“VIDYASAGAR UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Proposed Syllabus for English PG course
Course-structure: Semester: English
The Dept. of English Vidyasagar University is offering M.A. Course in English under the Semester CBCS system with the following syllabus.
The syllabus assumes in the students an interest in higher learning and aims at equipping them for an academic career. This syllabus has been framed keeping in mind the recommendations of the CDC regarding various emerging areas in English Studies.
The Post graduate programme in this system will be divided into 18 (eighteen) core courses (of 50 marks each) and 2 (two) Extra-Departmental courses and will consist of Four Semesters to be covered in two years: the First and the Second Semesters in the first year, and the Third and the Fourth in the second year. For each course: Total marks: 50 (Theoretical Exam: 40; Internal Assessment: 10). We offer two extra-departmental courses as a part of Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) one each in the Second Semester (Course No 204) and in the Third Semester ( Course No 304).
Each Course is divided into three units. Essay type questions of 14 marks each will be set on texts from all the three units, of which a candidate will answer any two (14×2=28). A candidate will be required to write 3 comments on lines/phrases/ scenes/episodes taken from these texts, by choosing one from each unit (4×3=12).
In the 4th Semester Courses 402 and 403 will consist of 2 optional papers each and Course 404, of 3 optional papers. A candidate will choose one optional paper for each of these courses.
SEMESTER: I
Course No: 101: Poetry I (Medieval to Pre-Romantic) 50 marks (6 credits)
This course is devised for providing an overview of poetic literature from the Age of Chaucer to the pre-Romantic period in the history of English literature. The major landmark was the work of Chaucer (c. 1343–1400), especially The Canterbury Tales. During the Renaissance, especially the late 16th and early 17th centuries, major works of drama and poetry were produced by Spenser, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Donne and other writers. Another great poet, from later in the 17th century, was Milton (1608–74), author of Paradise Lost(1667). The late 17th and the early 18th centuries are particularly associated with the genre of satire, especially in the poetry of Dryden and Pope. The poet, painter, and printmaker William Blake (1757–1827) was another major precursor of Romantic poetry. Largely disconnected from the major streams of the literature of the time, Blake was generally ignored during his lifetime, but is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the early Romantic period. This course contains representative texts of all these poets.
Unit 01: [Any two]
- Chaucer: Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
- Spenser: The Faerie Queene Bk I
- Shakespeare’s sonnets (selections)
Unit 02: [Any two]
- Donne: ‘The Canonization’, ‘The Exstasie’
- Marvell: ‘The Garden’ ‘An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland’
- Milton: Paradise Lost Book IV
Unit 03: [Any two]
- Pope: ‘Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot’
- Blake: Selections from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience,
- Dryden: ‘Absalom and Achitophel’’
Recommended reading:
- C.S. Lewis: The Discarded Image.
- Hardin Craig: The Enchanted Glass.
- Douglas Bush: Mythology and the Renaissance Tradition in English Poetry.
- Stephen Greenblatt: Renaissance Self-fashioning.
- Basil Willey: The Seventeenth century Background: Studies in the Thought of the Age in
- Relation to Poetry and Religion
- Christopher Hill: Milton and the English Revolution.
- Ian Jack: Augustan Satire: Intention and Idiom in English Poetry 1660-1750.
- William Empson: Seven Types of Ambiguity.
- Wilson Knight: The Mutual Flame: an Interpretation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets.
- Harold Bloom: The Anxiety of Influence
Course No: 102: Drama I (Medieval to Romantic) 50 marks (6 credits)
This section covers the progress of British drama over the centuries. The Morality drama, represented here by the anonymous play Everyman, marked the beginnings of a rich dramatic tradition. Set within the eschatological framework of Christian theology, this early play explored, however crudely, the problem of evil that has continued to haunt English drama down the ages. Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure or King Lear, for that matter, have taken this tradition to newer heights. The Tempest, a representative play of the last phase of the Shakespearean canon, has become the paradigmatic text of the post-colonial era with its almost uncanny insights into the nuanced relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. Ben Jonson’s Volpone and Congreve’s The Way of the World, included in this section, represent the tradition of satirical comedy that ballasts the romantic tradition. If Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer and Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound are too diverse in spirit to be mentioned in the same breath, they may well illustrate the variety within this dramatic tradition.
Unit 01: (Any two)
Everyman
Jonson: Volpone
Unit 02: (Any two)
Shakespeare:
The Tempest
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Unit 03: Congreve: The Way of the World; Goldsmith: She stoops to Conquer, Shelley: Prometheus Unbound (Any two)
Recommended reading:
- Richard Beadle (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre
- E. Cassirer, P.O. Kristeller and J.H. Randall (ed): The Renaissance Philosophy of Man.
- E.K. Chambers: William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems
- A. L. Rowse: The Elizabethan Renaissance.
- L.C. Knights: Drama and Society in the Age of Jonson.
- G.E. Bentley: The Jacobean and Caroline Stage.
- Stanley Wells: Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies
- Raymond Williams: The Country and the City.
- Marilyn Butler: Romantics, Rebels and Reactionaries.
