Syllabus for
Master of Arts (English with Communication Studies)
Academic Year  (2022)

The Masters programme in English with Communication Studies aspires to sustain and revive an academic interest in literary and cultural theories. The papers offered are as contemporarily relevant as possible, even eclectic. A conscious effort is made to ensure that theories are grounded in textual readings, wherever possible. Testing and evaluation patterns aim at fostering a culture of research rather than an exam driven system, which will enhance student reading and creativity. In keeping with practical demands, ELT, communication study papers and the internship component are skill based and endeavour to make the programme application oriented. The programme will offer one value added course per semester at the Postgraduate level for the first three semesters alone. Value added courses provide students an opportunity to develop discipline specific and inter-disciplinary skills.These courses will give the adequate training to the students to develop their own interests and aptitudes. The objective is to help them enhance and gain a nuanced understanding of their curriculum.

Continuous internal assessment will have written assignments, oral presentations, performances

End Semester Exams will have centralised exams, portfolio submission, Dissertations, performances

Research Requirements

Research is an integral part of the programme. To foster the research culture it is mandatory for students to undertake research presentations at seminars and publications in various academic journals. Students will be awarded credits according to the merit of their efforts. Research presentations and publications are mandatory towards building their dissertation / project in the fourth semester.

Students in the first year are expected to make presentations at national / international seminars which will earn them 1/ 2 credits accordingly. Research publications in any recognized academic journals / books with ISSN / ISBN number will fetch 2 credits respectively.

Students in the second year are expected make presentations at national / international seminars which will earn them 1 credit. Research publications in any recognized academic journals / books with ISSN / ISBN number and UGC recognized journals will fetch 1 and 2 credits respectively.

Course Description

The course aspires to enable the learners to develop rhetorical and professional competencies to plan, draft, revise, edit and produce technical documents by employing the appropriate research methods as well as comprehending the ethical standards for the same. The focal point of the course will be on technical writing. However, oral communication of scientific and technical information will also form a vital component of the course. As the paper is intended to add value to the learners’ professional skills, the prescribed readings and the mode of assessment endeavour to embed as well as extend the course on technical writing within and beyond the syllabus.

Course Objectives

·       To understand and analyse the technical-writing process for producing the technical documents

·       To identify the legal and ethical considerations in technical content-creation.

·       To correspond in professional environments equipped with skills in content creation, copyedit as well as content review.

·       To demonstrate the adequate skills for adopting the appropriate graphics/visuals, instructions/language and layout for technical documents.

·       To create technical documents with rhetorical and professional competencies.

The unit will engage with the technical and/or scientific writing at a basic level, discuss technical writing process and related genres, critically analyze the need and scope for technical writing as a necessary professional skill, in the form of email, business letters, and other such correspondences.

·       Professional Writing

·       Introduction to technical writing

The unit will engage with the technical writing at the pragmatic level. The lessons will help the learners understand the nuances of planning which include project-scope, audience analysis, tools-selection, templates/style guides/checklists, also understanding the ethical and legal considerations in technical-writing. The learners will also identify and apply the strategies for planning of a technical-writing project.

·       Scope, creation of documentation plan and documentation schedule

·       Audience or end users

·       Tools, techniques, templates/ style guides/checklists

·       Participants in planning-process

·       Structure

·       Ethical and legal considerations

The unit will engage with the writing of technical writers. The lesson will help the learners understand the nuances of writing style, content-creation, language-skills, content-review and copy-editing skills. The learners will also identify and apply the strategies for creating, editing, and proofreading the technical documents.

·       Writing style or methods

a.      Technical Language, Instructions, Grammar and Punctuation Review

·       Review and revision

·       Review, copyedit and publish the technical documents: Needs and best practices

The unit will inform and assess the graphical aids (including tables and figures), page design and layout-related-techniques adopted in technical documents. The lesson will enhance the learner’s visual aid, page design and layout application skills for the technical and/or scientific content that they develop. 

·       Tables and figures (including charts and illustrations) and best practices.

·       Page-design and layout and best practices.

The unit will encourage the students to engage in creating a technical document applying the principles and strategies undertaken during the course lectures. The students will present the project in the written and/or verbal format.

·       Apply the technical writing planning and structuring strategies

·       Apply the technical writing, and reviewing strategies

·       Apply the strategies described for graphics, page design and layout

·       Develop a technical document

·       Alred, G. J., Brusaw, C. T., & Oliu, W. E. (2019). Handbook of technical writing. Bedford/St. Martins.

·       Sommers, N., & Hacker, D. (2014). A writer’s reference. Bedford/St. Martin’s.

·       Kolln, M., & Gray, L. S. (2009). Rhetorical grammar. Longman.

·       Kristin R. Woolever - Writing for the Technical Professions (2008, Longman)

·       Pringle, A. S., & O'Keefe, S. (2003). Technical writing 101: A real-world guide to planning and writing technical documentation. Scriptorium Publishing.

·       Woolever, K. R. (1999). Writing for the technical professions. Longman.

·       Alred, G. J., Brusaw, C. T., & Oliu, W. E. (2019). Handbook of technical writing. Bedford/St. Martins.

·       Sommers, N., & Hacker, D. (2014). A writer’s reference. Bedford/St. Martin’s.

·       Kolln, M., & Gray, L. S. (2009). Rhetorical grammar. Longman.

·       Kristin R. Woolever - Writing for the Technical Professions (2008, Longman)

·       Pringle, A. S., & O'Keefe, S. (2003). Technical writing 101: A real-world guide to planning and writing technical documentation. Scriptorium Publishing.

·       Woolever, K. R. (1999). Writing for the technical professions. Longman.

·       The Project is a technical-document created by the students and it will apply all the aspects of technical-writing process (Planning, structuring, writing, and reviewing). This form of assessment allows for a learner to apply the course knowledge as they develop their technical writing skills (25Marks).

·       CIA1 and CIA2 will assess both practical and theoretical understanding of the topics discussed. The assignment could be individually maintained or collaborative, depending on the class dynamics and size. Could range from Quiz/oral presentation/written assignments (CIAI 15 marks and CIA II 10 marks).

Rubrics for assessment can include but not limited to:

·       Writing Style for instructions

·       Coherence, and clarity in instructions

·       Grammar, Usage Mechanics, Spelling

 The course is designed to provide students considerable input regarding areas related to communication, the news industry, the profession of reporting & the legal-ethical issues linked to news writing and news dissemination.

Course Objectives

·         To enable students garner considerable knowledge regarding the communication process and the news industry.

·         To familiarize students with mass media theories essential for creating content for varied media platforms.

·         To inculcate in students the skill to write journalist pieces.

·         Definitions, process, elements, function, barriers

·         Kinds of communication- intra/inter-personal, group, mass.

·         Communication, society & socialization.

·         Models of communication: Aristotle, Harold Laswell, Frank Dance.

·         Media Effects Theories: News Framing; Media Priming; Social-Cognitive theory of mass communication; Uses and Gratifications.

·         History of newspapers-world/India.

·         Newspapers in India post-independence. Iconic individuals and their contributions to Indian journalism. Philosophy & Editorial stands of select newspapers-TOI, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Indian Express. Regional newspapers and their relevance. Milestones in Indian journalism.

·         Broadcast media in India-AIR, DD & Satellite TV. Brief history, Broadcast Content, Pertinent Issues.

·         Aspects of beat reporting- research, reading & recording of information.

·         Cultivating news sources.

·         Reporting Techniques-Investigative, interpretative, depth reports, human interest.

·         Conducting interviews.

·         Reporting different domains-Politics, economy, crime, sports, law, lifestyle.

·         Legal & ethical issues while reporting.

·         McQuail, D. (1994). Mass Communication Theory. New Delhi: Sage Publication.

·         Harris, J. (1981).  The Complete Reporter.  NY, USA: Macmillan Pub.

·         Kamath, M.V. (1980). Professional Journalism. New Delhi: Vikas Publications.

·         Alexander, L. (1982). Beyond the Facts: A guide to the art of the Feature writing. USA:

Gulf Publishing Company.

·         McQuail, D. (1994). Mass Communication Theory. New Delhi: Sage Publication.

·         Harris, J. (1981).  The Complete Reporter.  NY, USA: Macmillan Pub.

·         Kamath, M.V. (1980). Professional Journalism. New Delhi: Vikas Publications.

·         Alexander, L. (1982). Beyond the Facts: A guide to the art of the Feature writing. USA:

Gulf Publishing Company.

Portfolio-A collection of articles written by the student. One article every week by each student on either Google classroom or LMS. Each article would represent the different journalistic styles discussed in class-80 marks (Individual).

The evaluation though is for 80 marks it will be reflected for 50 marks

The course aspires to enable the learners to develop rhetorical and professional competencies to plan, draft, revise, edit and produce technical documents by employing the appropriate research methods as well as comprehending the ethical standards for the same. The focal point of the course will be on technical writing. However, oral communication of scientific and technical information will also form a vital component of the course. As the paper is intended to add value to the learners’ professional skills, the prescribed readings and the mode of assessment endeavour to embed as well as extend the course on technical writing within and beyond the syllabus.

Course Objectives

·       To understand and analyse the technical-writing process for producing the technical documents

·       To identify the legal and ethical considerations in technical content-creation.

·       To correspond in professional environments equipped with skills in content creation, copyedit as well as content review.

·         To demonstrate the adequate skills for adopting the appropriate graphics/visuals, instructions/language and layout for technical documents.

·         To create technical documents with rhetorical and professional competencies.

The unit will engage with the technical and/or scientific writing at a basic level, discuss technical writing process and related genres, critically analyze the need and scope for technical writing as a necessary professional skill, in the form of email, business letters, and other such correspondences.

·         Professional Writing

·         Introduction to technical writing

The unit will engage with the technical writing at the pragmatic level. The lessons will help the learners understand the nuances of planning which include project-scope, audience analysis, tools-selection, templates/style guides/checklists, also understanding the ethical and legal considerations in technical-writing. The learners will also identify and apply the strategies for planning of a technical-writing project.

·         Scope, creation of documentation plan and documentation schedule

·         Audience or end users

·         Tools, techniques, templates/ style guides/checklists

·         Participants in planning-process

·         Structure

·         Ethical and legal considerations

The unit will engage with the writing of technical writers. The lesson will help the learners understand the nuances of writing style, content-creation, language-skills, content-review and copy-editing skills. The learners will also identify and apply the strategies for creating, editing, and proofreading the technical documents.

·         Writing style or methods

a.       Technical Language, Instructions, Grammar and Punctuation Review

·         Review and revision

·         Review, copyedit and publish the technical documents: Needs and best practices

The unit will inform and assess the graphical aids (including tables and figures), page design and layout-related-techniques adopted in technical documents. The lesson will enhance the learner’s visual aid, page design and layout application skills for the technical and/or scientific content that they develop. 

