Paper 3: ENG-HC-2016
Indian Writing in English
Credits: 5 (Theory) + 1 (Tutorial)
Marks: 80 (End-Semester Examination) + 20 (Internal Assessment)
Introduction: This paper on Indian Writing in English introduces students to the historical development of this body of writing- the challenges faced by early writers, the growing sense of accomplishment in the writing of different forms and the interpretation of individual and collective experience in colonial and postcolonial India. The paper is divided into three units each dealing with a specific literary form. Questions will be mostly textual but with some reference to the contexts in which individual writers have produced their works.
Course Objectives:
• Introduce students to the field of Indian Writing in English
• Give a historical overview of the development of various literary forms
• Understand how each author creatively uses his or her chosen literary form
Course Outcomes:
• Develop familiarity with the issues of politics of language and gender, nationalism and modernity pertaining to pre and post-Independence India that have been responsible for the emergence of Indian English literature
• Understand the place of English Writing in India in the larger field of English Literature
• Learn to discuss critically the use of literary forms of the novel, poetry and drama by Indian English writers in distinctive ways against Indian historical and cultural contexts
Texts:
• H.L.V. Derozio: ‘Freedom to the Slave’; ‘The Orphan Girl’
• Kamala Das: ‘Introduction’; ‘My Grandmother’s House’
• Nissim Ezekiel: ‘Enterprise’; ‘Night of the Scorpion’, ‘Very Indian Poem in English’
• Robin S. Ngangom: ‘The Strange Affair of Robin S. Ngangom’; ‘A Poem for Mother’
• Mulk Raj Anand: ‘Two Lady Rams’
• R.K. Narayan: Swami and Friends Salman Rushdie: ‘The Free Radio’
• Anita Desai: In Custody
• Shashi Despande: ‘The Intrusion’
• Manjula Padmanabhan: Lights Out
• Mahesh Dattani: Tara
Suggested Topics and Background Prose Readings for Class Presentations Topics
• Indian English
• Indian English Literature and its Readership
• Themes and Contexts of the Indian English Novel
• The Aesthetics of Indian English Poetry and Drama
• Modernism in Indian English Literature
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Paper 4: ENG-HC-2026
British Poetry and Drama: 14th to 17th Centuries
Credits: 5 (Theory) + 1 (Tutorial)
Marks: 80 (End-Semester Examination) + 20 (Internal Assessment)
This paper aims to familiarize the students with the two major forms in British literature from the 14th to the 17th centuries – poetry and drama, apart from acquainting them with the contexts that generated such literatures. The larger contexts of the Renaissance, the nature of the Elizabethan Age and its predilections for certain kinds of literary activities, and the implications of the emergence of new trends will be focused in this paper. It will also highlight the seminal issues and preoccupations of the writers and their ages as reflected in these texts.
Texts:
• Geoffrey Chaucer: The Wife of Bath’s Prologue
• Edmund Spenser: Selections from Amoretti: Sonnet LXVII ‘Like as a huntsman...’; Sonnet LVII ‘Sweet warrior...’; Sonnet LXXV ‘One day I wrote her name...’
• John Donne: ‘The Sunne Rising’; ‘Batter My Heart’; ‘Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’
• Christopher Marlowe: Doctor Faustus
• William Shakespeare: Macbeth
• William Shakespeare: Twelfth Night
Suggested Topics and Background Prose Readings for Class Presentations and Assignments
Topics
• Renaissance Humanism
• The Stage, Court and City
• Religious and Political Thought
• Ideas of Love and Marriage
• The Writer in Society
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Paper 3: ENG-HG-2016
Modern Indian Literature
Credits: 5 (Theory) + 1 (Tutorial)
Marks: 80 (End-Semester Examination) + 20 (Internal Assessment)
The paper on Modern Indian Literature comprises extensive writings in all genres in many languages. The different historical and cultural backgrounds of the various Indian languages and literatures add to the complexity of what is termed as Modern Indian Literatures. However, there are also things that hold India together, many commonalities, bondings, and shared experiences despite the varieties. The list of short stories and poems prescribed for this course give the student a taste of Indian writing from different regions of the country. The selection has been culled from English translations of writings in Indian languages and English compositions of Indian authors.
Short Stories: 50 Marks
• Amrita Pritam: “The Weed”
• U. R. Anantha Murthy: “The Sky and the Cat”
• Gopinath Mohanty: “The Somersault”
• R K Narayan: “Another Community”
• Sunil Gangopadhyay: “Shah Jahan and His Private Army”
• Saurabh Kumar Chaliha: “Restless Electrons”
Poems: 30 Marks
• Nissim Ezekiel: “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”
• Jayanta Mahapatra: “The Abandoned British Cemetery at Balasore”
• Keki N. Daruwalla: “Wolf”
• Mamang Dai: “The Voice of the Mountain”
• Navakanta Barua: “Bats”
• Dilip Chitre: “The Felling of the Banyan Tree”
Recommended Texts:
-The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Short Stories. Edited by Stephen Alter and Wimal Dissanayake. 2001.