Course No: 103: 50 marks (6 credits)
Fictional and Non-fictional Prose – 18th and 19th Centuries
The first unit of the course comprises texts (Robinson Crusoe, Tom Jones and Tristram Shandy) that are significant with reference to the rise of the Novel as a literary genre in the 18th Century. The first two texts to a fair extent follow the form and genre of Picaresque novel although the plot of Tom Jones is never episodic as in a Picaresque novel. Tristram Shandy is markedly different from the two other texts for here the newly found form of the novel has been turned upside down and inside out. It has been extremely influential on the fictional writing of the 20th Century. The second unit includes three canonical novels of the Victorian Age (Great Expectations, Middlemarch and Tess of the D’urbervilles) each representative of the novelists, respectively Charles Dickens, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy. Three non-fictional prose works of the 18th and 19th Centuries including an early feminist text by Mary Wollstonecraft, selections from the periodical essays of Addison and Dr Johnson’s celebrated “Life of Cowley” in which Dr Johnson critiques Metaphysical Poetry come under the third unit.
Unit 01: Defoe: Robinson Crusoe; Fielding: Tom Jones, Sterne: Tristram Shandy(Any two)
Unit 02: Dickens: Great Expectations; George Eliot: Middlemarch; Hardy: Tess of the D’urbervilles, (Any two)
Unit 03: Addison: Coverley Papers — selections; Dr. Johnson: Life of Cowley;
Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women [Any two]
Recommended reading:
Ian Watt: The Rise of the Novel.
James Clifford (ed.): Eighteenth Century Literature: Modern Essays in Criticism.
James Sambrook: The Eighteenth Century: The Intellectual and Cultural Context of
Literature 1700-1789.
G.M. Trevelyan: English Social History.
G.M. Young: Victorian England: Portrait of an Age
H. Porter Abbott: The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative.
Ellen Rooney(ed): The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Literary Theory.
Carole R. McCann and Seung-kyung Kim (ed): Feminist Literary Theory Reader.
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Course No: 104: Poetry II (19th Century) 50marks (6 credits)
The course is designed to provide a map of nineteenth century British poetry. Unit-1 and part of Unit-2 deal with some of the representative texts of what we call Romantic poetry. Students are expected to learn about how and when Romanticism came to be used as a term describing a trend as well as a period in English literature. Unit-3 and part f Unit-2 include some representative texts from Victorian poetry to give the students an idea about the major concerns of the age.
Unit 01: Wordsworth: Prelude BK I / Coleridge: ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, ‘Kubla
Khan’;/ Byron: ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’, First Canto (Any two)
Unit 02: Keats: Induction to ‘Fall of Hyperion’/ ‘Ode to Psyche’, ‘Ode on Melancholy’/
Tennyson: In Memoriam (selections)/ Matthew Arnold: The Scholar Gipsy, Shakespeare (Any two)
Unit 03: Browning: ‘Andrea Del Sarto’, ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’; Hopkins: ‘Felix Randal’, ‘The
Windhover’, ‘I wake and feel’, ‘Thou art indeed Just, Lord’/ Rossetti: ‘Goblin Market’ (Any two)
Recommended reading:
Boris Ford (ed): New Pelican Guide to English Literature Vol. 5
E. J. Hobsbawm: The Age of Revolutions: 1789 – 1848
Stuart Curran: The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism
Robin Gilmour: The Victorian Period: The Intellectual and the Cultural Context of English Literature, 1830 – 1890
Maurice Bowra: The Romantic Imagination
Course No: 105: Field Survey and Documentation of Dalit and Tribal Cultural Texts 50 marks (6 credits)
In order to facilitate the ongoing field survey and documentation of Dalit and Tribal Cultural Texts under the UGC SAP-DRS II programme in the Department of English, this new course has been designed with a view to accommodating the students’ inputs as far as practicable. The basic objective of the course is to acquaint the students with the thrust area of the departmental research scheme. They would also be made familiar with the methods and methodologies of field survey and documentation. The findings of the students would also be discussed in workshops and seminars and some of them may be part of the publication schedule of the department in future.
Recommended reading:
Gabriele Griffin (ed.). Research Methods for English Studies.
Martyn Hammersley. Reading Ethnographic Research: A Critical Guide.
James Clifford and George E. Marcus (eds.). Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography.
SEMESTER II
Course No: 201: Drama II (19th and 20th Centuries) 50 marks (6 credits)
If the ‘well-made’ plays of Jones and Pinero lacked the stylistic sophistication of an Oscar Wilde or a Bernard Shaw, it must be said in fairness to them that they, at any rate, tried to salvage English drama from the morass of sentimentality where it lay at the moment. The Importance of Being Earnest, included in this section, is a typical Wildean play, its hall-mark being scintillating wit and satire. But the more decisive influence in altering the course of English drama was undoubtedly that of Bernard Shaw. The play, Saint Joan, represents the group of plays embodying the Shavian interpretation of history which derives its uniqueness from the philosophical underpinnings which Shaw provides in the famous preface to this play. Ibsen’s Doll’s House, a Norwegian play in translation, is included for its distinct bearings upon British drama. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World and Galsworthy’s Justice have been included as two other important dramatic landmarks. Murder in the Cathedral appearing in this section cheek by jowl with the absurdist plays of Pinter and Stoppard may again illustrate the continual theatrical tradition of experimenting with form and content on English stage.
