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1 Semester - 2020 - Batch | Course Code |
Course |
Type |
Hours Per Week |
Credits |
Marks |
BMEC131 | INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL STUDIES | Core Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC132 | NARRATIVES | Core Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC133 | RESEARCH & WRITING | Core Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC141A | MEMORY, HISTORY, NARRATIVES | Discipline Specific Elective Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC141B | REVISITING MYTHOLOGIES | Discipline Specific Elective Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC141C | LANGUAGE AND PERFORMATIVITY | Discipline Specific Elective Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC141D | CURRICULUM, PEDAGOGY, ASSESSMENT | Discipline Specific Elective Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
2 Semester - 2020 - Batch | Course Code |
Course |
Type |
Hours Per Week |
Credits |
Marks |
BMEC231 | GENDER AND INTERSECTIONALITY | Core Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC232 | CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY | Core Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC233 | POSTCOLONIAL SPATIALITIES | Core Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC241A | MATERIAL CULTURE STUDIES | Discipline Specific Elective Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC241B | CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY | Discipline Specific Elective Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC241C | VISUAL CULTURE | Discipline Specific Elective Courses | 4 | 4 | 100 |
3 Semester - 2019 - Batch | Course Code |
Course |
Type |
Hours Per Week |
Credits |
Marks |
BMEC331A | NATION, BOUNDARIES, IDENTITIES | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC331B | LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY IN INDIA | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC332A | DEMOCRACY AND CULTURE | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC332B | WRITING LIVES: GENRES OF SELF NARRATIVE | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC333A | CULTURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC333B | INTRODUCTION TO PUBLISHING | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC341 | TRANSLATION STUDIES | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC342 | CULTURAL DISABILITY STUDIES | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC343 | SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC344 | POPULAR CULTURE IN INDIA | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC345 | URBAN NARRATIVES | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
4 Semester - 2019 - Batch | Course Code |
Course |
Type |
Hours Per Week |
Credits |
Marks |
BMEC472 | THE CULTURE OF FOOD | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC473 | QUEER ECOLOGIES | - | 4 | 4 | 100 |
BMEC474 | DIGITAL MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY | - | 4 | 16 | 100 |
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Introduction to Program: | ||||||
The Masters of Arts programme in English and Cultural Studies aims to provide an interdisciplinary perspective on literary and cultural texts and contexts. The papers offered provide a range of perspectives for understanding literature and culture through relevant frameworks and paradigms in cultural studies. Texts and ideologies selected for study are aimed at creating discursive spaces within as well as outside the classroom, encouraging learners to investigate the contexts in which they live. In keeping with Christ University?s vision of excellence, this course is upto-date with contemporary debates within theory as well as practice. | ||||||
Programme Outcome/Programme Learning Goals/Programme Learning Outcome: PO1: Display domain expertise in English and Cultural Studies through independent study, completion of coursework, and execution of research projects.PO2: Generate research outputs that reflect a comprehensive understanding of research methodologies, approaches, and skills through the execution of research projects and formulation of research papers, critical essays, etc. PO3: Apply critical thinking skills through analysis of texts and immediate socio-cultural contexts by applying interdisciplinary approaches and perspectives in research papers, presentations, class discussions, and debates. PO4: Exhibit the ability to build upon qualities of enterprise, critical, and creative imagination to engage with the contemporary contexts by undertaking MOOC courses and internships. PO5: Practice interpersonal and effective communication skills in both personal and professional domains through collaborative or external projects related to writing, content creation, service learning, teaching, policy development, publishing, translation, and other areas. PO6: Develop an awareness of diversities (cultural, linguistic, racial, gendered, caste-based, dis/abilities, etc) and know how to engage with these productively through assignments, coursework, and independent projects. PO7: Demonstrate the ability to spearhead individual and collaborative projects to effectively contribute towards building a sustainable and egalitarian society through various participatory engagements. PO8: Evaluate and engage with qualities of effective citizenship to act with an informed awareness of issues to engage with the community using expertise drawn from the discipline and undertake initiatives that encourage equity and growth for all through independent, collaborative, and creative works. | ||||||
Assesment Pattern | ||||||
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Examination And Assesments | ||||||
Assessments and evaluation will be a mix of end-of-term submissions; continuous internal assessments; as well as written examinations for the mid-semester and end-semester examinations. The Internal assessment carries a value of 70% of the total assessment, while the ESE carries a value of 30% |
BMEC131 - INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL STUDIES (2020 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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This course will introduce students to basic concepts and theoretical developments within Cultural Studies, with the aim of imparting critical perspectives, to help them engage with their own cultural landscapes. It provides a foundational introduction to some of the key ideas, issues, and theories that have influenced Cultural Studies, and attempts to especially interrogate these debates from our own contexts in contemporary India. Course objectives:
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Course Outcome |
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Use Cultural Studies approaches to reflect upon our own immediate contexts through assignments and class exercises. Display adequate understanding of and familiarity with the core debates within the discipline through written submissions and class presentations. Develop habits of independent learning through research projects and critical analysis. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:8 |
Culture as Concept
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This unit will look at the various meanings associated with the word ‘culture' and explore ways of understanding the relationship between culture and society. Readings | |
Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:6 |
Cultural Studies
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This unit explores the emergence of Cultural Studies in India, with some reference to its development in the UK and North America. It focuses specifically on narratives of Cultural Studies in the Indian context. Readings | |
Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:8 |
Nation and Representation
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This module introduces key debates surrounding the idea of the nation. An important discussion the unit will deal with is the contested nature of nation and nationalism. Readings | |
Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:6 |
Subaltern Studies
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This unit will look at how the Western concept of ‘class’ is reworked into the idea of the ‘subaltern’ within Indian Historiography and Cultural Studies. Readings: | |
Unit-5 |
Teaching Hours:8 |
The Politics of Identity: Caste
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This module shall introduce students to debates around ‘identity’ as an important factor in shaping ideas of cultural production and consumption, with a focus on the peculiar notion of caste in India. Readings: | |
Unit-6 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
The Politics of Identity: race
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This module looks at how the critical category of ‘race’ has been understood in the global context, further querying its relevance within Indian society. Readings: Mary Kom (Omung Kumar, 2014, Hindi) https://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-the-race-for-mary-kom-2021820 | |
Unit-7 |
Teaching Hours:8 |
The Politics of identity: Masculinities
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This unit will examine how gendered identities are formed and performed. Readings: Gandhi, Savarkar, Godse – selected readings will be provided in class. Ashis Nandy: ‘Pramathesh Chandra Barua and the Origins of the Terribly Effeminate, Maudlin, Self-destructive Heroes of Indian Cinema’. | |
Unit-8 |
Teaching Hours:6 |
The Politics of Identity: language
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As a fundamentally multilingual state, linguistic identities form an important part of cultural Madhava Prasad: ‘Republic of Babel: Language and Political Subjectivity in Free India
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Text Books And Reference Books: Vinay Lal: ‘Introduction’, South Asian Cultural Studies: A Bibliography. Madhava Prasad: ‘Cultural Studies in India: Reasons and a History’. Rashmi Sawhney: ‘Decolonising Cultural Studies’, Artha. Grossberg, Lawrence. ‘Cultural Studies in the Future Tense’.Niranjana, Tejaswini, P. Sudhir, and Vivek Dhareshwar: ‘Introduction’, Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India. Romila Thapar: From On Nationalism.
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading Vinay Lal: ‘Introduction’, South Asian Cultural Studies: A Bibliography. Madhava Prasad: ‘Cultural Studies in India: Reasons and a History’. Rashmi Sawhney: ‘Decolonising Cultural Studies’, Artha. Grossberg, Lawrence. ‘Cultural Studies in the Future Tense’.Niranjana, Tejaswini, P. Sudhir, and Vivek Dhareshwar: ‘Introduction’, Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India. Romila Thapar: From On Nationalism. | |
Evaluation Pattern
CIA I & III (20x2 = 40 marks): class assignment Mid-semester exam (30 marks): presentation of a 1500 word research paper along with a written submission. May be held in the form of a 2-day symposium. End-semester exam (30 marks): submission of the final 3000 word research paper on a topic approved by the faculty before mid-term. *This is a submission paper. | |
BMEC132 - NARRATIVES (2020 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Course Description:
This course introduces students to narrative forms across a range of creative mediums such as literature, photography, cinema, visual arts, video games and so on. The course aims to familiarize students with methods and approaches to reading, understanding and experiencing aspects of narrative and narratology in a wide range of forms, in order to introduce students to the inter-dependencies as well as distinctiveness of narrative construction across these mediums.
Course Objectives:
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Course Outcome |
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Demonstrate an understanding of the fundamentals of story-telling and meaning-construction across a variety of narrative forms and mediums. Demonstrate an understanding of the specificities of the socio-cultural and political contexts within which different narrative forms are produced and circulated. Develop competencies towards critical analysis, research, and communication skills. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Introducing Narrative
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A General introduction to the course drawing upon foundational debates in the field of Narratology. Readings:
M. Bal (1997) Introduction to the Theory of Narrative, 2nd Ed. University of Toronto Press. M. Fludernik (2009) An Introduction to Narratology. Routledge.
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Literary Narratives
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This unit explores the modes of the most popular modern literary form -- the novel -- and the social contexts within which it developed in India as well as in Europe. Readings: I. Watt (2015[1957]) The Rise of the Novel. London: Penguin. M. Kundera: The Art of the Novel M. Mukherjee (1985) Realism and Reality: the Novel and Society in India. Delhi: OUP
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Visual Narratives
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This unit looks at a number of visual forms such as photography, cinema, video art, and folk art to understand how narrative theory works in these mediums. Readings: Utpal Kumar Banerjee (2008) “The Subtle Art of Story-telling,” Indian Literature, 52 (4): 147-152 R. Sawhney (2018) “Shadowing the Image Archive: Inside Nalini Malani’s Shadow Plays,” MIRAJ 7(2): 324-34. G. M. Sheikh (1995) “Viewer’s View: Looking at Pictures” in Niranjana et al. eds. Interrogating Modernity, pp. 143-154. R. Srivatsan (1993) “Imaging Truth and Desire: Photography and the Visual Field in India” in Niranjana et. al. eds. Interrogating Modernity. Pp 155-198. D. Bordwell ( 2007) “Three Dimensions of Film Narrative” in Poetics of Cinema. http://www.davidbordwell.net/books/poetics.php
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Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Impermanent Narratives
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This unit engages with transitory or ephemeral narratives as constructed through performing art, examining how the body as the canvas/text transforms our understanding of narratives. Readings P. Phelan (2005) “Shards of a History of Performance Art: Pollock and Namuth, Through a Glass, Darkly” in Phelan and Rabonowitz Eds. A Companion to Narrative Theory. Blackwell Publishing. Pp 499-512. Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present (Matthew Akers, 2012) Spaces Between (Roohi Dixit & Ziba Bhagwagar, 2016)
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Unit-5 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Interactive/Modular Narratives
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This unit looks at fluid, shifting, and re-organising narratives and narrative structures such as in in the context of archives, new media and video games. It carries forward the question of stability, permanence and knowledge production encountered in the previous unit. Readings: J. Derrida (1996) Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression, Trans. Eric Prenowitz. Indiancine.ma Google cultural institute L. Manovich (2002) The Language of New Media + Manovich’s blog Introduction from A. Gallaway (2006) Gaming : Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Univ of Minnesotta Press. Selected chapters from Lowood & Nitsche (Ed.) The Machinima Reader. MIT Press.
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Text Books And Reference Books:
M. Bal (1997) Introduction to the Theory of Narrative, 2nd Ed. University of Toronto Press.
M. Fludernik (2009) An Introduction to Narratology. Routledge.
I. Watt (2015[1957]) The Rise of the Novel. London: Penguin.
M. Kundera: The Art of the Novel
M. Mukherjee (1985) Realism and Reality: the Novel and Society in India. Delhi: OUP Utpal Kumar Banerjee (2008) “The Subtle Art of Story-telling,” Indian Literature, 52 (4): 147-152
R. Sawhney (2018) “Shadowing the Image Archive: Inside Nalini Malani’s Shadow Plays,” MIRAJ 7(2): 324-34.
G. M. Sheikh (1995) “Viewer’s View: Looking at Pictures” in Niranjana et al. eds. Interrogating Modernity, pp. 143-154.
R. Srivatsan (1993) “Imaging Truth and Desire: Photography and the Visual Field in India” in Niranjana et. al. eds. Interrogating Modernity. Pp 155-198.
D. Bordwell ( 2007) “Three Dimensions of Film Narrative” in Poetics of Cinema.
http://www.davidbordwell.net/books/poetics.php
P. Phelan (2005) “Shards of a History of Performance Art: Pollock and Namuth, Through a Glass, Darkly” in Phelan and Rabonowitz Eds. A Companion to Narrative Theory. Blackwell Publishing. Pp 499-512.
Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present (Matthew Akers, 2012)
Spaces Between (Roohi Dixit & Ziba Bhagwagar, 2016)
J. Derrida (1996) Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression, Trans. Eric Prenowitz.
Indiancine.ma
Google cultural institute
L. Manovich (2002) The Language of New Media + Manovich’s blog
Introduction from A. Gallaway (2006) Gaming : Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Univ of Minnesotta Press.
Selected chapters from Lowood & Nitsche (Ed.) The Machinima Reader. MIT Press.
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Abbot, H. Porter (2002) The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. CUP. Cobley, Paul (2001) Narrative. Routledge. Freeman, M. (1998) 'Mythical time , historical time, and the narrative fabric of the Self’ Narrative Inquiry 8 (1): 27-50. Genette, G. (1982) Narrative discourse Basil Blackwell. Jenkins, H. (1992) Textual Poachers: Television and Participatory Culture, Routledge,. Lothe ,J. (2000) Narrative in fiction and film : An Introduction Oxford University Press. Murray. (1997) Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace,MIT Press. Ong,W.J (1982) Orality and Literacy : The Technologies of the word, Methuen. Ricoeur, P. (1981) 'Narrative time' in W.J.T.Mitchell (ed.) On Narrative University of Chicago Press. Snyder, I. (1998) 'Beyond the hype: reassessing hypertext' in Page to Screen: Taking Literacy in the electronic era, Routledge.
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Evaluation Pattern 70% Internal Assessment: CIA I (20 marks) + CIA II (20 marks) + MSE (50 marks) * This is a submission paper - final submission 30% | |
BMEC133 - RESEARCH & WRITING (2020 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Course Description The aim of this course is to introduce students to the range of qualitative research methods associated with English and Cultural studies. As such, the course covers a spectrum of methodological tools, including discourse analysis, narrative inquiry, interviewing, ethnography, participant observation and oral history.
Objectives: On the completion of course, students will be able to: · Develop the ability for critical reading, annotation and analysis of theoretical texts · Articulate a feasible research inquiry including a set of central research questions · Map out the scholarly field(s) of relevance through a review of literature · Develop suitable methodological strategies specific to the project · Execute the research project, in a reflective manner, which makes the research process visible · Write a well-structured research paper following due academic conventions of citing etc. · Develop the ability to question, critique and give feedback to peers’ research projects.
