Syllabus for
Master of Arts (English with Communication Studies)
Academic Year  (2019)

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

This is a survey course that studies a selection of British texts and their contexts. Chronologically this paper introduces literature of medieval through early post French Revolution Britain, from the earliest written English poems, such as Beowulf to select texts of the Romantic era. 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 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, analyze, interpret, evaluate and appreciate a wide variety of fiction, nonfiction and poetic texts.

Course Objectives

??       Be able 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 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.

??       Follow MLA style in formatting text and citing sources.

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

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

Students will demonstrate:

??       The ability to read complex texts, closely and accurately.

??       The ability to comprehend both traditional and contemporary schools/methods of critical theory and apply them to literary texts to generate relevant interpretations.

??       The knowledge of literary history of particular periods of British literature.

??       The ability to effectively conduct literary research.

??       The ability to write clear, grammatically correct prose for a variety of purposes besides literary analysis.

This is a survey of medieval British literature from the 7th c. through the 15th c.    The unit 1 will help learners to describe the cultural hallmarks of the English Middle Ages that define it as a distinct period, while also pointing out the problematic of trying to separate it from the Renaissance or Early Modern period (usually identified with the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England). The learners will find significant continuities as well as differences between the medieval past and modernity, problematizing the notion of a sudden “Rebirth” of England. Instead of stereotypical notions of the Middle Ages as the nostalgic view of a simpler time of great faith and communal living with knights in shining armor and devout pilgrims, or the caricature of a barbaric and benighted time of reckless violence, superstition, and provincialism, the unit will reconstruct a more heterogeneous British Middle Age with both its riches  and its shortcomings, while uncovering the many ways in which the Middle Ages continue to shape and inform current ideas, values, beliefs, etc.

Key Concepts and Movements: Medieval Times, Anglo Saxon Literature, Literary forms- Heroic Poems, Elegy, Lais, Verse Romance, Allegorical Dream Vision, Estate Satires, Literary Confessions, Spiritual Autobiography, Miracle, Mystery and Morality Plays, Literary Devices – Alliteration, apposition, meter, end rhyme, Tropes- epithet, blazon, affected modesty topos, personification and Irony              

?œ       NAEL Introduction to the Middle Ages (PP 3-28)

?œ       Who is a medieval literature author? JStor article - SLB

?œ       Excerpts- Caedmon’s hymn, Beowulf, Marie de France- Milun, Pearl Poet- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

?œ       Excerpts- Malory- MorteDarthur,

?œ       Mary Hoffman from Women of Camelot,- SLB

?œ       Article- King Arthur as Christian and Pagan - SLB

?œ       Excerpts- William Langland- Piers Ploughman -The Prologue

?œ       John Ball- When Adam delved and Eve span...

?œ       Chaucer- Wife of Bath’s Prologue, Excerpt- The Franklin’s Tale

?œ       Excerpts -Margery Kempe- The Book of Margery Kempe

?œ       Excerpts- The Wakefield Second shepherds Play, Everyman - SLC

This 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.

?œ       Excerpts from Utopia, Thomas More

?œ       Excerpts from Apologie for Poetry Philip Sydney

?œ       Epithalamion , Edmund Spenser

?œ       Dr. Faustus Christopher Marlowe- Select monologues - SLC

?œ       Henry VIII William Shakespeare

?œ       “Of Truth” Francis Bacon

?œ       John Milton L’Allegro and Il Penseroso

?œ       Andrew Marvell To His Coy Mistress

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 enquiry popularized by the influence of Renaissance gave impetus to empirical experience. The intellectual vigour made people to 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.

?œ       The Hind and the Panther (Part I with the introduction to the reader) John Dryden

?œ       Excerpts from Hudibras Samuel Butler

?œ       John Bunyan The Pilgrim’s Progress(Chapter one and final Chapter) - SLC

?œ       Samuel Pepys Excerpts from Diary

?œ       Alexander Pope Preface to Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot

?œ       Daniel Defoe Journal of the Plague Year- Excerpts

?œ       Jonathan Swift excerpts from The Travels

?œ       Addison and Steele Essays from The Spectator( One) - SLC

?œ       Oliver Goldsmith The Village Schoolmaster from  The Deserted Village

?œ       R B Sheridan “The Rivals”- SLC

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 Blake: “The Tyger”/ “The Poison Tree”

??       Percy Bysshe Shelley: “Ode to the West Wind”

??        Preface to The Lyrical Ballads

??       William Wordsworth: “Tintern Abbey”

??       John Keats: “Hyperion”

??       Lord Byron: Excerpts from Childe Harolde’s Pilgrimage”

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

??       John Keats: “Ode upon a Grecian Urn”

??       Coleridge: “Kubla Khan”

??       Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice -  SLC

The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 10th ed

§  Attridge, Derek. The Rhythms of English Poetry, 1982

§  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

§  Bradley, A C. Shakespearean Tragedy

§  Wilson, F P. The English Drama

§  Tomlinson, T. B. A Study of Elizabethan and Jacobean Tragedy

§  Walker, Hugh. English Essays and Essayists

§  CIA I and III can be either written analysis / presentation of a movement or dominant idea of the time, literary quiz or debates or seminar / panel discussions.

§  Mid-semester exam will be a written paper on the modules covered for 50 marks (5 questions out of 8, 10 marks each)

§  End semester exam: One Section: Five questions carrying 20 marks to be answered out of eight.

Course Description

 The course familiarises students with literary histories traced through the narratives of English departments, across the world.  Institutionalised histories of English and her literature, whether in England or, America, or, in India, albeit distinct in the socio-political histories, continue to provide a narrativised discourse that is interjected with notions of power, authority, canonisation and identities. A meta-analysis of the project of the English departments indicates a meandering trajectory, modifying its course depending on various socio-cultural effects. Literary histories trace the contestations that have occurred across all departments of English regarding the notions of “allegiance”, the idea of English as a national language, political implications of the Scottish independence, the intentional ambiguity that has sustained the discourses of English histories between English as a language of people, a label for identity, a tool for conquest, a vehicle for canonisation, or, ‘Englishness’ as a privilege of a class or nation/state.

The course will help students locate the particular histories and narrativised accounts of English and the departments of English in varied nation-states. This would allow the learners to find answers for some of the questions such as, does English provide the voice to the subalterns in colonised places, what role do the theorized accounts of the journey and implications of a language, located in the socio-political milieu of education across the world have for the education policies of the state, what implication does canonisation in the modern world have for the creation and obsolescence of genres, and, quite importantly, what role do translations play in the history of material production of the language/literature/identity of English.

Course Objectives

Through the critical reading of articles, this course will try to find answers to some pertinent questions, such as - will those who speak a global language as a mother tongue automatically be in a position of power compared with those who have to learn it as an official or foreign language? Will the emergence of a global language hasten the disappearance of minority languages and cause widespread language death? It will also try to underline some of the parameters of inquiry which must influence our understanding of English Literature, and identify several political, economic, demographic and social factors that contributed to the construction of English Literature.

●       Introduce the students to the core concerns of literary histories traced through the initiation and changing trajectories of departments of English

●       Instill basic understanding of the different socio-political influences of the constructions of literary histories.

●       Introduce the learners to the basic theoretical frameworks for understanding canon formation, institutionalising and discourse of language in her diverse agencies. 

By the end of the course students will be able to demonstrate:

·         A critical understanding of the language, literary history and institutional histories;

●       Proficiency in theoretical underpinnings of English language departments;

●       Their ability to apply the acquired knowledge and theories to understand ideologies underlying syllabus and curriculum

This unit discusses key essays by scholars regarding the initial movements, the backdrop with which English Studies started etching her history. This module however, focuses on the key moments in select areas, UK, America and India.

·         Applebee, A. N. (1974). Tradition and reform in the teaching of English: A history.Urbana: NCTE.

·         Sedgwick, A. (1834). A Discourse on the Studies of the University. J. Smith.

·         Williams, R. (1989). The future of English Literature. What I Came to Say, 147-156.

·         Baron, D. E. (1982). Grammar and good taste: Reforming the American language. Yale University Press.

·         Viswanathan, G.(1987). The beginnings of English literary study in British India. Oxford Literary Review,9(1), 2-26.

·         Nussbaum, M. C. (2016). Not for profit: Why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton University Press.

·         Spivak, G. C. (1981). Reading the world: Literary Studies in the 80s. College English, 43(7), 671-679.

·         Arnold, M. (1895). The function of criticism at the present time. Macmillan. 

·         Franklin C. Introduction. Institutionalizing English literature: The culture and politics of literary study, 1750-1900.

·         Ngugiwa T. (1994). Introduction. Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature. East African Publishers.

·         Susie T. (ed.). (1998). Government, binding and unbinding: alienation and the subject of literature. Subject to change, 1-32.  Orient Longman limited: India

·         Robert Irvine.”. The Edinburgh Introduction to Studying English Literature. Eds. D Cavanagh, A Gillis, M Keown, J Loxley &Rvr Stevenson (eds), Edinburgh University Press, pp.

·         Irvine, R. (2014). English literary studies: origin and nature. In D. Cavanagh (Ed.), Edinburgh Introduction to Studying English Literature. Edinburgh University Press.

·         Terry E. (2015). The rise of English studies. Literary theory: An introduction. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishing.

·         Gauri V. (1989).Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India. 

1.      Hitt, J., Hirsch Jr, E. D., Lakiski, J., Pareles, J., Shatuck, R., &Spivak, G. C. (1989). Who needs the great works?.Harper's Magazine, 43-52.

2.      Banks, R. (2000). Who will tell the people?Harper’s Magazine, 300, 83-88.

3.      Banks, J. A. (1993). The canon debate, knowledge construction, and multicultural education. Educational researcher, 22(5), 4-14.

·         Macaulay,T.B. (1835). Minute on Indian Education.

·         Gauri V. The beginnings of English literary studies in British India. Oxford Literary Review, 9.

·         Spivak, G. C. (1992). Fixing English: nation, language, subject. In S. R. Rajeswari  (Ed.).  Thelie of the land: English literary studies in India, 7-28. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

·         Pappu, R. (2005). English studies in india: the critical moments.

·         Poduval, S. (2006). Re-figuring culture: history, theory, and the aesthetic in contemporary India. SahityaAkademi.

·         Rajeswari Sunder Rajan. R. S. (1998). English studies via women’s studies. In S. Tharu (Ed.), Subject to change, 134-142. Orient Longman: India

§  Ghotra, B. (Ed.). (2005). English studies in India: past, present, and future. Jaipur: Book Enclave.