-The Oxford Anthology of Twelve Indian Poets chosen and edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. Oxford University Press, 1992.
-The Oxford Anthology of Writings from North-East India: Poetry and Essays. Edited by Tilottoma Misra. OUP, 2011.
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Paper 4: ENG-HG-2026
Contemporary India: Women and Empowerment
Credits: 5 (Theory) + 1 (Tutorial)
Marks: 80 (End-Semester Examination) + 20 (Internal Assessment)
Course Objectives/Course Description: This course will look at Women’s Issues in India in the light of the various historical and social contexts. It will trace the evolution of Women’s Empowerment both in terms of policy and discourse in postcolonial, contemporary India and at the same time try to locate the women’s position in earlier times.
The course aims to:
• Study the position of women in pre-colonial times
• Show how colonial modernity impacts women
• Study the impact of nationalism on women
• Track the Women’s movement and Empowerment issues in contemporary India
Course Outcome:
The learner will be equipped with:
• A historical understanding of the space accorded to women in India through history
• An understanding of the manner in which the social construction of gender comes about.
• The ability to critique the given and stereotypical notions of such constructions.
UNIT 1: Social Construction of Gender (15)
• Masculinity and Femininity
• Patriarchy
• Women in Community
UNIT 2: History of Women's Movements in India (Pre & Post Independence)
(20)
• Women and Nation
• Women and the Partition
• Women, Education and Self-fashioning
• Women in the Public and Private Spaces
UNIT 3: Women and Law (15)
• Women and the Indian Constitution
• Personal Laws (Customary practices on inheritance and Marriage)
• Workshop on legal awareness
UNIT 4: Women’s Body and the Environment (15)
• State interventions, Khap Panchayats
• Female foeticide, Domestic violence, Sexual harassment
• Eco-feminism and the Chipko Movement
UNIT 5: Female Voices (15)
• Kamala Das, “The Old Playhouse”
• Mahashweta Devi, Mother of 1084
• Krishna Sobti, Zindaginama
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ENG-CC-2016
English II
Poetry: 60 Marks
Texts:
• William Blake (1757-1827): ‘The Lamb’
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge: ‘Christabel’
• Matthew Arnold: ‘Dover Beach’
• Langston Hughes (1902-1967): ‘Harlem’
• Nissim Ezekiel (1924-2004): ‘Shillong’
• Wole Soyinka (1934-): ‘Telephone Conversation’
• David Constantine (1944-) ‘The House’
• Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936): ‘The Sleepwalking Ballad’
• Seamus Heaney (1939-): ‘Punishment’
• Imtiaz Dharkar: ‘Purdah 1’
Grammar and Composition: 20 Marks
• Voice Change, Use of Determiners
• Dialogue Writing, Descriptive Writing
• Precis Writing/Report Writing
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ENG-RC-2016
Modern Indian Literature
Credits: 5 (Theory) + 1 (Tutorial) =6 Marks: 100 (80+20)
The Modern Indian Literatures comprise extensive writings in all genres in many languages. The different historical and cultural backgrounds of the various Indian languages and literatures add to the complexity of what is termed as Modern Indian Literatures. However, there are also things that hold India together, many commonalities, bondings, and shared experiences despite the varieties. The list of short stories and poems prescribed for this course give the student a taste of Indian writing from differentregions of the country. The selection has been culled from English translations of writings in Indian languages and English compositions of Indian authors.
Short Stories: 50 Marks
• Amrita Pritam: “The Weed”
• U. R. Anantha Murthy: “The Sky and the Cat”
• Gopinath Mohanty: “The Somersault”
• R K Narayan: “Another Community”
• Sunil Gangopadhyay: “Shah Jahan and His Private Army”
• Saurabh Kumar Chaliha: “Restless Electrons”
Poems: 30 Marks
• Nissim Ezekiel: “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”
• Jayanta Mahapatra: “The Abandoned British Cemetery at Balasore”
• Keki N. Daruwalla: “Wolf”
• Mamang Dai: “The Voice of the Mountain”
• Navakanta Barua: “Bats”
• Dilip Chitre: “The Felling of the Banyan Tree”
Recommended Texts:
-The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Short Stories. Edited by Stephen Alter and Wimal Dissanayake. 2001.
-The Oxford Anthology of Twelve Indian Poets chosen and edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. Oxford University Press, 1992.
-The Oxford Anthology of Writings from North-East India: Poetry and Essays. Edited by Tilottoma Misra. OUP, 2011.
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