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Course Outcome |
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· Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the principles and the thinking behind the different research paradigms relevant to English and Cultural Studies · Demonstrate the ability to describe and discuss different methods and their areas of application, their strengths and weaknesses and their epistemological roots · Demonstrate the ability to formulate research questions, design a scientific study and choose relevant methods based on specific research questions · Demonstrate the ability to reflect over methodological aspects that are related to different research paradigms, and to able see the relationship between the theoretical basis and the choice of research method · Demonstrate the ability to critically reflect over one’s own role and position as a researcher · Demonstrate the ability to execute a research project, including writing a well-structured paper following due academic conventions. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
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Introduction: Research Methods
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Introduction: Research Methods (20 hrs) · Research Methods in Literary Studies · Research Methods in Cultural Studies
Prescribed Texts: Gabrielle Griffith. Research Methods in English Studies. Edinburgh UP, 2005. Michael Pickering. Research Methods for Cultural Studies. Edinburgh UP, 2008.
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
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Beginning Research
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Unit II: Beginning Research · Research Design; Research papers/articles; Dissertation and Thesis; Elements of a Research Paper; Primary and Secondary Sources; How to Use the Library and Online sources
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
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ABstracts, Literature Reviews and Bibliographies
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· How to write Abstracts ; Literature Review; Bibliographies: Annotated, Working and others ; How to prepare Works Cited and Bibliographies and in-text citations
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Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
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Writing the Paper
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· Research Topic · Research Questions and Objectives · Research Problem /Thesis Statements / Hypothesis · Constructing Arguments · Using Validations · Using and engaging with theories/frameworks/methodologies · Constructing the Proposal / Introduction · Constructing the Chapters or Anlayses · Constructing Conclusions · Revising your paper
Prescribed Resource for Unit III and IV: Purdue OWL
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Text Books And Reference Books:
Gabrielle Griffith. Research Methods in English Studies. Edinburgh UP, 2005. Michael Pickering. Research Methods for Cultural Studies. Edinburgh UP, 2008. Wayne C. Booth, Joseph M. Williams, and Gregory G. Colombedited The Craft of Research, 3rd Edition. University of Chicago Press, 2008.
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Bailey, Stephen. Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students. Routledge, 2006. Bain, Carl. E, Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 6th ed. W.W. Norton Company, 1995. Griffith, Kelley. Writing Essays about Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet. 6th ed. Harcourt College Publishers, 2002. Harvey, Michael. The Nuts & Bolts of College Writing. Hackett Publishing, 2003. Montgomery, Martin, et al. Ways of Reading: Advanced Reading Skills for Students of English Literature. Routledge, 2007. Pirie, David B. How to Write Critical Essays: A Guide for Students of Literature. Routledge, 1985. Whitla, William. The English Handbook: A Guide to Literary Studies. Blackwell, 2010. Woolf, Judith. Writing about Literature. Routledge, 2005.
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Evaluation Pattern 70% internal assessment: CIA I (20 marks) + CIA II (20 marks) + MSE submission (50 marks) 30% End semester submission paper | |||||||||||
BMEC141A - MEMORY, HISTORY, NARRATIVES (2020 Batch) | |||||||||||
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
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Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
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Course Objectives/Course Description |
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This course is to introduce students to methodologies that are required for understanding identity and history as a multiple, layered, and often a contested set of representations. The course is built as an in-depth series of case studies, with the aim of bringing together three distinct areas of analytical questions that are implied by its title’s key terms – ‘history’, ‘memory’ and ‘identity’. Questions like – what are main approaches to social and cultural memory? What, and whose history is being remembered and narrated? And in this quagmire, how should identity be understood? – would be the prime focus of the course This course will give a thorough grounding in the classical works on memory from Durkheimean, psychoanalytical and Marxist perspectives, including Maurice Halbwachs and Pierre Nora, and contrasting it with the studies that draw on post- structuralist and cognitive approaches, as well as theories of affect and subjectivity. Then it will proceed to asking what can be learned about societies from ways in which they are concerned with history. What are some of the types of historical consciousness and cultural notions of history, of lack thereof? How one can productively compare imperial and universalist notions of history as progress with ideas about historical and cultural uniqueness and exceptionalism, including nationalism, as well as with conceptualizations of history as justice, as trauma, and as objects of consumption. What are practices of production, exchange and consumption of historical narratives in education, tourism and politics? And finally, where does Identity – one of the key categories in historical and social analysis, fit in? One of the goals of the course is to ask what identity is, and what approaches to identity are useful for understanding historical memory. Course Objectives:
15 MA in English and Cultural Studies
approached as culturally-specific memory devices and contested sites for historical memory, in turn leading to the construction of identity.
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Course Outcome |
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Upon completion of the course students should be able to: Critically engage with representations of the past in the present and use the evidence in interrogating historical accounts and memory. Evaluate how issues of identity and memory factor into our historical understandings and how this can condition present day policies and decision- making. Critically reflect and engage with the interface between the past and the present, fostering a healthy appreciation for history and its imprint on our present world. Analyze how historical memory and identity are shaped by states, organizations, and individuals. Trace the evolution and interaction between history, memory and politics when following the news and in examining historical cases. Develop the ability to generate concepts and theoretical models, and to test new methods and tools for professional and research-based activities. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:12 |
Shape of Memory: A Place in History
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:16 |
Legacies and Memory: the Many After-Lives
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:16 |
Memory and Identity: Haunted by History
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Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:16 |
The Performative Indentity: Indelible Memories
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Text Books And Reference Books:
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
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Evaluation Pattern
CIA I – 20 marks MSE – 50 marks CIA II – 20 marks ESE - 50 marks | |
BMEC141B - REVISITING MYTHOLOGIES (2020 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Course Description
As mythologies continue to shape and define the world around, it is imperative to discern what makes myths meaningful expressions across cultures. The course attempts to introduce students to the historical as well as the contemporary approaches to understanding mythologies, with particular focus on the oeuvre of Indian myths. What makes myths windows to various cultures? What gives Indian mythology its peculiar character? How have contemporary attempts at retelling myths transformed the Indian cultural tapestry? The course will investigate some of these areas in order to understand what has contributed to the preservation and dissemination of myths across Indian history. The course will also look at the role of performative art forms in retelling and revisioning of Indian myths. The course, therefore, is aimed at encouraging an interdisciplinary scholarship.
Course Objectives
This course aims to help students: · Understand the cultural and historical significance of myths · Identify universal mythic patterns · Develop a cross-cultural perspective on myths · Understand the fundamentals of Mnemoculture · Recognise the role of performative art within mythology
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Course Outcome |
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Students will be able to: Identify universal mythic patterns and describe them Present an informed perspective on the contemporary revisioning of Indian myths Explain the politics of ‘myth’ creation through oral presentations and writing Anlayse the role and politics of performative art and mythology Develop interpretative frameworks to engage with myths in modern society |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
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Myths, Symbols, and Meaning-Making
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The unit seeks to familiarise students with the anthropology of myths and establish the connect between myths, rituals, symbols. The attempt is to elucidate the cross-cultural overlaps that myths bring to the fore.
Compulsory Reading
Sir James George Frazer: The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion John Fiske: Myths and Myth-Makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology Mircea Eliade: Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return Amar Chitra Katha Thomas Bulfinch: Bulfinch’s Mythology Hesiod:“Theogony” Aesops Fables Thomas Malory: Le Morte d’Arthur Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
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Mythical Imagination & Reinterpretation
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The focus of this unit is on contemporary Indian mythical narratives. The texts under this unit will help locate the manner in which myths have been reinterpreted and retold by contemporary authors to offer alternate, if not multiple readings of such narratives. The unit will also bring to the fore the difference between ‘myth’ and ‘history.’By exclusively focusing on the treatment of myths in India, the unit is going to delve into the process of decoding myths and the ways in which popular imagination helps to reinterpret myths and keep them alive.
Compulsory Reading
Amish Tripathi – Shiva Trilogy Chithra Devakaruni: Palace of Illusions Devdutt Patnaik: Shikhandi Kavita Kané: Menaka’s Choice Shivaji Sawant: Mrityunjaya- The Death Conquerer Carole, Satyamurti. Mahabharata - a Modern Retelling. Ajay K. Rao. Re-Figuring the Rāmāyaṇa as Theology: A History of Reception in Premodern India.
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
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Mnemoculture and Cultural Inheritance
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This unit will introduce students to the concept of ‘mnemocultures’ or the cultures of memory and how through the enactment or performance of memories, they help in the transmission of mythologies, traditions, and cultural beliefs.
Compulsory Reading
D. Venkat Rao: Cultures of Memory in South Asia: Orality, Literacy and the Problem of Inheritance Donald H. Mills: The Hero and the Sea: Patterns of Chaos in Ancient Myth
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Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
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Myths and Performativity
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This unit will focus on the role of performative art forms in the dissemination of myths. The focus will also be on the manner in which myths pervade contemporary living through popular cultural mediums or digital platforms.
Possible Art Forms to be considered include:
Kavad
Thiruvathira
Mata Ni Pachedi
Koodiyattam
Poorakali
Villu Paatu
Sarpam Thullal
Chaau Dance
Yakshagana
Gondha
Puppetry shows
Ramleela Performances
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Text Books And Reference Books:
Sir James George Frazer: The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion John Fiske: Myths and Myth-Makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology Mircea Eliade: Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return Amar Chitra Katha Thomas Bulfinch: Bulfinch’s Mythology Hesiod:“Theogony” Aesops Fables Thomas Malory: Le Morte d’Arthur Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
Amish Tripathi – Shiva Trilogy Chithra Devakaruni: Palace of Illusions Devdutt Patnaik: Shikhandi Kavita Kané: Menaka’s Choice Shivaji Sawant: Mrityunjaya- The Death Conquerer Carole, Satyamurti. Mahabharata - a Modern Retelling. Ajay K. Rao. Re-Figuring the Rāmāyaṇa as Theology: A History of Reception in Premodern India.
D. Venkat Rao: Cultures of Memory in South Asia: Orality, Literacy and the Problem of Inheritance Donald H. Mills: The Hero and the Sea: Patterns of Chaos in Ancient Myth
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Apollonius, and William H. Race. Argonautica. Harvard University Press, 2009.
Bakhtin, Michail Michajlovič. Rabelais and His World. Indiana University Press, 2009.
Brodbeck, Simon, and Brian Black. Gender and Narrative in the Mahābhārata. Routledge, 2007.
Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and the Profane the Nature of Religion. Harcourt Brace, 1959.
Ellwood, Robert S. The Politics of Myth: a Study of C.G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell. State University of New York Press, 1999.
Grimal, Pierre, et al. A Concise Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Basil Blackwell, 1994.
Hiltebeitel, Alf. Rethinking the Mahābhārata: a Reader's Guide to the Education of the Dharma King. Oxford University Press, 2002.
Jensen, Jeppe Sinding. Myths and Mythologies A Reader. Taylor and Francis, 2014.
Morford, Mark P. O., et al. Classical Mythology. Oxford University Press, 2019.
Ramanujan, A. K. “Telling Tales.” Daedalus118:04. 1989.
Ramen, Fred. Indian Mythology. Rosen Central, 2008.
Roland, Barthes. Mythologies. Points, 2014.
Soni, V & Thapar, R. (2017). Mythology, Science and Society. The Hindu. Retrieved from:
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/mythology-science-and-society/article6571525.ece
Wilford, J.N.(2000). Greek Myths: Not Necessarily Mythical. The New York Times. Retrieved from : https://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/04/science/greek-myths-not-necessarily-mythical.html
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Evaluation Pattern
CIA - Evaluation Pattern
Mid Semester Examination
End Semester Examination
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BMEC141C - LANGUAGE AND PERFORMATIVITY (2020 Batch) | |||||||||||||||||||
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
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Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
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Course Objectives/Course Description |
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This course engages students with performativity and performance-based texts to examine notions of how language constructs ontological categories. Focusing on the aesthetic and the political dimensions of performance, it introduces learners to theoretical frameworks in terms of culture as performance and enables them to locate their readings and viewings of performance-based texts within the broader context of language in cultural studies. Objectives The objective of this paper is to attempt to help students
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Course Outcome |
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The course will enable students acquaint themselves with key dramatic texts from different sub-genres. It will lay the platform for further research for students interested in theatre. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Language, Performance and Cultural Studies
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Language and Experimentation
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Language, Race and Gender
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Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
South Asian Studies
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Text Books And Reference Books:
Artaud, Antonin. “The Theater of Cruelty.” Selected Writings: Antonin Artaud. Ed. Susan Sontag. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1976. 242-251. University Press, 2010. Theatre 1850-1990. Oxford University Press, 1998. Chambers, Colin. The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. Continuum, 2002. 15. | |
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading Artaud, Antonin. “The Theater of Cruelty.” Selected Writings: Antonin Artaud. Ed. Susan Sontag. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1976. 242-251. University Press, 2010. Theatre 1850-1990. Oxford University Press, 1998. Chambers, Colin. The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. Continuum, 2002. 15. | |
Evaluation Pattern
70% of the marks will be collected throughout the semester through CIA 1, CIA 2 (Mid-Semester submission), and CIA 3. The end semester submission will be for 30%. CIAs: Tasks based on research, application, performance, and audio-visual components. MA in English and Cultural Studies | |
BMEC141D - CURRICULUM, PEDAGOGY, ASSESSMENT (2020 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Course Description This course intends to introduce the students to multiple curriculum frameworks, associated range of pedagogies involved in the process of teaching and learning, and, several assessment tools pertaining to teaching English in particular and Humanities in general. The course is designed in such a way that it would not only promote an in-depth understanding of the components that leads to successful pedagogic practices but will also enable the learners to foster an understanding of how pedagogic spaces are constructed. This course is a mixture of theoretical and practical approaches for it incorporates not only theoretical understanding of multiple curriculum frameworks and pedagogic practices but also aims at providing hands-on training to the learners for developing content for teaching, framing course plans, and identifying teaching and learning strategies that can be applied to specific classroom contexts. Course Objectives: The course has been designed with the following objectives:
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Course Outcome |
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Describe, discuss, and plan pedagogical tools (Application Skills). Analyse and implement various teaching methods (Critical Analytic Skills). Describe, discuss, and plan various skill and discipline specific courses (Planning and Analytic Skills) Analyse and implement various assessment techniques (Practical and Implementation Skills ) |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Understanding Education: Issues and Concerns
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This unit critically examines the main issues and concerns in the field of education in general and English education in particular in India. Besides trying to understand the gaps and challenges in the field of higher education in India, this unit also elaborately deals with innovations in the field of education which can mitigate the gaps thereby paving way for more inclusive teaching practices.
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:12 |
Language, Learning and Teaching
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This unit focuses on understanding the prominent theories in the field of language education and tries to situate the popular methods of language teaching through the ages across the various paradigms.
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:8 |
Curriculum Development and Course Design
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The main objective of this unit is to develop a clear understanding of the various theories of curriculum and analyse the technical aspects involved in construction of curriculum. This unit will not only lead to a theoretical understanding of various aspects of curriculum but application of these theories to generate content for teaching.
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Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Understanding Assesment and Testing: Issues and Practices
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This unit will introduce the learners to various methods of assessment and evaluation and discuss the practical applicability of these methods. This unit will discuss how certain assessment methods can be applied to test the learning outcomes of the course.