§  Graddol, D. (2000). The future of English: a guide to forecasting the popularity of the English language in the 21st Century. London: The British Council.

§  Graff, G. (2007). Professing literature: An institutional history. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

§  Gupta, S., Chaudhuri, S., Allen, R., &Chaterji, S. (2015). Reconsidering English studies in Indian higher education.Routledge Research in Higher Education.

§  Joshi, S. (1994). Rethinking English: Essays in literature, language, history. New Delhi: Trianka,

§  Rajeswari S. R. (Ed.). (1992). Thelie of the land: English literary studies in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

§  MacMurtry, J. (1985). English language, English literature: The creation of an academic discipline. London: Archon Books.

§  Marathe, S., Mohan R., & Robert B. (Eds.). (1993). Provocations: The teaching of English literature in India. Chennai: Orient Blackswan.

§  McArthur, T. (2003). The English languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,.

§  Mohapatra, H. S. (2004). English in the wake of NAAC. The Hindu, 2 May.

§  Mukherjee, A. K. (2009). This gift of English: English education and the formation of alternative hegemonies in India. Delhi: Orient Blackswan.

§  Nagarajan, S. (1981). The decline of English in India: some historical notes. College English 43:7, 663-70.

§  Narasimhaiah, C.D. (2002). English studies in India: widening horizons. Delhi: Pencraft International.

§  Niranjana, T. (1990). History, really beginning: compulsions of Post-Colonial pedagogy. Economic and Political Weekly, 20-27.

§  Ohmann, R. M., & Wallace, W. D. (1996). English in America: A radical view of the profession, with a new introduction. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.

§  Palmer, D. J. (1990). The rise of English studies: an account of the study of the English language and literature from its origins to the making of the Oxford English School. London: University of Hull.

§  Poduval, S. (Ed.). (2005). Re-figuring culture: history, theory and the aesthetic in contemporary India. New Delhi: SahityaAkademi

§  Prasad, G.J.V. (2011). Writing India, writing English: literature, language, location. Delhi: Routledge India.

§  Rajan, P.K. (2000). “English Studies at the Crossroads”. The Hindu, 14 November.

§  Rajan, R. S. (1986). After ‘orientalism’: colonialism and English literary studies in India. Social Scientist, 14(7), 23-35.

§  Rajan, R. S. (2008). English literary studies, women’s studies and feminism in India. Economic and Political Weekly. 43(43), 66-71.

§  Singh, V.D. (2003). Many perspectives, one language. The Hindu, 28 January.

§  Tharu, S. (Ed.). (1998). Subject to change: teaching literature in the nineties. Delhi: Orient Longman.

§  Trivedi, H, Mukherjee, M. (Ed.). (2000). Interrogating Post-colonialism: theory, text and context.  Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Studies.

§  Viswanathan, G. (2015). Masks of conquest: literary study and British rule in India. Print.

CIA 2: Mid-Semester: Portfolio submission; organization of review, critical comments, response paper.

CIA 3:Student seminar - students present papers. Or, review syllabus of english departments and describe the department based on the curriculum.

ESE - Writing a 1000 word critical vision of an ideal English dept - social, cultural, political implications of such English dept, should indicate the reading done in the course - agree/disagree with the theoretical perspective encountered 

Course Description

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. 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

By the end of the course, learners will be able to:

·         Demonstrate familiarity with fundamental terminology and concepts relevant to the analysis of American literature.

·         Demonstrate critical thinking skills to understand texts.

·         Identify and appreciate the language of expression present in the various selections presented.

·         Demonstrate the ability to formulate a thesis through readings and support it with evidence and argumentation.

Unit Description

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 entry of Columbus, John Smith and others will enable to establish the history.

·         “The Iroquois Creation Story”

·         Bartolome De Las Casas –  Excerpt from An Account, Much Abbreviated, of the Destruction of the Indies- SLA

·         Roger Williams – Excerpt from A Key into the Language of America

The unit will trace the period known as the Enlightenment period with specific reference to religion and science. The unit will also highlight the American Revolution, the expansion of the nation, democracy formation, the thirteen colonies and American Independence.

·         St. Jean De Crevecoeur - From Letters from an American farmer – “Letter X- On Snakes; and on the Humming Bird”

·         Thomas Paine – “In What the True Revelation Consists”

Thomas Jefferson – “First Inaugural Address” - SLA

The unit will highlight the major changes with 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”

·         Emerson – “Brahma”

·         Edgar Allan Poe – “The Cask of Amontillado”  - SLC

·         Herman Melville - Moby Dick (Audio-visual text - 1956)

·         Frederick Douglass – Excerpt from The claims of the Negro Ethnologically Considered (Reference to Paul Laurence Dunbar – “Frederick Douglass” - SLA)

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

·         Emily Dickinson – “My Life had Stood a Loaded Gun”

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

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

 ·         Stephen Crane – “A Man Said to the Universe”

The unit will focus on the new forms in literature, Afro-American writers, key movements like 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.

·         Robert Frost – “Fire and Ice”

·         Sandburg – “Cool Tombs”

·         Wallace Stevens – “Of Modern Poetry”

·         William Carlos Williams -  “The red wheelbarrow” and “This is Just to Say” - SLC

·         Ezra Pound – “In a Station of the Metro”  and “A Pact” - SLC

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

·         E.E.Cummings – “The Grasshopper”

·          Faulkner – “A Rose for Emily”

·         Hemingway – “Hills Like White Elephants” - SLC

·         Langston Hughes – “Words Like Freedom”, (“Madam and Her Madam” - SLB) 

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

·         Tennessee Williams – The Glass Menagerie

·         Allen Ginsberg – “A Desolation”

·         Arthur Miller – All My Sons

·         Gwendolyn Brooks – “Kitchenette Building”

·         Anne Sexton – “The Black Art”

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

·         William Kennedy – Iron Weed (Audio-visual text)

·         Bob Dylan – “All along the Watchtower”

·         Barack H. Obama - Nobel Lecture: “A Just and Lasting Peace”

The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 9th ed

Required Reading

§  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

Recommended Reading

§  Anne Bradstreet: from Contemplations

§  Sarah Kemble Knight : The journal of Madame Knight

§  Philip Freneau : The Indian Student or Force of Nature

§  Washington Irving : From A History of New York

§  James Fenimore Cooper : From The Last of the Mohicans

§  William Apess: An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man

§  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

§  Sylvia Plath: Lady Lazarus

§  Robert Lowell: Skunk hour

§  Alice Walker: The child who favoured daughter

§  Adrienne Rich: Upper Broadway

§  Gary Snyder: Sixth-month song in the foothills

§  Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita

§  Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man

§  Thomas Pynchon: Entropy

CIA I: The students are required to analyze any literary text based on Units 1 & 2 and write an analytical essay reviewing and examining the text closely with reference to the  socio-political context. The text chosen could be either teacher’s selection list or student choice based on the class dynamics.

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, Paintings and the like and present their analysis in the form of an essay or display. The assignment could 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)

Course Description

The critic is perhaps the author’s simultaneous ‘Other’. Art has perennially been chased by certain philosophical questions like: What is the purpose of Art? What is the role of the Artist? Has Art changed the world? True to the mysterious nature of art, it has not been able to dislodge these questions. On the contrary, it thrives on continuously unpacking answers to these questions. In so doing, every age has come up with its individual answers to some of these questions. That leads us to the next set of questions: How has the nature and role of Art changed over the years? Does Art influence its intellectual and social environment or is Art a culmination, a product of its socio-political times?

In this semester, we will look at discussions around the nature and purpose of Art. Our context of study will be focused on major trends that emerged in Europe, from the classical times to the beginning of the 20^th century.

Course Objectives

·         To introduce students to diverse perspectives in literary criticism.

• To encourage students to read primary texts.
• To enable students to critically evaluate the contributions and limitations of key thinkers

·         To enable students to critique the relevance of early principles of art evaluation to the contemporary times

·         The student will have an overview of major thinkers and their contributions to the field of literary criticism.

·         The student will attempt to encounter thinkers by approaching their primary sources.

·         The student will develop the ability to question the relevance of some key critical positions.

·         The student will learn to summarise key arguments of an essay.

·         The students will learn to apply some of these principles to their reading of literature.

 The unit is an introduction to early developments in the area of Western Literary Criticism and will look at issues related to literature and its criticism

·         What is Literary criticism and literary theory?: Introductions from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Norton Anthology.

·         Plato: Republic - Books 3, 5, 7

·         Aristotle’s Poetics: Books I-III

(Self-Study: Open Yale Courses - Dr. Paul H. Fry’s Lecture 1: Introduction-  SLB)

The unit is an overview of ideas around Art, Artist, World and Text as it developed from the Medieval to Renaissance and Enlightenment and Romantic and Victorian Theory and Criticism. All essays are from the Norton Anthology.

·         Dante: The Letter to Can Grande

·         Sir Phillip Sydney: An Apology for Poetry

·         Samuel Johnson: From Preface to Shakespeare

·         William Wordsworth: Preface to Lyrical Ballads

·         Matthew Arnold: Sweetness and Light from Culture and Anarchy

The unit will focus on text-based approaches to literary studies – these were the first schools of literary thought that emerged in the 20^th century

·         Formalism and New Criticism : from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

·         T.S. Eliot: Tradition and the Individual Talent (Norton Anthology)

·         Cleanth Brooks: The Language of Paradox

·         Wimsatt and Beardsley: Intentional and Affective Fallacies

(Self-study: Yale Open Courses: Dr. Paul H. Fry’s Lecture 6: the New Criticism and Western Formalisms and Lecture 7: Russian Formalism- SLB)

The unit looks at the directions paved by Formalisms – we move from unified notions of literature to a challenging of these positions

·         Structuralism and Post-structuralism. From Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

·         Saussure: Course on General Linguistics. From the Norton Anthology

·         Roland Barthes: Elements of Semiology

·         Foucault: What is an Author?

·         Derrida: Structure, Sign and Play.

(Self-study: Yale open Courses Lecture 8 – Semiotics and Structuralism - SLB)

§  Leitch B. Vincent. Ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. W.W. Norton Company, 2010.

§  Yale University’s Open Yale Courses: Introduction to the theory of Literature: Dr. Paul H. fry’s Lecture Series

§  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

§  The Internet Encyclopedia of philosophy

§  Waugh, Patricia. Ed. Literary Theory and Criticism. Oxford University Press, 2006.

§  Lavine, T. Z. From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest. Bantam Books, U.S.A., 1984.