Unit 01: Wilde: Importance of Being Earnest; Synge: Playboy of the Western World, Galsworthy: Justice (Any two)
Unit 02: Ibsen: A Doll’s House/ Shaw: Saint. Joan/ Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral (Any two)
Unit 03: Harold Pinter: The Birthday Party; Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Brecht: Mother Courage (Any two)
Recommended reading:
Martin Esslin: Theatre of the Absurd
Bernard Bergonzi: Wartime and Aftermath: English Literature and its Background
Martin Meisel : Shaw and the 19th-Century Theatre ( Princeton University Press)
Daniel Dervin, Bernard Shaw: A Psychological Study.
B.W, Downs : Ibsen : The Intellectual Background CUP
James McFarlane (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen
Allen Tate , (ed). T. S. Eliot: The Man and His Work,
Course No: 202: 50 marks (6 credits)
Fictional and Non-fictional Prose II (19th and 20th Century Texts)
The first unit of the course comprises three non-fictional prose pieces from the 19th and 20th Centuries. Culture and Anarchy has a sub-title “An Essay in Political and Social Criticism” which points to Matthew Arnold’s intentions for he saw the England of his time in political, social and religious ferment and sought the remedy in culture. Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey establishes the tradition of modern biography and of ‘debunking’ the Victorians. The ‘Conclusion’ to Studies in the History of the Renaissance by Pater is the manifesto of the Aesthetic Movement. The remaining two units of the course include fictions. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers and Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are masterpieces in the domain of autobiographical novel. The second one is a classic example of Kunstlerroman. The course also includes representative examples of ‘psychological’ and ‘stream of consciousness’ novel, respectively Heart of Darkness and To the Lighthouse. Greene’s Brighton Rock is a novel of adventure and at the same time a novel of ideas.
Unit 01: Arnold: Culture and Anarchy—selections/ Strachey: Eminent Victorians — Florence Nightingale/ Pater: ‘Conclusion to the Renaissance’ (Any two)
Unit 02: Conrad: Heart of Darkness/ Lawrence: Sons and Lover/ Kafka: The Trial (Any Two)
Unit 03: Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse/ James Joyce: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man/ Graham Greene: Brighton Rock (Any two)
Recommended reading:
J.H.Buckle: The Victorian Temper: A Study in Literary Culture.
Leon Edel: The Psychological Novel.
Robert Humphrey: Stream of Consciousness and the Modern Novel.
Maurice Beebe: Ivory Towers and Sacred Founts: The Artist as Hero in Fiction from Goethe to Joyce
Michael Levenson(ed): The Cambridge Companion to Modernism.
Harold Bloom: Figures of Capable Imagination.
Frank Kermode: The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction.
Course No: 203: Poetry III (19th & 20th Century Texts) 50 marks (6 credits)
The course is intended to provide a map of twentieth century British poetry. Beginning from W.B.Yeats and the high modernist phase we have included here some best specimens of poetry upto the contemporary poet Seamus Heaney. The course thus offers the students an opportunity to get acquainted with the major movements and figures of twentieth century British poetry. This larger prospective will help the students to understand an individual poet or a particular tendency in terms of literary tradition and historical change.
Unit 01: Yeats: ‘Easter 1916,’ ‘Sailing to Byzantium’, ‘The Second Coming’ / Lawrence: ‘Snake’, ‘Bavarian Gentians’/ Owen: ‘Spring Offensive’, ‘Strange Meeting’ (Any two)
Unit 02: Eliot: ‘Preludes,’ ‘Marina’/ Auden: ‘Musee des Beaux Arts’; ‘Shield of Achilles’/ Dylan Thomas: ‘A Refusal to Mourn the Death by Fire of a Child in London’, ’Fern Hill’(Any two)
Unit 03: Larkin: ‘Whitsun Weddings’, ‘Church Going’/ Ted Hughes: ‘Crow’ (Selections)/Seamus Heaney: ‘Death of a Naturalist’, ‘Digging’ (Any two)
Recommended reading:
Julian Symons: The Thirties.
Samuel Hynes: The Auden Generation.
Donald Davie: Under Briggflatts: A History of Poetry in Great Britain: 1960-1988.
Alan Sinfield (ed): Society and Literature: 1945-1970
Steven Connor(ed): The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism
Peter Brooker (ed): Modernism/Postmodernism.
Samuel Hynes: The Auden Generation.
Course No 204: Language and Communicative Skills 50 marks (4 credits)
This course looks at various aspects that are involved in the study of English Language including its history which could be traced back to the Germanic invaders who settled in parts of Britain. The course also looks at various branches of Linguistics such as Phonetics (the study of the sounds of the human speech), Morphology (study of linguistic units), and Syntax (principles that govern the structure of sentences). The course also gives a basic idea of Grammar and its usage in basic writing skills such as paraphrasing, note-making etc.
Unit -1: Phonetics
Organs of Speech
Vowels and Consonants
Transcription and the International Phonetic Alphabet
Syllables
Word Stress
Tone Groups
Rhythm and Intonation
Word Formation
Unit – 2: English Grammar and Usage
Parts of Speech
Grammar and Usage: Acceptability and Unacceptability
Words and Sentences
Subject-Verb Agreement
Syntax
Unit -3: Academic Writing
Paraphrasing and Summary
Note-making and Note-taking
Business Communication
Skimming and Scanning Texts
Use of dictionary and thesaurus
Analysis and Expression
Recommended Readings:
The Study of Language by Yule George
Elements of General Phonetics by Abercrombie, D.