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Unit-5 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Development of Teaching Modules
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The main objective of this unit is to apply the theoretical knowledge gained over the previous units and develop skill-specific (e) content for target learners. The learners will actively seek the help of their respective mentors to identify the area in which content has to be developed and co-create the teaching modules.
a. Analyzing important situational Factors b. Identification of Learning Outcomes c. Formulating Feedback and Assessment d. Selecting Teaching and Learning Activities e. Selecting effective teaching and learning strategies f. Developing an effective grading system Developing effective rubrics for grading
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Text Books And Reference Books:
https://www.ugc.ac.in/oldpdf/xiplanpdf/EContentxiplan.pdf (Ugc document of e-content creation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiTsduRreug&t=387s (Lecture by Stephen Krashen)
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Bates, T. Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning for a digital age. 2015. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/ Bhatia, Vijay K. "Genre analysis, ESP and professional practice." English for specific purposes 27.2 (2008): 161-174. Brookfield, Stephen D. Becoming a critically reflective teacher. John Wiley & Sons, 2017. Brown, James Dean. The elements of language curriculum: A systematic approach to program development. Heinle & Heinle Publishers, 20 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116., 1995. Canagarajah, A. Suresh. "Globalization, methods, and practice in periphery classrooms." Globalization and language teaching (2002): 134-150. Chauhan, Chandra Pal Singh, and C. P. S. Chauhan. Modern Indian Education. Aligarh Muslim University, 2004. Chomsky, Noam. "Verbal behavior." (1959): 26-58. Corder, Stephen Pit. "Error analysis." The Edinburgh course in applied linguistics 3 (1974): 122-131. Farrell, T., ed. International perspectives on English language teacher education: innovations from the field. Springer, 2015. Fulcher, Glenn, and Fred Davidson. Language testing and assessment. London, England: Routledge, 2007. Krashen, Stephen D. "Principles and practice in second language acquisition." (1982). Prabhu, Neiman Stern. Second language pedagogy. Vol. 20. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. Richards, Jack C., and Theodore S. Rodgers. Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge university press, 2014. Richards, Jack C. Curriculum development in language teaching. Ernst Klett Sprachen, 2001. Slattery, Patrick. Curriculum development in the postmodern era: Teaching and learning in an age of accountability. Routledge, 2012.
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Evaluation Pattern 70% Internal Assessment: CIA I (20 marks) + CIA II (20 marks) + MSE (50 mrks) 30% End Semester Exam (50 marks) | |
BMEC231 - GENDER AND INTERSECTIONALITY (2020 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Our lived experiences are shaped by the ways in which varying systems of privileges and oppressions work. Every individual acts in the world based on the influences of identities that they adopt or are imposed by the social systems. Each identity – whether it’s, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, caste - exists along a hierarchy that determines how visible and valued that person’s experiences are in their particular social context. These identities and hierarchies intersect with each other in ways that shape how a person is able to move and advance within their society.
Course Objectives: This course would enable students to:
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Course Outcome |
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Demonstrate and understanding of how constructions of femininity, masculinity, and non-binary notions of gender function Define and delineate key concepts of gender as explained by various theorists Demonstrate how gender intersects with various other categories such as caste, class, race and so on, to construct different relations of power |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Understanding Gender: Intersectional Approach
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The unit engages in a discussion on the ideas of intersectionality and asserts that there is a necessity to understand gender in intersection with various other identities to understand the mode in which power structures and oppression works.
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Power and Construction of Normativity
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The unit brings into discussion the various modes in which normativity is constructed by various institutions and in the process validates and normalizes few identities that exert power on identities that exist in margins.
(Discuss in relation to “History of Masculinity”by R. W Connell)
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
The Politics of Privilege, Rights and Visibility
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The unit considers how the various identities helps in asserting and occupying different power position in the society that largely impacts the mode in which one asserts basic human rights, the access to legal rights and visibility of the lived experiences.
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Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Virtual Bodies and Post-Genderism
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The unit brings into discussion the impact of technological innovations on constructed identities, gender role in the world. It also deals with the mode in which these identities in the human world are negotiated in the virtual world.
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Text Books And Reference Books:
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Ahmed, Leila. "Women and Gender in Islam Historical Roots of a Modern Debate." London : Yale University Press ,1992. Crenshaw, Kimberle.“Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, Identity politics, and violence against women of colour”. Stanford Law Review. Vol 43, No 6. 1991. JSTOR. Christina, Barbara. “Race for Theory” Feminist Studies. Vol. 14 No. 1 ,Feminist Studies Inc. Spring 1998, P 67-79. Friedman,Susan Stanford.“Locational Feminism: Gender, Cultural Geographies and Geopolitical Literacy”. Mapping, Feminism and Cultural Geographies of Encounter. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. Gayathri Spivak “Three women’s Text and A critique of Imperialism” Race, Writing And Difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. JSTOR . Halberstam, Judith and David L Hang. “What is Queer About Queer Studies Now”. Social Text Vol 23 .No 83-4. California : Duke University Press. 2005. Hayles, Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1999. Halberstam, Judith. The Queer Art of Failure. California: Duke University Press, 2011. Kannabiran, Vasanth and Kalpana Kannabiran.“Caste and gender: Understanding dynamics of power and violence. ” Economic and Political Weekly. Vol 26, No 37, 1991. Kikon, D Waynding. “Indigenous Migrants in the Service Sector of Metropolitan India, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies”, 2017 P. 1 - 16. Kang, Milan . “Manicuring Race, Gender and Class: Service Intersection in New York City Korean Owned Nail Salons” Race, Gender and Class Journal. Vol 4 , No 3, 1996, JSTOR.143 to 154. Kumar, Anant “ Menstruation, Purity and Right to Worship” Economic and Political Weekly. Vol 41, No 9, 2016. Lorde, Audre. Age, “Race and Sex : Women Redefining Difference” Sister Outsiders: Essays and Speech. Freedom CA: Crossing Press, 1984, 114-123. Paul, Chul-ho Paik & Chung-Kon Shi “Playful gender swapping: user attitudes toward gender in MMORPG, avatar customisation, Digital Creativity,” 24:4, 2013 P,310-326. DOI: 10.1080/14626268.2013.767275. R. W Connell. “History of Masculinity” . Masculinities. California: University of California Press, 1995. Uma Chakravorty “Conceptualizing Brahmanical Patriarchy in Early India: Gender, Caste, Class and State.” Caste, Class, Gender. SAGE Publishing.
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Evaluation Pattern
Evaluation 70% of the marks will be collected throughout the semester through oral quizzes, presentations, written tests, group assignments, and a 2hr written exam. The end semester exam will be for 30%.
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BMEC232 - CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY (2020 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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This course introduces to students to a range of discourse on technology and culture within the humanities, with one unit focusing on these debates in the Indian context (20thand 21st centuries and another one focusing on the emergent field of digital humanities. It will also engage with the contemporary context, looking at issues such as biopolitics, surveillance, cyborgs, AI etc. Finally, students will be introduced to some creative work (literature and art) that generates possibilities for activism and an informed engagement with our techno-cultural landscapes and cyberscapes. Modes of instruction will include lectures, screenings, seminars, discussions, student-led presentations, invited guest lectures, visits to relevant institutions/exhibitions in Bangalore, readings, group-based project work etc.Course Objectives:
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Course Outcome |
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1. Attain tools to understand the complex relationship between Technology and Culture. An understanding of the global discourse about culture and technology as well as its extensions in the Indian context. An understanding of the many ways in which an understanding of technology and culture are crucial to the Humanities, with a particular emphasis on technologies of governance and surveillance. A critical grasp of the ways in which technological culture poses philosophical questions about human ontology. An introduction to some of the creative ways in which artists and writers in India have engaged with technology, or with a cultural space shaped by technological modernity. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Theoretical Frameworks
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An introduction to some of the significant theoretical frameworks through which philosophers and social scientists have understood the intersections between technology and culture in a cultural context. Walter Benjamin – “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” | |
Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Techno-Beings
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An exploration of some of the debates w.r.t how technological interfaces and interventions are transforming human bodies, relationships, senses and their possibilities. Manjula Padmanabhan - Harvest Chris Shilling (2005) “Technological Bodies” in The Body in Culture, Technology and Society. Sage, pp 173-197. Anne Balsamo (1996) ‘The Role of the Body in Feminist Cultural Studies of Science and Technology’ in Technologies of the Gendered Body. Duke Univ Press, pp 157-64. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/In-the-future-humans-will-become- cyborgs/articleshow/433959.cms http://indiafuturesociety.org/category/general/cyborg/https://qz.com/1424235/these-real-life-cyborgs-are-changing-their-brains-by-enhancing-their- bodies/ Lazzarato, Maurizio (1996). "Immaterial labor". In Virno, Paolo; Hardt, Michael (eds.). Radical Thought in Italy : A Potential Politics. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 142–157. | |
Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Technologies of Surveillance
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An examination of the new regime of surveillance brought about through recording technologies. The Radia Tapes - https://pad.ma/grid/title/list==zi:The_Radia_Tap%28e%29s This or That Particular Person (Subasri Krishnan, 2015, PSBT) | |
Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Technology and Modernity in India
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This unit offers an introduction to selected debates on technological modernity in the Indian context, particularly with reference to nation-building and globalisation. Ashis Nandy (1978-79) “The Traditions of Technology,” Alternatives 4 (3): 371-85. Selected chapters from Shiv Visvanathan (1997) A Carnival for Science: Essays in Science, Technology & Development. OUP. Claude Alvares (1979) ‘Indian Technology and Culture: 1498-1757.’ Allied Publishers, pp 46- 74. David Arnold (2013) ‘India’s Technological Imaginary’ in Everyday Technology: Machines and the Making of India’s Modernity. University of Chicago Press. Robert Geraci, ‘Navigating Science and Technology in Bangalore’, in Temples of Modernity: Nationalism, Hinduism and Transhumanism in South Indian Science. Lexington Books, pp 13- 34. Kavita Phillip “Postcolonial Technopolitics,” The Salon, vol 3. | |
Unit-5 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Digital Humanities
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Selected Chapters - A Companion to Digital Studies (2004) – Blackwell Publishing Chapter 1: Introduction to Digital Humanities Chapter 8: Literary Studies Selected Chapters: The Digital Humanities: A Primer for Students and ScholarsChapter 3: The Elements of Digital Humanities: Text and Document Chapter 4: The Elements of Digital Humanities: Object, Artifact, Image, Sound, Space Lisa Spiro – “This is why we fight; defining the values of digital humanities” – Debates in the Digital Humanities – 2012 Selected essays from - Doing Digital Humanities; Practice, Training, Research (2016) – Routledge Policy Documents: Net Neutrality Bill, Data Protection Bill | |
Unit-6 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Technology, Art and Literature
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In this unit, students engage with two aspects primarily; the first is to study the implications of technology in the area of literature, creative arts and cinema. The second is to analyze/read/watch narratives that demonstrate how different cultural forms narrate technological modernity. Selected chapter/s from Neil Postman’s Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology R. Sawhney (2015) ’Introduction,’ Studies in South Asian Film and Media: special issue on science fiction, vol 6, no 2. Selected short stories by Anil Menon/Manjula Padmanabhan Rokeya Sakahawat Hossain (1905) Sultana’s Dream https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/dream.html Afra Shafiq - https://www.entersultanasreality.com/ http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/16/the-digital-artisans-manifesto-by-richard- barbrook-and-pit-schultz/ | |
Text Books And Reference Books:
Walter Benjamin – “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” Manjula Padmanabhan - Harvest Chris Shilling (2005) “Technological Bodies” in The Body in Culture, Technology and Society. Sage, pp 173-197. Anne Balsamo (1996) ‘The Role of the Body in Feminist Cultural Studies of Science and Technology’ in Technologies of the Gendered Body. Duke Univ Press, pp 157-64. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/In-the-future-humans-will-become- cyborgs/articleshow/433959.cms http://indiafuturesociety.org/category/general/cyborg https://qz.com/1424235/these-real-life-cyborgs-are-changing-their-brains-by-enhancing-their- bodies/
Lazzarato, Maurizio (1996). "Immaterial labor". In Virno, Paolo; Hardt, Michael (eds.). Radical Thought in Italy : A Potential Politics. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 142–157.
Chinmayai Arun (n.d) “Paperthin Safeguards and Mass Surveillance in India.” CIS, Bangalore - https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/paper-thin-safeguards.pdf “State of Cyber-Security and Surveillance in India: a Review of the Legal Landscape.” A Report by CIS, Bangalore. The Radia Tapes - https://pad.ma/grid/title/list==zi:The_Radia_Tap%28e%29s This or That Particular Person (Subasri Krishnan, 2015, PSBT)
Ashis Nandy (1978-79) “The Traditions of Technology,” Alternatives 4 (3): 371-85. Selected chapters from Shiv Visvanathan (1997) A Carnival for Science: Essays in Science, Technology & Development. OUP. Claude Alvares (1979) ‘Indian Technology and Culture: 1498-1757.’ Allied Publishers, pp 46- 74. David Arnold (2013) ‘India’s Technological Imaginary’ in Everyday Technology: Machines and the Making of India’s Modernity. University of Chicago Press. Robert Geraci, ‘Navigating Science and Technology in Bangalore’, in Temples of Modernity: Nationalism, Hinduism and Transhumanism in South Indian Science. Lexington Books, pp 13- 34. Kavita Phillip “Postcolonial Technopolitics,” The Salon, vol 3.
Selected Chapters - A Companion to Digital Studies (2004) – Blackwell Publishing Chapter 1: Introduction to Digital Humanities Chapter 8: Literary Studies Selected Chapters: The Digital Humanities: A Primer for Students and Scholars
Chapter 3: The Elements of Digital Humanities: Text and Document Lisa Spiro – “This is why we fight; defining the values of digital humanities” – Debates in the Digital Humanities – 2012 Selected essays from - Doing Digital Humanities; Practice, Training, Research (2016) – Routledge Policy Documents: Net Neutrality Bill, Data Protection Bill
Selected chapter/s from Neil Postman’s Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology R. Sawhney (2015) ’Introduction,’ Studies in South Asian Film and Media: special issue on science fiction, vol 6, no 2. Selected short stories by Anil Menon/Manjula Padmanabhan Rokeya Sakahawat Hossain (1905) Sultana’s Dream https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/dream.html Afra Shafiq - https://www.entersultanasreality.com/ http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/16/the-digital-artisans-manifesto-by-richard- barbrook-and-pit-schultz/ | |
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading Walter Benjamin – “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” Manjula Padmanabhan - Harvest Chris Shilling (2005) “Technological Bodies” in The Body in Culture, Technology and Society. Sage, pp 173-197. Anne Balsamo (1996) ‘The Role of the Body in Feminist Cultural Studies of Science and Technology’ in Technologies of the Gendered Body. Duke Univ Press, pp 157-64. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/In-the-future-humans-will-become- cyborgs/articleshow/433959.cms http://indiafuturesociety.org/category/general/cyborg https://qz.com/1424235/these-real-life-cyborgs-are-changing-their-brains-by-enhancing-their- bodies/ Lazzarato, Maurizio (1996). "Immaterial labor". In Virno, Paolo; Hardt, Michael (eds.). Radical Thought in Italy : A Potential Politics. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 142–157.