§  Abrams, M.H.The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic theory and the Literary Tradition. OUP. 1972

§  J.A. Cuddon: Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory

§  Jeremy hawthorn: A Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory

CIA II:A written test. One section – 5 questions out of 7 – 10 marks each.

CIA III: A response paper that critiques formalism or an application of Formalism to the reading of a poem.

End Semester Exam: A written exam of 100 marks. 5 questions out of 8 carrying 20 marks each.  

• Introduce the students to the core concepts in Linguistics
• Instill basic understanding of the different levels of analysis in Linguistics, including Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics
• Introduce the learners to the basic theories and concepts in Psycholinguistics - Language Acquisition and Production
• Introduce learners to basic concepts and scholarship in Sociolinguistics – Specific attention towards multilingualism as a problem or resource, language minoritisation
•  Introductory exposure to research protocols in Linguistics

• Demonstrate a critical understanding of the scientific study of language;
• Demonstrate proficiency in conceptualisation of phonetic, syntactic, and semantic aspects of language;
• Demonstrate the ability to apply acquired knowledge and theories to diverse settings: policy framework evaluations, El or SL classrooms, language endangerment, or language conflicts
• Demonstrate the ability to analyse and conduct independent analyses of linguistic phenomena

Introduction to Linguistics: Brief history of the discipline; Major branches of linguistics; Introduction to the sub-systems of language; Relationship between language and communication; Communication: Definition, nature, requirements and types of communication

Part 1: Definitions of major concepts, nature, properties, and functions of language

Part 2: Battle of Ideas: Often, courses introduce students to the concepts of syntax, semantics and pragmatics in a decontextualised manner, as separate courses. After introducing the individual components, this module will attempt to demonstrate the interrelatedness of the components, how the current research paradigms are reflecting on it and provide them a broad overview of the multiple dimensions of connecting the word and the world.

Part 1a. Phonetics

This module will familiarise the students with basic principles of Phonetics and introduce the social implications of accent, pitch and intonations.

·         Definition and branches - articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics

·         Speech: Formation, organs of speech and airstream mechanism (clicks ingressive sounds)

·         Stress, rhythm and intonation

·         Introduction to language families through tonal variations/qualities

Part 1b. Morphology-

·         Etymology

·         Morph, morpheme, and allomorph and their relationship.

·         Word: Definition and types; Processes of word formation

Part 1c. Syntax: 

·         Syntactic analysis

·         Phrase structure grammar

·          Transformational grammar

·         Acceptability and grammaticality of sentences.

Part 1d. Semantics:

·         Concept of meaning.

·         Different types of meanings.

·         Meaning Relations, Semantic ambiguity.

·         Pragmatics: Presupposition, implicature and entailment

Part 2: Essentials of Linguistics: The battle of syntax, semantics and pragmatics

This unit will conclude by orienting students to these four perspectives and their interrelations four essential aspects of language studies. Using contemporary research and studies, issues and examples, an attempt will be made to make the learner aware of the interconnectedness of the framework. E.g., learners will be exposed to question whether grammar is/is not a pragmatist’s concern.

·         Relationship between language and words

·         Relationship between language and grammar

·         Relationship between language and meaning (language change and language varieties)

·         Relationship between language and interpretation

This unit will aim to provide a foundation for understanding the ‘place’ of a language in society. Students will be exposed to myriad range of social factors, including but not restricted to, class, gender, ethnicity and age, including language change and evolution.

·Language families (Indo European family, Austro Asiatic, Sino Tibetan, and Dravidian), the branching of languages and the relevance of analyzing languages, dialects through the lens of language families.

·   Relationships between language and social structure: Linguistic relativity

·      Introduction to Sociolinguistics: Language isolates, Language change, Language varieties, Languages in Contact.

·      Multilingual speech communities: dialects, pidgins and creoles, code-switching and code-mixing, language maintenance and shift:

·         Sociolinguistic variation: class, gender, region, age

·         Language change

·         Diaglossia

·  Social networks, style and register, politeness, cross-cultural communication

This unit will provide an understanding of the psychological and cognitive aspects of linguistics. Contemporary research will be discussed in class wherein, the innateness, universalisable aspects of issues such as ‘competence’ will be debated. For example, students will be made aware of the cognitive aspects of a bilingual language speaker and learner.

·         Introduction to psycholinguistics

·         Competence and performance

·         Language acquisition (e.g., FL, SL will be covered)

·         Language production

·         Bilingualism, Multilingualism

The attempt of this unit is to orient students to understand Linguistics within a multidisciplinary framework. This approach aims to relook at the course on Linguistics as a competency based course, increasing the opportunities for the graduating students to engage, not only with traditional concerns of Linguistics (phonetics, semantics, syntax and pragmatics), but also contribute, with their training, to practical, policy based concerns, such as contributing to policy formulations and research driven projects, service and entrepreneurships. Keeping in mind the relevance of three core concerns: discourse of language within sub-disciplines of linguistics, research-level/action-driven research potential of course modules and to build on the range of the course, not delimiting it to generic categories of Linguistics, this module aims to elaborate the socio-cultural-anthropological implications of linguistic analysis. Specifically, this module will aim to provide a foundation for understanding the ‘place’ of a language in society. Therefore, the module will discuss issues that deal with how ideologies operate and create language rights and policies, minoritisation, and discrimination. Students will also learn how languages are constitutive of the discourses of nation and identities.

·         Linguicism-linguistic discrimination

·         Language rights

·         Language planning

·         Future of endangered language, Language revitalization and maintenance (G N Devy, ref. 14)

·         Language and its ecological niche (ref. 15, 16)

·         Ethnicity and identity (ref. 17, 18)

·         Territories, nations and their languages ( ref. 19)

·         National languages

·         Linguistic minorities

·         Language and the media

This unit will provide an introductory foundation for research in Linguistics. This will orient the students to the various methods, their scope, differential relevance for varied research projects and their limitations.

·         Linguistic Analysis: Contemporary approaches of linguistic analyses (data-based Corpus design). Varied theoretical and methodological approaches of data will be discussed.

·         Corpus Linguistics Methods

·         Field Linguistic Methods (ref. 20, 21)

·         Ethnography: the ‘observer's paradox’ (ref. 33)

·         Discourse Analysis: Hands-on experience in data collection and analysis of discursive data. Understanding how linguists, through discursive data, uncover meanings, interpretations, and ideologies. (ref. 29)

·         Language Advocacy: Creating a language revitalisation programme: assessing needs, goals, attitudes/The role of the researcher and external ‘expert’ (and case studies) (ref. 30,31,32)

Required Reading

§  Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. &Hyams., N. (2010). An Introduction to Language. 7th ed. Boston: Thomson Heinle.

§  Balasubramanian, T. (2000). A Textbook of English Phonetics: For Indian Students. Macmillan.

§  Ball, M. J. (Ed.). (2009). The Routledge handbook of sociolinguistics around the world. London: Routledge.

§  Chandler, Daniel. (2002). Semiotics: The Basics. New York.

§  Krishnaswamy, N, &Burde, A. S. (2004). The Politics of Indians' English : Linguistic colonialism and the expanding English empire. New Delhi: OUP.

§  Levinson S. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge, CUP.

§  Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. Introduction. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.

§  Woolard, K. A., &Schieffelin, B. B. (1994). Language Ideology. Annual Review of Anthropology 23:55-82.

§  May, Stephen. 2003. Rearticulating the case for minority language rights. Current Issues in Language Planning 4:95–125.

§  Bradley, David. 2002. Language attitudes: the key factor in language maintenance. In Bradley, David, and Bradley, Maya eds. Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance: An Active Approach. London: Routledge. Pp. 1-10.
Ladefoged, Peter. 1992. Another view of endangered languages. Language 68:809-11.

§  Choi, Jinny K. 2003. Language Attitudes and the Future of Bilingualism: The Case of Paraguay. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 6:81–94.

§  Patrick, Peter L. 2004. ‘Linguistic Human Rights: A Sociolinguistic Introduction.’ Dept. of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex. http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/lhr/linguistichumanrights.htm
Whiteley, Peter. 2003. Do "Language Rights" serve indigenous interests? Some Hopi and other queries. American Anthropologist 4:712-22.

§  UN 2008. Draft resolution on linguistic rights http://www.linguistic-declaration.org/index-gb.htm

§  UNESCO International Expert Meeting, Paris, 10 – 12 March 2003. Safeguarding of Endangered Languages: Recommendations for Action Plans. http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/doc/src/00117-EN.pdf

§  Mühlhäusler, Peter. 2000. Language planning and language ecology. Current Issues in Language Planning 1/3: 306–367.

§  Calvet, Jean-Louis. 2006. Towards an Ecology of World Languages. Cambridge: Polity Terralingua website http://www.terralingua.org/

§  Thieberger, N. 2002. Extinction in whose terms? In Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance: An Active Approach, eds. David Bradley and Maya Bradley. Pp. 310-28. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

§  Myhill, John. 1999. Identity, Territoriality and Minority Language Survival. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 20:34-50.

§  Blommaert, Jan. 2004. Rights in places. In Language Rights and Language Survival, eds. Jane Freeland and Donna Patrick. Manchester: St Jerome Press.

§  Abbi, Anvita, 2001. A manual of linguistic field work and structures of Indian languages. München: LINCOM EUROPA.

§  Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 1998. Documentary and descriptive linguistics, Linguistics 36: 161-195.

§  Grenoble, Lenore A., and Whaley, Lindsay J. 2006. Saving Languages: An Introduction to Language Revitalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

§  Hinton, Leanne. 2003a. Language revitalization. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 23:44-57.

§  Hinton, Leanne. 2003b. How to teach when the teacher isn't fluent. In Nurturing Native Languages, eds. John Reyhner, Octaviana Trujillo, Roberto Luis Carrasco and Louise Lockard. 79-92. Flagstaff, Arizona: Northern Arizona University.

§  Amery, Rob. 2001. Language Planning and Language Revival. University of Sydney. http://cilp.arts.usyd.edu.au?Themes/CILP-LREvival.html.

§  Bentahila, A., and Davies, E. E. 1993. Language revival: Restoration or transformation? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 14:355-74.

§  Milroy, Lesley. 1982. Language and Group Identity. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 3:207-16.

§  Coupland, Nik and Jaworski, Adam (eds.) 2009. New Sociolinguistics Reader. Palgrave Macmillan.

§  Jaworski, A., &Coupland, N. (2014). The discourse reader. Routledge.

§  Sallabank, Julia. 2005. Prestige From the Bottom Up: A Review of Language Planning in Guernsey. Current Issues in Language Planning 6:44–63.