An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English by GimsonA.C.
An Introduction to English Grammar by S. Greenbaum
English Grammar for Today by Geoffrey Leech
Indian English: Functions and Forms by Parasher S.V.
Modern English: A Book of grammar, Usage and Composition by N. Krishnaswamy
Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students by Stephen Bailey
Course No: 205: Shakespeare (Theory: 40 marks; Internal Assessment: 10 marks) 50 marks (6 credits)
This course aims to offer a holistic approach to analyzing William Shakespeare’s works, not just with regard to his plays, but also the critical response generated by his huge body of work, and the myriad ways in which it continues to shape contemporary popular culture. The first unit comprises an in-depth look at Shakespeare’s life and career as a dramatist, and delves into western and sub-continental stage responses of his plays Macbeth and Twelfth Night. In the second unit, two plays—Hamlet and Measure For Measure will be discussed in detail. The third unit deals with textual and critical responses to Shakespeare by various critics belonging to various traditions.
Unit 1: Background to Shakespeare and the Life, Time and Stage: Western and Sub-continental stage responses (Macbeth and Twelfth Night)
Unit 2: Hamlet and Measure for Measure
Unit 3: Shakespeare Criticism (Textual and Critical) (Johnson and the 18th Century Neoclassical tradition, Romantic tradition: Coleridge/Lamb, 19th Century Tradition: Bradley/ Spurgeon/ G. Wilson Knight, 20th Century tradition: Greenblatt.
Recommended reading:
E.K. Chambers: William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems.
E.K. Chambers: The Elizabethan Stage (in four volumes).
Stanley Wells: Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies.
Julia Briggs: This Stage-Play World.
SEMESTER III
Course 301: Literary Theory and Criticism I 50 marks (6 credits)
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literary works. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by theories of literature, which are in the nature of a philosophical deliberation on literature’s goals and methods. Literary criticism has probably existed for as long as literature. In the 4th century BC Aristotle wrote the Poetics, a typology and description of literary forms with many specific criticisms of contemporary works of art. Poetics developed for the first time the concepts of ‘mimesis’ and ‘catharsis’, which are still crucial in literary study. Plato’s attacks on poetryas imitative, secondary, and false were formative as well. The literary criticism of the Renaissance developed classical ideas of unity of form and content into literary neoclassicism, proclaiming literature as central to culture, entrusting the poet and the author with preservation of a long literary tradition. The British Romantic movement of the early nineteenth century introduced new aesthetic ideas to literary study, including the idea that the object of literature need not always be beautiful, noble, or perfect, but that literature itself could elevate a common subject to the level of the sublime. This course includes critical works of all the major literary critics from Plato and Aristotle up to Wordsworth, Coleridge and Keats.
Unit I: Plato: The Republic, Bks. 3 & 10/ Aristotle: Poetics/ Longinus: On the Sublime (Any two)
Unit 02: Sidney: An Apology for Poetry/ Dryden: An Essay of Dramatic Poesy/ Pope: ‘An Essay on Criticism’ (Any two)
Unit 03: Wordsworth: ‘Preface’ to the Lyrical Ballads/ Coleridge: Biographia Literaria Chapters: 13, 14, 18/ Keats: Letters (selections) (Any two)
Recommended reading:
J.W.H. Atkins: Literary Criticism in Antiquity
S.H. Butcher: Aristotle’s Theory of Poetry and Fine Art
David Daiches: Critical Approaches to Literature
George Sainsbury: A History of English Criticism
R.A.Scott James: The Making of Literature
M.H. Abrams: The Mirror and the Lamp
Tison Pugh and Margaret E. Johnson: Literary Studies: A Practical Guide.
Richard Harland : Literary Theory from Plato to Barthes.
Course 302: 50 marks (6 credits)
Literary Theory and Criticism II
This course emphasizes topics ranging from late Victorian and early modern critical approaches linking culture to literature, contextualizing “individual talents” within their “tradition” and drawing attention to “practical criticism” vis-a-vis literary artifact. It explores the epistemological, ontological and semantic use of terms by relating them to modern and postmodern theories and, thus, maps the multidisciplinary nature of 20th and 21st century literary studies. Through a survey of the ideologies of some of the most illustrious figures of the last century, this course also defines the scope and function of ‘Theory’ in ‘belated’ readings of literatures. While the essays of Matthew Arnold, T.S. Eliot and I.A Richards help in tracing the ‘liberal humanist’, ‘high modernist’ and psychology-oriented ‘new criticism’ of texts, the study of Critical Terms reveal the applicability of Theory in locating texts within their contexts. Study of the seminal ideas of Sigmund Freud, Roman Jakobson, and Roland Barthes not only connects critical concepts to their philosophical background and cultural milieu but suggests the return of ‘Theory’ to its etymological root theorein (a “practice of travel and observation …”). As this course organizes approaches to literary texts through the functional application of ‘Theory’ it critiques them as the archives and productions of culture.