Chinmayai Arun (n.d) “Paperthin Safeguards and Mass Surveillance in India.” CIS, Bangalore - https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/paper-thin-safeguards.pdf “State of Cyber-Security and Surveillance in India: a Review of the Legal Landscape.” A Report by CIS, Bangalore. The Radia Tapes - https://pad.ma/grid/title/list==zi:The_Radia_Tap%28e%29s This or That Particular Person (Subasri Krishnan, 2015, PSBT)
Ashis Nandy (1978-79) “The Traditions of Technology,” Alternatives 4 (3): 371-85. Selected chapters from Shiv Visvanathan (1997) A Carnival for Science: Essays in Science, Technology & Development. OUP. Claude Alvares (1979) ‘Indian Technology and Culture: 1498-1757.’ Allied Publishers, pp 46- 74. David Arnold (2013) ‘India’s Technological Imaginary’ in Everyday Technology: Machines and the Making of India’s Modernity. University of Chicago Press. Robert Geraci, ‘Navigating Science and Technology in Bangalore’, in Temples of Modernity: Nationalism, Hinduism and Transhumanism in South Indian Science. Lexington Books, pp 13- 34. Kavita Phillip “Postcolonial Technopolitics,” The Salon, vol 3.
Selected Chapters - A Companion to Digital Studies (2004) – Blackwell Publishing Chapter 1: Introduction to Digital Humanities Chapter 8: Literary Studies Selected Chapters: The Digital Humanities: A Primer for Students and Scholars
Chapter 3: The Elements of Digital Humanities: Text and Document Lisa Spiro – “This is why we fight; defining the values of digital humanities” – Debates in the Digital Humanities – 2012 Selected essays from - Doing Digital Humanities; Practice, Training, Research (2016) – Routledge Policy Documents: Net Neutrality Bill, Data Protection Bill
Selected chapter/s from Neil Postman’s Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology R. Sawhney (2015) ’Introduction,’ Studies in South Asian Film and Media: special issue on science fiction, vol 6, no 2. Selected short stories by Anil Menon/Manjula Padmanabhan Rokeya Sakahawat Hossain (1905) Sultana’s Dream https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/dream.html Afra Shafiq - https://www.entersultanasreality.com/ http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/16/the-digital-artisans-manifesto-by-richard- barbrook-and-pit-schultz/ | |
Evaluation Pattern
70% of the marks will be collected through the semester through class assignments, presentations, written tests, student-led seminars, and group projects. 30% of the marks will be a 3000-word research paper on a topic decided in consultation with faculty OR a digital humanities online archive/database/data visualisation project. | |
BMEC233 - POSTCOLONIAL SPATIALITIES (2020 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Course Description: This course is built around the premise of negotiating power through spatialities in the context of postcoloniality. While studies in postcolonialism often foreground the temporal vectors, increasingly, postcolonial studies is now being reconfigured in new and emerging contemporary contexts through a critical reading of spaces. Illustrative texts and readings would be undertaken for discussion in the course in an attempt to create new directions in engaging with the postcolonial geographies. |
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Course Outcome |
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At the end of the course, students would be able to: Identify spatility and its discursive construction in the contemporary contexts Locate and position issues, problems, and areas that can generate new modes of thinking about spatiality in the context of postcolonial discourses Map spaces through and generate the axes that determine meaning of spaces Create , evaluate and develop modes of mapping, reading, critiquing and analysing postcolonial spatialties. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Introduction
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This module will introduce coloniality, modernity as well as spatiality thereby linking the postcolonial question with time, space and discourses that emanatethereof. Readings around theorisations of space and human geography, as well as basic postcolonial concepts will be included here. Doreen Massey: “On Space and the City” | |
Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Postcolonial Cities and Spatiality
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:30 |
Postcolonial Spatiality in Fiction
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Text Books And Reference Books: Doreen Massey: “On Space and the City” Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place
Speaking the Unspeakable: London, Cambridge and the Caribbean by Paul Sharrad in De-Scribing Empire The Cybermohalla Project Selections from Trickster City by Sweta Sarda The Slave of MS H.6 by Amitav Ghosh Selections from Janaki Nair’s Promise of Metropolis Selections from Priya Jaikumar’s Where Histories Reside: India as Filmed Space Amitav Ghosh, Gun Island
Shubhangi Swaroop, Latitudes of Longing J M Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians Kipling, “The Bridge-Builders” | |
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Doreen Massey: “On Space and the City” Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place
Speaking the Unspeakable: London, Cambridge and the Caribbean by Paul Sharrad in De-Scribing Empire The Cybermohalla Project Selections from Trickster City by Sweta Sarda The Slave of MS H.6 by Amitav Ghosh Selections from Janaki Nair’s Promise of Metropolis Selections from Priya Jaikumar’s Where Histories Reside: India as Filmed Space
Amitav Ghosh, Gun Island
Shubhangi Swaroop, Latitudes of Longing J M Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians Kipling, “The Bridge-Builders” | |
Evaluation Pattern
70% of the marks will be collected throughout the semester through oral quizzes, presentations, written tests, group assignments, and a 2hr written exam. The end semester exam will be for 30%. | |
BMEC241A - MATERIAL CULTURE STUDIES (2020 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Course Description: The influence and presence of the past is felt everywhere and every day in our lives. Movies, newspapers or the internet bombard us and expose us to the past – both familiar and unfamiliar. However, the barrage of information and the forces of globalization have led to increasing questions on the relevance and the value of the past – indeed a denial even. And what these vestiges of the past, if not material culture? Material Culture is less a subject of study and more a way of encountering the world. We are social beings, but our social relations are mediatedand activatedby and through things. We use objects to build our identities, our relationships and our means of survival and pleasure. This course will engage the students with the myriad ways in which the past, though no longer present – is a presence in our lives today – through Material Culture. If we have to investigate human past and understand history – we cannot hope to even try without grasping material culture. It will introduce the students to think materially, relate to their memories of their own past and make them aware of the multiple perspectives which will enable them to read, write and reflect on the past; or in other words, make history. Hence, we will examine anthropological approaches to material culture and consumption: the practices, relations, and rituals through which things -- from food and clothing to shell valuables or money – become meaningful. Readings will include classic works of anthropology and social theory as well as recent ethnographies of western capitalist, colonial/postcolonial and postsocialist settings. Some questions we will explore include: how is the value or significance of objects created in different social contexts, from ritualized gift exchange to shopping malls? Should we understand commodities and other items of material culture as fulfillments of human needs, or perhaps as symbols that ‘say’ something about their users (and if so, what)? What kind of light can they shed on matters of social structure and inequality, national or class identity, values and morality, or processes of change at particular historical moments? Course Objectives: · To familiarize the students with the idea that they must be aware that objects themselves are information-bearing entities. As such, they pose many parallel, yet some unique, qualities with respect to the text and data usually addressed by information science. · To address non-textual objects (images, artifacts, etc.) as information-bearing entities subject to many of the same classification and retrieval practices applied to textual information--with a number of specific caveats. · To evaluate how the choices of tags, labels, and classification criteria affect both information practices and user experiences. · To understand how a study of objects/material culture and their arrangement/description is more ‘physical’ than that of texts, as their presentation creates a very spatially-based constructed environment. · To analyze how descriptive and classification strategies affect both viewers’ interpretations and professionals’ information practices. · How myriad different professionals and academics – from museologists and art historians to librarians and social scientists – have addressed questions of interpreting material objects. · To address the emerging tension between traditional museological professionals associated with ‘hard’ artifacts and advocates of virtual museums – and evaluate how issues of representation and description shift in the context of ‘going virtual’ in museums.
· To familiarize the students with the origins of traditional institutions that build and maintain collections of objects (libraries, archives, and museums) and how they are adapting to fundamental social and technological change at the beginning of the 21st century |
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Course Outcome |
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Learning Outcomes: · To gain skills required for humanities and social sciences research at the standard of a postgraduate degree, particularly skills to conduct research using qualitative approaches. · To understand what material culture is, and its origin as an area of study in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. · To develop skills in interdisciplinary thinking and the ability to apply relevant theoretical ideas to examine material culture. · Discernment of the importance of materiality and making in the production and shaping of culture. · Understanding of the complex and multiple ways that objects and people relate in both the past and in the present using trans-disciplinary perspectives. · To develop the ability to interpret and otherwise make meaning from objects using methods and theories from multiple disciplines including but not limited to art history, archaeology, anthropology, design, folklore/folklife studies, geography, history, literary studies, landscape history, and science studies. Students will learn to critically engage with representations of the past in the present through material remains, which will enable them to analyze and use evidence in interrogating historical accounts, and be able to critically reflect and engage with the interface between the past and the present, fostering a healthy appreciation for history and its imprint on our present world. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:12 |
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Why Study Things?
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a) Mind in Matter – Theories of Things, History from Things b) Why We Need Things: Interrogating Evidence and Material Culture Studies
c) Why Collect Things: Archaeology, Anthropology and Material Culture Studies | |||||||||||||||||||
Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:16 |
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Ideology and Material Culture: The Use and Abuse of History
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a) Voice and the Subject: Consumerism in a Material World – Commodifying Things and the Politics of Display. b) Narratives and Counter-narratives: Material Empires and the Other’s Object.
c) Colonizing Knowledges: Racializing the ‘Other’; Latent and Manifest Orientalism. | |||||||||||||||||||
Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:16 |
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Making Things Mean
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a) Engendering Things: Sexism, Patriarchy, and the codification of material cultural practice b) Contemptible Collectibles:Materialism; Museums and Collections
c) The Public Life of Things: Politicization of Material Culture. | |||||||||||||||||||
Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:16 |
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Weaving Identities: Material Culture and Social Self
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a) Memory and the Production of Self – Bodily Adornment, Theorizing Taste and the Class Experience b) Comedy of Values: Advertising and Consumer Society – Objects Recontextualized; The Dialectics of Shopping c) The Unequal Lives of Persons and Things: Waste and Want; Things as Extensions of Persons. The Death of Things: Dilemmas of Classification and the Problem of Agency and Ownership | |||||||||||||||||||
Text Books And Reference Books: Essential Readings · Chakrabarti, D K. 2006. The Oxford Companion to Indian Archaeology: The Archaeological Foundations of Ancient India, Stone Age to AD 13th century, New Delhi: Oxford University Press. · Gerritsen, Anne and Giorgio Riello (eds.). 2015. Writing Material Culture History, London: Bloomsbury. · Hurcombe, Linda M. 2007. Archaeological Artefacts as Material, New York: Routledge. · Jones, Andrew (ed.) 2007. Memory and Material Culture, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. · Schiffer, Michael B. and Richard A. Gould (eds.). 1981. Modern Material Culture: The Archaeology of Us, New York: Academic Press. · Thapar, Romila. 2005. Somanatha: The Many Voices of History, New Delhi: Verso. · Thapar, Romila. 2014. The Past as Present: Forging Contemporary Identities Through History, New Delhi: Aleph. · Tilley, Christopher et.al. (eds.). 2006. Handbook of Material Culture, London: Sage Publications. · Varma, Supriya. 2003. Ayodhya: Archaeology, History and Politics. Ababhash, July-Sept., Kolkata, pp. 53-63.
· Woodward, Ian. 2007. Understanding Material Culture, Los Angeles: Sage Publications. | |||||||||||||||||||
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading Suggested readings · Batchelor, Jennie and Cora Kaplan. 2007. Women and Material Culture, 1660–1830, London: Palgrave Macmillan. · Fritsch, Juliette. 2004. Museum Gallery Interpretation and Material Culture, New York and London: Routledge. · Gosden, Chris and Chantal Knowles (eds.) 2001. Collecting Colonialism: Material Culture and Colonial Change, Oxford, New York: Berg. · Hallam, Elizabeth and Jenny Hockey. 2001. Death, Memory and Material Culture, Oxford and New York: Berg. · Jamir, T and M Hazarika (eds). 2014. Fifty years after Daojali-Hading: Emerging Perspectives in the Archaeology of Northeast India, New Delhi: Research India Press. · Jones, Andrew. 2007. Memory and Material Culture, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. · Knappett, Carl, 2009. An Archaeology of Interaction: Network Perspectives on Material Culture and Society, Oxford: Berg. · Korasick, John E. 2005. Collecting Africa: African Material Culture Displays and the American Image of Africa, 1885-1930,PhD Thesis submitted to Saint Louis University. · Miller, Daniel. 2001. Anthropology and the Individual: A Material Culture Perspective, Routledge. · Pratap, A. 2014. Indian Archaeology and Postmodernism: Fashion or Necessity? Ancient Asia, 5: 2, pp. 1-4. · Ratnagar, S. 2016. Harappan Archaeology: Early State Perspectives, Delhi: Primus. · Riggs, E P and Z R Jat. 2016. The 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan: Migration, Material Landscapes, and the Making of Nations, Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 3 (2). · Scapp, Ron and Seitz, Brian (eds.). 2013. Living with Class: Philosophical Reflections on Identity and Material Culture, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. · Schug, Gwen Robbins & S. R. Walimbe (eds). 2016. A Companion to South Asia in the Past, New Delhi: Wiley Blackwell. · Simte, Lamminthang L. 2015. Rocks, Relics and Paths: Tracing Places in the Early Historic Landscapes of the Southern Vindhyas.Unpublished PhD Thesis submitted to Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. · Simte, Lamminthang L. and Prerana Srimaal. 2018. Timeless Aesthetics? Rock art Studies as Sites of Contestation' in the Southern Vindhyan Landscape. South Asian Cultural Studies (SACS) Journal, Special Issue on Imaging South Asian culture in non-English: Reconstructing popular textual and visual representations, pp. 34-43. · Srimaal, Prerana and Lamminthang L. Simte. 2017. Values, Valorisation, and the 'Package': The Conservation of Early Buddhist Heritage-Sites of Central India, in, Sanjay Garg (ed.), Archaeology of Buddhism: Recent Discoveries in South Asia, New Delhi: Manohar, pp. 501-514. · Staniforth, Mark. 2002. Material Culture and Consumer Society: Dependent Colonies in Colonial Australia, New York: Springer-Science+Business Media. · Stocking, George W. Jr. 1985. Objects and Others: Essays on Museums and Material Culture. London: The University of Wisconsin Press. · Swann, Marjorie. 2001. Curiosities and Texts: The Culture of Collecting in Early Modern England, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. · Turnau, Irena. 1991. History of Dress in Central and Eastern Europe from Sixteenth to the eighteenth Century. Warszawa. · Urgo, Joseph R., and Ann J. Abadie (eds.) 2007. Faulkner and Material Culture, Jackson: University of Mississippi Press. · Varma, Supriya and Jaya Menon. 2017. Households at Work: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Variation in Ceramic Production in North India, Ethnoarchaeology, 9:1, pp. 3-29, DOI: 10.1080/19442890.2017.1278862. Weatherill, Lorna. 1998. Consumer Behaviour and Material Culture in Britain 1660–1760, London and New York: Routledge. | |||||||||||||||||||
Evaluation Pattern CIA - Evaluation Pattern
Mid Semester Examination
End Semester Examination
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BMEC241B - CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (2020 Batch) | |||||||||||||||||||
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
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Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
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Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Course Description Cultural Anthropology is the study of human social life in the broadest possible way. Traditionally, Anthropologists have studied "tribes" to understand how contemporary humans create what is known as "culture" to give meaning to and make sense of the world they live in. The modern-day tribe can be an online group of bike enthusiasts, gourmet food chefs, a saree group or cat lovers who dress their cats. Anthropologists are interested in all types of societies, and the whole range of human experiences. We study social norms, values, practices to understand the diversity and the unity - the unique that sets us apart and the commonality that binds us together. This course provides an active introduction to the anthropological practice with a “hands-on” ethnographic exercise where students will be creating their account of a specific topic. By learning about the ethnographic methods, students will acquire the critical tools necessary for researching the social and cultural aspects of their society the anthropological way.