§  Harrison, K. D. (2007). When languages die: The Extinction of the world's languages and the erosion of human knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

§  Nettle, Daniel and Suzanne Romaine 2000 Vanishing Voices. Oxford: OUP.

§  Vine, T., Clark, J., Richards, S., & Weir, D. (Eds.). (2017). Ethnographic Research and Analysis: Anxiety, Identity and Self. Springer.

§  Gries, S. T. (2009).What is Corpus Linguistics?Language and Linguistics Compass, 3, 1–17, doi:10.1111/j.1749-818x.2009.00149.x

§  Labov, W. (1972). Some principles of linguistic methodology. Language in society, 1(1), 97-120.

Recommended Reading

§  Matilal, B.K. (1990).The word and the world: India's contribution to the study of language. India: Oxford India Paperbacks.

§  Palmer, F. R. (1976). Semantics: A new outline. Cambridge, CUP.

§  Prakasam, V. &Anvita, A. (1985). A semantic theories and language teaching. New Delhi, Allied Publishers.

§  Saussure, F. D. (1966). A course in general linguistics. New York: McGraw-Hill.

§  Anderson, B. 1983. Imagined Communities. London: Verso.

§  Kramsch, Claire. 1998. Language and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (v. short)

§  Harris, R. and Rampton, B. (eds) 2003. The Language, Ethnicity, and Race Reader. London: Routledge.

§  Schiffman, H. F. 1996. Linguistic Culture and Language Policy. London: Routledge.

§  Sallabank, Julia. 2006. Guernsey French, identity and language endangerment. In The Sociolinguistics of Identity, eds. Tope Omoniyi and Goodith White. 131-56. London: Continuum

§  Thieberger, N. 1990. Language maintenance: why bother? Multilingua 9:333-258.

§  Walsh, Michael. 2005. Will Indigenous Languages Survive? Annual Review of Anthropology 34:293-315; DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.34.081804.120629.

§  UNESCO, Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages. 2003. Language Vitality and Endangerment: By way of introduction. UNESCO. http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=9105&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

§  May, Stephen. 2003. Rearticulating the case for minority language rights. Current Issues in Language Planning 4:95–125.

§  Abley, Mark 2003 Spoken Here: Travels among Threatened Languages. New York: Heinemann

§  Crystal, David 2000 Language Death. Cambridge: CUP

§  Dalby, Andrew 2002 Language in Danger: How language loss threatens our future. London: Penguin.

§  Fishman, Joshua A. (ed.) 1991. Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

§  Reyhner, Jon, Cantoni, Gina, St. Clair, Robert N., and Parsons Yazzie, Evangeline (eds.) 1999. Revitalizing Indigenous Languages. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University (http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/books.html).

§  Holmes, Janet. 2008. An introduction to sociolinguistics. 3rd edn. London: Longman. ISBN: 9781405821315

CIA I: A Review of Literature (Unit I and Unit II 1.a, b) / Reflective Journal / review of an Article

CIA 3: Full length article (Research Article/Proposal - Language Policy/Advocacy)

Mid-semester written exam based on modules 1 to 3 for 50 marks (2 hours)

End-semester written exam based on all the modules for 100 marks (3 hours)

Course Description

Media has emerged as a prime player in our socio-political and cultural sectors of our times and the career scope it offers for people with fine communication attributes and domain-specific skill sets as well has widened. Students of English Studies have a lot to gain when introduced to the basics of Print, Ad and PR media. This course aims to give a fundamental and practical grounding to the beginner.

Course Objective

• To introduce the student to the basics of Mass Communication practice
• To establish a basic skill base in Print Journalism, PR and Advertising        
• To enable scope for reporting, editing, and Social Media Campaigning

• Ability to demonstrate a conceptual base in mass communication
• Ability to  exhibit a beginner’s skill base in print, PR, and Ad media

This unit introduces to the students the rudiments of mass communication.

• Six key elements of Mass Communication: Sender, message, receiver, channel, noise, feedback
• Different forms of communication - Verbal, nonverbal, written communication
• Levels of communication - Intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, and mass communication
• Key concepts: Gatekeeping, Agenda-Setting, One-way Communication, Two-way Communication, Dumb Communication, Smart Communication, Selective Perception, Cognitive Dissonance, Media Ownership, User-generated Content

This unit introduces the student to the basics of news, reporting and editing.

• Definition and Importance of News
• News Value: Timeliness, Prominence, Immediacy, Oddity, Controversy, Calamity, Human Interest, Utility, Educative, etc.
• News Sources: Press Meets, Press Releases, Beats, Official Records, Online Sources, Unofficial Sources, Anonymous Sources, Unreliable Sources, etc.
• News Angles: Distinguishing Information from News, Sensing Context and Audience, Identifying Important and Unique Angles, Building Focus-specific Report
• News Gathering: Listening, Researching, Observing, Interviewing - Structured, Unstructured, and SemiStructured
• Types of journalistic Writing: News Articles/ Column Writing/ Editorials / feature Writing / Longform and Interpretative Writing
• Elements of Journalistic Writing: Leads, Headlines, Structure of a News Story,
• Reporting: Qualities of a Good Reporter
• Editing: Qualities of a Good Editor
• Page layout and Design - using InDesign/ Quark Xpress

This unit aims to give an opportunity to the student to practically try out her learning from the II unit.

• Reporting Assignments
• Editing Assignments
• Page Layout and Design Assignments

This unit is an introduction to the varied aspects involved in PR communication.

• Differentiating PR from Publicity and Advertising
• Role of PR organisations
• Understanding the different Publics of an organisation
• PR Tools: Press Releases, Newsletters, Utilising Public Events, Social Media Marketing
• Crisis Communication
• Media Positioning
• Brand Building, Brand Sustenance

This unit is an introduction to the varied aspects involved in advertising, with emphasis on copywriting.

• Advertising’s Role in Integrated Marketing Communication
• Types of Advertising: Print Ads in Newspapers, Magazines, Etc.; Industrial and Technical Advertising, Rural Advertising, Digital Advertising, Radio, Cinema, etc.
• Launching an Ad Campaign - Identifying Target Audience, Choosing Platform, Planning, Executing
• Copywriting

This unit aims to give an opportunity to the student to practically try out her learning from the IV and V unit.

• PR Campaign
• Print Advertising
• Social Media Campaign

The course shall not have a regular CIA- MSE -ESE model. Instead, the student will be given a series of assignments (at least 10) spread across the semester, leading to a final portfolio submission model. The teaching facilitator will consider the level of intelligibility in the class and the learning needs of the students, and decide what assignment to be given on a regular basis.

 Literature can never be separated from the culture that produces it. This course is an introduction to British literature from the 19th century to the Contemporary times through a close reading of fiction, drama, poetry and other literary forms. Placing the texts in a social, historical and formal context, they will consider how the definition of ‘Englishness’ has shifted in the course of the century and has become more inclusive and complex, and how the changing position of Britain in the world is reflected in the literature. This course will examine how British authors have responded to historical and cultural change through the twentieth century to the twenty first, a history that has moved from the heights of colonialism at the end of the nineteenth century to contemporary multiculturalism, with all of its attendant ideological and geographical restructurings. The course will examine the politics of realism, the growth of modernism, and the response and contribution of the British writers to the increasingly postmodern and postcolonial experience of British culture. Cultural, historical, and theoretical context will be integrated into the discussion by means of lecture and secondary readings and resources, to situate close reading of the texts within the historical moment of their production and reception.
Course Objectives
   To become familiar with the narrative forms and themes of contemporary British literature
   To study contemporary British literature within the cultural context of its production and reception
    To participate in lively and informed discussions about/ around the reading
    To develop and apply critical skills for reading, thinking, and writing about several genres
   To explore what a literary or cultural text conveys (its themes, its view of the world)
    To examine how a literary or cultural text conveys that knowledge (its aesthetic form, its selection/omission of detail)

 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 Lord Tennyson: Excerpts from “In Memoriam”
●    Robert Browning: Excerpts from“Sordello”
●    Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “The Cry of the Children”
●    Annie Besant: Excerpts from White Slavery in London
●    Charles Dickens: Great Expectations
●    Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights
●    Christina Rossetti: “Goblin Market”
●    Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest

The units 2 and 3 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. It is then imperative to explore important terms such as. The unit will also survey several momentous periods from the end of the Victorian period through the First World War and the height of 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 18271847
  Jenkins-- “Disraeli and Gladstone” and “The Edwardians”, “The First world war,”” The Second world War”, “Thatcherism”
●    Thomas Hardy – The Convergence of the Twain
●    Joseph Conrad – Preface to The Heart of Darkness and The Nigger and the Narcissus,”
●    W. B. Yeats -- “The Second Coming”, “Leda and the Swan”
●    Virginia Woolf – Mrs. Dalloway (Excerpts)
●    Wilfred Owen - Dulce et Decorum Est
●    James Joyce- Portrait of the Artist as a young Man (Excerpts)
●    DH Lawrence – The Odour of Chrysanthemums
●    Katherine Mansfield- The Garden Party
●    GK Chesterton- Upon this Rock
●    TS Eliot – The Waste Land (Excerpts), Tradition and Individual Talent

George Orwell- Politics and the English Language
WH Auden- Unknown Citizen
Agatha Christie- The King of Clubs
Harold Pinter – The Dumb WaiterDoris Lessing- To Room Nineteen
Angela Carter- The Werewolf
Adrian Henri- Where ‘Er you walk
Tom Stoppard- Shakespeare in Love (Original Screenplay)
Adaptations of any one of J K Rowling's Harry Potter series

This 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: Midnight’s Children/ “English Is an Indian Literary Language.”
Monica Ali: Brick Lane
Ali Smith Girl Meets Boy/ Carol Ann Duffy- MedusaDeborah Levy Swimming Home
Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending
Kazuo Ishiguro Never Let Me Go

I

Greenblatt, S.The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 10th ed. Vol.A. New York: (2012)
 Jenkins, Simon.  A Short History of England: The Glorious Story of a Rowdy Nation. (2011)

Course Description

This course is designed to provide an introduction to research skills relevant to postgraduate work in English language and literature. Topics center 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.

From the perspective of one’s program of study, this course poses a real-world test helping to make a realistic transition from coursework to dissertation. A successful completion of the course is marked by your ability to do the following:

·         Apply the theoretical and methodological understanding and skills into devising researchable ideas and specific research questions and hypotheses,

·         Utilize various sources to gather data for a research paper,

·         Organize ideas, write annotated bibliographies,  and thesis statements,

·         Conduct a focused review of the relevant literature and create appropriate conceptual framework,

·         Think through and articulate a chapter-by-chapter outline of the intended dissertation,

·         Communicate research ideas and their appropriate theoretical and methodological issues effectively and efficiently.