·         Tables and figures (including charts and illustrations) and best practices.

·         Page-design and layout and best practices.

The unit will encourage the students to engage in creating a technical document applying the principles and strategies undertaken during the course lectures. The students will present the project in the written and/or verbal format.

·         Apply the technical writing planning and structuring strategies

·         Apply the technical writing, and reviewing strategies

·         Apply the strategies described for graphics, page design and layout

·         Develop a technical document

·         Alred, G. J., Brusaw, C. T., & Oliu, W. E. (2019). Handbook of technical writing. Bedford/St. Martins.

·         Sommers, N., & Hacker, D. (2014). A writer’s reference. Bedford/St. Martin’s.

·         Alred, G. J., Brusaw, C. T., & Oliu, W. E. (2019). Handbook of technical writing. Bedford/St. Martins.

·         Sommers, N., & Hacker, D. (2014). A writer’s reference. Bedford/St. Martin’s.

·         Kolln, M., & Gray, L. S. (2009). Rhetorical grammar. Longman.

·         Kristin R. Woolever - Writing for the Technical Professions (2008, Longman)

·         Pringle, A. S., & O'Keefe, S. (2003). Technical writing 101: A real-world guide to planning and writing technical documentation. Scriptorium Publishing.

·         Woolever, K. R. (1999). Writing for the technical professions. Longman.

·         The Project is a technical-document created by the students and it will apply all the aspects of technical-writing process (Planning, structuring, writing, and reviewing). This form of assessment allows for a learner to apply the course knowledge as they develop their technical writing skills (25Marks).

·         CIA1 and CIA2 will assess both practical and theoretical understanding of the topics discussed. The assignment could be individually maintained or collaborative, depending on the class dynamics and size. Could range from Quiz/oral presentation/written assignments (CIAI 15 marks and CIA II 10 marks).

The introductory course for the 1 semester students, British Literature from English Renaissance to Postmodernism is a chronological survey of the major forces and voices that have contributed to the development of a British English literary tradition and studies a selection of British texts and their contexts. It intends to cover the literary ground from the English Renaissance Period till the 21st century focusing on the emergence, evolution and progress of English language and literature through different ages and periods. The course will highlight major literary moments, movements and events in the context of the social, political, religious and economic changes that shaped England and its history from the late 15th century onwards. Students learn to read this literature both formally and culturally, in relation to the charged and constantly changing social, political, religious, and linguistic landscape of pre-modern and modern Britain. The syllabus attends to the early history of literary forms, to the developing idea of a vernacular literary canon, and to the category of the literary and canon itself. This paper actively engages students in the critical reading process-to read, comprehend, respond to, analyse, interpret, evaluate and appreciate a wide variety of fiction, nonfiction and poetic texts.

The unit focuses on Renaissance and marks a difference between the Italian Renaissance and the English Renaissance. The great age of English literary awakening, this period is also called Elizabethan Age. The new culture was refined by other European influences mainly Italian followed by French and Spanish. The evolution of the theatre, novels and religious poetry are results of Italian encounters. Reformation marks a break from this influence and the need to establish an English national character which was an antithesis to the Italian character. Unlike the medieval age, patriotism became the guiding force which desired to monopolize God and resulted in the triumph of Protestantism. The written works of England became as successful as their voyages, discoveries and political conquests in the sixteenth century. The emergence of English poetry intoxicated with the newness of metre and the freshness of vocabulary.

Key Concepts and Movements: Renaissance, Reformation, Humanism, Anglicanism, English Theatre, Greek Tragedy and Comedy, Bible Translations, Protestantism, The Dissolution of Monasteries, University Wits, Puritanism, Sonnets, Epic, Metaphysical poetry, Royal Society of London, Oliver Cromwell and British Commonwealth.

·         ‘Songs and Sonnets’ (excerpts of poems by Wyatt and Surrey) SLB

·         Excerpts from Utopia, Thomas More SLB

·         Excerpts from Apologie for Poetry Philip Sydney SLC

·         Selections from “Amoretti”Edmund Spenser SLB

·         Dr. Faustus (Select monologues) Christopher Marlowe SLC

·         The Tempest William Shakespeare SLC

·         “Of Revenge” Francis Bacon SLC

·         “On his Blindness”John Milton  SLC

·         “To His Coy Mistress”Andrew Marvell SLC

Additional Readings (SLA)

·         Antony and Cleopatra

·         Sonnet Selections from Spenser and Shakespeare

·         Sonnet 104 and 130

·         Prose selections from Bacon’s Essays (any two)

·         Of Deformity

·         Of Envy

In continuation with the survey of British social history, this unit deals with the latter half of the seventeenth century after the restoration of the monarchy to Charles II. As is characteristic of the age, a new revival of classics (neoclassical) by the learned men of letters made it an Age of Reason. The spirit of inquiry popularized by the influence of Renaissance gave impetus to empirical experience. The intellectual vigour made people move away from orthodoxy and the literate middle class even the poor felt dogmatism to be dangerous. A ‘homogenous coterie audience’ gave rise to Comedy of Manners. The Church of England became very powerful with its sacrament. The emergence of the political parties due to the decline of confidence in the monarchy (James I being catholic) and the civil war had its impact on literature. The latter half of the seventeenth century saw the emergence of a new genre of writing called the novel. There was a need to respect private and individual life as is evident in the writings of diaries and letters.

Key Concepts and Movements: Reaction to Puritanism, Heroic couplet, prose allegories, Coffee houses of London, Restoration Comedy, town poetry, (high and low verse), mock-epic, The Rise of the Novel, travelogues, Journalistic writing, diaries, The Whigs and the Tories.

·         Macflecknoe (Part I) John Dryden SLC

·         The Pilgrim’s Progress (Chapter one and final Chapter) John Bunyan - SLB

·         Samuel Pepys Excerpts from the Diary SLC

·         Preface to Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot Alexander Pope SLC

·         Daniel Defoe Journal of the Plague Year- Excerpts SLC

·         Jonathan Swift excerpts from The Travels SLB

·         Oliver Goldsmith -The Village Schoolmaster SLC

·         William Blake- The Tyger SLC

Additional Reading (SLA)

·         Part I of Hind and the Panther by John Dryden

·         Richardson Pamela

·         Thomas Gray Elegy

 In the aftermath of the French Revolution, ideas of equality, liberty and fraternity found echoes in literature and the arts across Europe. Romanticism thus emerged as a differential aesthetic which radically rethought the purpose and meaning of literature, emphasizing connections with nature and society. The transcendental and sublime were extensively explored by Romantic poets who highlighted imagination as a powerful approach to realizing the world in subjective terms. Poetic language and diction became more accessible and ushered in the spirit of democracy in Literature. The Gothic Novel and the Novel of Romance and Sensibility alike introduced more women writers into popular fiction.

Key Concepts and Movements:   Revolution and reaction, Spirit of the age, Romanticism as an aesthetic category, The Romantic Novel

·         William Wordsworth: Selections from Lucy poems SLC

·         Lord Byron: She Walks in Beauty SLC

·         Percy Bysshe Shelley: “The Skylark” SLC

·         William Hazlitt: Excerpts from “The spirit of the Age” SLC

·         John Keats: “Ode upon a Grecian Urn” SLC

·         Coleridge: “Kubla Khan” SLC

·         Selection of one Gothic short story -Aphra Behn SLB

·         Jane Austen: Emma SLB

·         Charles Lamb - Dream Children- A Reverie SLC

Additional Reading (SLA)

·         Excerpts from Preface to Lyrical Ballads

·         Michael – W Wordsworth

·         Coleridge On the Construction of the Church and the State

·         Keats - The Nightingale

·         William Hazlitt- The English Poets (Excerpts)

·         Jane Austen- Pride and Prejudice

The Victorian Age marked the rise of British imperialism, material prosperity and global cosmopolitanism on the one hand and crisis of faith and fear of moral decadence on the other. Both colonial outreach and rise in scientific temper characterize the spirit of inquiry, quest and self-analysis evident in early and late Victorian literature. Darwin’s theory of evolution shook the foundation of Religion while asserting human agency, flux and change. Empiricism and Utilitarian ideologies transformed worldviews. Industrialization and large-scale urbanization, coupled by huge class divides, growing corruption and increasing poverty reflected themselves in realistic modes of writing. Much of Victorian literature gave expression to the stark contrast between private and public worlds and increasing mechanization of human relationships. Many Victorian writers thus retrieve the past to make sense of a changing world, be it classical or medieval

Key Concepts and Movements: Spirit of Quest, Industrialization, Cosmopolitanism, Urban Economy and Class Divide, Women in Victorian Times, Art for Art’s Sake

·         Alfred Tennyson: Excerpts from “In Memoriam” SLC

·         Robert Browning: My Last Duchess SLC

·         Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “The Cry of the Children” SLC

·         Annie Besant: Excerpts from White Slavery in London SLC

·         Charles Dickens: Christmas Carol SLC

·         Christina Rossetti: “Goblin Market” SLB

·         Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest- SLC

Additional Reading (SLA)

·         Tennyson Tithonus

·         Elizabeth Browning How do I Love Thee?

·         D G Rossetti The White Ship

·         The Rise of the Novel

·         George Eliot Mill on the Floss

·         Hardy Jude the Obscure

The unit on early and late Modernism will seek to explore, define, and critique several key concepts that emerged in 20th Century British literature and were expressed in terms of sociology, history, and politics. Many of the Modernist British writers were ‘outsiders’ (Irish, immigrants, expatriates, exiles) - Joyce, Eliot, Lawrence, Conrad and others. The unit will also survey several momentous periods from the end of the Victorian period through the First World War and the height of the Empire to the first ‘modern’ revolutionary attempts to undermine British imperialism. The unit will go on to examine the years between the two World Wars, the post-War period and the slow dismantling of the imperial state.

 Key Concepts and Movements: Modernism, Bildungsroman, Stream of consciousness novel, nationalism, imperialism, regionalism, post-industrialization, class, race and gender, world wars, rise of mystery thrillers, absurd drama, modernism in other art forms

·         “The Twentieth Century and After” Norton Anthology of English Literature, pages 1827-1847 SLB

·         Thomas Hardy – The Convergence of the Twain SLC

·         Joseph Conrad – Preface to “The Nigger and the Narcissus” SLC

·         W. B. Yeats -- “The Second Coming” SLC

·         Virginia Woolf – A Haunted House SLC

·         Wilfred Owen - Dulce et Decorum Est SLB

·         James Joyce- The Sisters SLC

·         DH Lawrence – The Odour of Chrysanthemums SLC

·         TS Eliot – The Waste Land (Excerpts) SLC

·         WH Auden- Unknown Citizen SLC

·         Doris Lessing- To Room Nineteen SLC

·         Angela Carter- The Werewolf SLC

·         Adrian Henri- Where ‘Er you walk SLC

Additional Reading (SLA)

·         G M Hopkins God’s Grandeur

·         T S Eliot Four Quartets

·         Virginia Woolf (Selections from the Common Reader)

·         James Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

·         D H Lawrence Lady Chatterly’s Lover

·         Katherine Mansfield- The Garden Party

·         GK Chesterton- Upon this Rock

The unit introduces students to concerns of globalization, multiculturalism, diasporic identity and the postcolonial bulwark of writings which characterize postmodernity in the UK of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Key Concepts and Movements: The rise of conservatism and neoliberalism in the 1980s and ‘90s, the reappearance of armed resistance to British rule in Northern Ireland, and the moves toward devolution in Scotland and Wales.