Unit I: Matthew Arnold: The Study of Poetry / T. S. Eliot: Tradition and the Individual Talent,
The Metaphysical oets/ I. A. Richards: Principles of literary Criticism (selections) (any two)
Unit 02: Critical Terms relating to modern critical theories (any ten)
Unit 03: Sigmund Freud: Beyond the Pleasure Principles (Selections)/ Roland Barthes: Death of the Author/ Michel Foucault: Madness and Civilization (Selections) (any two)
Recommended reading:
Wimsatt and Brooks: Literary Criticism: A Short History
David Lodge: Twentieth Century Literary Criticism: A Reader
Rene Wellek: A History of Modern Criticism
Raman Selden: The Theory of Criticism from Plato to the Present: A Reader
Jeremy Hawthorn: A Concise Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory
V, S. Seturaman (ed): Contemporary Criticism: An Anthology
Peter Barry: Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory
Terry Eagleton: Criticism and Ideology.
J.A.Cuddon (ed): A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory.
Peter Auger: The Anthem Glossary of Literary Terms and Theory.
Kieth Green and Jill Lebihan: Critical Theory & Practice: A Handbook.
Course 303: Colonialism and Post-colonialism 50 mark(6 credits)
This course highlights the shift of paradigm that is effected by Euro-centric colonial enterprise andthe postcolonial counter-discourse produced by the colonizer-colonized interface. Through readings of Tagore’s Nationalism, Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth and Ngugi’s Decolonizing the Mind it interrogates Euro-centric notions of the centre and the margins. Reading literary texts in tandem with Homi Bhabha’s thesis on the ambivalent relationships involved in the encounter between the colonizer and its ‘Other’, with Edward Said’s discussions about binary oppositions created by ‘Orientalism’ and with Bill Ashcroft’s attempt to archive the ‘Empire’ writing back against its master(s) through the master’s language, this course extends the scope of literature and its praxis. Its main focus is to show how, after postcolonial interventions, literary and critical studies are no longer “naturally ‘at home’ in the West” (James Clifford). By reading such works as E.M.Forster’s Passage to India, J.M Coetzee’s Foe,Wole Soyinka’s Dance of the Forestand poems written by A.D. Hope and Derek Walcott, students would be capable of assessing the impact of locational destabilization, contested subjectivities and power relations upon cultures and literatures. Using the critical tools of Postcolonial Studies this course attempts to interpret texts as sites of conflicting and conflicted histories and identities, as sites which challenge and subvert those omnipotent definitions produced in and by the West. There is a consistent effort to explore both the paradoxical relationship of Colonial and Postcolonial literaturesand the complex power structures involved in the formation of canonical discourse(s).
Unit I: Tagore: Nationalism (Selections)/ Fanon: Wretched of the Earth (Selections)/ Ngugi: Decolonizing the Mind (Selections) [Any two]
Unit 02: Bhabha: Other Question (Selections)/ Edward Said: Orientalism (Selections)/ Ashcroft: Empire Writes Back (selections) [Any two]
Unit 03: Forster: A Passage to India/ Soyinka: Adaptation of the Bacchae /A. D. Hope (Selections) and Derek Walcott (Selections) [Any two]
Recommended reading:
Neil Lazarus: The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies
Padmini Mongia (ed): Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: A Reader
John Thieme (ed): The Arnold Anthology of Post-colonial Literatures in English
Elleke Boehmer: Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
Bill Ashcroft et al: Key Concepts in Postcolonial Studies
Ashcroft, Griffith, Tiffin (ed): The Post-colonial Studies Reader
William Toye: The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature
James Arnold: A History of the Literature in Caribbean
John Mcleod: Beginning Postcolonialism.
John Mcleod (ed.) : The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial Studies.
Aijaz Ahmad: In Theory.
Wole Soyinka: Myth, Literature and the African World
Course 304: Introduction to Critical Theory and Cultural Studies 50 marks (4 credits)
This course is designed to introduce students of different disciplines to problems and concepts of contemporary critical theory and cultural studies. Modern critical theories can only be understood adequately if they are placed in the right philosophical, aesthetic, socio-economic and political context. The students will read and discuss works of critical theory, highlighting the fundamental questions they ask and answer, and examining how they can be relevant to the study of literature and culture. Students will learn how to identify suitable objects of inquiry, to do research, and to develop and present arguments according to the norms of literary and cultural studies. The course emphasizes on interdisciplinary approaches to exploring how cultural processes and artifacts are produced, shaped, distributed, consumed and responded to in diverse ways.
Unit 1:
Introduction to basic concepts of critical theory and cultural studies: Colonialism and Post-colonialism; Modernity and Postmodernity; Hegemony and Resistance; Marginality and Subaltern Studies; Translation Studies
Unit 2:
Dr Ambedkar’s Speech at Mahad in Poisoned Bread/ Bama: Karukku/ Omprakash Valmiki: Joothan/ Arjun Dangle (ed.): Poisoned Bread (selections) (any two)
Unit 3:
P.O. Bodding: Santhali Folk Tales (Selections)/ Sankar Sinha & Indranil Acharya (ed): Survival & Other Stories/ Temsula Ao: Poetry from North East/ Mahasweta Devi (Selections) (any two)
Recommended Reading:
Chris Barker: Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice
Ziauddin Sarder: Introducing Cultural Studies
Jeffrey Nealson & Susan Giroux: The Theory Toolbox
Raman Selden: Practising Theory and Reading Literature: An Introduction
Raymond Williams: Marxism and Culture
Stephen Greenblatt: Resonance and Wonder
Sigmund Freud: Civilization and Its Discontents
Paul de Man: The Resistance to Theory
Eleanor Zelliot: Ambedkar’s World: The Making of Babasaheb and the Dalit Movement
K. Satyanarayana & Susie Tharu (eds.) No Alphabet in Sight: New Dalit Writing from South India
Sharmila Rege: Writing Caste/ Writing Gender: Narrating Dalit Women’s Testimonies
Tapan Basu et al: Listen to the Flames: Texts and Readings from the Margins
Temsula Ao: Ao-Naga Oral Tradition
Course 305: New Literatures (Theory: 40 marks, Internal Assessment: 10 marks) 50 marks (6 credits)
New Literatures in English is a name given to the writings from former colonies of the British Empire such as Africa, Australia, and Canada etc. This course introduces students to various literatures emerging from these countries, by looking at three writers—Patrick White, Margaret Atwood and V.S. Naipaul—as representations of the rich literature produced by their native lands.