Fundamentals of Research

• Defining the ‘Construct’ of Research
• Research in the Academia
• Nature of Research -Translation, Documentation and Archiving
• Interpretation and Validity

Nature of inquiry in Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities

• Positivism, Post-positivism, Constructivism, Interpretivism

The Philosophy of Research in Literature.

• Subjectivities, Identities, Vulnerabilities and  Biases
• Criticism and Evolution of Research in literature ( Terry Eagleton and Gabriele Griffith)

Reading for Research

·         Pre-reading, Pre-writing (Mind mapping, Concept mapping,  Analyzing 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

Research Design

·         Thinking through the Research Issue

·         Background Reading

·         Methodology and Theoretical Framework

·         Data Collection

·         Data Analysis

·         The Writing Process

·         Dissemination

The Design component should look into the Research Problem – Topic Idea, C.A.R.S Model,Research Questions, Literature Review, The Object of research and Rationale,

Identification of a Research Gap

• Research Proposal
• Writing for research - abstract, introduction, literature review, theoretical and methodological framework, analysis, discussion, inferences and implications
• Protocols for Submission

·         The Format (Presentation) of a  research paper

·         Procedures in Literary Research / Culture Studies/Film Studies/Language Studies

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

·         Referencing and citation  - MLA  & APA (SLA)

For this assignment, each student will draft a 25-30 annotated bibliography of books and articles on the topic you chose for your dissertation.

The Annotated Bibliography is a list of the sources the student has found so far in his/her area of research.  The list is in alphabetical order as it would be on the Works Cited page, and includes a full citation for each source as it would appear on the Works Cited page.  However, in addition, an Annotated Bibliography includes an annotation for each source, which is basically a summary of the source and some commentary on why the source is useful to the project.

The purpose of the Annotated Bibliography is to motivate students to begin  their research early, to begin evaluating research sources, and to begin thinking about how they might fit together in his/her paper.  In addition, this assignment asks students to put together Works Cited page citations now, so that they are not scrambling to do them at the last minute.  

This assignment also helps give the instructor a clearer sense of where students are headed with his/her dissertation/project so that the instructor can better advise him/her and help him/her generate ideas.  It also allows the instructor to identify any problems with sources early on.

CIA 2:Literature Review

For this assignment, each student will compose a 10-12 source researched literature review of the assigned topic. Your paper must be typed per MLA format and submitted to me before your presentation.

A literature review is a survey of scholarly material relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory that provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work. The purpose of a literature review is to offer a particular overview of significant literature published on a given topic. A literature review, framed to suit the needs of your project, demonstrates your familiarity with literature pertinent to your topic of research. As such, it serves as the foundational material from which your argument will emerge in the final paper you compose for this class. In addition to developing and enriching your knowledge about your research topic, writing a literature review affords you the opportunity to develop and practice three fundamental skills: Research, Analysis, and Synthesis.

 a. Research: The ability to find existing data by scanning the literature efficiently using the databases common to scholars in the university and the ability to identify a set of useful sources.

b. Analysis: The ability to identify significant findings, connections, or conclusions in and among the published literature on your topic.

c. Synthesis: The ability to articulate connections, patterns, common themes and areas of disagreement within a range of studies.

CIA 3: Portfolio assignment

Every student turns in a portfolio that contains final versions of the literature review, drafts of the research paper, plus a reflection on the dissertation writing experience. (Reflection on the Dissertation Writing Experience: This assignment is designed for the student to reflect on personal expectations, concerns, and questions related to the dissertation writing process.  Roughly, the students will answer the following question in an essay format:  What are your thoughts on the dissertation process, fears, and questions?  What is your current interest in the topic you selected? What resources can you use in the dissertation writing process? What are your strengths and weakness related to writing?)

End Semester Exam: Research Paper

Students should 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.

Course Description

In continuation with the paper on Literary Studies (MEL 133), this paper begins with 20^th century developments in Europe that are ‘transdiscursive’. Foucault used this term to describe certain works that began as part of a specific discourse but became legitimately relevant to other discourses like Marxism, for instance.

Following the works of these transdiscursive thinkers, the 20^th century became a hotbed of radical ways of viewing the world. In this paper, we will look at several prominent thinkers who have had a dominating influence in shaping the ways in which the world and the text can be viewed and received.

Towards the latter part of the 20^th century, several approaches to literature like postcolonial studies, gender studies and cultural studies have added dimensions of location, gender and caste to the classical questions on the nature and reception of art. The focus has shifted from what constitutes meaning to how meanings are produced. We conclude this paper with reflections on the future of literary theory.

Course Objectives

·         To make students familiar with key terms and ideas that contributed to the critical and theory-driven movements.

·         To encourage students to develop capabilities in interpreting/critiquing literary texts in relation to philosophical, intellectual, social and historical contexts.

·         To enable students to demonstrate capabilities in writing and analyzing texts based on familiarity with theoretical movements and arguments.

·         The student will apply multiple frames of thinking to a text.

·         The student will develop the ability to write a response paper to any one thinker or theoretical framework.

·         Students will make use of theoretical tools in their research papers.

Following a text-centred approach that inaugurated the 20^th century, we move to the reader and the artist and the idea of what constitutes the self

·         A Freudian Reading of Fiction: Key Terms and extracts from The Interpretation of Dreams:  The Material and Sources of Dreams / The Dream Work/ Creative Writers and Day Dreaming.

This is to be followed by application on the concepts and ideas on the select fiction of D.H. Lawrence or any other relevant material.

·         A Lacanian Reading of Literary Language: The Mirror Stage / The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious.

 This would be followed by a Lacanian reading of the plays of Shakespeare – the unconscious / Real in Twelfth Night, for example.

·         The Ecriture Feminine of Literature: Approaches to Feminism: from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

The class is to conclude with an application of important feminist ideas like writing the body and identifying and encountering the Law of the Father.

·         Gender Studies and Queer theory: Internet Encyclopedia.

The classes would attempt a retake on literature from the past till contemporary times in terms of the problematics of gender.

·         Identity Politics: Stanford Encyclopedia.

A reading of identity politics in terms of how literature has evolved in contemporary times. This would provide a survey of the emergence of identity politics literature and would also problematize them in terms of theory

What drives Human consciousness? If for the psychoanalysts it was the irrational, for another school of theorists it was your social class that determined consciousness

·         Karl Marx and Engels: Excerpts from the Communist manifesto: The Norton Anthology

·         Walter Benjamin: Stanford Encyclopedia

·         Marxism and Critical Theory: Internet Encyclopedia

·         Althusser: From Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses

(Self Study: Yale Open Courses Lecture 17: The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory and Lecture 18: the Political Unconscious)

This unit focusses attention of how meanings are produced and who owns meaning making

·         Bakhtin: from Discourse in the Novel

·         J.L.Austin: Performative Utterances

·         Wolfgang Iser: Interaction Between Text and Reader

·         JSTOR :Dr. Louise M. Rosenblatt : The Poem as Event (for Reader-Response Theory)

The reader who creates meaning is a construct of history and location

·         New Historicism and Cultural Materialism: Internet Encyclopedia

·         Edward Said: From Orientalism

This unit looks at newer theories that have left critics questioning the future of theory

·         Ecocriticism

·         Trauma Theory

·         Chaos Theory

·         Against Theory: William Deresiewicz: The Business of Theory

·         JSTOR: Evolutionary Paradigm for Literary Study: Dr. Joseph Carroll

This unit is meant to help students read a text from different lenses

·         Psychoanalytical criticism of a novel / poem prescribed for study.

·         Marxist criticism of a novel / poem prescribed for study

·         Feminist criticism of a text prescribed for study.

·         Formalist reading of a poem

·         Critique of any prominent critic / school of criticism prescribed for study.

(Self – study: Glossary of Semiotics, Intertextuality, Aporia, Difference, Dialectical Materialism, False consciousness, Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, Alterity, Interpellation)

 (For Textual Analysis: Students can choose any text prescribed for study in the British, American or Indian Literature syllabi. They could take one text or multiple texts)

§  Yale University lectures on You Tube.

§  Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

§  Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

§  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.

§  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. 3^rded.Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2007.

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

Application of Psychoanalysis or Marxism to a literary text prescribed for study in British, American or Indian literatures.

CIA II

Written exams: Answer any 5 out of 7 questions. 10 marks for each answer.

CIA III

Application of Feminism or Formalism to a literary text prescribed for study.

End Semester Exam

Written examination: Any 5 out of 8. 20 marks for each answer.

Course Description

The course visualizes the paradigm of English language education as a wide platform that primarily is concerned with but not limited to issues of teaching and learning English. It is with this broad understanding that the present paper has been designed. The purpose of the paper is to view ELE not just as a skill focused paper but as a paper that would give equal importance to the various theories and notions in language education. Therefore, the paper is inclusive of issues that concern education in general and language education in specific. The paper starts with introducing the notions of language classrooms as shaping social identities, issues of gender neutrality and policies in education with specific focus on language education. It uses the notion of English language education as a base to discuss various aspects of language education from a theoretical as well as practical perspective basing theory on philosophies of education, learning and teaching. The Units are designed and graded in an attempt to attach equal importance to both theory and practice.

Course Objectives

The present course aims to:

·         familiarize learners with core theories of language education

·         provide a detailed historical overview of language teaching

·         make learners aware of the notions of alternate education and home-schooling

·         explore the role of language in Education and understand notions of language hegemony and hierarchy

·         discuss different aspects of the structure of education with specific focus on language

·         discuss measures, policies and changes in language education

·         provide opportunities for service learning by integrating it as a part of both theory and practise.

·         sensitize learners to issues of gender and equality in the language education

·         provide opportunities for practice teaching

 By the end of this course learners will be able to

·         debate and discuss various educational process with a sound theoretical understanding

·         research on issues that impact language education

·         teach English as a skill based subject

·         create material based for teaching English

·         be sensitive to the use of gender biased language in education

·         critique current educational process and policies with specific focus on language

·         critically reflect on their roles and abilities as teachers and learners

 The unit is designed for giving learners a basic introduction to English Language Teaching and the various approaches and methods that have developed over a period of time. The unit is divided into two halves. The first half sets the historical background required to understand ELT as a discipline. The second half of the unit introduces the notion of curriculum and syllabus to the learners. As a major component of this paper is a project/text book that the learners would design, the second half of the unit is designed to provide the learners with the training required to design text books.