●          Salman Rushdie: English is an Indian Literary Language SLC

●          Monica Ali: Brick Lane SLC

●          Carol Ann Duffy- Medusa SLC

●          Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go SLB

●          Buchi Emecheta- Second Class Citizen SLB

·         Sonnet Selections from Spenser and Shakespeare

·         Sonnet 104 and 130

·         Prose selections from Bacon’s Essays (any two)

·         Of Deformity

·         Of Envy

·         Part I of Hind and the Panther by John Dryden

·         Richardson Pamela

·         Thomas Gray Elegy

·         Excerpts from Preface to Lyrical Ballads

·         Michael – W Wordsworth

·         Coleridge On the Construction of the Church and the State

·         Keats - The Nightingale

·         William Hazlitt- The English Poets (Excerpts)

·         Jane Austen- Pride and Prejudice

·         Tennyson Tithonus

·         Elizabeth Browning How do I Love Thee?

·         D G Rossetti The White Ship

·         The Rise of the Novel

·         George Eliot Mill on the Floss

·         Hardy Jude the Obscure

 ·         G M Hopkins God’s Grandeur

·         T S Eliot Four Quartets

·         Virginia Woolf (Selections from the Common Reader)

·         James Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

·         D H Lawrence Lady Chatterly’s Lover

·         Katherine Mansfield- The Garden Party

·         GK Chesterton- Upon this Rock

·         Baugh, Albert. A Literary History of England, 1967

·         Brantlinger, Patrick. Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1914, 1988

·         Conrad, Peter. Modern Times, Modern Places. 1998

·         Doody, Margaret. The True Story of the Novel. 1996

·         Ellmann, Richard and Feidelson, Charles (ed.) The Modern Tradition: Backgrounds of Modern Literature, 1965

·         Pinsky, Robert. The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide, 1998

·         Poovey, Mary. Making a Social Body: British Cultural Formation, 1830-1864, 1995

·         Watt, Ian. The Rise of the Novel, 1957

Mid semester exam will be a written paper on the modules covered for 50 marks (5 questions out of 6, (10 marks each)

End-semester exam- One Section: Five questions to be answered out of six. (20 marks each)

The course attempts to introduce the nuances of Indian Literatures within a limited time frame. Expository in nature, it familiarizes students with various Indian Writing in English and Bhasha literature in English translation. The multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and multi-religious entity that India is makes it next to impossible to know all the languages and their respective/corresponding literatures. However, this course attempts to engage with the Cultural and Linguistic plurality of India. A categorization of Indian Literatures into The Beginnings, Post-Independent Indian Literature and 21 Century Indian Literature has shaped the broader conceptual contours of the course. The texts have been selected keeping in mind the myriad socio-political concerns within a region expressed in languages which may not be familiar to all.  Hence translation theories, which are specific to the Indian languages and practice are included to enrich the reading of the texts. The syllabus has been classified into four modules: 1) Introductory Concepts 2) Prose, Poetry and Drama 3) Bhasha Literatures in Translation 4) Indian Literatures Today and Future. These broad, general categorizations are done to avoid any kind of affiliations in foregrounding ideologies or polarities. This course with its content intends to offer scope for deliberations on all discourses like Postcolonial Studies, Indology, Genre Studies, Aesthetics of Indian Literatures and Translation Studies.

Course Objectives

·         To introduce and sensitize students to concerns and problems in Indian Literatures.

·         To expose students to the nuanced engagement with Translation Studies.

·         To empower students to make critical and academic engagement with Indian literary works in English or in Translation.

·         To trace the historical, socio-cultural and political incidents in India and its impact on various Bhasha literatures.

This unit is designed to provide a proper foundation for students to understand and engage with Indian Literature. The selection of prose pieces in this unit do trace the trajectory of Indian literature and problematizes the category and nomenclature. A Historical overview and theoretical insight would enable students to place all the literary texts prescribed in context to engage with them. This unit will also provide a strong foundation to the beginnings of Indian literary tradition including the epics and other early literary and cultural products.

• “The Anxiety of Indianness” - Meenakshi Mukherjee
• “Towards the Concept of a New Nationhood: Languages and Literatures in India” - U. R. Ananthamurthy
• “Why Comparative Indian Literature?” - Sisir Kumar Das
• P.P Raveendran: “Genealogies of Indian Literature” Economic and Political Weekly. Vol 41. No. 25. June 24-26, 2006.Pp 2558-2563
• “On Interpretation” - Suresh Joshi (Gujrati; Chintamayi Manasa)

This unit is designed to provide a historical understanding of the emergence and development of different genres like Prose, Poetry, Novel and Drama. The focus of the selection here is on Indian Writing in English in all these genres. A selective choice of texts in this unit is meant for both classroom engagement and for self-study. It would enable students to engage with works from these genres with more clarity and confidence. Apart from the engagement with the genres the paper with the works included would provide a better insight into the social and cultural fabric of India.

Poetry: (SLC)

·         Rabindranath Tagore:  Gitanjali- (12,36,63), ‘The Time my journey takes is long’, ‘This is my prayer to Thee’, ‘Thou hast made me known to friends’

·         Jayanta Mahapatra: The Abandoned British Cemetery at Balasore

·         Nissim Ezekiel: Background, casually, Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T. S.

·         Kamala Das: An Introduction

·         Syed Ammanuddin: Don’t Call me Indo-Anglian

·         Arun Kolatkar - “The Butterfly”

Short story: (SLC)

·         Janice Pariat: Pilgrimage (Short story from Boats on Land)

·         PudumaiPithan - Teaching (Tamil Short story)

·         Anjum Hasan - Sisters

·         Sudha Murthy - Selections from Grandma’s bag of stories

·         Shashi Taroor - The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories

Novel:

·         Amitav Ghosh: The Shadow Lines (SLC)

·         Anees Salim: Vanity Bagh- SLB

·         Pratibha Rai: Yajnaseni- The Story of Draupadi- SLC

·         Aravind Adiga: The White Tiger- SLB

·         Ruskin Bond: Delhi is Not Far/ The Flight of Pigeons - SLC

·         Buddadeva Bose: It Rained All Night- SLB

Plays:

·         Vijay Tendulkar: Ghashiram Kotwal- SLB

·         Purva Ramesh- OK Tata bye bye - SLC

·         Mahesh Dattani- Mango Souffle - SLB

·         K.A. Gunasegaran- Scapegoats - SLC

·         Girish Karnad- Tughlaq- SLB

History and development of the languages of a nation is essential to understand and respond to the nation and its culture. A detailed historical and cultural analysis of India through negotiation with bhasha literatures in English translation would definitely enrich the understanding of India and its culture. Since Bhasha literatures is a vast area the works selected in this module are highly representative in nature.

Poems: (SLC)

·         (From TheOxford Indian Ramanujan, ed., Molly Daniels, OUP, 2004).

·         Kapilar - Akananooru (pg. 82) Purananooru (pg. 356) (Tami)l

·         K Ayyappa Paniker - I Met Walt Whitman Yesterday: An Interview (Malayalam)

·         Debi Roy - Woman (Bengali) translated by Niranjan Mohanty

·         Himmat Khadoosrya - Numbers (Gujrati) Translated by K. M Sherrif and E. V Rarnakrishnan

·         K S Nonkynrih - Requiem (Khasi)

·         Dina Nath Nadim: The Moon (Kashmiri)

Short Stories:( SLC)

·         Ismat Chughtai: Tiny’s Granny [Nanhi Ki Naani: Urdu]

·         Gopinath Mohanty: Tadpa [Tadpa: Oriya]

·         Uday Prakash - Mohandas (Hindi- Novella)

·         Sharan Kumar Limbale - Dalit Brahmin (Marathi)

·         K R Meera - Angel’s Beauty Spot

Novels:

·         Bhisham Sahni: Tamas -SLC

·         MT Vasudevan Nair (translated by Gita Krishnankutty): Bhima: Lone warrior-SLB

·         Bama translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom: Karukku -SLC

·         Johny Miranda (translated by Sajai jose): Requiem for the Living - SLB

·         O.V. Vijayan - Saga of Dharmapuri - SLB

·         S. L. Bhyrappa: Avarana - SLB

This unit will explore the emergence of translated vernacular texts that articulate postcolonial conditions where the nation-state is rendered obsolete in the age of networked cultures, where the nation state has a reduced role to play because policies- economic, military and even political- are determined and decided by transnational bodies. The unit will also look at the emerging field of ‘toxic discourse’ like unorganised migrant labour, land claims, nature degradation, farmers and ‘postcolonial pastoral’ leading to global precarity as Judith Butler calls it.

·         TD Ramakrishnan: Francis Itty Kora SLC

·         Benyamin: Goat Days- SLB

·         Varma Sreejith R and Swarnalatha Rangarajan - The Politics of land, water and toxins: Reading the life narratives of three oikos-carers from Kerala (Routledge) SLC

·         Suhas Sundar and Deepak Sharma: Odayan (Graphic Novel) SLB

·         Jeet Thayyil - Narcopolis SLB

·         Perumal Murugan - One Part Woman SLC

·         Gopinath Mohanty - Paraja SLB

·         (From TheOxford Indian Ramanujan, ed., Molly Daniels, OUP, 2004).

·         Kapilar - Akananooru (pg. 82) Purananooru (pg. 356) (Tami)l

·         K Ayyappa Paniker - I Met Walt Whitman Yesterday: An Interview (Malayalam)

·         Debi Roy - Woman (Bengali) translated by Niranjan Mohanty

·         Himmat Khadoosrya - Numbers (Gujrati) Translated by K. M Sherrif and E. V Rarnakrishnan

·         K S Nonkynrih - Requiem (Khasi)

·         Dina Nath Nadim: The Moon (Kashmiri)

Short Stories:( SLC)

·         Ismat Chughtai: Tiny’s Granny [Nanhi Ki Naani: Urdu]

·         Gopinath Mohanty: Tadpa [Tadpa: Oriya]

·         Uday Prakash - Mohandas (Hindi- Novella)

·         Sharan Kumar Limbale - Dalit Brahmin (Marathi)

·         K R Meera - Angel’s Beauty Spot

·         Nandy,Ashis. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism. OUP, Delhi.1983. Print.

