Paper 1: ENG-HC-1016
Indian Classical Literature
Credits: 5 (Theory) + 1 (Tutorial)
Marks: 80 (End-Semester Examination) + 20 (Internal Assessment)
This paper introduces students to a selection of literatures of India in English translation. Given that Indian Classical Literature offers a rich and diverse canvas that spans across genres like drama, poetry, the epic narrative as well as short fictional fables, to name a few, it is essential that students studying English literature are familiar with at least a few of these. This paper encourages students to think laterally about literatures of the world, and the possibility of cultural exchange.
Texts:
• Kalidasa: Abhijnana Shakuntalam, tr. Chandra Rajan, in Kalidasa: The Loom of Time (New Delhi: Penguin, 1989).
• Vyasa: ‘The Dicing’ and ‘The Sequel to Dicing, ‘The Book of the Assembly Hall’,‘The Temptation of Karna’, Book V ‘The Book of Effort’, in The Mahabharata: tr. and ed. J.A.B. van Buitenen (Chicago: Brill, 1975) pp. 106–69.
• Sudraka: Mrcchakatika, tr. M.M. Ramachandra Kale (New Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass, 1962).
• Ilango Adigal: ‘The Book of Banci’, in Cilappatikaram: The Tale of an Anklet, tr. R. Parthasarathy (Delhi: Penguin, 2004) book 3.
Suggested Topics and Background Prose Readings for Class Presentations Topics
• The Indian Epic Tradition: Themes and Recensions
• Classical Indian Drama: Theory and Practice
• Alankara and Rasa
• Dharma and the Heroic
Paper 2: ENG-HC-1026
European Classical Literature
Credits: 5 (Theory) + 1 (Tutorial)
Marks: 80 (End-Semester Examination) + 20 (Internal Assessment)
Classical writing in Europe saw the emergence of traditions that cut across many genres, which included poetry, theatre, and general discourses. While the Aristotelian focus on the examination of the essentials of poetry extended to incorporate discussions on epic and drama, subsequent writers such as Horace drew attention to the purposefulness of the creative exercise. In the theatre the widely divergent compositions by Sophocles and Plautus respectively show the consolidation of a rich cultural discourse. It is this enriching literary tradition that this paper seeks to familiarize with through the study of representative texts belonging to the Classical Period.
Texts:
• Homer: The Odyssey, tr. E.V. Rieu (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985) Book I
• Sophocles: Oedipus the King, tr. Robert Fagles in Sophocles: The Three Theban
Plays (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984).
• Plautus: Pot of Gold, tr. E.F. Watling (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965).
• Ovid: Selections from Metamorphoses ‘Bacchus’, (Book III), ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ (Book IV), ‘Philomela’ (Book VI), tr. Mary M. Innes (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975). Horace: Satires I: 4, in Horace: Satires and Epistles and Persius: Satires, tr. Niall Rudd (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2005).
Suggested Topics and Background Prose Readings for Class Presentations Topics
• The Epic
• Comedy and Tragedy in Classical Drama
• The Athenian City State
• Catharsis and Mimesis
• Satire
• Literary Cultures in Augustan Rome
Paper 1: ENG-HG-1016
Individual and Society
Credits: 5 (Theory) + 1 (Tutorial)
Marks: 80 (End-Semester Examination) + 20 (Internal Assessment)
Credits: 5 (Theory) + 1 (Tutorial) =6 Marks: 100 (80+20)
This paper examines a key aspect of literary composition – the figure of the individual in her interactions with the society in which she lives. Literary works represent these elements in different ways. The individual appears as character, narrator, writer, while the society features as milieu in which individuals function, and as that which creates the conditions for emergence of the literary text. Individuals live in harmony or in conflict with society. Texts in this paper, selected from the many literatures in English being produced today, will provide the opportunity to study all of these aspects. Students will also note the ways in which individual-society relationships and their representation change in different historical periods of literature. Each text in this paper will be studied against its social and cultural milieu.
Course Outcomes:
• Understand the relationship between the individual writer and the society about/in which she writes
• Develop skill in analyzing the author’s representation of society and the individual in interaction and write critiques drawing out.
• Learn to distinguish between literary representation and actual character and milieu
Texts:
• Geoffrey Chaucer: The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
• Pope: Epistle 3 (from An Essay on Man)
• Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist
• T.S. Eliot: ‘Preludes’,
• Allen Ginsberg: Howl
• Vijay Tendulkar Kamala (Play. Translated from Marathi)
• Kamila Shamsie: Burnt Shadows
• E.L. Doctorow: Ragtime
ENG-CC-1016
English I
Credits: 5 (Theory) + 1 (Tutorial) =6 Marks: 100 (80+20)
The aim of this course (English I and II) is to provide the student an opportunity to read
and respond to representations of issues in contemporary life and culture in the English language. The selection of texts is aimed to present themes and topics that are stimulating, insightful and informative. Each paper will have a grammar section of 10 marks. Students having English as their Major subject will have to answer questions on a text indicated in the syllabus, instead of the grammar section. Internal assessment in these two papers may be in the form of an objective-type test.
Prose: 60 Marks
Texts:
• Arthur Miller: All my Sons
• George Orwell (1903-1950): ‘Shooting an Elephant’
• D.H. Lawrence: ‘The Woman Who Rode Away’
• Manoj Das (1934-): ‘The Misty Hour’
• Munin Barkotoki (1915-1995): ‘Krishna Kanta Handiqui’
• Rohinton Mistry (1952-): ‘Running Water’
• Michael Ondaatje (1943-): ‘Angulimala’
• Salman Rushdie: ‘Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies’
Grammar: 20 Marks
• Make sentences using common phrases and idioms
• Common Errors: To be answered as directed
• Correct use of verbs, tenses, prepositions, etc.
• Comprehension
ENG-RC-1016
Individual and Society
Credits: 5 (Theory) + 1 (Tutorial) =6 Marks: 100 (80+20)
This paper examines a key aspect of literary composition – the figure of the individual in her interactions with the society in which she lives. Literary works represent these elements in different ways. The individual appears as character, narrator, writer, while the society features as milieu in which individuals function, and as that which creates the conditions for emergence of the literary text. Individuals live in harmony or in conflict with society. Texts in this paper, selected from the many literatures in English being produced today, will provide the opportunity to study all of these aspects. Students will also note the ways in which individual-society relationships and their representation change in different historical periods of literature. Each text in this paper will be studied against its social and cultural milieu.
Course Outcomes:
• Understand the relationship between the individual writer and the society
about/in which she writes
• Develop skill in analyzing the author’s representation of society and the
individual in interaction and write critiques drawing out.
• Learn to distinguish between literary representation and actual character and
milieu
Texts:
• Geoffrey Chaucer: The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
• Pope: Epistle 3 (from An Essay on Man)
• Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist
• T.S. Eliot: ‘Preludes’,
• Allen Ginsberg: Howl
• Vijay Tendulkar Kamala (Play. Translated from Marathi)
• Kamila Shamsie: Burnt Shadows
• E.L. Doctorow: Ragtime
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