary Nepali Literature
(Appendix A5b) Analysis of Modern Nepali Literature
(Appendix A5c) Nepali Short Story Writers
(Appendix A6) Bibliography of Fiction, Literary History, Criticism, and Anthologies by writers from Nepal and about Nepal
(Appendix A6a) Bibliography of Texts Used in NEH 2008
(Appendix A7) Hilton and Lost Horizon
(Appendix A7a) Kipling and Kim
(Appendix A7b) Modern Nepalese Writer: Manjushree Thapa
(Appendix A7c) Mdern Nepalese Writer: Samrat Upadhyay
(Appendix A7d) Additional Nepalese Writers

Instructional Objectives:

As a result of these lessons, students will be able to:

understand and appreciate the literature by writers of Nepal
analyze and discuss themes in the literature of Nepali writers
explore the power and significance of writers of Nepal
appraise the women characters in the writers of Nepal
discover and understand the historical and cultural significance of Nepali writers (either ex-pats or emmigrants to the Western world)

Materials Required:
Teachers should choose several different pieces of literature after reading a fair sample of stories from the lists provided (or any others of their choosing). Teachers may want to choose a particular theme based on cultural or historic background given to students. All stories, poems, folktales should be reproduced from the selected texts, and the “one time” use rule of printed material will apply. Depending on the number of students in the class, reproduce only enough so students do not duplicate stories (i.e., four stories for four students, etc.). You may of course use whole texts as well as short stories, poems, and essays. But the lessons of the whole unit would of course take longer than a few days. For the purpose of this curriculum project, I have included only more “modern” literature. The modern literature of Nepal discussed here concentrates more on prose, not poetry.

Applicable New York State Board of Regents Standards (see Appendix B), New York State Board of Regents Comprehensive Examination in English (see Appendix B1).

Instructional Objective/Students Will Be Able to: examine the literature of Nepali writers and appreciate and appraise its value in modern Nepali society

AIM/Cue for Students: How is the literature from Nepal different or similar to other world literatures?

Anticipatory Set/Motivation: What makes literature uniquely American, or Jewish, or Polish, or English or African, etc.? Why? (The motivation can lead from the previous literature read and discussed in class: i.e., Shakespeare, John Steinbeck, Bernard Malamud, Richard Wright, etc.)

Congruent and Sequenced Teacher Actions/Activities and Directions/Information Sources/Teacher Directed Student Actions/Development/Procedure:

Part One:

Several pieces of literature will be reproduced. The length of the stories might vary. (See bibliographies attached Appendix A6. Appendix A7 should be used by the teacher to assess the literary history and criticism of specific authors or works.)

Materials should be provided so that students will get a variety of stories from Nepal, and from Western writers

Part Two:
The First (or Second) Day (depending on how much time will be needed for background information on history, culture, tradition, and religion):

Students will choose anywhere from three-four stories from Nepal and/or Tibet groups to read at home and on which to take notes in a journal/literature log (see attached explanation in Appendix C1 ) before text based discussion in class.
Students will be divided into like groups: each group will have read the same story (groups should be determined by the teacher). Students will compare notes, discuss relevant themes and analyze characters. This procedure is called “jigsaw” (see attached Appendix D).
One student in each group will be appointed the recorder. This student’s responsibility is to record what each student in the group has contributed to the discussion. One student in each group will be appointed the reporter and “report back” to the class in plenary (either on the same day or after completing the text based discussion of all stories).
Each student’s notes and the recorder’s notes will be stapled together at the end of the lesson for teacher assessment.
The teacher will join each group, in turn, walk around the room to listen to discussions, and help facilitate this activity.
This activity should take at least three to four class periods. Each individual day will be devoted stories from Nepal and/or Tibet, then Western stories.

The Second (Third) Day:
The first day’s activities will be repeated with additional stories based on a different and/or similar theme, or different writers (possibly by Western writers, i.e. Kim, Lost Horizon). Follow steps 3-6.

The Third (Fourth) Day:

On this day, students will be put into unlike groups: groups can be mixed with students discussing stories from Day One and/or Day Two (groups should be determined by the teacher).
Each student will discuss what he or she has learned from the stories he/she has read; and from listening to the other students in their like and unlike groups, draw conclusions about themes, similarity and differences in characters, how traditional culture and religion affect modern peoples of Nepal.
The teacher will again join each group, in turn, walk around the room to listen to discussions, and help facilitate discussion.
A recorder will write down what has been discussed and a reporter will report back to the class on the findings of each group.

(The teacher might also want to reserve an extra day for discussion by the class in plenary of their discoveries, etc., on each story. Text based discussion of related themes, relevance to history and culture, and significance for modern day culture would help enhance students’ understanding of each story.)

Closure/Final Summary/Conclusion/Application:

Students will be given a Regents-type essay to write in which they must compare and contrast at least two stories they have read using a “critical lens” This essay question and the critical lens can be discussed the day before the actual essay writing, or the teacher can give the essay as a take home exam.

A critical lens is a quote which has broad significance, and literature can be used to illustrate the validity of the quote (Appendix E).

Evaluation:

Students’ literature logs (journals/notes), recorder’s notes, and students’ culminating essay would be graded according to the “rubric” of the New English Regents of the State of New York (see attached Appendix F, F1).

The choice of literature should be left to the individual teacher after he/she has read and evaluated first person accounts, excerpts from novels, whole novels, or short stories. Poems and essays can be included in some collections and anthologies which teachers might want to supplement to give a wider variety of genres. Those works published in the United States are somewhat more readily available through online bookstores. Those works published in Nepal or Tibet are more difficult to get. Some publications are out of print and may pose a problem. Online bookstores do offer used and rare book sales through affifiates.

Please check bibliographies below for titles and authors under fiction by writers from Nepal, and literary history and criticism.

This site was created by Benyonne Schwortz at the NEH Summer Institute "Literatures, Religions, and Arts of the Himalayan Region," held at the College of the Holy Cross, Summer 2008.