Introduction to ELT

·         ELT as a separate discipline. Composition of ELT as a discourse.

Tracing historical developments in Language Teaching

·         Grammar translation

·         direct method

·         audio-lingual method

·         situational language teaching

·         total physical response

·         the natural approach

·         the communicative approach

·         the silent way

·         suggestopedia

·         community language learning

·         task based language teaching.

·         Situating the position of English within India- Macaulay’s Minutes

Syllabus, curriculum design

• Processes in syllabus and curriculum design
• Reading the National Curriculum Framework
• Types of curriculum
• Types of Syllabi
• Framing a syllabus

 Content Design- Designing a Textbook

·         Selection and Grading

·         Tasks Design

·         Packaging the content

This unit is an integral component of the paper as it integrates theory into practice. It explores the notion of experiential learning and situates service learning within experiential learning.

Experiential Learning- Theories-

·         Kolbe’s Learning cycle,

·         Constructivism

·         Nodding’s Care in Education

·         Affect in teaching/learning

Defining Service Learning- Philosophy and Rationale

Service learning and Community Needs

Service Learning in India: Challenges and concerns

Designing Lesson Plans for Service learning

Issues and Challenges in Classroom teaching

Reflection as a tool in Service Learning: Maintaining reflective Journals

Educational Equality- Opportunities, Policies and Practicality

Receptive Skills: (reading and listening materials): reasons and strategies for reading; reading speed; intensive and extensive reading and listening; reading development; reasons and strategies for listening; listening practice materials and listening development.

Productive Skills: (speaking and writing): skimming, scanning, taking notes from lectures and from books; reasons and opportunities for speaking; development of speaking skills; information-gap activities; simulation and role-play; dramatization; mime-based activity; relaying instructions; written and oral communicative activities.

Vocabulary: choice of words and other lexical items; active and passive vocabulary; word formation; denotative, connotative meanings.

Grammar: teaching of word classes; morphemes and word formation; noun(s); prepositional and adjective phrases; verb phrases; form and function in the English tenses; semantics and communication.

Peer Teaching: Teaching skill oriented lessons as a part of peer teaching in the class. This could also be considered as CIA I

• Understanding Evaluation, Assessment and Testing, Content-based and Skill-based Testing
• Validity, reliability, standardised testing
• Alternative teaching and assessment practices

The last unit of the paper deals with different concerns related to the notions of language, pedagogy and identity. It discusses various theoretical positions related to these areas. It also introduces learners to the different policies related to education with specific focus on language education. It also introduces the notion of home schooling and alternative education and provides a brief overview of gender roles and gender neutrality in language classroom.

Language, pedagogy and Social identities in pedagogic spaces- challenges and concerns

Introduction to alternative education and home schooling

Policies in Education

·         Kothari Commission

·         Right To education

·         No child Left behind

·         Recapitulating Language policies

Gender and Language- gender biases and gender neutrality in the language classroom

Understanding notions of classrooms as pedagogic spaces

·         Space as a notion in education

·         Role and impact of space in language classrooms

·         Negotiating space of the language classroom

§  Richards, J.C. and Rogers,T. 2001. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching.

§  Sadker, D.S. (Ed.) and Silber, E.S. (Ed). 2006. Gender in the Classroom: Foundations, Skills, Methods and Strategies AcrossCurrciulum.

§  Bailey, Richard W. Images of English. A Cultural History of the Language. Cambridge: CUP 1991.

§  Bayer, Jennifer. Language and social identity. In: Multilingualism in India. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd: 101-111. 1990.

§  Durairajan, G. (2015). Assessing Learners. A Pedagogic Resource. India: Cambridge University Press.

§  Ellis, R. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford:OUP. 1991.

§  Freire, P. (2014). Pedagogy of hope: Reliving pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury Publishing.

§  Richards Jack C. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. India: Cambridge University Press. 2001.

§  Richards Jack C. and Rodgers Theodore S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.1986.

§  Widdowson, H G. Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford University Press.1978.

§  Ur, P. 1996. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

§  Richards, J.C. and Rogers,T. 2001. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching.

§  Sadker, D.S. (Ed.) and Silber, E.S. (Ed). 2006. Gender in the Classroom: Foundations, Skills, Methods and Strategies AcrossCurrciulum.

§  Bailey, Richard W. Images of English. A Cultural History of the Language. Cambridge: CUP 1991.

§  Bayer, Jennifer. Language and social identity. In: Multilingualism in India. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd: 101-111. 1990.

§  Durairajan, G. (2015). Assessing Learners. A Pedagogic Resource. India: Cambridge University Press.

§  Ellis, R. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford:OUP. 1991.

§  Freire, P. (2014). Pedagogy of hope: Reliving pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury Publishing.

§  Richards Jack C. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. India: Cambridge University Press. 2001.

§  Richards Jack C. and Rodgers Theodore S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.1986.

§  Widdowson, H G. Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford University Press.1978.

§  Ur, P. 1996. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

CIA II or the Mid Sem is a submission of the Srujana Teaching Report- 50 Marks

Srujana is a significant component of the paper and the teacher in charge of the paper needs to coordinate with the coordinator for Srujana for the smooth functioning of the process. A cluster of 4-5 can be assigned to a particular faculty member who would be in charge of approving the lesson plans and the Srujana reports. The Centre for Social Action, of which Srujana is a part, would also review the reports at an interval of every three months.

For CIA II all report would have to submit to the paper in charge along with the lesson plans of the respective reports. The submissions would include comments and suggestions on the reports by the faculty in charge and, the feedback by the CSA. All the students should have finished two round of teaching by the time they appear for the Mid semester exam.

The Mid semester exam will comprise of a compilation of the two lesson plans that the students would have used for their classes. These lessons plans will have to be in the format that the tutor would have provided. All lesson plans need approval of the teacher in charge of the group prior to the actual teaching. The self- analysis report would be a reflection report on the learners teaching experiences in Srujana.  Unit II of the syllabus familiarizes the learners with the format of the report and the theory behind reflection. The learners are expected to adhere to the theory and the guidelines provided.

The learners would have to submit signed and approved copies of the lesson plan along with the self analysis report. Both of these would be evaluated for 50 Marks.

CIA III - The first draft of the text book or the project that the learners seek to undertake would comprise the CIA III

The learners should have designed the first two Units of the text book. The draft will be accompanied by a report that states the aims, objectives, grade and rationale of the text book. The learners will be graded on the report and the two draft units that they design.

End Semester Exam - The end semester is divided into two parts- 50 marks would be allotted to the submission of the text book and 50 marks would be a written test for two hours.

Course Description

The course hopes to enable the student with basic grounding in mass communication and media theory to build her media skill set and thereby gain a rounded media perspective. The student will be exposed to the technicalities of designing, photography and videography.

Course Objectives

·         To build on the knowledge gained through the Mass Communication courses of the previous semesters

·         To enable a basic understanding of audio-visual skills

·         To ensure the creation of visual narratives

After the completion of this course, the student will have a basic understanding of the camera, AV software, and editing to create a visual narrative.

Pre-production procedures - Generating Idea, Developing the idea using mind mapping/mood board concept, Design thinking, Importance of research, Screenwriting, Preparing digital storyboard, Casting, budget

Designing software basics, Photography – Fundamentals, Introduction to different Cameras, film and digital Formats, lenses, Different file formats, ISO, Aperture, Shutter, White balance, new trends in Photography

Field-Reporting based on the assigned instructions

• -shooting video/taking pictures
• -conducting the on-camera interview (PTC)
• -composing interesting shots
• -telling stories in unconventional ways

Editing in camera, types of editing, Timecode, finding the right cut, parallel narratives, long format and short format editing principles, elements of mixed media editing, Transitions-sound effects and visual effects

• Michael Rabiger, Directing the Documentary.
• Hugh W Badly, The techniques of documentary film production
• Joseph Marshelli, 5c’s of Cinematography

• Michael Rabiger, Directing the Documentary.
• Hugh W Badly, The techniques of documentary film production
• Joseph Marshelli, 5c’s of Cinematography

CIA II (dept level) -3 minutes story, Photo essay

CIA III (dept level) -PSA for 60 seconds

End semester exam - Project -10 minutes’ short film/documentary film

Course Description

The two words used to describe this paper - Indian and Aesthetics - are heavily loaded and hugely contested words. To create a monolithic construct out of a plurality of positions would go against the grain of this paper. To forcefully create a chronological / historical reading of ‘Indian’ positions and debates revolving around Art would not do justice to the fissures in History and would also trap us within the need for structure. This paper is a modest attempt to introduce students to ideas on Art appreciation that had their origins in what today is recognized as a political unit called India. It is difficult to dissociate Art forms from both religion and philosophy. Art criticism in India is closely connected to dance, theatre and architecture. While the focus of this paper is on Aesthetic principles and debates that have direct implications on the study of Literature, it will also briefly include other art forms including architecture. Our starting point for this paper would be the term made famous by Prof. G.N.Devy: After Amnesia. Through revisiting the available classical texts on ‘Indian’ Aesthetics and by checking to see their contribution to the world of ideas, we hope to reintroduce ourselves to our Pasts and make aesthetic sense and connections with our present.

Course Objectives

·         To enable students to have a glimpse of some of the theoretical positions in Indian art that have been retrieved from the fog of colonialism and the burden of a Euro-centric academia.

·         To sensitize students to the plurality and therefore the complexities involved in an epistemological construct called ‘Indian Aesthetics’

·         To enable students to critique the relevance of the ancient principles of art evaluation to the contemporary times

·         To encourage students to contribute to the ongoing discussions on contemporary ‘Indian’ aesthetics.

Students will demonstrate:

·         Their understanding of some of the theoretical principles that govern the critique of Indian art forms.

·         A comprehension of pre-colonial forms of Indian art criticism.

·         Their ability to apply some of these aesthetic principles to their reading of art / literature.

·          Their ability to critically think through concepts like ‘Art’, ‘Nation’, ‘Identity’ and ‘Margins’.

This unit begins with arriving at an epistemological framework for Indian Aesthetics. Given that we understand words like ideology, theory and aesthetics from a Euro-American perspective, this unit will inaugurate a moment of re-orientation to certain principles of literary assessment.