·         Basu, Tapan, Ed. Volume 2. Translating Caste: Studies in Culture and Translation, Katha, New Delhi.2002. Print.

·         K.R.S. Iyengar, Indian Writing in English, Bombay, 1962

·         Ahmad, Aijaz. In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures. London: Verso, 1992. Print.

·         Raja Rao, Foreword to Kanthapura (New Delhi: OUP, 1989) pp.v–vi.

·         Salman Rushdie, ‘Commonwealth Literature does not exist’, in Imaginary Homelands (London: Granta Books, 1991) pp.61–70.

·         Mukherjee,Meenakshi. The Perishable Empire (New Delhi: OUP, 2000)

·         Said,Edward. Orientalism. Penguin Books (India 2001)

·         Mukherjee, Meenakshi. Early Novels in India. Sahitya Academy 2002.

·         Poduval,Satish, Ed. Refiguring Culture. Sahitya Academy 2005.

·         Prasad, JVG, Writing India, Writing English. Routledge, NewDelhi: 2011.

·         Naik, M.K. History of Indian English Literature, Sahitya Academy, New Delhi,1982.

·         Mukherjee, Meenakshi, The Perishable Empire, Oxford, New Delhi 2000. 

·         K.R.S. Iyengar, Indian Writing in English, Bombay, 1962

·         Krishnaswami, Subasree, Ed..Short fiction from South India, Oxford University Press. 2005.

·         Tiwari, Shubha.Ed.. Indian Fiction in English Translation. New Delhi, Atlantic, 2005. Print.

·         The Little Magazine. Vol- VIII issues 1, 2&3 Sahitya Academy. New Delhi.2009. Print.

·         The Little Magazine. Vol- VIII issues 4 &5 Sahitya Academy. New Delhi. 2009. Print.

·         Ahmad, Aijaz. In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures. London: Verso, 1992. Print.

·         Goswami, Indira. The Moth- eaten Howdah of the Tusker.Rupa 2004.

·         Grassman, Edith. Ed. Why Translation Matters, Orient Blackswan. New Delhi.2011. Print

·         Venuti, Lawrence. (2012). The Translation Studies Reader, 3rd ed. London: Routledge.

·         Mehrotra, Aravind Krishna, “The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets”, OUP.1992.

·         Thayil, Jeet, “60 Indian Poets” Penguin Books.

·         Asaduddin, Mohammed, “The Penguin Classic Urdu Stories”, Penguin, Viking, 2006.

·         Vinay Dharwadkar, ‘Orientalism and the Study of Indian Literature’, in Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament: Perspectives on South Asia, ed. Carol A. Breckenridge and Peter van der Veer (New Delhi: OUP, 1994) pp.158–95.

·         Raja Rao, Foreword to Kanthapura (New Delhi: OUP, 1989) pp.v–vi.

·         Nandy, Ashish. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of the Self Under Colonialism (Oxford India Paperback) New Delhi. 1983.

·         Salman Rushdie, ‘Commonwealth Literature does not exist’, in Imaginary Homelands (London: Granta Books, 1991) pp.61–70.

·         Bruce King, ‘Introduction’, in Modern Indian Poetry in English (New Delhi: OUP,2nd edn, 2005) pp.1–10

·         Rao, Raja. The Meaning of India: Vision Books. New Delhi, 2007. Print.

Mid semester exam will be a written paper on the modules covered for 50 marks (5 questions out of 6, 10 marks each, open book or crib sheet exam)

 End-semester: Written Exam - 100 marks.

Literary Criticism and Theory is a course that will be offered across two semesters. Part I of this paper will be offered in Semester 1. This is a paper that introduces students to the major assumptions, perceptions, arguments and discussions that surround the study of ‘Literature’.

 Literary Criticism and Theory – I traces the history of several ideas that connect the literary work to the world, the author and the reader. History is studied usually as a linear progression of events. The history (or herstory or history) of ideas, however, can be studied as a series of interwoven dialogues that may appear to be discontinuous and fissured. At the surface of Time, sometimes the debate may be around the author as the source of meaning. And at other times, the debate may be about how style contributes to meaning-making. As we look under the surface, we may be able to establish the connections that appear to have been lost simply because they were not foregrounded. And therefore, this paper foregrounds themes that are part of literary criticism in favour of a chronological study of contributions by thinkers and theorists.

The course will study how this cultural construct called ‘Literature’ has been received over the several years since Plato. It will look at what constitutes ‘value’; where is the location of meaning (in the writer? in the reader? in the written word?); what are the ways of reading a text; and, the contribution of canonical writes towards their understanding of what constitutes literature.

The course focuses largely on thinkers from the Euro-American canonical tradition. That tradition is undoubtedly at the centre. However, in every Unit, an attempt has been made to introduce foundational ideas about poetics that were at the heart of similar debates also in ‘India’.

Course Objectives

The course aims to demonstrate how discussions around Literature - its production and consumption - emerge from an intellectual climate that is in dialogue with its past. Towards this end, this paper will:

·         Provide a broad overview of discussions around World – Author –Text - Reader.

·         Encourage students to participate and engage with the discussions that surround the production and consumption of literary texts.

·         Enable students to read seminal essays from the primary sources.

·         Persuade students to think creatively and interpret critically.

·         Help students to express their ideas coherently in both the written and the oral formats.

The unit will look at how, over the years, different thinkers have studied the ‘use value’ of literature. Questions like: ‘How exactly does the poet contribute to society?’, ‘What is the purpose of literature?’, ‘What is the connection of literature to reality?’ will be dealt with in this unit.

·         Plato - Republic Book 10 / Book 7 / Ion

·         Horace

·         David Hume: Of the Standard of Taste

·         Karl Marx. Capital Vol 1- Part 1 (Commodities and Money)- Chapter 1 (Commodities) - Section 4: The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof.

·         Sri Aurobindo: The Power of the Spirit (Chapter 5 of The Future Poetry)

Who is a poet / author? What makes this person different from other individuals? Are all poets original? Where and how do they get inspiration from? This unit will study what writers and poets have had to say about the creative process and about cultivating an authentic voice.

·         Charles Baudelaire, “The Painter of Modern Life” III. An Artist, Man Of The World, Man Of Crowds, And Child

·         Wordsworth: Preface to the Lyrical Ballads

·         Shelley: Defense of Poetry

·         Matthew Arnold: Preface to the Poems

·         Tagore: The Creative Ideal from ‘Creative Unity’

·         Eliot - Tradition and the Individual talent

·         Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet – Letter 1

Is the reading of literature a subjective enterprise? Are there specific ways in which books have to be read? Are there, hidden within the text, suggestions of how it must be approached? Is the appreciation of art a craft that can be developed by following the rules of reading? These will be the issues taken up for deliberation in this Unit.

·         Aristotle - From Poetics

·         Excerpts from Bharatmuni, Bhartrhari, Anandavardhana, Kuntaka, Abhinavagupta from Neerja Gupta’s Student’s Handbook of Indian Aesthetics.

·         Eichenbaum: Theory of the “Formal Method”

·         Brooks: The Language of Paradox

·         Viktor Shklovsky: Art as Technique

·         Benjamin: Work of Art in the age of Mechanical Reproduction

The unit looks at critical thinkers and creative writers who share their thoughts on what constitutes the literary principle. How is a literary canon formed? What should the markers of a ‘great’ piece of work be? Are writers the best people to talk about the nature of their work? Can the literary principle be deduced from the study of canonical texts? These issues will be discussed in this Unit.

·         F R Leavis: The Great Tradition

·         Kundera: Dialogue on the Art of the Novel

·         Henry James: Art of Fiction

·         Poe: The Poetic Principle

·         Ohmann: The Shaping of the Canon

·         Raja Rao: The Ultimate Word

An interesting aspect of literary criticism is the reception of great writers by the succeeding generations. The readers are sometimes canonical poets / writers themselves who share their expectations from the poets who have preceded them. Sometimes, the reader-critic brings into focus not what the text talks about but what the text is silent about. This Unit will look at the directions mapped out in the area of analysing the merit of a writer / text.

·         Johnson: Lives of Poets / Preface to Shakespeare

·         Eliot: Metaphysical poets

·         Achebe: Racism in Conrad

·         Showalter: Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness

·         Sharankumar Limbale: Introduction from Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature.

·         Susan Sontag: Against Interpretation

·         Edmund Burke: From A Philosophical inquiry into the origin of our ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful: Introduction: On Taste. Part I - Section 7.  Part II - Sections I / II/ II / XXVII. Part IIi: Section V

·         Extracts from Kant’s Critique of Judgement.

·         Tagore: The Poet’s Religion from Creative Unity

Suggested readings for Unit 2

• Sir Philip Sidney (for Self -study - often prescribed for undergraduate studies)
• Wimsatt and Beardsley: The Intentional Fallacy
• Orwell: Why I Write
• Freud: Creative Writers and Day-dreaming
• Barthes: Death of the Author.

 Suggested readings for Unit 3

• Dryden: Preface to the Fables

·         Pope: Essay on Criticism

• Johnson: Lives of Poets / Preface to Shakespeare
• I A Richards: Practical Criticism
• Wellek and Warren: The Function of Literature
• Arnold: The Function of Criticism

• Suggested readings for Unit 4

   

  ·         Ghalib: Poetry as freedom (134 – 136) From G. N Devy

  • Terry Eagleton:  The Nature of Fiction
  • Coetzee: What is a Classic?
  • Sartre: What is Literature - chap 2 - Why Write?
  • Fish: Is there a text in this Class? / Interpreting the Variorum
  • Kurt Vonnegut: Palm Sunday
  • Tolstoy: What is Art?

Suggested readings for Unit 5 

·         Dryden: Preface to the Fables

·         Christopher Caudwell: Illusion and Reality

·         Meenakshi Mukherjee: Reality and Realism

·         Ian Watt: The Rise of the Novel

·         Raymond Williams: Realism and the Contemporary Novel

·         Kolodny: Dancing through the Minefield

·          Barbara Christian: Race for theory

·         Devy, G.N. Ed. Indian Literary Criticism. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2002. 

·         Habib, M.A.R. A History of Literary Criticism and Theory: from Plato to the Present. Blackwell, 2005.

·         Leitch, Vincent and William Cain. Eds. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Norton, New York, 2010.

·         Gupta, Neerja A. Students’ Handbook of Indian Aesthetics. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.

·         Limbale, Sharankumar. Introduction from Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature: History, Controversies, and Considerations. Delhi: orient Longman, 2012.

·         Norton Anthology of English Literature – 8^th ed., Vol 2

·         Richter, David. Ed. The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. 3rded.Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2007.

·         Routledge Critical Thinkers Series. 

·         Zima, Peter V. The Philosophy of Modern Literary Theory. Athlone, London.1999.