Course objectives This course intends to provide its students with a sophisticated, hands-on perspective of the incredible cultural and social diversity in the world around us. The course will train students to view this diversity through an anthropological lens – its theories and methods. It will encourage students to systematically learn about contemporary societies and apply that knowledge to have an in-depth study of one aspect that matters to them.
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Course Outcome |
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Understand culture as a process of sense-making; Learn about the historical development of Anthropology and the various schools of thought; Recognise prominent anthropologists and their contribution to the subject; Reflect on the key concepts and methods in anthropology, and its place in understanding our world; Develop an in-depth understanding of one aspect of their contemporary culture through an ethnographic exercise. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
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Studying Other Humans
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Is studying other humans a valuable endeavour? What is Anthropology? What is Culture? The Historical Evolution of Anthropology and the Schools of Thought. | |||||||||
Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
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Rites of Passage, Rituals, Religion
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What is a "rite of passage"? Why do rituals become such an essential part of everyday human life, especially during times of change or transition? What role does religion play in human society? Exploring if Atheism, Veganism, or Minimalism can be considered a religion? | |||||||||
Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
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Kinship, Marriage, and Family
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Marriage extends our circle of kin; the institution of family plays a pivotal role in sustaining these extended networks of kin. What kind of cultural values and norms honour kinship in that society? How do the institutions of kinship, marriage and family fulfil the particular society’s cultural needs? | |||||||||
Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
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The Anthropology of Deviance
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What are norms? How does deviance help in clarifying the collective cultural values and cultural morality of a society? Does deviance unify society? Exploring the structuralist (Durkheim) and functionalist (Merton) perspective on deviance. | |||||||||
Unit-5 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
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Methods of Ethnography
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What is ethnography? How to be an ethnographer in one’s own society? Exploring the process and methods of fieldwork; Cultural-relativism and other guiding ethical principles of anthropology; Taking Fieldnotes; Reflexivity. | |||||||||
Text Books And Reference Books: Appadurai, A. (1988). Introduction: Place and voice in anthropological theory. Cultural Anthropology, 3(1), 16-20. Barnard, A. (2016). Social Anthropology Investigating Human Social Life. United Kingdom: Studymates Limited. Bernard, H. R. (1988). Research methods in cultural anthropology (p. 117). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Bernard, H. R., & Gravlee, C. C. (Eds.). (2014). Handbook of methods in cultural anthropology. Rowman & Littlefield. Bowie, F. (2006). The anthropology of religion. The Blackwell companion to the study of religion, 3-24. Clifford, J. (1994). Diasporas. Cultural anthropology, 9(3), 302-338. Clifford, J., & Marcus, G. E. (Eds.). (1986). Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography. Univ of California Press. Crang, M., & Cook, I. (2007). Doing ethnographies. Sage. Fabian, J. (2014). Time and the other: How anthropology makes its object. Columbia University Press. Fife, W. (2005). Doing Fieldwork: Ethnographic methods for research in developing countries and beyond. Springer. Fox, R. (1983). Kinship and marriage: An anthropological perspective (Vol. 50). cambridge university press. Freilich, M., Raybeck, D., & Savishinsky, J. S. (Eds.). (1991). Deviance: anthropological perspectives. Bergin & Garvey. Friedman, J. (2002). From roots to routes: Tropes for trippers. Anthropological Theory, 2(1), 21-36. Gupta, A., & Ferguson, J. (1992). Beyond “culture”: Space, identity, and the politics of difference. Cultural anthropology, 7(1), 6-23. Hall, S. (2017). Cultural Studies 1983: A Theoretical History. Noida: Orient Blackswan Private Limited. Jha, M. (1995). An Introduction to Anthropological Thought. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading Marcus, G. E. (2008). The end (s) of ethnography: Social/cultural anthropology's signature form of producing knowledge in transition. Cultural Anthropology, 23(1), 1-14. Rapport, N. (2014). Social and cultural anthropology: The key concepts. Routledge. Rosaldo, R. (1988). Ideology, place, and people without culture. Cultural Anthropology, 3(1), 77-87. Spiro, M. E. (1986). Cultural relativism and the future of anthropology. Cultural Anthropology, 1(3), 259-286. Turner, T. (1993). Anthropology and multiculturalism: what is anthropology that multiculturalists should be mindful of it?. Cultural anthropology, 8(4), 411-429. Walton, D. (2012). Doing Cultural Theory. Sage Publication. | |||||||||
Evaluation Pattern Assessment Pattern
Mid-Semester Examination (50 marks) The students are expected to engage with the research on various aspects of urbanisation. For this, they will submit a 1500 words research proposal on one area that they intend to work on later for their end semester submission. The discussion paper will elaborate on their chosen area of research, the rationale for studying that, the theoretical framework they intend to use, brief methodology, and the expected timeframe. Students may incorporate this submission can be incorporated into their final ESE submission. End-Semester Examination (50 marks)
For their end-semester, the students will develop a detailed report (3000 words) based on their in-depth understanding of one aspect of their contemporary culture through an ethnographic exercise.
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BMEC241C - VISUAL CULTURE (2020 Batch) | |||||||||
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
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Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
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Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Course Description: This course introduces students to a range of theoretical apparatus to understand visuality and visual culture. The approaches draw upon a mix of cultural studies, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, film studies and popular culture. It provides a broad overview of visual culture and problematizes ways of seeing and being seen. It engages with the visual as a site of power, politics and resistance, for example, as in the case of surveillance in the hyper-technological societies we inhabit. The larger objective of the course is to enable students to grapple with complex ideas on their own, and to tussle with concepts, to produce primary research that is insightful. This research will take the form of student-managed and designed publications. ● Understand how visuals operate in contemporary society ● Read visuals in everyday life ● Engage and problematize ways of seeing and being seen ● Critically analyse theories of visual culture and visual arts |
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Course Outcome |
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At the end of the course the student will be equipped to ● Understand surveillance, dataveillance and voyeurism ● Critical and Analytical Skills ● Societal Skills |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
What is Visual Culture?
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What is visuality? How do we acquire ‘ways of seeing’? Who has the right to look and show? What makes images political? How can we map the sub-discipline of Visual Culture? This unit will help students understand the field of visual culture studies and the politics and operational dynamics of a ‘visual’ culture. CORE TEXTS
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Image and Knowledge
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This unit looks at some of the basic apparatus/concepts we can use to understand images and visuality. How does representation work? How can we understand spectacle? What is the philosophy of the image? CORE TEXTS:
Selected excerpts from Aristotle, The Complete Works RECOMMENDED TEXTS
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Image and Technology
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This unit broadly recognises that we inhabit a visual technocracy and attempts to read the visual as mediated and enhanced by technology. It attempts to understand the politics of visual technocracy, both together and by themselves. This unit will make use of the methodologies of Unit I and II to understand the ‘everyday’ we inhabit. CORE TEXTS | |
Text Books And Reference Books: W J T Mitchell: “Showing Seeing: A Critique of Visual Culture E. Shohat & R Stam,:“Narrativizing Visual Culture Irit Rogof: “Studying Visual Culture” Selected excerpts from Aristotle, The Complete Works Jonathan Crary: Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle and Modern Culture
Susana Berger, The Art of Philosophy: Visual Thinking in Europe from the Late Renaissance to Early Enlightenment.
Walter Benjamin: “The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproducibility”. Papastergiadis et al: “Screen Cultures and Public Spaces”
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading Leonard Diepeveen: “Art Museums as Organizers of Culture” James Clifford: “On Collecting Art and Culture” Sameena Siddiqui: “Civic Archives: Beedi Product Labels” Christopher Pinney: Photos of the Gods Kajri Jain: “Reconfiguring India's Nationalism, One Grand Statue at a Time” Carson, Fiona and Claire Pajaczkowska, editors. Feminist Visual Culture. Edinburg University Press. Fuery, Patrick and Kelli Fuery. Visual Cultures and Critical Theory. Arnold, 2003. Gruber, Christiane and Sune Haugbole, editors. Visual Culture in the Modern Middle East : Pinney, Christopher. Photography and Anthropology. Reaktion Books, 2011. Pinney, Christopher and Nicholas Thomas, editors. Beyond Aesthetics: Art and the Technologies of Enchantment. Berg, 2001. Rampley, Matthew, ed. Exploring Visual Culture: Definitions, Concepts, Contexts. Edinburgh UP, 2005. Selected visual essays from http://www.tasveergharindia.net/ Field Visit: NGMA/ Chitrakala Parishad/ any other relevant exhibition site | |
Evaluation Pattern
70% of the marks will be collected throughout the semester through oral quizzes, presentations, written tests, group and individual assignments. 30% of the assessment will be in the form of a visual essay, visual archival project or a curatorial project to be presented at the end of the course. CIAs: Tasks based on research, application, and audio-visual components
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BMEC331A - NATION, BOUNDARIES, IDENTITIES (2019 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Nation is central to one’s identity - especially in the sense that one’s existence as a human being and the rights that one asserts is also largely defined by the modern nation-state. This also brings into question as to how we make sense of this anomaly called ‘nation’, especially in a decade where more and more people are becoming stateless due to multiple socio-political, legal and historical factors. The course therefore embarks on a discussion on the interaction between identities and nation, the formulation and reformulation of either of the entities through these interactions, and the larger implication of these interactions in the context of India.
The course aims to:
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Course Outcome |
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This course would enable students to: Interpret and apply the concepts and ideas introduced in the class to various spaces of engagement - local, national and global. Recognise the necessity to engage with multiple narratives and the intersection of gender, caste, religion etc, in framing the contours of nation(lism). Problematise singular understanding of nationalism and Identity. Critically evaluate and compare the discourse on citizenship with that of the discourse on statelessness |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
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Are there imagined communities?
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The unit explores thoughts put forward by thinkers on the idea of nation and nationalism. Integral to this exploration is the notion of belongingness to - an identity, a territory, an ethnic group, shared belief systems and so on - that could delineate on multiple levels the notions of being national and anti-national.
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
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Antionalist Discourses
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This unit explores multiple discourses on nationalism that emerge from various parts of the world and how these discourses are formulated and reformulated based on socio-political factors of a particular period. A significant focus of the unit is to trace how nationalist discourses are largely defined by the presence of the ‘other.’
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
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Borders and Bordering Practices
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This unit attempts to capture some of the notions of borders, the need for these borders and various bordering practices that exclude people/citizens to be part of the nation state.
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Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
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Migration
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The unit explores some of the questions that processes of migration poses to the larger understanding of nation-state, as well as to that of political and cultural identity that nationalist discourses attempts to assert.
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Text Books And Reference Books:
Ahmad, Aijaz. In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures. Verso, 1992. MA in English and Cultural Studies 56 Samuel, Raphael, ed. Patriotism: The Making and Unmaking of British National Identity. Vol I: History and Politics. London: Routledge, 1989. Samuel, Raphael, ed. Patriotism Vol. III: National Fictions. Routledge, 1989.
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading Ahmad, Aijaz. In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures. Verso, 1992. Anderson, Benedict. The Specter of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the World. Verso, 1998. MA in English and Cultural Studies 56 Samuel, Raphael, ed. Patriotism: The Making and Unmaking of British National Identity. Vol I: History and Politics. London: Routledge, 1989. Samuel, Raphael, ed. Patriotism Vol. III: National Fictions. Routledge, 1989.
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Evaluation Pattern
70% of the marks will be collected throughout the semester through oral quizzes, presentations, written tests, group assignments, and a 2hr written exam. The end semester exam will be for 30%. CIA - Evaluation Pattern Mid Semester Examination End Semester Examination MA in English and Cultural Studies
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BMEC331B - LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY IN INDIA (2019 Batch) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
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Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
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Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Language is the mean through which identities are established and expressed. Language becomes a tool through which power is shaped and enacted. This makes language the primary and most systematic means of communication. India being a multilingual and multicultural country offers opportunities to understand the phenomena outlined above in terms of identities, history of language education with respect to English and vernacular languages, complex relationship between caste and language and how language plays a significant role in modern and cosmopolitan India. Course Objectives: ● To create a disciplinary awareness of linguistic identities in India. |
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Course Outcome |
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An understanding that a social action is crucially mediated by language. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Language and Identity
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This unit deals with language, identity and politics of language in India. Linguistic and religious identity in India (DP Pattnayak 1991) | |
Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Language and Education
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This unit provides a survey of the modes of language transmission in India from colonization to the present. | |
Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Language and Caste
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This unit introduces the social life of dominant languages in India especially in the context of caste. It will aim to bring forth debates regarding language and caste. | |
Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Language, Modernity and Cosmopolitanism
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Selections from Chutnefying Hinglish by Rita Kothari (2011) Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (2008) The Adivasi Will Not Dance, (Excerpts) by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (2017) | |
Text Books And Reference Books:
Bloody Language: Clashes and Constructions of Linguistic Nationalism in India (A Aneesh 2010) Legislation and Policies in Relation to Sign Language and Sign Language Rights (Tanmoy Bhattacharya and Surinder P. K. Randhawa) Colonial Linguistic and Educational Policies (Charles Grant; Wood’s Despatch; Roy’s letter to Lord Amherst) Macaulay’s Minute (vis-à-vis Chandra Bhan Prasad; Guha “Macaulay’s Minute Revisited” in The Hindu) http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/hinduism/macaulay.html Selections from Chutnefying Hinglish by Rita Kothari (2011) Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (2008) Painted Words (excerpts) G N Devy 2002) The Adivasi Will Not Dance, (Excerpts) by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (2017)
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Ghosh, Amitabh. Sea of Poppies, John Murray. 2008. | |
Evaluation Pattern
Testing pattern:
MSE Pattern: Section A: 3X10=30 (Conceptual, Critical) | |
BMEC332A - DEMOCRACY AND CULTURE (2019 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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The nation-state controls as well as directs cultural production through mechanisms of law, governance, and censorship. Historically, as well as in contemporary times, nation-states have leveraged ‘culture’, to control, influence, silence, as well as enable its citizens and subjects. This course looks at a range of examples across cultural practices and historical periods to attempt to understand the relationship between state and culture. The objective of the course is to alert us to the power of the state, while at the same time, point towards possibilities that can be prised open to not only establish an alternative discourse or ideology, but also to hack into the very infrastructure of the state, in the manner of a politics of the commons. On completing the course, students will be able to: 57
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Course Outcome |
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Ability to identify some of the legal frameworks used to regulate culture, through discussions and case studies. Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between state and culture in colonial and postcolonial times through class discussions, presentations and written submissions. Articulate the distinctive ways in which cultural regulation works across different mediums through case studies and group projects. Demonstrate an understanding of the rights and obligations of citizens in any form of cultural production and circulation, along with creative solutions to censorship regulations. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Culture and the Colonial State
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Culture and the Postcolonial State
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This unit will look at the renewed investment by the independent Indian state into channelling and regulating cultural production to satisfy the state’s agendas at a regional as well as national level. Indicative topics include: ii. Films Division and documentary history | |
Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Culture and the Neo-Liberal State
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This unit will explore more contemporary state interventions in the regulation of cultural practices. The liberalisation of the media and entertainment industry in the early 1990s in particular had a far reaching impact on media and cultural production. An unprecedented range of media platforms became available to consumers, further accentuated by the development of digital technology. This seeming proliferation of choice and technological possibilities, also marked a shift in aesthetics, transforming practices of representation along with representational politics. Indicative topics include: i. C&S, OTT and DTH | |
Text Books And Reference Books:
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
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Evaluation Pattern
70% of the marks will be collected throughout the semester through oral quizzes, presentations, written tests, group assignments and individual projects. The remaining 30% will be assessed through a 3000 word submission paper. | |
BMEC332B - WRITING LIVES: GENRES OF SELF NARRATIVE (2019 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Course Description: This course serves as an introduction to the form of life writing and will provide students with navigating new and emerging narrative directions that this form of writing has begun to take. The fundamental objective of the course is to foreground the contexts in which the speaking human subject forges writing. It includes a variety of autobiographies, self-narratives, memoirs that provide new ways of engaging with the narrativisation of the human question in literary works. The course includes a range of works and the instructor can choose to do specific texts from each unit in the course.