·         R.B. Patankar: Aesthetics: Some important problems (From Indian Lit Criticism –pages 389 – 416)

·         Defining the premises: Nativism and its Ambivalences. K. Satchidanandan (From Makarand Paranjape ed)

·         B.S. Mardhekar: Poetry and Aesthetic theory

·         Terry Eagleton’s: Ideology of the Aesthetic - SLC

The unit will cover a period from the third to the eleventh century and trace the ideas of key thinkers who have contributed to the ‘theories’ of art appreciation.

·         Background: Hiriyanna’s Introduction to Outlines of Indian Philosophy

·         Bharatmuni: Natya-Rasa – 3^rd century (Natyasastra / Abhinayadarpana)

·         Tholkappiyar: Diction/ Style – 4^th century? (Sangam Literature and Poetics)

·         Bhartrhari: Syntax / Meaning - 5^th century

·         Anandavardhana: Dhvani – Structure of poetic Meaning – 9^th century

·         Kuntaka: Language of Poetry/ Metaphor 10^th century

·         Abhinavagupta: Santarasa – Aesthetic Equipoise – 11^th century

The unit looks at the ways in which the ‘Indianness’ of aesthetic standards have negotiated with changes in socio-political circumstances. This unit will also look at marginalised identities covered in the Gender Studies, Cultural Studies and Indian Literatures in Translation papers. The students will deliberate on the connection between aesthetics and ideology

·         The relevance of Rasa Theory to Modern literature – K. Krishnamoorthy (From Neerja Gupta) (Pp 99 – 112)

·         The relevance of Sanskrit Poetics to contemporary Practical Criticism – Umashankar Joshi (Neerja Gupta)

·         The Oxford Anthology of Bhakti literature: Edited By Andrew Schelling – Introduction : (pp xiii – xxvii)

·         Tagore: ‘What is Art?’

The unit will cover the application of some of the principles learnt in the previous units to theatre, dance and literature                                                                                                                

·         Critiquing a contemporary performance of a classical dance (Padmini Chettur / Preethi Athreya) using the theories learnt.      

·         Watching a Folk dance and discussing its aesthetics.

·         Mahasweta Devi’s ‘Dopdi’ along with the introduction by Spivak

·         Coomaraswamy, Anand. A Hindu View of Art from The Dance of Shiva. New York: Dover Publications, 1918.

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

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

·         Hart, George. The Poems of Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and Their Sanskrit Counterparts. Berkeley: University of California Press,1975.

·         Ingalls, Daniel. Ed.The Dhvanyaloka of Anandavardhana with the Locana of Abhinavagupta. Harvard University Press. (Introduction.) Harvard Oriental Series 49. 1990

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

·         Menon, Sangeeta: “A first person approach to Aesthetic Emotions in Natyashastra”. http://eprints.nias.res.in.

·         Paranjape, Makarand: Ed. Nativism: Essays in Criticism. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1997.

·         Pollock, Shelden. Ed. A Rasa Reader: Classical Indian Aesthetics. Columbia University Press.(Introduction) 2016.

·         Raja, Kunjunni K. Indian Theories of Meaning. Chennai: The Adyar Library and Research Centre, 2000

The Teleology of Poetics in Medieval Kashmir. Harvard Oriental Series 71 (Introduction

·         A.K. Ramanujan: On Ancient Tamil Poetics 346 – 374

·         A.K. Ramanijan: Is there an Indian Way of Thinking.

·         Bhartrhari’s view of Sphota – pp 375 – 388

·         Al Badaoni – 108 – 133

·         Ghalib : Poetry as freedom (134 – 136)

·         G.N.Devy: Desivad – Keynote Address ( From Paranjape pp 5-13)

·         R. B. Patankar. Nativism: The Intellectual Background (Paranjape 28-48)

·         Sanjeev Kumar: Contextualising Dalit Aesthetics in Dalit Autobiographies.

·         Amartya Sen: Identity and violence (pp 18 – 39 / Making Sense of identity; pp 103 – 119 / Culture and captivity)

·         Hawley, John Stratton. Bhakti: A Storm of Songs – India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement.

·         Nagarjuna: From the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

·         A quiz on concepts and theorists – 20 marks

·         A written summary of any one essay included in the list of recommended reading and viva - 20 + 10 marks.

·         An online student led discussion forum on literary aesthetics. The class can reflect on their own understanding of the context and the problematics of ‘Indian Aesthetics’ and draw parallels with texts, both Indian and non-Indian/theories from faraway lands etc. – 10 marks

·         A response paper to any essay in Unit III – 30 marks

·         Classroom discussions on Unit 4 – 10 marks

Course Description

This course is offered in third semester course for the M A programme. The course attempts to offer an exposure to the various language (Bhasha) literatures of India in Translation. The multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and multi-religious entity that India encompasses make it almost a task to know all the languages and the literatures written in all of these languages. This course is an endeavour to include literatures of as many of these different languages which are available in translation. This is done without repeating the themes and concerns dealt with in the texts. Each of these texts are selected keeping in mind the myriad socio-political concerns within a region expressed in a language which is not accessible to all. Hence translation theories which are specific to the Indian languages and practice are also included to compliment the reading of the texts. The syllabus is in four Modules broadly divided as the Early Translations, Translations and Freedom Struggle, Dalit Translations and Contemporary Translations. This broad, general categorisation is done to avoid any kind of affiliations in foregrounding ideologies or polarities. In compiling a syllabus under this title there is the danger of leaning towards discourses like Post Colonial studies, Indology, Genre Studies, Aesthetics of Indian Literatures and Translation Studies. This course is a blend of all these discourses and many more that evolves during the deliberations in class.

Course Objectives

·         To sensitise students to the literary works available in Bhasha literatures.

·         To expose students to the variety of Indian literatures and the nuanced selections of translations

·         ·To appreciate and acknowledge the aesthetics of Indian Bhasha literatures and to be an informed reader of translations.

·         Students will be able to discern the historical, socio-cultural and political incidents in India and its impact on various literatures.

·         Students can also be aware of writing in bhashas and the nuances of translation.

This will give a better understanding of the literatures written in various languages of India

This module is to introduce students to some of the earliest forms of literature available in Indian languages and translated for a larger reading public. This encompasses a vast literary period from Vedic literature to medieval representations.  The texts are largely poems or hymns as a popular genre of the time.

·         Rig Veda, Mandala 10, hymn CXXIX (129). Creation. A. L. Basham's Version

·         Tirukkural - Chapter: 79 - On Friendship

·         Basavanna - Select Vachanaas

·         Vidyapati - Select Poems

·         Bhima Bhoi - Select Poems

·         Kabirdas - Select Dohas (any 10)

·         Mirza Ghalib- Ghazal, Temple lamp

The spurt of translations from Indian languages and from other languages to Indian languages led to the spirit of nationalism. It is important to read the nationalistic spirit and the literatures that influenced nation building. This module can be approached from a postcolonial perspective.

• Anandmath- Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (novel)
• Hind Swaraj or the Indian Home Rule (chapters 06 & 13) M.K Gandhi
• Sadaat Hasan Manto- The Price of Freedom (Short Story)
• Mother of 1084- Mahasweta Devi (novel)

While Dalits have contributed to the literature that emanated from India from an early age, the Dalit literary movement gained momentum breaking the millennia old shackles in the twentieth century. The movement, spread across India, has resulted in the development of a new aesthetic and has produced self-narratives that are reflective of the oppression that the Dalits face in their everyday life.

• Baby Kamble, The Prison We Broke (Novel) Trans. By Maya Pandit
• Deities - K U Uma Devi (Poem From Tamil)
• Damlai Piaral - R L Thanmawia (Mizo Christian Hymn)
• For a Fistful of Self-Respect - Kalekuri Prasad (Telugu Poem)
• Transitions - Lal Singh Dil ( Poem from Punjabi)

The recent burgeoning of quality literary works being published in the regional languages of India has brought the much deserved focus on Indian ‘Bhasha’ literature. This module includes texts from different parts of India that mirror the varied concerns and political, socio-cultural and economic milieus of the regions that they come from.

• Suresh Joshi: On Interpretation (Gujrati; Chintamayi Manasa)
• The Land of the Half-Humans - Thangjam Ibopishak (Manipuri Poem)
• Poonachi: Or the Story of a Black Goat - Perumal Murugan (Tamil Novel)
• Cobalt Blue -Sachin Kundalkar (Trans. By Jerry Pinto) (Marathi Novel)
• Interregnum -Naiyer Masud (Urdu Short Story Trans. By Muhammad Umar Memon)

·         Devy, G.N, “Indian Literary Criticism: Theory and Interpretation” Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 2002.

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

·         Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna, “Illustrated History of Indian Literatures in English” New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2003.

·         Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature: History, Controversies and Considerations, by Sharankumar Limbale. Translated by Alok Mukherjee. Orient Longman, 2004

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

·         Meenakshi Mukherjee, ‘Divided by a Common Language’, in The Perishable Empire (New Delhi: OUP, 2000) pp.187–203.

• 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.
• 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

CIA I - 20 marks (A written survey on any Indian language literature and history)

CIA II - Mid semester Exam (50 Marks) Written Exam

CIA II- 20 marks (Project/Presentations/ Discussions/Viva)

End Semester Exam (100 Marks)

Course Description

This course will look at issues, themes and debates in writing from Asia, Africa, 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. The Texts therefore selected for this course will critically engage with a history of oppression, internal and external colonialism, racism, injustice and ethnicity. Postcolonial Literatures could also be looked at as literatures of emancipation, critique and transformation. 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 post independent nation states. 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, considerations of how texts balance literary concerns with wider political and ethical concerns will be explored. This course also leans towards in terms of theory and epistemology, the Global South as it is an exciting perspective through which to reflect on the infinite epistemic diversity of the world and the inherent impossibility of a general theory to understand it, but also to explore contemporary routes of conversations, critiques and coalitions towards a multi-epistemic world and a truly cosmo-political universe of coexistence, well-being and mutual understanding.

Course Objectives

·         Be able 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 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.

Students will demonstrate:

·         Increased knowledge of postcolonial literatures and an enhanced awareness of debates surrounding the issues of postcolonial identities.

·         The ability to read complex texts, closely and politically.

·         The ability to comprehend both traditional and contemporary schools/methods of critical theory and apply them to literary texts to generate relevant interpretations.

·         The knowledge of  particular community histories

·         The ability to effectively conduct literary research.

·         The ability to write clear, grammatically correct prose for a variety of purposes besides literary analysis.