Mid Semester: Written examination for 50 marks

CIA 3: Written / Oral Presentations for 20 marks

End Semester: Written exam for 100 marks

The course aims at providing a comprehensive understanding of theories, methodologies of linguistics, applied linguistics and English Language Learning through which the foundation of linguistics is made acquainted with the learners. The principles of linguistics and fundamentals of Education with respect to English will be dealt with. Language learning and Language theories are focused in this paper in an attempt to help the learner to trace their relevance in linguistics. Concepts of research in Linguistics and Applied linguistics will be familiarised to encourage students’ progress in research.

Course Objectives

·         To introduce the core concepts of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

·         To develop intellectual skills that are essential for advanced degrees in the discipline.

·         To comprehend the basic structure of Language.

·         To be able to analyse linguistic data from different languages.

·         To understand the fundamental theories of Language Acquisition and Learning.

This unit will introduce the students to the discipline of Linguistics. Fundamentals of language use and typology will be discussed.

·         Introduction

·         Design Features of Human Language

·         Functions of Language

·         Approaches in the study of language

·         Language families

·         Important branches of linguistics

This unit will familiarise the students with basic principles of Phonetics and Phonology. Phonemic analysis will help the students to identify phonemes from various world languages.

• Speech organs and production

·         Articulation process

• IPA and transcription
• Segmental and Suprasegmental Phonetics
• Phoneme Vs Allophone
• Distinctive Feature
• Identification of phonemes: phonetic similarity, minimal pair, Free variation, Contrastive Vs Complementary distribution
• Phonemic Analysis- Data sets

The unit will introduce the students to the basic structure of words. Data sets from different languages will be used to explain the concepts in the content provided.

• Concepts of morpheme, morph, allomorph, zero allomorph
• conditions on allomorphs
• Lexeme and word;
• Types of morphemes—free and bound; root, stem, base, suffix, infix, prefix, portmanteau morpheme, suppletive, replacive; affixes vs. clitics; Level 1 and 2 affixes
• word-formation process
• Identifying morphemes- Data set

This unit will provide an understanding of how human sentences are studied and analysed. It will look at the basic analysis of sentence structure. 

• The native speaker: grammaticality and acceptability
•  The Poverty of the Stimulus, Universal Grammar, Principal and Parameter
• Basic syntactic units: word, phrase, sentence
• Constituents and Constituency tests
• Fundamentals of argument structure and thematic roles
• Phrase structure
• The structure of sentences

• Types of meaning
• Sense and reference; connotation and denotation; sense relations (homonymy, hyponymy, antonymy, synonymy, etc.).
• Ambiguity, sentence meaning and truth conditions, contradictions, entailment, presupposition and implicature
• Language use in context; communication
• Sentence-meaning and utterance meaning
• Speech acts; deixis; Gricean maxims

This unit will aim to provide a foundation for understanding the various sub-disciplines of Applied Linguistics.

• Historical linguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Psycholinguistics

This unit will provide an understanding of the processes of how a child is able to acquire language in context. It will also highlight some of the theories related to language learning.

• L1 and L2
• Theories of language learning (Krashen’s model, Chomsky, Piaget, Vygotsky)
• Language acquisition and learning
• Interlanguage and Fossilization
• Error stages
• Acculturation and Accommodation Theories
• Variable competence Theory
• Discourse Theory
• Markedness
• Aptitude and Attitude

The unit aims to explain the issues related to language learning, teaching and education, especially looking at English language.

·         Language learning and language acquisition

·         English as a second language (ESL) and foreign Language (EFL)

·         Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development

·         Individual differences, motivation, aptitude in Second language learning

·         Competence Vs Performance

·         Language proficiency: Fluency Vs Accuracy

·         Learning environment

 The unit will introduce the process of doing research in the areas of linguistics and applied linguistics.

• Aronoff, M., & Fudeman, K. (2011). What is morphology? (Vol. 8). John Wiley & Sons.
• Cruse, A. (2011). Meaning in language: An introduction to semantics and pragmatics.
• Dörnyei, Z. (2005) The Psychology of the Language Learner: Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Ellis, R. (1991). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford:OUP.
• Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. & Hyams., N. (2010). An Introduction to Language. 7th ed. Boston: Thomson Heinle.

• Aronoff, M., & Fudeman, K. (2011). What is morphology? (Vol. 8). John Wiley & Sons.
• Cruse, A. (2011). Meaning in language: An introduction to semantics and pragmatics.
• Dörnyei, Z. (2005) The Psychology of the Language Learner: Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Ellis, R. (1991). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford:OUP.
• Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. & Hyams., N. (2010). An Introduction to Language. 7th ed. Boston: Thomson Heinle.
• Haegeman, L. 1991. (rev. Ed.). Introduction to Government and Binding Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Katamba, F. (Ed.). (2004). Morphology: Morphology: its relation to semantics and the lexicon (Vol. 5). Taylor & Francis.
• Ladefoged, P., & Maddieson, I. (1996). The sounds of the world's languages (Vol. 1012). Oxford: Blackwell.
• Ouhalla, J. (1999). Introducing transformational grammar: From principles and parameters to minimalism. Edward Arnold (Publishers) Limited.
• Richards Jack C. and Rodgers Theodore S. (1986). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.
• Richards, J.C. and Rogers,T. 2001. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching.
• Prakasam, V. &Anvita, A. (1985). Semantic Theories and Language Teaching. New Delhi, Allied Publishers.

CIA 2 - 50 marks - Written exam based on units 1, 2 and 3

CIA 3- 20 marks- Case Study

ESE - 100 marks- Written exam based on all the units

The course provides a foundation for Audio-visual studies. It is aimed at students who have a basic understanding of literary theory/ies and language studies. It will familiarise the students with the basic concepts, modes of visuality and aurality, performativity, methodologies for studying the varied visual and aural texts and aim for a practical hands-on training for undertaking a project for the said course.

Course Objectives

·         To introduce students to the study of audio-visual texts

·         To familiarise students with the contemporary engagements with audio-visual studies

·         To familiarise students with the methodologies for interpreting audio-visual texts.

The unit will provide a brief overview of the core ideas and concepts that would be used consistently throughout the course. These are core ideas that have been drawn from cinema studies, sociology, anthropology and technology of film and audio-visual production, and audio-visual culture.

·         Representations

·         Vision and Visuality

·         Sound and Aurality

·         Scopic Regimes

·         Soundscapes

·         Visual culture

·         Ways of seeing

·         Ideology

·         Power

·         Discursive practices

·         Multimodes

·         Sites of production

Sites of interpretation

The unit will familiarise the students with historical, anthropological and politico-economical aspects of visuality and aurality.

 This unit will familiarise the students with contemporary narratives centering around

Modes of hearing by focussing centrally on the issues of representation and narrativisation.

●       Modes of hearing

●       Histories of sound and technologies

●       Sound space

  Content analysis

·         Semiotics

·         Cultural studies

·         Postcolonial

·         Psychoanalysis

·         Anthropology

·         Discourse Analysis

·         Postmodern

·         Audience Approach

·         Bull, M ed. 2003. The Auditory Culture Reader. Berg Press

·         Hall, S. (1997). The work of representation. Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices, 2, 13-74.

• Mark M. Smith (ed.), 2004. Hearing History. University Georgia Press
• Veit Erlmann (ed.), 2004. Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity. Berg Press
• Timothy D. Taylor, 2001. Strange Sounds: Music, Technology, and Culture. Routledge Press

·         Knowles, J. G., & Cole, A. L. (2008). Handbook of the arts in qualitative research: Perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues. Sage.

·         Outhwaite, W., & Turner, S. (Eds.). (2007). The SAGE handbook of social science methodology. Sage.

·         Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (2011). The Sage handbook of qualitative research. sage.

·         Audio Culture, pp. 40-46, 88-93, 94-109

·         The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 137-163, 303-374

·         Hearing History, pp. 85-111, 267-278, 319-330

·         The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 39-78, 273-319, 526-543

·         Sound, pp. 187-193, 208-210

·         The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 105-116, 140-151, 186-196, 265-282, 329-335,

·         Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright, Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture, 2nd ed. (PoL) (Oxford, 2009) | ISBN-13: 978-0195314403

·         Sturken and Cartwright, “Images, Power, and Politics” | PoL 9–48 Amelia Jones, “The Body and/in Representation” Sturken and Cartwright, “Viewers Make Meaning” | PoL 49–92

·         Carolyn Dean. “The Trouble with (the Term) Art.” Art Journal, 65.2 (2006): 24-32. -

·         Jonathan Crary. “Modernity and the Problem of the Observer.” In Techniques of the Observer. On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century, 1-24. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990.

·         W.J.T. Mitchell. “There Are No Visual Media.” In the Visual Culture Reader, edited by Nicholas Mirzoeff, 7-14. London: Routledge, 2013.

CIA 2: Mid semester centralised

CIA 3:  Rationale for the project

End Semester: submission of the final portfolio

The course introduces research skills relevant to postgraduate work in English language and literature. Topics centre on research practices, research tools, and dissertation preparation. The goal of the course is to equip students with both practical tools and guiding principles for issues like the identification of a research question, the use of relevant literature, the collection and analysis of data, the format and style of writing, and the methods and methodologies followed in the field of English literary studies.

Course Objectives

·         To introduce students to the fundamentals of research

·         To train students on the process of organizing and drafting a research paper/project,

·         To help students to identify, and use a wide variety of sources in the service of responsible research and scholarship,

·         To introduce students to different methods and methodologies pertaining to English literary studies

·         To prepare students to produce a paper using MLA documentation and manuscript styles.

 Defining the ‘Construct’ of Research – Research Approaches - Nature of Research -Translation, Documentation and Archiving - Nature of inquiry in Physical Sciences - Social Sciences and Humanities - Positivism, Post-positivism, Constructivism, Interpretivism

·         Subjectivities, Identities, Vulnerabilities and Biases - Criticism and Evolution of Research in literature

·         Reading for Research, Pre-reading, Pre-writing (Mind mapping, Concept mapping, Analysing and Synthesizing), Language, Style and Types of Discourses (Scholarly, Narrative, Argumentative, Expository, Descriptive) - Contemporary fields of research, Genres of Academic writing: response paper, essay, reviews, annotated bibliography

Components/Elements of Writing Research Proposals

 Design

·         Research Problem

·         Abstract

·         Introduction

·         Identification of a Research Gap and Rationale

·         Research Questions

·         Literature Review

·         Theoretical and Methodological framework

·         Formulation of Thesis or Hypothesis

·         Data Collection & Analysis

·         Discussion - Inferences and implications

·         Protocols for Submission

·         Ethics in research - Plagiarism and Consensus and Conflict of interest

·         Referencing and citation - MLA & amp; APA (SLA)

·         Carter V. Good. “Fundamentals of Research: Methodology. “The Journal of Educational Research Vol. 31, No. 2 (Oct. 1937), pp. 138-139

·         Griffin, Gabriele. Research Methods for English Studies. Edinburgh University Press, 2014

·         James C. Raymond. “Rhetoric: The Methodology of the Humanities.” College English. Vol. 44, No. 8 (Dec. 1982), pp. 778-783

·         Carter V. Good. “Fundamentals of Research: Methodology. “The Journal of Educational Research Vol. 31, No. 2 (Oct. 1937), pp. 138-139

·         Griffin, Gabriele. Research Methods for English Studies. Edinburgh University Press, 2014

·         James C. Raymond. “Rhetoric: The Methodology of the Humanities.” College English. Vol. 44, No. 8 (Dec. 1982), pp. 778-783

·         Paul Rico. “The Model of the Text: Meaningful Action Considered as a Text.” Interpretive Social Science: A Reader edited by Paul Rabinow, William M. Sullivan

·         Rens Bod and Julia Kursell. “Introduction: The Humanities and the Sciences.” Isis. Vol. 106, No. 2 (June 2015), pp. 337-340

Srivastava, Raju. Research Methodolgy in English Studies. Sublime publications, 2013

Students should prepare a research proposal based on which they should also complete a research paper using up to two primary sources and a minimum of ten secondary sources, correctly documented utilizing MLA / APA style citations, with a Works Cited page. The students are supposed to submit the complete proposal and the research paper that they will be working in the first and second semester to their respective guide in the third semester to be fine-tuned, to be properly shaped and to be published in reputed journals.