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Course Outcome |
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Recognise the determining role of the self in narrative production Develop modes and frameworks to analyse life writings Evaluate the voice and points of view of writing specific to the genre here Write and speak about the cultural contexts in the production and reception of life writings |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:4 |
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Introduction
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This unit will typically introduce the form of self-writing with questions about the form, context of its generation and development, voice, point of view, and also the larger cultural questions about memory and memorialisation through violence, cities, disease and the everyday. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:8 |
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Writing Health and Disease
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This unit introduces works that narrate disease from the point of view of both the patient as well as the care-giver. This will also introduce students to Narrative Medicine as a field of study.
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:12 |
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Writing Gender
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Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:12 |
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Writing Cities
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Unit-5 |
Teaching Hours:12 |
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Writing Indigeniety, Ecology and the Environment
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Wangaari Maathai Unbowed
Leslie Marmon Silko The Turquoise Ledge | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Text Books And Reference Books:
If I had to tell it Again by Gayathri Prabhu;
Tangles: The Story of Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me
Atul Gawande Being Mortal
Devaki Nilayamgode’s Antharjanam: Memoirs of a Namboodiri Woman
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Wangaari Maathai Unbowed Leslie Marmon Silko The Turquoise Ledge | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Andersen, Linda. Autobiography: The New Critical Idiom Series. Routledge, 2001. Brockmeier, Jens and Donald A. Carbaugh. Narrative and Identity: Studies in Autobiography, Self and Culture. John Benjamin’s Publishing Company, 2001. Huddart, David. Postcolonial Theory and Autobiography. Routledge, 2008. UP, 2005. Self-Representation. Routledge, 2008. Carolina Press, 2007. Wagner-Eglehaaf, Martina. Ed. Handbook of Autobiography/Auto-Fiction. DE, 2019. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Evaluation Pattern
CIA 1 (20 marks) Any assignment that would enable students to understand the idea of a ‘life writing’ and that enables them to engage with it in a politically engaging manner. CIA 2- MSE- Written Exam for 50 marks students to produce and interpret a text (20 marks) MA in English and Cultural Studies
Mid Semester Examination End Semester Examination
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BMEC333A - CULTURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP (2019 Batch) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
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Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
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Course Objectives/Course Description |
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This course will enable those interested in setting up their own independent cultural and creative practices to work out a model and plan to execute. Candidates will be first introduced to the historical and critical context of the ‘culture industry’, tracing its development in neo-liberal and contemporary contexts, looking at a number of models of public and private partnership, as well as independent practice. The course will provide a theoretical framework to students to locate many of these debates, while also providing practical tools to planning and executing their individual projects. By the end of the course, students should have drafted a plan of action, and also attempted a prototype or experimental execution. |
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Course Outcome |
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At the end of the course students will have acquired: 1. A fundamental understanding of the cultural ecology of contemporaray India through class discussions, readings and assignments. 2. A rudimentary understanding of arts foundations such as IFA through class assignments. 3. An opportunity to meet and interact with different cultural practitioners, and thereby to get a first-hand account of the culture industry. 4. A theoretical and conceptual understanding of debates around the cultural and creative industries through readings and assignments. 5. An opportunity to familiarise themselves with various outfits such as Lalit Kala Academy, Sahitya Akademi, NGMA, National Museum, VAG, Marg, Attakalari, Maara, Sandbox Collective and so on. 6. Understanding of the dialectice between state and market and the regulation of cultural production. 7. An opportunity to develop individual ideas for cultural entrepreneurship and to work on a proposal towards these. 8. An opportunity to develop a prototype of their cultural entreprise, while developing issues of sustaiability. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
The Culture Industry
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In this unit students will engage with historical debates around the culture industry, and get a sense of the development of these within a neo-liberal context. Adorno & Horkheimer: The Culture Industry Anmol Vellani: development Without Culture Anmol Vellani: How not to commodify the arts David Gartman: Bourdieu and Adorno India Foundation for the Arts - Arts Research Programme; Arts Practice Programme; Archival Fellowships
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Cultural Enterpreneurs
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In this unit students will get introduced to a range of independent initiatives and organisations in the field of cultural production. Attakalari Maara Sandbox Collective Hakara Urban Lens Pao Collective Design Beku and others. . . | |
Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
The Creative Industries
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In this unit students will get introduced to various debates within contemporaray creative industries. Culture and Policy Creative Labour and Value Economic Models in the Culture Industry Private-Public Partnership and debates around this model Ownership, access, gatekeeping Immaterial Labour Community Projects Ethics of Cultural Practice | |
Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Project Work
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In this unit, students will work on developing their own creative projects, and will acquire the skills to:
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Text Books And Reference Books: Anmol Vellani: How not to Commodify the Arts Adorno and Horkheimer: The Culture Industry William Mazarella: Why is Adorno so Repulsive? Vinay Lal: Empire of Knowledge: Culture and Plurality in the Global Economy UNCTAD Creative Industries Report Anmol Vellani: The World in a Village: Lessons from K V Subanna's inspirational life in theatre and community Anmol Vellani: Planned Obsolescence Terry Flew: The Creative Industries - Culture and Policy Okwui Enwezor: The Postcolonial Constellation - Creative Art in a State of Permanent Transition Nicholas Garnham: Concepts of Culture - Public Policy and the Cultural Industries John Hutnyk: Bad Marxism - capitalism and Cultural Studies Anmol Vellani: Development Without Culture David Gartman: Bourdieu and Adorno Chris Casper: An Open Letter to the Labour Servicing the Culture Industries
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading Anmol Vellani: How not to Commodify the Arts Adorno and Horkheimer: The Culture Industry William Mazarella: Why is Adorno so Repulsive? Vinay Lal: Empire of Knowledge: Culture and Plurality in the Global Economy UNCTAD Creative Industries Report Anmol Vellani: The World in a Village: Lessons from K V Subanna's inspirational life in theatre and community Anmol Vellani: Planned Obsolescence Terry Flew: The Creative Industries - Culture and Policy Okwui Enwezor: The Postcolonial Constellation - Creative Art in a State of Permanent Transition Nicholas Garnham: Concepts of Culture - Public Policy and the Cultural Industries John Hutnyk: Bad Marxism - capitalism and Cultural Studies Anmol Vellani: Development Without Culture David Gartman: Bourdieu and Adorno Chris Casper: An Open Letter to the Labour Servicing the Culture Industries
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Evaluation Pattern Evaluation will be on an ongoing basis based on submission of assignemnts, development of the cultural enterprise portfolio, and the final project work. | |
BMEC333B - INTRODUCTION TO PUBLISHING (2019 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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This course offers an Introdcution to various dimensions of "Publishing" and provides a foundation for students who might be interested in pursuing a career in publishing. In addition to the practical dimensions of publishing, it also offers a theoretical or conceptual understanding of the history of the book, reading publics and politics, censorship, the politics of language, and the history of various Indian languages. The course includes guest lectures by industry professionals, in order to provide an inside understanding of how the industry works. It also includes field trips to publishing houses, printing presses and literary festivals. Course Objectives: 1. To provide a foundational understanding of the publishing industry in India, with some overview of international publishing networks. 2. To provide an understanding of the economics of publishing. 3. To encourage students to grasp the politics of language and how the publishing industry influences this. 4. To provide a preliminary understanding of the history of the book, especially in South Asia. 5. To familiarise students with the history of various Indian langauages, and the role of publishing in these. 6. To provide an understanding of reading publics, markets, and the the role of literature in shaping the "public sphere" 7. An introduction to some nuances of digital publishing. 8. An understanding of legal provisions around censorship, inlcuding some case studies.
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Course Outcome |
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1. Ability to identify major international publishers and explain their business models in India. 2. Ability to identify some Indian publishers, including in Indian languages. 3. Ability to demonstrate an understanding of the importance of multilingual publishing and translation through short assignments. 4. To demonstrate a grasp of the history of the book in South Asia, through class discussion. 5. To develop an understanding of the history of select Indian languages and the role of publishing in these, and to demonstrate this through assignments. 6. To be able to address specific examples and case studies of the creation of "reading publics" and the "public sphere" in different geo-political contexts. 7. To demonstrate a hands-on understanding of different aspects of publishing such a assessing proposals, editing, copy-editing, marketing, design. 8. To demonstrate a good grasp of specific cases around censorship and the legal provisions therein. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
The Publishing Industry
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An introduction to the major international publishers and their outfits in India. An overview of select Indian language publishers. Departments within a publishing house and how each one functions. Independent publishing. Bilingual pulications A brief introduction to Digital publishing Academic publishing | |
Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Legal Issues in Publishing
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This unit will look at Copyright laws in India as well as specific case studies of censorship and bans on books across different global and historical contexts. OUP Vs Delhi University photocopying shop case Penguine & the 300 Ramayanas Wendy Donniger & Hinduism MS Subbalakshmi biography copyright Film adaptation copyrights Image reproduction & legal issues Reprinting rights | |
Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Marketing, Design, Literary Festivals
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This unit looks at the design, publicity and marketing related to the publishing industry. Students will work with specific case studies to understand the various nuances. Bangalore Literary Festival Jaipur Literary Festival William Dalrymple - The Anarchist marketing & publicity strategy Arundhati Roy - various examples Graphic design & book design Printing, paper, resoultion & other technical issues The author as celebrity | |
Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Digitl Publishing
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This unit looks at varous possibilities within digital publishing, the differnt revenu models and possibilities of collaborative publication. Online platforms Copyright and other data protection issues print on demand and other revenue models Collaborative publishing softwares Institute of Network Cultures Piracy and Copyleft | |
Text Books And Reference Books: Global 50 Publishing Industry Report 2019 Simon Eliot & Jonathan Rose (Eds) A Companion to the History of the Book, Blackwell Publishing, 2007. Gary Hall, Digitise this Book: the Politics of New Media, or why we need open access now, Univ. of Minesotta Press, 2008. Jodi Dean et. al. Materialities of Independent Publishing. | |
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading Women Unlimited Orientblackswan tandafonline www.hakara.in www.pratilipi.com www.networkcultures.org www.penguinerandomhouse.com e-flux indiaseminar EPW Scroll The Wire
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Evaluation Pattern Assessment will be on an on-going basis in the form of a portfolio that students will have to make out of various assignments given in class. Each assignment will vary between 5-30 marks, and will add up to a 100 marks in total.
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BMEC341 - TRANSLATION STUDIES (2019 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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The Course aims to look at the theory and the practice of translation with the help of some insightful essays distributed over 4 units by authors in India and abroad. The latest trends and concerns are discussed at length to give an insight to the students about the nuances and techniques of translation. The course enables the students to engage in meaningful discourse with the logic, necessity and types of translation which makes reading diverse literatures a possibility and an enjoyable experience. The course caters to both, the students who have had translation studies in their UG program as well as to those who are being introduced to it for the first time in the PG program. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the program, the course will focus specifically on issues such as the politics of translation, translating cultures, and related pedagogies. Course Objectives :
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Course Outcome |
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Learn to appreciate the need for translation in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural diversity Understand the reasons for the differences in texts as far as translation is concerned Appreciate the changing functions and purposes of translation in the age of world literatures Acquire a skill of hands-on experience at translating from a source text to a target text. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:4 |
Translation and Identity Politics
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:16 |
Visual Texts and Translating Cultures
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Death Note | |
Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Translation and Pedagogy
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Pedagogic Translation vs. Translation Teaching: A Compromise Between Theory and Practice VALERIA PETROCCHI Teaching in—and about—Translation SANDRA BERMANN Profession (2010), pp. 82-90 Writing as Translation: Women's Fictions of Postwar Lebanon-Michelle Hartman- Syracuse University Press From "Literary Translation" to "Cultural Translation": Mori Ōgai and the Plays of Henrik Ibsen by Yōichi Nagashima | |
Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
The Practice of Translation
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A Cross-Cultural History Of International Relations: Book Translations In The Twentieth Century Robert Deutsch Vol. 29, No. 4, Special Issue on Technical Translation Today (FOURTH QUARTER) CIA 1: Hands-on Translation experience/Critical reading assignment CIA 3: Hands- on Translation experience/Critical reading assignment MSE/ESE: Submission/Presentation for 50 marks each | |
Text Books And Reference Books:
Baker, Mona. Ed. Critical Readings in Translation Studies. London/New York: Routledge, 2010. | |
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Dasgupta, Subhas. “Tagore's Concept of Translation: A Critical Study” Indian Literature Vol. 56, No. 3 (269) (May/June 2012), pp. 132-144. | |
Evaluation Pattern CIA I - 20 marks CIA II- 25 marks CIA III - 20 marks ESE - 30 marks Attendance - 5 marks | |
BMEC342 - CULTURAL DISABILITY STUDIES (2019 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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This course introduces the cultural and political aspect of disabled people. It proposes to examine disability as a historical, social, and cultural constructions to understand the relationship between power and symbolic meaning. It views disability as a phenomenon of embodied difference. Fundamental cultural concepts of ‘putting things into order’, for instance normality and deviance, health and illness, physical integrity and subjective identity are thereby discussed from a critical point of view. his course will introduce students to the key critical concepts, debates, and questions of practice in the emerging scholarly field of disability studies. Drawing on scholarship in public policy, sociology, history, psychology, anthropology, cultural studies, literature, biomedical ethics, and other academic fields, students will be introduced to the moral, medical, social, minority, and ecological models of disability; explore the histories of particular disability communities; debate ethical questions concerning genetic testing, selective abortion, and disability therapies; study how social inequalities of class, race, nationality, sexuality, and gender related to the lived experiences of the disabled; and learn from the literature and political discourse of disabled artists and activists. This course aims to contribute to the study of central themes of the Modern age: reason, human rights, equality, autonomy and solidarity in relation to social and cultural developments in global and local context.