Unit 1: Patrick White: Voss, Judith Wright (Selections) [Australian]
Unit 2 : Margaret Atwood : Surfacing, Leonard Cohen (Selections) [Canadian]
Unit 3 : V.S. Naipaul: A House for Mr. Biswas, Derek Walcott (Selections) [Caribbean]
Recommended reading:
Cimon Gikandi: Encyclopedia of African Literature
Abiola Irele (ed): The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature
Ashcroft, Griffith, Tiffin (ed): The Post-colonial Studies Reader
Davis Jack & Bob Hodge (ed): Aboriginal Writings Today
Bruce Bennett & Straus (ed): The Oxford Literary History of Australia
William Toye: The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature
James Arnold: A History of the Literature in Caribbean
Semester IV
Course 401: American Literature 50 marks (6 credits)
This course provides an overview of American literature beginning with a period generally known as the American Renaissance. The term American Renaissance was coined by F.O. Matthiessen in his seminal work of American literary criticism American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman (1941) referring to the writings just before the American Civil War starting from around 1830s. Herman Melville’s masterpiece Moby Dick with its greater theme of death and the transcendental nature of Walt Whitman’s poetry collection Leaves of Grass became some of the greatest works of American Literary tradition that paved the way for future American writers. Other major writers of the 20th century include Hemingway who typified the image of the lost generation post World War I, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and her black narratives. Major playwrights include Arthur Miller whose Death of a Salesman brought out the themes of loss of identity and the warped vision of the American dream while also sharing the theme of inability to relate to reality with Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun is another major work which deals with the theme of dreams and the attainment of the same. The course also deals with major 20th century poets such as Robert Frost who asked major questions about existence and Sylvia Plath whose poems are filled with death and despair.
Unit I: Melville: Moby Dick/ Hemmingway: The Old Man and the Sea/ Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye [Any two]
Unit 02: Miller: Death of a Salesman/ Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie/ Hansberry: Raisin in the Sun (Any two)
Unit 03: Whitman/ Frost/ Plath. (Selections) [Any two]
Recommended reading:
Handlin, Oscar: The Americans: A New History of the People of the United States (two Vols.)
Lewis, Richard W.: The American Adam
Persons, Stow: American Minds: A History of Ideas
Horton. Rod W. & Herbert W. Edwards: Backgrounds of American Literary Thought
Cunliffe, Marcus: The Literature of the United States
Richard Ruland and Malcolm Bradbury: From Puritanism rto Postmodernism: A History of American Literature.
Course 402: Special Paper — I 50 MARKS (6 CREDITS)
Option A: Literature of the Indian Sub-Continent: Fiction and Non-Fiction in English
This optional course basically comprises Indian English fictions with the exception of Mahatma Gandhi’s My Experiments with Truth which is a non-fictional prose work. Apart from Gandhi’s work, the first unit includes two texts: Bankim Chandra’s Rajmohan’s Wife is the first Indian English novel and Tagore’s Home and the World is a translated work from the Bengali original. The second unit includes Indian English novels by three literary giants who are contemporaries: Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and R.K. Narayan. Coolie is marked by a missionary zeal for social reformation whereas Kanthapura is a socio-political novel and is described as a “Gandhipurana”. The Guide, is a story of “enforced sainthood”, to quote Narayan’s own words, but perhaps more than that. The third unit is wholly devoted to translations: Samskara is a translation from Kannada and Godan is from Hindi. The English translations of select partition stories (originally written in Urdu) of Saadat Hasan Manto, a Pakistan-based writer, also come under this course
Unit I: Bankim Chandra Chatterjee: Rajmohan’s Wife/ Tagore: Home and the World/
Gandhi: My Experiments with Truth (selections) [any two]
Unit 02: Raja Rao: Kanthapura/ R. K. Narayan/ The Guide; Mulk Raj Anand Coolie (Any two)
Unit 03: U. R. Anantha Murthy: Samskara/ Premchand Godan/ Saadat Hasan Manto (selections) [any two]
Recommeded Reading:
Meenakshi Mukherjee: Early Novels in India
___________________. Twice-born Fiction
___________________. Perishable Empire
B.S. Naikar: Indian Literature in English Translation
Ayesha Jalal: The Pity of Partition: Manto’s Life, Times and Work across the India-Pakistan Divide
Option B: New Literatures 50 marks (6 credits)
New Literatures in English is a name given to the writings from former colonies of the British Empire such as Africa, Australia, and Canada etc. This course introduces students to the emergent body of literature being produced by writers from Africa in general, Australia, Canada and the Caribbean, the historical processes that have brought them into being, and its response to the changing global world. Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka are major Nigerian African writers who deal with themes of colonialism. Nobel laureate Doris Lessing on the other hand deals with a whole spectrum of themes related to race, gender, conflicting ideology etc. New literatures from Australia concentrate on aboriginal themes. Major novelists and poets include Kim Scott, Sally Morgan and Ooedgeroo. From the Caribbean side two major writers V.S. Naipaul and jean Rhys who wrote a prequel to Jane Eyre. From the Canadian side Michael Ondaatje with his beautiful booker prize winning novel The English Patient is included.