Although most Indian students are well versed in reading and writing English, their speaking and listening skills still lag behind. In today’s globalized world, where addressing the international audience is a requirement, it is necessary to have the desired speaking skill which is not impregnated with mother tongue/ first language (L1) influence. Although L1 interferences are natural and acceptable, it is desirable if a learner of English language can attain near-native fluency. This course will facilitate the students to improve their English-speaking skills, focusing on pronunciation, syllable structure, stress and intonation.

Course Objectives

·         To introduce the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

·         To acquaint the learners with segmental features of English

·         To acquaint the learners with suprasegmental/prosodic features of English

·         To enable Dictionary assisted learning of English pronunciation

·         To minimize Mother Tongue interferences in the learners’ English Speech

This unit will engage with topics such as speech production and articulatory phonetics. International Phonetic Alphabet/ IPA helps the learners to understand the phonemes of all known languages and thereby, facilitates the learners to distinguish English sounds from others. This unit will also train the students to use a dictionary in order to enhance their pronunciation.

·         Speech Production

·         Organs of Speech

·         Manner and Place of Articulation

·         IPA Chart

·         Phonetic Transcription

·         Dictionary Assisted Learning

This unit will familiarize the students with the segmental properties of English language.

·         English Vowels (monophthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs)

·         English Consonants

·         English Diphthongs

·         Case study: Analysis of own speech to identify segmental errors.

Learners will be introduced to the concept of syllabification and other prosodic features such as stress and intonation. This will help the learners to use appropriate accent and tone while delivering a sentence.

·         Syllable Structure and Types of Syllables (Stress timed and syllable-timed language)

·         Syllable Structure in English

·         Accent

·         Word Stress

·         Strong and Weak forms of structure words

·         Phonemic Stress

·         Intonation Patterns

   For a speaker to eliminate MT/L1 interferences, s/he has to be aware of such interferences. Features of Indian English varieties will be discussed so that the learners know the extent of MT/L1 influence in the variety of English they speak.

·         Mother Tongue Interferences

·         Interferences in Segmental level

·         Interferences in Suprasegmental level

·         Syllable Structure in Indian English Varieties- Case Study

·         Minimizing Interferences

·         Accent Neutralization

·         Jones, D. (2006). English pronouncing dictionary. Cambridge University Press.

·         Ladefoged, P., & Johnson, K. (2014). A course in phonetics. Nelson Education.

·         Pierrehumbert, J. B. (1980). The phonology and phonetics of English intonation (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

·         Roach, P. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology Paperback with Audio CDs (2): A Practical Course. Cambridge university press.

·         Sethi, J., & Dhamija, P. V. (1999). A course in phonetics and spoken English. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

·         Jones, D. (1922). An outline of English phonetics. BG Teubner.

·         Jones, D. (2006). English pronouncing dictionary. Cambridge University Press.

·         Ladefoged, P., & Johnson, K. (2014). A course in phonetics. Nelson Education.

·         Pierrehumbert, J. B. (1980). The phonology and phonetics of English intonation (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

·         Roach, P. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology Paperback with Audio CDs (2): A Practical Course. Cambridge university press.

·         Sethi, J., & Dhamija, P. V. (1999). A course in phonetics and spoken English. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

·         Carr, P. (2019). English phonetics and phonology: An introduction. John Wiley & Sons.

·         Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2018). An introduction to language. Cengage Learning.

·         Ladefoged, P., & Johnson, K. (2014). A course in phonetics. Nelson Education.

Homework and class tests: Homework assignments will be distributed almost every week and will often include transcription of sound files. (10 marks)

Quizzes: Occasional dictation-style transcription quizzes will be held during most lectures. Best three quiz scores will be considered for evaluation. (10 marks)

Speaking Exercise 1: Each student’s skills at accurately producing various speech sounds will be tested individually. (20 marks)

Speaking Exercise 2: Students will be asked to speak on various topics for 5-10 minutes. Pronunciation, stress assignment and intonation will be assessed. (10 marks)

The course offers a survey of American Literature from the Beginning to the Contemporary time period. It attempts to map out the socio-political and cultural domains of the Nation from its formative years to the struggle and shaping and forging of an American ethos across centuries. The syllabus has a vast representation from all forms of literature, thus giving learners the opportunity to have a dialogue with oral, written and audio-visual texts that zooms one’s vision to the intricate mixture of identities and aesthetic sensibilities of the ages; from ‘melting pot’ to ‘salad bowl’ culture. A conscious attempt is made to include texts from different parts of the continent and not just restricted to USA. A range of texts pertaining to different forms have been selected to factor in the eclectic nature together with the socio-cultural and historical specificity.  The uniqueness of the syllabus lies in the selection of the texts under each period which attempts to help the learners understand the nature and composition of literatures across times.

Course Objectives

The course intends to enable learners to:

·         Critically appreciate literary texts

·         Systematically study the pattern in the historicity of America leading to Nation formation

·         Understand the uniqueness and singular identities that many writers of America have

·         Interact with the richness of culture and concepts that the various literatures represent

The unit introduces the learners to the history of Native America and the first stories of nation formation. The focus of this unit will be on the history of settlers, invaders and colonizers. The unit aims to help learners understand how the initial settlements, invasions and establishment of colonies shaped the nation formation. An overview of the entry of Columbus, John Smith and others will enable us to establish the history. The unit will focus on the Enlightenment period with specific reference to religion and science. The unit will also highlight the history and life in the original thirteen colonies, the American Revolution, the expansion of the nation, the origins of American democracy, and American Independence.

·                     “The Iroquois Creation Story”

·                     Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus - Discovery of America: Vespucci Landing in America ca. 1587–89

·                     Excerpts from The Declaration of Independence

The unit will highlight the major changes that took place in America with the expansion of the nation. Racism would be discussed. The focus will be on Civil war and other major movements with regards to philosophy and literature - Transcendentalism, Romanticism and Dark Romanticism.

·         Longfellow – “A Psalm of Life” (SLB)

·         Emerson – “Brahma”

·         Abraham Lincoln – “Gettysburg Address” (Audio text)

·         Walt Whitman – “One's Self I Sing”

·         Mark Twain - “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”

·         Phyllis Wheatley - “On Being Brought from Africa to America”

The unit will focus on the new forms in literature, African-American writers, key concepts and movements such as Modernism, Harlem Renaissance and the American Dream. The central theme will also be World War and its effects on the psyche of the people of the nation. The fundamental idea of modernism and its influence on literature will be highlighted.

·         Sandburg – “Cool Tombs”

·         Wallace Stevens – “Of Modern Poetry”

·         William Carlos Williams - “The Red Wheelbarrow” and “This is Just to Say”

·         Zora Neal Hurston – “How it feels to be Colored me”

·         e.e.cummings – “I Carry Your Heart with Me”

·         Prudence Heward – “Rollande”, 1929 - SLB

·         William Faulkner – “A Rose for Emily”

·         Baz Luhrmann - The Great Gatsby

·         Dorothea Lange – “Migrant Mother”, California, 1936

·         Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris – SLA

·         George Middleton - Tradition

The unit will cover the post war effect on the nation. The American psyche that underwent a metamorphosis post world war and emerged as the superpower will be central to this unit. This unit has a wide range of texts to be discussed with specific reference to the contexts.

·         Allen Ginsberg – “A Desolation”

·         Gwendolyn Brooks – “Kitchenette Building”

·         Anne Sexton – “The Black Art”

·         Ernesto Cardenal - “Prayer for Marilyn Monroe”

·         Alejandra Pizarnik - “The Cage”

·         Alfredo Jaar – “A Logo for America”

·         Michael Kantor - B’Way Broadway - American Musical

·         Bob Dylan – “All along the Watchtower”

·         Hunter S Thompson – Excerpt from Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80's

·         Barack Obama – 2008 Presidential Election Victory Speech

·         American Literature, Volume 1: Colonial and Early National Writing, (ed) Darrel Abel.

·         American Literature, Volume 2: Literature of the Atlantic Culture, (ed) Darrel Abel.

·         Recent American Literature to 1930, (ed) Heiney and Downs Lenthiel H, Volume 3; Barron’s Educational Series

·         Recent American Literature After 1930, (ed) Heiney and Downs, Lenthiel H. Volume 4; Barron’s Educational Series

·         American Literature, Volume 1: Colonial and Early National Writing, (ed) Darrel Abel.

·         American Literature, Volume 2: Literature of the Atlantic Culture, (ed) Darrel Abel.

·         Recent American Literature to 1930, (ed) Heiney and Downs Lenthiel H, Volume 3; Barron’s Educational Series

·         Recent American Literature After 1930, (ed) Heiney and Downs, Lenthiel H. Volume 4; Barron’s Educational Series

·         Literary History of The United States.  (ed) Spiller, Thorp, Johnson, Canby, Ludwig,  

·         Third Edition: Revised; Amerind Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd.

·         The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1, Second Edition; (ed) Lauter, Yarborough et al, Heath

·         The Harper American Literature, Compact Edition; (ed) McQuade, Atwan et al, Harper and Row

·         Herman Melville: The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids

·         Sarah Margaret Fuller:“Woman in the Nineteenth Century”

·         American Literature; Its position in the present time, and prospects for the future

·         Sojourner Truth: Address to the first Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights Association

·         Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: The Colored People in America and the “Woman Question”

·         Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (1808-1890): An Account of the Gold Rush

·         Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney (1791-1865): The suttee

·         Sherwood Anderson: From Winesburg, Ohio

·         John Dos Passos:  U.S.A

·         Elizabeth Bishop: In the waiting room

·         Adrienne Rich: Upper Broadway

·         Gary Snyder: Sixth-month song in the foothills

·         Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita

CIA II: Mid-semester exam

Short essays based on the texts 3x10 = 30 marks

Long essay may be based on a single text or comparison of texts with reference to an age, phenomenon, movement or any socio-political discourse. 1 x 20= 20 marks

CIA III: Students may base their assignment on Understanding America through Hollywood, through Television shows, Advertisements, Popular Culture, Paintings and the like and present their analysis in the form of an essay or presentation. The assignment is to be done in groups.