Course Objectives: Through participation in this course, students will able to:
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Course Outcome |
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to use theoretical perspectives to critically analyze central concepts of disability and culture/art to write analytically about texts in accordance with the conventions of textual criticism; i.e. the ability to write sustained, coherent, and persuasive arguments on significant issues that arise from the content at hand to "join the conversation" that is always ongoing among critics and scholars regarding texts, authors, and topics by engaging with secondary sources to work with disabled people to raise awareness about the culture of disability in an appropriate and sensitive manner. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Introduction
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Theorising Disability
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Ato Quayson. (2014). Aesthetic Nervousness | |
Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Disability and Culture
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Cynthia Barounis (2014), Cripping Heterosexuality, Queering Able-Bodiedness: Murderball, Brokeback Mountain and the Contested Masculine Body. Georgina Kleege. (2014). Blindness and Visual Culture: An Eyewitness Account G. Thomas Couser. (2014). Disability, Life Narrative, and Representation. | |
Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
Disability and Media Representation
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Tanya Titchkosky (2019). Disability Imaginaries in the News | |
Text Books And Reference Books:
Ato Quayson. (2014). Aesthetic Nervousness David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder (2014). Narrative Prosthesis Cynthia Barounis (2014), Cripping Heterosexuality, Queering Able-Bodiedness: Murderball, Brokeback Mountain and the Contested Masculine Body. Georgina Kleege. (2014). Blindness and Visual Culture: An Eyewitness Account G. Thomas Couser. (2014). Disability, Life Narrative, and Representation. Tanya Titchkosky (2019). Disability Imaginaries in the News | |
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Foucault, M. Madness And Civilization: A History Of Insanity In The Age Of Reason. Vintage Books 1988, c1965. Print. Kathryn Allan (ed.) Disability in Science Fiction: Representations of Technology as Cure. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Waldschmidt, Anne, et al., editors. Culture – Theory – Disability: Encounters between Disability Studies and Cultural Studies. Transcript Verlag, 2017. | |
Evaluation Pattern
70% of the marks will be collected throughout the semester through oral quizzes, presentations, written tests, group assignments, and a 2hr written exam. The end semester exam will be for 30%. | |
BMEC343 - SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY (2019 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Fantasy developed as a genre in literature as a popular medium. Science fiction also developed in the same manner. But both got validity within the realm of literature only recently. The purpose of this course is to understand the relevance of providing space for such dystopian realities and how the populace deciphers the latent content existing within the texts. Course Objectives: The paper aims to help students: · Identify fantasy and science generated fictions as cultural constructs. · Engage critically with the discursive nature of science fictions and fantasies · Recognize the correlation between technology and human life · Explore the aesthetic and intellectual contexts of science fictions and fantasies |
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Course Outcome |
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At the end of the course the students will be able to: Identify and define science fiction Examine and articulate the constructedness science fictions Evaluate the politics of technological interventions and the interface between human and technology Critically analyze the socio-political and cultural contexts that create and regulate science fiction Read and analyze science fiction narratives as ‘political’ |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
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Science Fiction, Fantasy as Thought-Experiments
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This unit attempts to offer an overview of Science Fiction and Fantasy genres and elucidate the crucial characteristics that make them exercises in intellectual and creative experiments.
1. “The Sandman” – E.T.A. Hoffmann 2. R.U.R. – Karel Čapek 3. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland –Lewis Carroll 4. Science Fiction, Adam Roberts. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
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Concerns
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This unit will address some of the fundamental thematic concerns of science-fiction and fantasy narratives. 1. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain (Novel) 2. The Hobbit –J R R Tolkien (Novel) 3. Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka (Novella) 4. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia- Ursula Le Guin | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
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Popular Cultural Representations
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The focus of this unit will be on popular cultural representations of science-fictional and fantasy elements. The unit will look address issues of dystopic and utopic representations, artificial intelligence, futuristic environment, alternate realities, etc.
1. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (movie, 2016) 2. Black Mirror (Series, 2011- present) 3. Stranger Things (Series, 2016- present) 4. Her (movie, 2013) 5. Avatar (movie, 2009) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Text Books And Reference Books: Prescribed Texts | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Malmgren, Carl D. (1988). "Towards a Definition of Science Fantasy ". Science Fiction Studies. JSTOR . Nussbaum, Abigail (April 2, 2015). "Science Fantasy". In Nicholas, Peter. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved May 25, 2017. Mathews, Richard (2002) [1997]. Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination. New York City, New York and London, England: Routledge.
Mendlesohn, Farah (2008). Rhetorics of Fantasy. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press. Cornea, Christine. Science Fiction Cinema: between Fantasy and Reality. Rutgers University Press, 2007. James, Edward, and Farah Mendlesohn. The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction. Cambridge University Press, 2013.
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Evaluation Pattern CIA - Evaluation Pattern
Mid Semester Examination
End Semester Examination
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BMEC344 - POPULAR CULTURE IN INDIA (2019 Batch) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
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Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
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Course Objectives/Course Description |
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This course Popular Culture in India will introduce students to the area of popular culture studies within academia. It will trace the trajectories and concerns that determine this area and also the field of study in general. It will specifically acquaint the students and help them engage with forms of popular culture in India and help them read these popular culture forms as ‘texts’ – signifying systems that produce meanings in specific ways. It will look at the politics of the production, dissemination and consumption of these texts. This course will engage the students in
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Course Outcome |
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At the end of the course, students would be able to: Develop research questions and debates around theorizing popular cultures in India Evaluate contradictory and aberrant readings within popular narratives Examine and evaluate the politics of visuality embedded in popular narratives Negotiate with the politics of production, distribution and dissemination through a nuanced engagement with theory and practice |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
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What is Popular Culture?
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
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Indian Cinema and Music
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
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Everyday Day and Street Culture
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Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
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Folk Cultures and Festivals
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This unit will engage with cultural festivals, melas, art forms, folk cultural forms and other expressions. It will look into the politics of appropriation and subversion and examine the ideas of subcultures, countercultures, contracultures and mainstream cultures.
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Unit-5 |
Teaching Hours:15 |
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Social Media Cultures
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Text Books And Reference Books:
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Ravi Sundaram: Pirate Modernity | |||||||||||
Evaluation Pattern
CIA I and II Combined: Creative and analytical MA in English and Cultural Studies
Total: 100 marks | |||||||||||
BMEC345 - URBAN NARRATIVES (2019 Batch) | |||||||||||
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
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Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
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Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Cities have emerged as one of the most vibrant as well as challenging sites in the modern world, and India is no exception to this. Mobility, travel and migration, have been the defining characteristics of the modern world, often witnessed in catastrophic ways as seen recently in the large- scale forced migration of Syrian refugees into Europe, or the Rohingya ‘crisis’ in Myanmar. This course will introduce students to city narratives across a range of mediums including literature, cinema, visual arts, and architecture. It will enable students to engage with cities as a product of the imagination, as well as real sites that urban planners, residents and travellers negotiate in various ways. Course Objectives • To introduce a multidisciplinary understanding of cities and urban spaces • To understand how travel, migration, displacement and exile shape narratives, experiences and identities. • To grasp how city-life constructs the identities of the people who reside there. |
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Course Outcome |
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Observe, experience and document the city in different ways. Read closely and interpret various kinds of texts dealing with urban cultures A disciplined writing practice Be able to curate and display their insights and observations in engaging and meaningful ways Produce original work – either scholarly or creative Develop collaborative and team working qualities Create interpretive frameworks that will enable a nuanced understanding of cities with respect to their socio-political and cultural contexts Use cultural texts to recognize and critically engage with the politics of travel in various contexts Determine and demonstrate capabilities to read and critique city spaces |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:14 |
Conceptual Frameworks
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:16 |
Modernity and Cosmopolitanism
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:12 |
Gender
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Ruth Vanita: “Women in the City” | |
Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:18 |
The Unintended City
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Ravi Sundaram: Pirate Modernity | |
Text Books And Reference Books:
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Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
http://sarai.net/category/projects/cybermoh alla/ Sarai City Reader 02: Cities of Everyday Life | |
Evaluation Pattern
70% of marks will be assessed on an ongoing basis through individual and group projects, in-class discussions and presentations, written submissions and 30% marks will be awarded for a final project engaging public spaces and communities. | |
BMEC472 - THE CULTURE OF FOOD (2019 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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Food Choices, for a very long time, were conceptualized to be an innocent by-product of availability and affordability; however, with the emergence of a significant body of publications which probed into studying and analyzing the intersections between class-gender-race-caste-religion and food, Food Choices are being reviewed in an altogether different light. A discipline erstwhile invested with the objective study of production and distribution has had a ‘cultural turn’ as a result of which the mundane acts of cooking and eating have been a site of intense academic inquiry. An interdisciplinary field of inquiry, the history of this discipline though short is very rich precisely because of the interpolations of thoughts and disciplines that led to its formation in the first place. The Course titled The Culture of Food aims to provide learners with a comprehensive understanding of how the acts of food consumption have been academically studied and how using different methodologies at hand, they could probe into the multi-dimensional aspects of food in the context of India, a country with a rich history of culinary-diversity. The main objective of the course is not to appreciate and document the culinary-history/ies and practice/s but to understand the power hegemonies which operate through everyday acts of cooking and eating.
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Course Outcome |
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By the end of the course, the learners would be able to: Analyze the practices of eating and cooking from Cultural Studies’ perspective. Determine the role of food in constructing individual/social identity/ies. Evaluate the multiple forms of oppression that operate in Indian society by means of questioning the accessibility to the basic resources of food and water. Analyze the recent boom in the domain of food writing and evaluate thehegemonies that operate in/through the same. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:14 |
Introduction
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:12 |
Food and Identity
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This unit focuses on the formation of identity through and around the pattern of food consumption and in doing so it focuses on how the idea of India and Indian is constructed, negotiated, and contested, diachronically. While the first article in this section by Pant (2013) provides a historical account of food consumption, Sengupta(2010) provides an insight into the construction of the idea of the native Indian from colonial perspective besides discussing the notion of kitchen as a normative gendered space. The article by Berger (2019), Staples (2014) and Madsen and Gardella (2012) provide an understanding of the gender and caste-class dynamics that influences the consumption pattern of food in the neoliberal era.
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:12 |
Food and Discrimination
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This unit focuses on the multiple modes of discrimination that operates through the allocation of food and attempts to provide an understanding of how the caste-gender- class dynamics affect a person’s right to food and a person’s understanding of her/his right to food. The articles in this unit move from an apparent oppression of food allocation as discussed by Freed (1970) to the politicization of food allocation (Bruckert, 2019), to analyzing food metaphors and its significance in the life of Dalits (Guru, 2009) the unit goes on to understand the biopolitics of food provisioning in the neoliberal era (2011) in an attempt to excavate the multilayered politics of exclusion and discrimination that operates in the domain of food and eating. The novel by Anand (1935) through the portrayal of a life of an untouchable builds up the multiple incidents of violations and restrictions to food and water and the recent documentary Caste on the Menu Card (2015) further initiates a discussion on the same in the contemporary times. 1. Freed, A. Stanley. Caste Ranking and Exchange of Food and water in North Indian Village (1970)
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Unit-4 |
Teaching Hours:12 |
Food and Migration
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This unit is invested in providing an understanding of how diasporic identities are constructed and manifested through food consumption and cooking practices in the neo-liberal era. This unit comprises of three articles that focus on the broad topic of migration but are different in their own ways of looking at migration and diasporic identities. While Abbot’s (2016) work focuses on the impact of migrants on the economic aspect of food market, Srinivas (2006) explores the role of women in a diasporic kitchen and Mannur (2009) tries to negotiate the construction of a nationalistic identity away from the nation by food choices and cooking practices. Thenovel (1997) and the movie (2017) throws further light on the role of food and the attachment to homeland for the diasporic Indian community residing in parts of the USA and Europe.
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Unit-5 |
Teaching Hours:10 |
Food Writing and Narrativizing
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This unit is designed with an aim to provide the learners an overview of the dominant trends in the domain of food-writing. While Bloom (2008) provides a comprehensive understanding into effective food-writing, Appadurai (1988) analyzes the evolution of national cuisine in the context of India by means of his analysis of cookbooks written over a period of time. The book by Rodgers (2015) deals with the basics of food-blogging while McDonnel (2016) critically analyses the recent fads in food- writing and prominent hashtags which are extremely popular across a range of online platforms. The movie Julie and Julia (2009) provides further understanding on the voyeuristic pleasures associated with cooking and eating thereby providing a visual aspect to the learners on the contemporary trends in food-writing. Bloom, L Z. (2008) Consuming Prose: The Delectable Rhetoric of Food Writing. Appadurai, A. (1988). How to make a national cuisine: cookbooks in contemporary India. Comparative studies in society and history, 30(1), 3-24. Rodgers, K. (2015). Get Started in Food Writing. McDonnel, E M (2016). Food Porn: The Conspicuous Consumption of Food in the Age of Digital Reproduction. | |
Text Books And Reference Books: Abbots, Emma-Jayne. Approaches to Food and Migration: Rootedness, Being and Belonging. (2016) Srinivas, Tulasi. ‘As Mother Made it’: The Cosmopolitan Indian Family, ‘Authentic’ Food and the Construction of Cultural Utopia. (2006) Mannur, Anita. Culinary Nostalgia: Authenticity, Nationalism, and Diaspora. (2009) Divakaruni, C. (1997). The Mistress Of Spices. Movie: Macher Jhol (Bengali, 2017) Bloom, L Z. (2008) Consuming Prose: The Delectable Rhetoric of Food Writing. Appadurai, A. (1988). How to make a national cuisine: cookbooks in contemporary India. Comparative studies in society and history, 30(1), 3-24. Rodgers, K. (2015). Get Started in Food Writing. McDonnel, E M (2016). Food Porn: The Conspicuous Consumption of Food in the Age of Digital Reproduction.
Freed, A. Stanley. Caste Ranking and Exchange of Food and water in North Indian Village (1970) Guru, Gopal. Food as a Metaphor for Cultural Hierarchies (2009)Bruckert, Michael. The Politicization of Beef and Meat in Contemporary India: Protecting Animals and Alienating Minorities (2019) Nally, David. The biopolitics of food provisioning. (2011) Anand, M. The Untouchable. (Originally published in 1935). Documentary: Caste on the Menu Card (2015) Pant, Pushpesh. India: Food and the Making of the Nation (2013)
Sengupta, Jayanta. Nation on a Platter: the Culture and Politics of Food andCuisine in Colonial Bengal (2010) Berger, Rachel. Food, Gender, and Domesticity in Nationalistic North India:Between Digestion and Desire (2019) Staples, James. Civilizing Tastes: From Caste to Class in South Indian Foodways (2014) Madsen and Gardella. Udupi Hotels: Entrepreneurship, Reform and Revival (2012) Movie: Lunch Box (Hindi, 2013)
Barthes, Roland. Towards a psychology of contemporary food consumption. (originally published in 1961) Levi-Strauss, Claude. The Culinary Triangle. (1966) Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique or the Judgment of Taste. (1979) Ashley, Bob et al. Food-cultural studies – three paradigms (2004) De Certeau, Michael, Luce Giard, Pierre Mayol. The Practice of Everyday Life: Living and Cooking – Part II Doing-Cooking by Luce Giard (1998) | |
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Abbots, Emma-Jayne. Approaches to Food and Migration: Rootedness, Being and Belonging. (2016)
Srinivas, Tulasi. ‘As Mother Made it’: The Cosmopolitan Indian Family, ‘Authentic’ Food and the Construction of Cultural Utopia. (2006) Mannur, Anita. Culinary Nostalgia: Authenticity, Nationalism, and Diaspora. (2009) Divakaruni, C. (1997). The Mistress Of Spices. Movie: Macher Jhol (Bengali, 2017) Bloom, L Z. (2008) Consuming Prose: The Delectable Rhetoric of Food Writing. Appadurai, A. (1988). How to make a national cuisine: cookbooks in contemporary India. Comparative studies in society and history, 30(1), 3-24. Rodgers, K. (2015). Get Started in Food Writing. McDonnel, E M (2016). Food Porn: The Conspicuous Consumption of Food in the Age of Digital Reproduction.