Unit I: (African)
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart/ Doris Lessing: The Grass is Singing/ Wole Soyinka: Dance of the Forests (Any two)
Unit 02: (Australian)
Kim Scott: Benang/ Sally Morgan: My Place/ Ooedgeroo (Selections) [any two]
Unit 03: (Canadian, Caribbean)
Michael Ondaatje: The English Patient/ Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea/ V. S. Naipaul: A House for Mr. Biswas [any two]
Recommended Reading:
Simon Gikandi: Encyclopedia of African Literature
Abiola Irele (ed): The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature
Ashcroft, Griffith, Tiffin (ed): The Postcolonial Studies Reader
Davis Jack & Bob Hodge (ed): Aboriginal Writings Today
Bruce Bennett & Strauss (ed): The Oxford Literary History of Australia
William Toye: The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature
James Arnold: A History of the Literature in the Caribbean
Course 403: Special Paper — II 50 MARKS (6 CREDITS)
Option A: Indian Writing in English (Poetry & Drama)
The main objective of this course is to familiarize the students with Indian English poetry and drama. Beginning from the poetry of Toru Dutt we have included contemporary poets like Kolatkar and Mahapatra. The idea is to give the students the opportunity to understand the different stages in the development of Indian English poetry viz. Colonialism, Nationalism, Modernism and Postmodernism. Unit -3 includes three dramas either in translation or written originally in English. The aim is to explore the students to the challenges that an Indian playwright feels along with assessing the achievements of the individual dramatists in the particular plays.
Unit I: Toru Dutt & Sarojini Naidu / Sri Aurobindo & Tagore / Nissim Ezekiel & Kamala Das (Any two)
Unit 02: A. K. Ramanujan & Arun Kolatkar/ Dom Moraes & Keki N. Daruwalla / R. Parthasarathy & Jayanta Mahapatra Selections) (any two)
Unit 03: Girish Karnad: Hayavadana/ Vijay Tendulkar: Kanyadan/ Mahesh Dattani: Tara [any two]
Recommended Reading:
M. K. Naik: A History of Indian English Literature
Makarand Paranjape: The Penguin Aurobindo Reader
Bruce King: Modern Indian Poetry in English
William Walsh: ‘Small Observations on a Large Subject (Nissim Ezekiel, R. Parthasarathy, A.
K. Ramanujan)’ in Aspects of Indian Writing in English, ed. M. K. Naik
Anisur Rahaman: Form and Value in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel
Rabindranath Tagore: Three Plays (Translated and with an Introduction)
Three Modern Indian Plays (Girish Karnard: ‘Tughlaq’, Badal Sirkar: ‘Evam
Indrajit’, Vijay Tendulkar: ‘Silence! The Court is in Session’) with an Introduction by U. R. Anantha Murthy
Option B: American Literature
This course presents a survey of American Literature from 1850 to the present day, offering a mix of the most important fiction and poetry of the period. The course covers texts that consider the explosive changes in American society during these years – from the Civil War and the end of slavery to the rapid of growth of American cities. This course considers how the nature of writing evolved alongside this changing society, which includes discussions on the development of literary realism and the radical innovations of literary modernism.
Unit I: Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby/ Salinger: Catcher in the Rye [any two]
Unit 02: LangstonHughes/ Wallace Stevens/ Allen Ginsberg (Selections) [Any two]
Unit 03: Emerson: The American Scholar/ Thoreau: Selections from Walden/ Tony Morrison: Playing in the Dark [Any two]
Recommended Reading:
Handlin, Oscar: The Americans: A New History of the People of the United States (two Vols.)
Lewis, Richard W.: The American Adam
Persons, Stow: American Minds: A History of Ideas
Horton. Rod W. & Herbert W. Edwards: Backgrounds of American Literary Thought
Cunliffe, Marcus: The Literature of the United States
Course 404: Special Paper — III 50 MARKS (6 CREDITS)
Option A: Diasporic Literature
Given the context of Postcolonial discourse(s) and contemporary Indian writing in English this course intends to underscore the importance of Diasporic Studies through readings of fictional works like RohintonMistry’sSuch a Long Journey, Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine, AmitavGhosh’sShadow Lines, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, BapsiSidhwa’sIce Candy Man, JhumpaLahiri’sInterpreter of Maladies. It also offers substantial insight into the theoretical aspect of Diasporic Studies through selections from Salman Rushdie’s Imaginary Homelands, Stuart Hall’s Cultural Identity and Diaspora and selections from Interrogating Post-colonialism edited by Harish Trivedi and Meenakshi Mukherjee. The texts covered here not only engage with the trajectory of dislocation and displacement that is defined, today, by the term ‘diaspora’, it not only attempts to theorize ‘diaspora’ as a “way of thinking, or ofrepresenting the world” (John Mcleod), it also cross-examines monolithic notions of nationality and exposes the ruptures that exist within the apparently homogenous and homogenized notions of the nation-state. This course shows how, in today’s world of constant transcultural and transnational dispersions, re-rooting, movement and re-settlement, the text emerges as a kind of tour through anintricatematrix of diasporic conjectures, disputed histories, hybrid identities and in-between spaces. It helps re-define the ‘diasporic imaginary’ called India.