End Semester Exam

Short Essay type 1- 4 x 10 = 40 (Short essays could be based on genre, context, concept / movement and the like, questions could also include comparison of texts)

Essay type 2- 3 x 20 = 60 (Socio-Political discourse-based questions)

The course on ‘Postcolonial Literatures: Concepts and Approaches’ will explore colonialism and anti-colonial resistance through the cultural legacies and literary imprints that they leave. It will also be an introduction to the specialised field of Postcolonial studies which started emerging during the 1980s and ever since then has come to occupy a significant position within the various humanities departments across the world. This course will also look at issues, themes and debates in writing from Asia, Africa, Australia, South America and other formerly colonized spaces. Postcolonial Literatures will also be looked at as writing which is an attempt at retrieving local, native and particular community histories freed from Euro-American versions of the same. This course will enable students to competently navigate the complex maze of theoretical terms and concepts that characterise postcolonial studies and explore the variety and richness of the literature that is today classified under the rubric of Postcolonialism.

Course Objectives

·         Ability to extend beyond basic comprehension of a text in order to evaluate and appraise its themes, motifs, characters, and structure.

·         Participate in theoretical discussions about the text and produce extended oral and written arguments regarding themes, motifs, characterization, etc.

·         Develop proficiency in written analysis demonstrating the ability to develop and expand upon ideas which support a clear and well formulated thesis.

·         Demonstrate awareness of rhetorical and grammatical conventions in all written assignments.

·         Understand the relevant social, historical, political and artistic contexts of these literary works.

This unit will introduce key concepts, thinkers, scholars, theorists, movements and discourses that will be the launch pad to contemporary debates, issues and narratives to Postcolonial understanding in the 21st century. The Unit will be a historical survey of Postcolonial theory from early Imperial turn to anti-colonial struggle to Gandhi and his resistance method, Fanon and the psychopathology of Colonialism, Aime Cesaire and Negritude to Edward Said, Orientalism and the Postcolonial moment. Facilitators are encouraged to bring in literary texts to augment the theories prescribed.

Key Concepts and Movements: Colonialism, Imperialism, Neocolonialism, White Studies, decolonization, Settler colonialism, Race, Discourse, Anti-colonial Struggle, Mk Gandhi

• Postcolonial Literature- An introduction- Pramod Nayar (pp1-35) SLB
• What is postcolonialism? SLC
• Commonwealth Literature SLC
• The Fact of Blackness- Frantz Fanon SLB

The unit will discuss debates and conversations regarding Colonial discourses and Imperialism and look at modes of representation and narratives where Europeans constructed the natives in politically significant ways. This unit will attempt to unpack literary figures, themes and representations that have enforced imperialist ideology, colonial dominance and continuing western hegemony.

• Colonial Discourse Analysis: Michel Foucault - What is Discourse? SLC
• Colonial Discourse Analysis: Edward Said- Orientalism SLC
• Joseph Conrad- Heart of Darkness SLC
• Colonialism: The African Perspective - The Image of Africa SLC
• Chinua Achebe- Things Fall Apart SLB
• Colonialism: The Australian Perspective- The Rabbit- Proof Fence (Film)- Philip Noyce 2002 SLC

The Unit will explore the myriad ways of contesting Colonialism, among which the most important tool for decolonising is nationalism and making use of history and historiography. The Unit will also look at how specific ‘Other histories’ were constructed, represented and the underpinning narratives formed. The essays prescribed will form the theoretical underpinning for understanding the texts.

Key Concepts and Movements: methods of questioning colonialism, History as a tool of decolonization, Cultural alienation, nationalism, making mimic men, cultural fundamentalism, importance of retrieving histories, Subaltern Studies, white histories, Other histories, race, space, memory, representation, fiction, identity

• The Context of India - Anand Math- Bankim Chandra SLC
• The Harp of India -Henry Derozio SLC
• Kanthapura- Raja Rao SLC
• Indian Critic of Nationalism: Rabindranath Tagore SLC
• African Critic of Nationalism: Frantz Fanon   SLC
• Literature as History of Social Change- KN Panikkar SLB
• Rebel Sultans- Manu S Pillai (pp 1-20) SLB
• Mahavamsa, Dipavamsa and the Sinhalese Bhuddist narrative in Srilanka SLB
• Chief Dan George’s speech “A Lament for Confederation:” (Canada’s former first nation chief) SLC
• Songlines of Aboriginal Australia SLB
• Gandhi (kannada short story) - Besagarahalli Ramanna SLC

This unit will explore the concepts of Subject, Subalternization and third space. The question of identity is central to much postcolonial literature, especially since this literature often operates in contexts of individual and collective transformation. At stake is not simply a redefinition of selfhood, but also a re-imagining of political and cultural community and its relationship to a changing world. Accordingly, texts that balance literary concerns with wider political and ethical concerns, including diasporic literature will be explored here.

Key Concepts and Movements: Constructing the nation, locality, community, identity, Imagi- Nations, Imagined Communities, Cultural Identity, Aime Cesaire, nativism, writing Aboriginal, multinational citizenship, religion and spirituality, Postcolonial Subalternization, Continuing colonialism, postcolonial protest spaces

• Homi Bhabha and the concept of Cultural Hybridity SLC
• Cosmopolitanism SLC
• Derek Walcott- Selections from Caribbean Poetry:  SLC
• Jhumpa Lahiri - Selections from Interpreter of Maladies SLC
• Gayatri Spivak- Answering the question “Can the Subaltern Speak?”  SLC
• Mahasweta Devi- Pterodactyl SLC
• Jean Rhys- “Let Them Call It Jazz" SLC
• Edwin Thumboo- Ulysses by the Merlion SLC
• Hanif Khureshi - My Son, the Fanatic SLB
• Sudheesh Mishra- Fiji SLC

The Feminist critics have argued that the empire was always a ‘masculine adventure’. This has resulted in the effacement of women in studies of colonialism. Feminist readings have foregrounded both the racial as well as the gendered contexts and problems of both European and native women in the colonial context. Imperialism also had a problematic relationship with other forms of sexuality. This unit will look at contemporary theorizations that have called into question the problematic linkage of caste and class configurations with that of national identity, gender roles and sexuality.

Key Concepts and Movements:   Postcolonial feminism, gendered nation, national movements and women, gendered traditions and modernities, diasporas and women, marriage and family, Motherism, Motherhood, African feminism, motherland, mother tongue, patriarchy, fundamentalism, war, Islamic feminism, body, desire, sexuality, subaltern women and life writing, queer, queering identities, queering borders

• Nampally Road- Meena Alexander SLC
• Women at Point Zero- El Saadawi SLB
• Parinayam (Malayalam movie with subtitles) SLB
• Kamasutra- Vatsyayna (Excerpts) SLB
• Scent of Love- Hoshang Merchant SLC
• Our Sister Killjoy - Ama Ata Aidoo SLC
• Sultana’s Dream - Rokheya Hossain SLC
• A History of Impurity (Introduction), A History of Desire in India - Madhavi Menon SLC

·           Our Nearest Great Country - Alfred Deakin (Of Sadhus and Spinners: Australian Encounters with India)

·           Stories from the anthology - Representation of Gandhi edited by C N Ramachandra

·           Partition graphic narratives from -This side that side

·           Andrea Levy - from Six Stories and an Essay

·           Sam Selvon - one or two chapters from Lonely Londeners 

·           Brij Lal - Mr Tulsi’s store (any chapter from this book - Fiji diaspora)

·           Buchi Emecheta - Joys of Motherhood

·           Shashi Deshpande - Writing from the Margin; why i am a feminist

·         Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Massachusetts Review, Vol. 18, 1977.

·         Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. UK: Heinemann, 1958.

·         Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.

·         Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

·         Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. UK: Blackwood's Magazine, 1899.

·         Derozio, Henry Louis Vivian. “The Harp of India.” In Songs of the Stormy Petrel: Complete Works of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio. Ed. Abirlal Mukhopadhyay. Kolkata: Progressive Publisher, 2001.

·         Derozio, Henry Louis Vivian. “To India - My Native Land.” In Songs of the Stormy Petrel: Complete Works of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio. Ed. Abirlal Mukhopadhyay. Kolkata: Progressive Publisher, 2001.

·         Devi, Mahasweta. “Pterodactyl.” In Imaginary Maps: Three Stories. Tr. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. New York & London: Routledge, 1994.

·         Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 1963.

·         Foucault, Michel. “The Order of Discourse.” In Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader. Ed. Robert Young. Boston: Routledge & Keagan Paul Ltd., 1971.

·         Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

·         Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. London: Routledge, 1998.

·         Rao, Raja. Kanthapura. London: New Directions, 1938.

·         Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978.

·         Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Ed. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988. 

·         Tagore, Rabindranath. Nationalism. San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1917.

·         Walcott, Derek. “A Far Cry from Africa.” Collected Poems, 1948-1984. New York: Noonday Press, 1986.

·         Walcott, Derek. “North and South.” Collected Poems, 1948-1984. New York: Noonday Press, 1986.

Mid semester exam will be a written paper on the modules covered for 50 marks (5 questions out of 6, 10 marks each, open book or crib sheet exam)

End-semester: Submission of a Research Paper

In continuation with the paper on Literary Studies (MEL 133), this paper will examine the primary positions and concerns in literary theory beginning with Structuralists and formalists and traversing through post-humanism. It includes Structuralism, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, post-modernism, gender theory, race theory and queer theory, Marxism and post-humanism and the others. The course will deliberate on the critical theoretical thinking of several prominent thinkers on literature. They will further critically examine the dominating influence of these theorists in shaping the ways in which the world and the text can be viewed and received. Specifically, they will apply the theoretical premises and techniques to select literary works so as to understand these techniques as well as the nature of literature across literary texts at an application level. In doing so, the students will explore the multidisciplinary between the various theories and the literary texts. The paper highlights the shift in the journey of critical-literary thinking from what constitutes meaning to how meanings are produced. We conclude this paper with reflections on the future of literary theory.

Course Objectives

·         To identify, define and describe the key terms and ideas that contributed to the critical and theory-driven movements.

·         To interpret/critique/respond to literary texts in relation to philosophical, intellectual, social and historical contexts.

