Dear Arushi,

Did you get my last e-mail regarding the final project for war and community? In case you didnt here it is please let me knmow whether its ok;

The idea i have for my final project in the 'War and Community' course is, a reading of Milan Kundera's "The Book of Laughter and forgetting" in relation to memory.

The book is soemwhat semi-biographical and amongst its themes relates to the political erasure of identity and the stifling of individual memory in Prague, Chek republic.

The analysis i have in mind would look at how political memory is discusssed by Kundera in a policed state, and what conflicts can be identified when the individual and the state have contrasting political views in the premise of memory, and how identity is politicised.

The theory component basically would be 'political memory.'

The idea of conflcit and ethnicity i feel can be discsused in relation to S.J Tambiah's article because the identity of Prague is discussed by Kundera in the gravity of a crisis to the individual who identifies with a certain cultural/histrical ethos that would very likely be part of the individual's personal idenity.

I know you must be packed with a million things to do with going abroad in a couple of days and all, i'd really appreciate your idea on this at your earliest convinience.

thanks,

best wishes

-Ranshan