Freed, A. Stanley. Caste Ranking and Exchange of Food and water in North Indian Village (1970) Guru, Gopal. Food as a Metaphor for Cultural Hierarchies (2009)Bruckert, Michael. The Politicization of Beef and Meat in Contemporary India: Protecting Animals and Alienating Minorities (2019) Nally, David. The biopolitics of food provisioning. (2011) Anand, M. The Untouchable. (Originally published in 1935). Documentary: Caste on the Menu Card (2015) Pant, Pushpesh. India: Food and the Making of the Nation (2013)
Sengupta, Jayanta. Nation on a Platter: the Culture and Politics of Food andCuisine in Colonial Bengal (2010) Berger, Rachel. Food, Gender, and Domesticity in Nationalistic North India:Between Digestion and Desire (2019) Staples, James. Civilizing Tastes: From Caste to Class in South Indian Foodways (2014) Madsen and Gardella. Udupi Hotels: Entrepreneurship, Reform and Revival (2012) Movie: Lunch Box (Hindi, 2013)
Barthes, Roland. Towards a psychology of contemporary food consumption. (originally published in 1961) Levi-Strauss, Claude. The Culinary Triangle. (1966) Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique or the Judgment of Taste. (1979) Ashley, Bob et al. Food-cultural studies – three paradigms (2004) De Certeau, Michael, Luce Giard, Pierre Mayol. The Practice of Everyday Life: Living and Cooking – Part II Doing-Cooking by Luce Giard (1998) | |
Evaluation Pattern Ongoing evaluations based on student-led seminars, written submissions, and the final project output. | |
BMEC473 - QUEER ECOLOGIES (2019 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:4 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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The space of queer ecologies disruptively invites us to reimagine both the environment and our biology. When applied to our understanding of the ecosystems in which we live, queer studies suggests that new, non-normative ways of defining and understanding ourselves and the universe are desperately needed. At a fundamental level, queer studies is about combating patriarchal ways of oppression by breaking down binary and essentialist ways of thinking: a process that may well be necessary to save our very lives, given the current environmental crisis. In this course, we will explore books, media, and theoretical frameworks through the broad lens of posthumanist discourses, which locate “human animals” as a part of, rather than diametrically opposed to, “nonhuman” animals. None of us may be able to save the entire world, but as Emily Dickinson said: “If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not have lived in vain.” |
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Course Outcome |
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On completion of the course, the learner will be able to: |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Theoretical Frameworks
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Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands, “Unnatural Passions?: Notes Toward a Queer Ecology .” | |
Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Ecopoetics
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Coleridge, “Dejection: An Ode” | |
Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Postmodernism and the Contemporary Era
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The Fantastic Masculinity of Newt Scamander (YouTube video) 2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (selected scenes) 4. Maggie Stiefvater: The Raven Cycle and Call Down the Hawk 5. Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous | |
Text Books And Reference Books: Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands, “Unnatural Passions?: Notes Toward a Queer Ecology .” http://www.rochester.edu/in_visible_culture/Issue_9/title9.html Greta Gaard, “Toward a Queer Ecofeminism.” Earth Is Not Your Mother | Alex Johnson | TEDxPaonia <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSFhn1Kv3Q4> Carol Adams, The Sexual Politics of Meat. Laura Wright, The Vegan Studies Project. Coleridge, “Dejection: An Ode” Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass Agha Shahid Ali, A Nostalgist’s Map of America 4. Ocean Vuong, Night Sky with Exit Wounds The Fantastic Masculinity of Newt Scamander (YouTube video) 2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (selected scenes) Supernatural: “LARP and the Real Girl” The X-Files: “The Postmodern Prometheus” Maggie Stiefvater: The Raven Cycle and Call Down the Hawk 5. Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness | |
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading
Anderson, Jill et al. 2012. “Queer ecology: A roundtable discussion” in European Journal of Ecopsychology 3: 82–103. Alaimo, Stacy. 2010. “Eluding Capture: The Science, Culture, and Pleasure of ‘Queer’ Animals.” In Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire, edited by Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erickson, 51–72. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Bagemihl, Bruce. 2000. Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity. St. Martin’s Press. Bauman, Whitney A., ed. 2018. Meaningful Flesh: Reflections on Religion and Nature for a Queer Planet. Santa Barbara, CA: Punctum Books. Bauman, Whitney A., and Heather Eaton. 2017. “Gender and Queer Studies.” In Grounding Religion, edited by Whitney A. Bauman, Richard Bohannon, and Kevin J. O’Brien, 56–71. New York: Routledge. Bikeland, Janis. 1993. “Ecofeminism: Linking Theory and Practice” in Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature, ed. Greta Gaard, 13-59. Temple University Press. Chemhuru, Munamato. 2018. “Interpreting Ecofeminist Environmentalism in African Communitarian Philosophy and Ubuntu: An Alternative to Anthropocentrism.” Philosophical Papers 0 (0): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/05568641.2018.1450643. Donovan, Josephine. 1993. “Animal Rights and Ecofeminist Theory” in Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature, ed. Greta Gaard, 167-94. Temple University Press. Gaard, Greta, ed. 1993. Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature. Temple University Press. ———. 1993. “Ecofeminism and Native American Cultures: Pushing the Limits of Cultural Imperialism?” in Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature, ed. Greta Gaard, 295-314. Temple University Press. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.1997.tb00174.x. Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3: 117-146. Material Feminist Environmentalism” in Feminist Formations 23: 26–53. Ethics and the Environment 16 (2): 115–126. (March): 20–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2015.02.004. Garrard, Greg. 2010. “How Queer Is Green?” Configurations 18 (1): 73–96. https://doi.org/10.1353/con.2010.0009. MA in English and Cultural Studies Geraldine, Terry. 2009. “No Climate Justice without Gender Justice: An Overview of the Issues,” in Gender & Development 17.1: 5–18. Glazebrook, T., 2001, “Heidegger and Ecofeminism”, in Re-Reading the Canon: Feminist Interpretations of Martin Heidegger, N. Holland and P. Huntington (eds.), University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 221–251. ———. 2008, Eco-Logic: Erotics of Nature. An Ecofeminist Phenomenology, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Gosine, Andil. 2010. “Non-White Reproduction and Same-Sex Eroticism: Queer Acts against Nature.” In Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire, edited by Catriona Mortimer- Sandilands and Bruce Erickson, 149–72. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Heckert, Jamie, ed. 2012. “Queer Ecology: A Roundtable Discussion.” European Journal of Ecophyschology 3: 82–103. Hird, Myra J. 2016. Queering the Non/Human. New York: Routledge. Environment. Routledge. Reinvention of Nature, 7-42. Free Association Books. https://orionmagazine.org/article/how-to-queer-ecology-once-goose-at-a-time/. Kings, A.E. 2017. “Intersectionality and the Changing Face of Ecofeminism.” Ethics and the Environment 22 (1): 63–87. https://doi.org/10.2979/ethicsenviro.22.1.04. Animals, Nature, ed. Greta Gaard, 272-94. Temple University Press. Lorde, Audre. 1979. “An Open Letter to Mary Daly.” http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/lordeopenlettertomarydaly.html. MacGregor, Sherilyn. “A Stranger Silence Still: The Need for Feminist Social Research on Climate Change,” in The Sociological Review 57 (2009): 124-40. Feminisms, Feminist Ecology, or Gender and the Environment): Or ‘Why Ecofeminism Need Not Be Ecofeminine—But So What If It Is?’” Ethics and the Environment 23 (2): 11–35. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1002/9781444367072.wbiee037. Mortimer-Sandilands, Catriona, and Bruce Erickson, eds. 2010a. Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Mortimer-Sandilands, Catriona, and Bruce Erickson. 2010b. “Introduction: A Genealogy of Queer Ecologies.” In Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire, edited by Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erickson, 1–42. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Morton, Timothy. 2010. “Queer Ecology.” PMLA 125 (2): 273–82. https://doi.org/10.1632/pmla.2010.125.2.273. Portman, Anne. 2018. “Food Sovereignty and Gender Justice.” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 31 (4): 455–466. Salleh, Ariel. 2017. Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx, and the Postmodern. Zed Books. Sheldon, Mary V. 2012. “So What Happened to Ecofeminism?” KJAS 2 (2): 166–75. Shiva, Vandana. “Women and the Gendered Politics of Food” in Philosophical Topics 37 (2009):17-32. Reproductive Justice.” In Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire, edited byCatriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erickson, 102–33. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. the Anthropocene.” Feminist Theory. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700118788684 | |
Evaluation Pattern Ongoing evaluation based on student seminars, written submissions, and the final project output. | |
BMEC474 - DIGITAL MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY (2019 Batch) | |
Total Teaching Hours for Semester:60 |
No of Lecture Hours/Week:4 |
Max Marks:100 |
Credits:16 |
Course Objectives/Course Description |
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As the world increasingly moves to online platforms and digital technology, digital media becomes a pervasive and defining part of our everyday lives. Given this scenario, elementary digital literacy is no longer an optional aspect, but a fundamental literacy that one needs to have in order to navigate the digital world. Disciplines like Digital Humanities and New Media become very important for any student of Humanities and Cultural Studies to be familiar with. This theory course will offer some foundational frameworks necessary to comprehend the digital world in order to understand the possibilities as well as risks it gives rise to. Indicative topics to be covered include issues of digital archives, digital historiography, data instability, cybercrime, the philosophy of digital media, ethical hacking, copyleft and piracy, fake news, virality, digital documentary and so on. This course will provide students with the conceptual foundation to be able to develop their individual capstone projects independently, and incollaboration with professional organisations outside the university. The course will include discussions around theoretical texts as well as a hands-on exploration of digital tools and technologies. |
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Course Outcome |
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A fundamental understanding of the digital humanities acquired through a broad survey of the history, approaches, and projects that are helping to define it. An understanding of the ways in which digital technology has compelled various disciplines to adopt new methodological approaches - through assignments and discussions. A first-hand knowledge of selected digital tools that students will use in their final project work. The ability to lead independent and peer learning - through coursework and assignments. A fully developed research proposal that students will implement side-by-side in a public domain or in collaboration with a partner institution/organisation. |
Unit-1 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
The Digital Turn
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This unit will engage with what is now popularly known as the "digital turn" and its impact on a wide range of disciplines within the Humanities. In particular we will focus on:
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Unit-2 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Digital Tools
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This unti will deal with acquiring a hands-on understanding of the different digital tools avalaible as well as some engagement with online projects that have used methods from the Digital Humanities in interesting ways. Some of the main areas covered will include: Data Visualisation Digital Archives Community-oriented ditigal tools GIS and mapping Open source Creative Commons Data mining Scalar Videographic criticism Image analysis
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Unit-3 |
Teaching Hours:20 |
Research Project
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In this unit, students will use the theoretical and technical knowledge acquired to develop their individual research project proposals (these are the ones they will execute at our collaborative partner organisations such as Microsoft Research). The proposals will include an in-depth theoretical grounding, a literature review, methodology, key research questions, timeline, and proposed output. Along with a practice-based component, the output must also include plans towards the publication of a research paper. All research proposals will be developed through a continious process of peer-crits in order to avoid overlaps and duplications, and to develop a cohesive and expansive research inquiry in Digital Media & Technology. | |
Text Books And Reference Books: Digital Humanities, Jeffrey Schnapp et all, MIT Press 2012 A Companion to Digital Humanities, Eds. Schreibman, Siemens, and Unsworth, Blackwell, 2004 Debates in the Digital Humanities, Ed. Matthew Gold, University of Minnesota Press, 2012 Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web, Dan Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005 Making virtual worlds, Christopher Johanson, A new companion to digital humanities, Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, and John Unsworth, eds. 2015, p. 110-126 [available via MSU Libraries as an ebook, http://catalog.lib.msu.edu/record=b11860138~S39a] 'Museum in a Box' Brings Interactive Museum Collections to Classrooms, Shaunacy Ferro, Mental Floss, 2018, http://mentalfloss.com/article/555762/museum-box-brings-interactive-museum-collectio ns-classrooms Hearing eugenics, Sounding out!, 2016, https://soundstudiesblog.com/tag/vibrant-lives/ Crowdsourcing in the digital humanities, Melissa Terras, A New Companion to Digital Humanities, 2nd Edition, Edited by Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, John Unsworth, 2016, p. 420-438 [available via MSU Libraries as an ebook, http://catalog.lib.msu.edu/record=b11860138~S39a] Building, Launching, and Running your Zooniverse Project: Best Practices for Engagement & Success (including Introduction, How to build a great project, The launch rush, In for the long haul), https://help.zooniverse.org/best-practices/ | |
Essential Reading / Recommended Reading Google Cultural Institute NEH White Papers collection in Humanities Commons, https://hcommons.org/deposits/?tag=neh+white+papers Digital Humanities Now, http://digitalhumanitiesnow.org Digital Humanities Awards, http://dhawards.org Digital Humanities Quarterly, http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/ Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, https://browzine.com/libraries/118/journals/55262/issues/current [available with MSU login] DH Commons, http://dhcommons.org Digital Humanities Q&A, http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ HASTAC, https://www.hastac.org Black New Yorkers, https://blacknewyorkers-nypl.org Zooniverse - https://www.zooniverse.org/projects?discipline=history&page=1&status=liv e Library of Congress - https://crowd.loc.gov/ Smithsonian - https://transcription.si.edu/browse?filter=all&sort= New York Public Library Community Oral History Project - http://transcribe.oralhistory.nypl.org/ New York Public Library Space/Time Directory Surveyor - http://spacetime.nypl.org/surveyor/#/7516ddc0-a73c-0133-b645-0050568 6d14e Newberry Library - https://publications.newberry.org/digital/mms-transcribe/index Claude McKay's early poetry (TEI section), https://scalar.lehigh.edu/mckay/teixml-editions Harlem Shadows, TEI edition, https://github.com/c-forster/harlem-shadows/blob/master/harlem-shadows.tei.xml Neatline Demos, http://neatline.org/demos/ | |
Evaluation Pattern Evaluation will be on a continuous basis through class assignments, written submissions, reviews of literature, "making" with digital tools, and student presentations. |