·         To interpret and demonstrate interconnectedness between the various genres of critical thinking in literature

·         To create analytical texts based on the readings of these theoretical movements and arguments

This unit will analyse the structural and post-structural understanding of language and its relation to literature. In doing so, this unit will expose the students to the theoretical and analytic traditions in literary studies.

·         Saussure - “Course on General Linguistics”

·         Roman Jakobson - “Linguistics and Poetics”

·         Derrida – “Writing and Difference,” Structure Sign and Play in the Discourse of Human sciences

·         Kristeva-Extracts from Desire and Language 

·         Toril Moi- “Introduction,” Revolution of the Ordinary: Literary Studies after Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell

This unit analyses the tradition of critical theory in the study of cultural phenomena. By the end of the unit, the students are introduced to understand the multiple ways in which literary studies operate on culture and society. 

·         Vladimir Propp “Morphology of the Folktales”

·         Claude Levi-Strauss - “The Effectiveness of Symbols” 

·         Roland Barthes - “Myth, Today”, Mythologies

·         Judith Butler- “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution”

·         Bakhtin - “From the Prehistory of Novelistic Discourse,” Rabelais and His World

This unit addresses multiple ways in which literary and cultural texts are interpreted. It analyzes the nature of reality and the location of meaning.

·         Lacan- “Desire and the Interpretation of Desire in Hamlet”

·         Wolfgang Iser - “The Reading process: A Phenomenological Approach”

·         Baudrillard- “Simulation and Simulacra”

·         Lyotard - “The Postmodern Condition”

·         Gerard Genette - “Fictional Narrative, Factual Narrative,” Fiction and Diction

This unit will critically analyse the numerous debates around issues of ‘identity’ relating to the question of geographical and cultural locations through the literary texts.

·         Frantz Fanon - “Algeria, Unveiled” 

·         Spivak - “Can the Subaltern Speak”

·         Lila Abu-Lughod- “Guest and Daughter,” Veiled Sentiments: Honour and poetry in a Bedouin Society

·         Bhabha - “Hybridity and Ambivalence,” Location of Culture

·         Irigaray - “The Bodily Encounter with the Mother”

This unit looks at the influence of socio-economic-political factors on the production and consumption of literature. It critiques the role of power and hegemony in the construction of the literary canon.

·         Excerpts from On Literature and Art by Marxs and Engels 

·         Michel Foucault - “What is Enlightenment,” The Foucault Reader 

·         Althusser- “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: (Notes towards an Investigation),” Lenin and Philosophy

·         Gramsci- “Notes on Italian History”

·         Jameson- “The Political Unconscious:Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act”

This unit will expose the learner to the emerging fields within the discipline of literary studies. 

·         Rita Felski “The Stakes of Suspicion,” Limits of Critique

·         Rosi Braidotti- Post-human knowledge 

·         Dipesh Chakravorthy- “The Climate of History”

·         Jodi Dean - “Net and Multiple Realities”

·         Sukanta Chaudhuri - “The bounds of the text,” The Metaphysics of Text

·         Toril Moi- Extracts from Revolution of the Ordinary: Literary Studies after Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell

·         Langston Hughes- “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”

·         Jacques Lacan-“Seminar on The Purloined Letter”

·         Jamaica Kincaid - “A small place”

·         Habermas-Theory of Communicative Action

·         Jameson - “Postmodernism/Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism”

·         Donna Haraway - Cyborg Manifesto

·         Amitav Ghosh “The Great Derangement”

·         Rita Felski - Uses of Literature

·         Leitch, Vincent and William Cain. Eds. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Norton, New York, 2010. (Introduction)

·         Tyson, Lois. Critical theory Today: A user-friendly guide. Routledge, 2006.

·         Habib, M.A.R. A History of Literary Criticism and Theory: from Plato to the Present. Blackwell, 2005.

·         Rice, Phillip and Patricia Waugh. Modern Literary Theory. Hodder Arnold, London. 1989.

·         Sturrock,John. Structuralism and Since: from Levi-Strauss to Derrida. Oxford University Press, 1979.

·         Routledge Critical Thinkers Series.

·         Zima, Peter V. The Philosophy of Modern Literary Theory. Athlone, London.1999.

·         Klages, Mary. Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed. A &C Black, 2006.

·         Hall, Donald. Literary and Cultural Theory. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.

·         Richter, David. Ed. The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. 3rded.Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2007.

·         Cuddon, John Anthony. Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. John Wiley and Sons, 2012.

Mid Semester: Written examination for 50 marks

CIA 3: Written / Oral Presentations for 20 marks

End Semester: Written exam for 100 marks

This course is designed to provide a foundational understanding of Cultural Studies as a discipline globally as well as in the Indian context. It will acquaint the learners of abiding epistemological and methodological issues and concerns of Cultural Studies since its inception along with familiarizing them with emerging fields and cutting-edge research in the discipline.

Course Objectives

·         To introduce students to cultural studies as an academic discipline.

·         To introduce theoretical debates and interventions in studying culture and power from within culturalstudies.

·         To help students analyse cultural artefacts, institutions, and practices.

This unit introduces the idea of “culture” as contested with various disciplinary inflections especially after the “Cultural Turn” in Humanities and Social Sciences globally as well as in India.

·         Raymond Williams — “Culture” from Keywords

·         Clifford Geertz — “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture.”

·         James Clifford — “Partial Truths.”

·         Nivedita Menon — “Between the Burqa and the Beauty Parlour? Globalization, Cultural Nationalism, and Feminist Politics.”

·         Satish Deshpande — “After Culture: Renewed Agendas for Political Economy of India.”

·         Urmila Pawar and Meenakshi Moon — Excerpts from We Also Made History: Women in the Ambedkarite Movement.

This unit provides a critical evaluation of Cultural Studies as a discipline both globally as well as in India since its inception and continuing evolution. The unit covers the beginnings of Cultural Studies in the “Birmingham School,” its spread in the Anglophone academic institutions and the institutionalization of the discipline in the Indian academia.

·         Stuart Hall — “The Formation of Cultural Studies.”

·         Ien Ang — “On Cultural Studies, Again.”

·         Tony Bennett — “Towards a Pragmatics for Cultural Studies.”

·         Henry A Giroux — “Cultural Studies, Public Pedagogy, and the Responsibility of Intellectuals.”

·         M. Madhava Prasad — “Cultural Studies in India: Reason and a History.”

·         Simi Malhotra — “Popular Culture Studies in India: Issues and Problems.”

This unit locates the study of culture within the discourse of nation-state and various identity claims on nationhood. The unit will provide a critical theoretical understanding of nation and within the Indian context examine the issue of nationalist ideologies, migration, caste, race, and queer lives embedded in the whole concept of national culture.

·         Etienne Balibar — “The Nation Form.”

·         Partha Chatterjee — “There is an Indian Ideology, But It’s Not This.”

·         Ranabir Samaddar — “The Nation’s Two Subjects.”

·          Sharmila Rege — “Understanding Popular Culture: The Satyashodhak and Ganesh Mela in Maharashtra.”

·         Ditilkeha Sharma — “Nations, Communities, Conflict and Queer Lives.”

·         Duncan Mcduie-Ra — “Let’s Stop Pretending There’s No Racism in India.”

This unit introduces the students to the issues of cultural production and technological innovations within cultural practices. This unit will give preliminary understanding of how culture is shaped by capital and how human and non-human entities create cultural fields as a result.

·         Theodor W. Adorno and Anson G. Rabinbach — “Culture Industry Reconsidered.”

·         Pierre Bourdieu — “The Field of Cultural Production, the Economic World Reversed.”

·         Bruno Latour — “On Actor Network Theory: A Few Clarifications.”

·         Laurence Grossberg — “Cultural Studies vs. Political Economy: Is Anybody else Bored with the Debate?”

·         Anna Tsing — “Supply Chain Capitalism and the Human Condition.”

·         Martin Heidegger — “The Question Concerning Technology.”

This unit provides introductory ideas about consumption cultures. The unit also posits cultural consumption as work and labour in the contemporary times of globalization and neoliberalism.

·         George Ritzer — “An Introduction to Mcdonaldization.”

·         Zygmunt Bauman — “Consuming Life.”

·         Deepa S Reddy — “Work without Labor: Consumption and the Imagination of Work Futures in India.”

·         Anisha Datta — “Are you Neoliberal Fit? The Politics of Consumption under Neoliberalism.”

·         Nita Mathur — “Shopping Malls, Credit Cards, and Global Brands: Culture and Lifestyle of India’s New Middle Class.”

·         Rohit Varman and Russell W. Belk — “Weaving a Web: Subaltern Consumers, Rising Consumer Culture, and Television.”

This unit introduces the students to the analytical paradigms of space, mobility, and network to study cultural phenomena. The readings will provide students a rigorous understanding of cultural dimensions of border, gendered urban spaces, and migration with a strong critical theoretical background.

·         Walter Benjamin — “The Arcades of Paris.”

·         Henri Lefebvre — “Space and the State.”

·         Jonas Larsen, John Urry, and Kay Axhausen — “Mobilities.”

·         Manuel Castells — “Informationalism, Networks and the Network Society.”

·         Sandro Mezzadra and Brett Neilson — “Between Inclusion and Exclusion: On the Topology of Global Space and Borders.”

·         Shilpa Phadke — “Unfriendly Bodies, Hostile Cities: Reflection on Loitering and Gendered Public Space.”

This unit introduces students to both digitalization of cultures as well as digital cultures. The unit provides an understanding of the issues involved in the study of digital and virtual cultures with special emphasis on data, bodies, algorithm and work cultures.

·         Christian Fuchs — “Hebert Marcuse and Social Media.”

·         Nick Seaver — “Algorithms as Culture.”

·         Alexander Galloway — “Gamic Action, Four Moments.”

·         Phoebe V Moore — “E(a)ffective Precarity, Control and Resistance in the Digitalised Workplace.”

·         Niimi Rangaswamy and Nithya Sambasivan — “Cutting Chai, Jugaad, and Here Pheri: Towards UbiComp for a Global Community.”

·         Preeti Mudliar — “Broken Data: Repair in the Reproduction of Biometric Bodies.”

This unit introduces students to the myriad ways in which cultural lives of people are regulated through intricate network of public and private institutions and organizations. Students will get acquainted with conservation, museums, art galleries, and festivals as modes of governing and regulating national and regional culture and identities as well as culture as soft power in the realm of public diplomacy.

·         Michel Foucault — “History, Discourse, and Discontinuity.”

·         Susan Pearce — “Collecting the Other, Within and Without.”

·         Geeta Kapoor — Koci-Muziris Biennale: Site Imaginaries.”

·         Tapati Guha-Thakurta — “The production and Reproduction of a Monument: The Many Lives of Sanchi Stupa.

·         Olivier Roueff — “Elite Delights: The Structure of Art Gallery Network in India.”

·         Yudhishthir Raj Isar — “Cultural Diplomacy: India does it Differently.”