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

·         The Fact of Blackness- Frantz Fanon SLC

·         Introduction to Orientalism- Edward Said SLC

·         Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse -Homi K. Bhabha SLB

·         The intimate Enemy- Ashis Nandy- SLC

The Unit will explore the myriad ways of contesting Colonialism, among which the most important tool for decolonising is 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 Harp of India- Henry Derozio SLC

·         Rebel Sultans- Manu S Pillai (pp 1-20) SLC

·         Historylessness: Australia as a Settler Colonial Collective -Lorenzo Veracini SLB

·         History without a Cause? Grand Narratives, World History, and the Postcolonial Dilemma -Barbara Weinstein SLC

·         Tonight- Agha Shahid Ali (an English ghazal) SLC

·         The Mummy- 1999 (Movie) SLC

The unit will discuss current debates and conversations regarding Colonial discourses, English studies and Englishes, Language 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.

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, orality and literature, folk, myth, history, ELIAC, Magic Realism, Decanonisation, Nation Languages, Postcolonial Englishes

·         Narrative Agency and Thinking about Conflicts -Nandana Dutta SLB

·         On English from India: Prepositions to Post-Positions - K. Narayana Chandran SLB

·         Literature/Identity: Transnationalism, Narrative and Representation - Arif Dirlik SLB

·         The Famished Road- Ben Okri SLC

·         In an Antique land- Amitav Ghosh SLC

·         Ulysses by the Merlion- Edwin Thumboo SLC

The Feminist critics have argued that the empire was always a ‘masculine adventure’. This has resulted in the effacement of woman 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

·         Veils and Sales:Muslims and the Spaces of Postcolonial Fashion Retail -Reina Lewis SLB

·         “Patriarchal Colonialism” and Indigenism: Implications for Native Feminist Spirituality and Native Womanism -M. A. Jaimes Guerrero SLB

·         Nampally Road- Meena Alexander SLC

·         The Hungry Woman- Cherrie Moraga SLC

·         Women at Point Zero- El Saadawi SLB

·         Farewell my concubine- Chen kaige (movie) SLB

·         Kamasutra- Vatsyayna (Excerpts) SLC

·         Scent of Love- Hoshang Merchant SLC

·         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 Fransisco: 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.

CIA I and III can be either written analysis/presentation of a movement or dominant idea of the time, literary quiz or debates or seminar/ panel discussions.

Mid semester exam will be a written paper on the modules covered for 50 marks (5 questions out of 8, 10 marks each, open book or crib sheet exam)

End-semester: One Section: Five questions carrying 20 marks to be answered out of eight.

Course Description

This course is designed to provide contemporary intersectional and interdisciplinary perspectives on cultural phenomena and theories, with specific focus on India. The students will be provided epistemological and methodological frameworks to read, examine, understand, and analyse cultural phenomenon and ideological frameworks that specifically pertain to caste, identities, and regionalism.

Course Objectives

·         To introduce students to culture studies as a discipline

·         To help students engage with “culture” as an academic inquiry

·         To introduce theoretical interventions in studying culture from within culture studies

·         To help students analyze cultural artefacts using dimensions such as nation, identity, power as interconnected entities

·         To help students engage with cultural debates from India and the world

Students will demonstrate:

·         Understand culture studies as a discipline and framework of academic investigation

·         Develop a theoretical understanding of cultural artefacts

·         Be able to understand and engage with debates in the formulations of ‘culture’

·         Develop a critical understanding of culture, culture studies, and other related dimensions

This module will help the students understand the basic ideas, concepts, debates and methods of culture studies as practiced in contemporary times while retaining the traditional grounding of the discipline. They would be introduced to the ideas and interrelations of myth and culture, popular articulations of culture, culture as industry, and the processes of coding and decoding cultural artefacts.

• Fiske, J. (2010). Understanding popular culture. Routledge.
• Barthes, Roland (1957). "Myth Today".
• Williams, Raymond, (1958) "Culture is Ordinary" from The Everyday Life Reader.
• Adorno, Theodor and Max Horkheimer. “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.” The Cultural Studies Reader. Simon During(ed). New York, London: Routlege, 1993, 29-43.
• Hall, Stuart. “Encoding, decoding.” The Cultural Studies Reader. Simon During (ed). New York, London: Routlege, 1993, 90-103.
• Miller, Toby. "What it is and what it isn't: Introducing... Cultural Studies." A companion to cultural studies (2001): 1-19.

This module is designed to familiarise the students with the current debates around culture and nationality, construction of a nation, divergences and convergences between imagined communities and culture, with a specific focus on caste and nationality.

·         Vinod, M.J. and Deshpande, M. (2013). Contemporary Political Theory. New Delhi: PHI Learning.

• Romila Thapar: From On Nationalism
• Benedict Anderson: From Imagined Communities
• Partha Chatterjee: “Whose Imagined Community?”
• Volpp, L. (1996). Talking" culture": Gender, race, nation, and the politics of multiculturalism. Columbia Law Review, 96(6), 1573-1617.
• Guru, Gopal. “Archaeology of Untouchability”. The Cracked Mirror. New Delhi: OUP, 2012.

This module, primarily based on the ocular models of culture will shed light on visualizing and conceptualizing culture. The module will also address various modes and text forms of culture and their connotations and ideological implications.

Culture and texts: Ways and Modes of Seeing

·         Berger, J. (2008). Ways of seeing (Vol. 1). Penguin UK. (video edition) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk

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·         Arnould, E. J., & Thompson, C. J. (2005). Consumer culture theory (CCT): Twenty years of research. Journal of consumer research, 31(4), 868-882.

·         Vilanilam, J. (1989). Television advertising and the Indian poor. Media, Culture & Society, 11(4), 485-497.

Twitter, YouTube and Social Media

·         Gill, R., & Pratt, A. (2008). In the social factory? Immaterial labour, precariousness and cultural work. Theory, culture & society, 25(7-8), 1-30.

·         Blackmore, S. (2000). The meme machine (Vol. 25). Oxford Paperbacks. (pp 1-66)

·         Marwick, A. E., & Boyd, D. (2011). I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New media & society, 13(1), 114-133.

·         Banet-Weiser, S., & Miltner, K. M. (2016). #Masculinity So Fragile: culture, structure, and networked misogyny. Feminist Media Studies, 16(1), 171-174.

Fashion

·         Crane, D. (2012). Fashion and its social agendas: Class, gender, and identity in clothing. University of Chicago Press.

·         Sara Pendergrast: “Clothing, Headgear and Body Decorations in India”

·         Dhareshwar, V., & Niranjana, T. (1996). Kaadalan and the politics of resignification: Fashion, violence and the body.

Art

·         The Iconic Urinal & Work of Art, “Fountain,” Wasn’t Created by Marcel Duchamp But by the Pioneering Dada Artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.http://www.openculture.com/2018/07/the-iconic-urinal-work-of-art-fountain-wasnt-created-by-marcel-duchamp.html and How Duchamp’s Urinal Changed Art Forever.https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-duchamps-urinal-changed-art-forever

·         D'Souza, R. E. (2013). The Indian Biennale Effect: The Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012. Cultural Politics, 9(3), 296-312.

Language

·         Rita Kothari “Caste in a Casteless Language: English as a language of Dalit Expression”

·         Probal Dasgupta “Sanskrit, English and Dalits” EPW, 35 (16), 2000.

·         Rubdy, R. (2013). Hybridity in the linguistic landscape: democratizing English in India. The global–local interface and hybridity: Exploring language and identity, 43-65.

Films

·         Kluge, Alexander, "On Film and the Public Sphere," New German Critique 24/25, Autumn, 1981 — Winter 1981. (pp. 206-220).

·         Lal, V., & Nandy, A. (2006). Fingerprinting popular culture: the mythic and the iconic in Indian cinema. Oxford.

Theatre

·         Dutt, U. (2009). On Theatre.

·         Irving, H. (1994). Theatre, culture and society: essays, addresses and lectures. Edinburgh University Press.

Culture and Food- Identities and Nationality

·         Narayan, Uma. "Eating cultures: incorporation, identity and Indian food." Social Identities, Vol.1, No. 1, 1995, pp.63-86.

·         Bourdieu, Pierre, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984, pp.169-200.

·         Natrajan, B., & Jacob, S. (2018). ‘Provincialising’ Vegetarianism. Economic & Political Weekly, 53(9), 55.

·         Agamben, Giorgio. “What is an apparatus?” What is an Apparatus and Other Essays. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2009, 1-24. (on Carmen).

·         Pramod K Nayar:  “Star Power: The Celebrity as Power”Zizek, Slavoj. Violence. New York: Picador, 2008.

·         Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty and Sneja Gunew. “Questions of multiculturalism.”The Cultural Studies Reader. Simon During (ed). New York, London: Routlege, 1993, 193-202.

·         Basu, D., & Das, D. (2014). Poverty–hunger divergence in India. Economic and Political Weekly, 49(2), 22-24.

·         Van Den Berghe, Pierre L,"Ethnic cuisine: culture in nature." Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol.7, No. 3, 1984, pp.387-397.

·         UTPAL, K. B. (1991). Folk Theatre: Pageantry and Performance.

·         Bhattacharya, K. (2006). Non-western traditions: Leisure in India. In A handbook of leisure studies (pp. 75-89). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

·         Jacques Rancière. Politics of Literature. London: Polity Press, 2011

·         Castells, M. (2008). The new public sphere: Global civil society, communication networks, and global governance. The aNNalS of the american academy of Political and Social Science, 616(1), 78-93.

·         Cairns, Kate, and Josée Johnston, Food and Femininity. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, pp. 23-41.

·         Dwyer, R., & Patel, D. (2002). Cinema India: The visual culture of Hindi film. Rutgers University Press.

·         Tharu, Susie. Subject to Change: Teaching Literature in the Nineties. Orient Longman, 1998.

·         Han, S. P., & Shavitt, S. (1994). Persuasion and culture: Advertising appeals in individualistic and collectivistic societies. Journal of experimental social psychology, 30, 326-326.

·         Nayar, P. Contemporary Literary and Cultural theory: from Structuralism to Eco criticism would be a good suggestion.

CIA I: For CIA 1, the student will be asked to submit the proposal for the project. It will be evaluated on the selection of theme, rationale of the study, an argument to justify why the question should be handled in Culture Studies. Academic format should be followed and will be an aspect for evaluation. (20 marks, 5 marks each for each criterion)

CIA II - Mid Semester Examination: Section A (10X5=50 marks) - Centralised

CIA III: The student is required to provide a review of literature with a critical approach wherein, the ideas should be shown as contested, and the student’s attempt to negotiate the constructedness with an argument of his/her own. Academic format should be followed and will be an aspect for evaluation.  (20 marks, 5 marks each for each criterion)

End Semester Examination: Submission of a project-100 marks