Unit I: Rohinton Mistry: Such a Long Journey/ Bharati Mukherjee: Jasmine/ Amitav Ghosh: The Shadow Lines [any two]
Unit 02: Salman Rushdie: Midnight’s Children/ Bapsi Sidhwa: Ice Candy Man/ Jhumpa Lahiri: Namesake (selections)
[any two]
Unit 03: Salman Rushdie: Imaginary Homelands (selections)/ Stuart Hall: Cultural Identity and Diaspora/ William Saffran: “The Jewish Diaspora in a Comparative and Theoretical Perspective” (Selections) (Any two)
Recommended Reading:
A.K. Mehrotra: An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English
Maleolm Bradbury: The Atlas of Literature
Avtar Brah: Cartographies of Diaspora: Contested Identities
Robin Cohen: Global Diasporas: An Introduction.
Michelle Keown, David Murphy and ames Procter (ed.): Comparing Postcolonial Diasporas.
Kim Knott and Sean McLoughlin (ed.): Diasporas: Concepts, Intersections, Identities.
Joel Kuorti and Om Prakash Dwivedi (ed.) : Changing Worlds Changing Nations: The Concept of Nation in the Transnational Era.
Robin Cohen: Global Diasporas: An Introduction.
Michelle Keown, David Murphy and James Procter (ed.): Comparing Postcolonial Diasporas.
Kim Knott and Sean McLoughlin (ed.): Diasporas: Concepts, Intersections, Identities.
Joel Kuorti and Om Prakash Dwivedi (ed.): Changing Worlds Changing Nations: The Concept of Nation in the Transnational Era
Option B: Dalit Literature
Dalit literature, or literature about the untouchables, an oppressed Indian caste under the rigid Hindu caste hierarchy, forms an important and distinct part of bhasha literature. Dalit literature emerged in the 1960s, starting with Marathi language on the western coast. It soon appeared in Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil languages in the south through narratives such as poems, short stories, and, mostly autobiographies, which stood out due to their stark portrayal of reality and the Dalit political scene. An Anthology of Dalit Literature, edited by Mulk Raj Anand and Eleanor Zelliot, and Poisoned Bread: Translations from Modern Marathi Dalit Literature, originally published in three volumes and later collected in a single volume, edited by Arjun Dangle, both published in 1992, were perhaps the first books that made visible this new genre of writing throughout India. This course includes representative texts of Bama, Omprakash Valmiki and Laxman Rao Gaikwad to provide a glimpse of contemporary Dalit writings in India. Ambedkar’s essay is also a significant part of the course sensitizing the learners about the seminal role played by this great Dalit leader. Limbale’s essay on Dalit aesthetics is a very useful guide to the reading of Dalit texts. The inclusive character of the course is made apparent with the inclusion of Bangla Dalit short fiction in English translation.
Unit I: Bama: Karukku/ Ompraksh Valmiki: Joothan / Laxman Gaikwad: The Branded (any two)
Unit 02: ‘Dr. Ambedkar’s Speech at Mahad’ in Poisoned Bread, Sharankumar Limbale: Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature (selections), Baby Kamble: The Prisons We Broke (any two)
Unit 03: M. R. Anand & Eleanor Zelliot (eds): An Anthology of Dalit Literature (poems) / Arjun Dangle (ed): Poisoned Bread [poems /stories (selections)] / Sankar Prasad Singha & Indranil Acharya (eds): Survival and Other Stories (selections) [Any two]
Recommended Reading:
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Annihilation of Caste
________________. Who were Shudras?
Kancha Illaih: Why I am not a Hindu
N. M. Aston (ed): Dalit Literature and African-American Literature
Fernando Franco, Jyotsna Macwan & Suguna Ramanathan: Journeys to Freedom: Dalit Narratives
Murali Manohar: Critical Essays on Dalit Literature
K. Satyanarayana & Susie Tharu (eds): The Exercise of Freedom: An Introduction to Dalit Writing
Raj Kumar: Dalit Personal Narrative: Reading Caste, Nation and Identity
Tapan Basu et al: Listen to the Flames: Texts and Readings from the Margins
K. Purushottam: Interrogating the Canon: Literature and Pedagogy of Dalits
Course No: 405: Students’ Seminar 50 marks (6 credits)
The students will select topics from across the courses offered as part of their post-graduate syllabus. The students will also verify the feasibility of their topics with the faculty members of the department. After verifying, the students will then start writing their papers consisting of around 1500 words. Each student will be given 10 minutes for presenting his/her paper followed by an interaction session. They will be marked on the basis of the content of the paper, their presentation skill and argument. Participation in the interaction process will also be considered for evaluation.”
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