MA (English), Semester I

Pool I, Paper I
Poetry from Anglo Saxon to Age of Chaucer (428-1485 AD)
Course No. EOM1101
Credits:04

Course Description: This paper is designed to engage students with a variety of texts in early English
poetry starting from the Anglo Saxon Era, through the Transition period, up to the Age of Chaucer. The
students are expected to experience the “reading” of the original texts, before engaging with their
translations.

Course Outcomes: By the end of the semester students should be:

a) Familiarized with the forms and the poetic techniques and themes in a detailed manner
b) Be able to use critical tools not limited to this period only.
c) Demonstrate understanding of aesthetic and moral values of literature.

Course Content:

1. Old English
1.1 Poetry ( Excerpts)
1.1.I. Epic
1.1.I.i. Beowulf
1.1.II. Christian Religious Poetry i.Caedmon:
Genesis ii.Cynewulf: Juliana/Elene
1.1.III. Pagan Poetry
i.Widsith
ii. The Battle of Brunanburh
1.1.IV. Elegiac Poetry
The Husband’s Message
1.1.V. The Lyrical Poetry
The Seafarer

2. Age of Transition
2.1 Poetry ( Excerpts)
2.1.I. Verse Chronicles i.Layamon: Brut ii.
Geoffrey of Monmouth: Historia Regum Britannia (History of the Kings of Britain) Excerpts

2.1.II. Religious Poetry(Excerpts)

i. Orm: Ormulum

2.1.III. Alliterative Poems

(Excerpts)
i. Pearl ii.
Patience
iii. Purity

2.1.IV. Romance Cycle (Excerpts)

i. Matter of England: Guy of Warwick ii.
Matter of Rome: King Alisaunderiii. Matter of France:
Sir Ferumbras

3. Age of Chaucer
3.1 Chaucer- (Excerpts)
I. French Group: The Romaunt of the Rose)
II. Italian Group: The Parliament of Fowls
III. English Group: The Canterbury Tales ( The Knight’sTale , The Squire's Tale)

3.2. Other Poets-

I. William Langland: Piers Plowman
II. John Gower: Confessio Amantis
III. John Skelton: Why Come Ye Nat to Courte?
Essential Readings: Excerpts
from:
Heaney, Seamus, trans. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2000.
Suggested Readings:
Robert Hasenfratz and Thomas Jambeck, Reading Old English: A Primer and First Reader (Morgantown:
West Virginia University Press, 2005).
Alexander, Michael. A History of Old English Literature. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2002.

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Trans. D.H. Farmer and R.E. Latham. London and
New York: Penguin
Campbell, James, ed. The Anglo-Saxons. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1982.
Cooper, Helen, The Structure of the Canterbury Tales (University of Georgia Press: Athens, 1983). Raffel,
Burton, and Alexandra H. Olsen, editors. Poems and Prose from the Old English. Yale University Press,
1998. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1npj98.
Whitelock, D. “Anglo-Saxon Poetry and the Historian.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol.
31, 1949, pp. 75–94. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3678635.
Tolman, A. H., et al. “The Style of Anglo-Saxon Poetry: Discussion.” Transactions and Proceedings of the
Modern Language Association of America, vol. 3, 1887, pp. x-xiii. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/456056.
Malone, Kemp. “Cædmon and English Poetry.” Modern Language Notes, vol. 76, no. 3, 1961, pp. 193–
195. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3039872.
Arthur C. L. Brown. “Welsh Traditions in Layamon's ‘Brut.’” Modern Philology, vol. 1, no. 1, 1903, pp. 95–
103. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/432426.
Tatlock, J. S. P. “Geoffrey of Monmouth's Motives for Writing His ‘Historia.’” Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society, vol. 79, no. 4, 1938, pp. 695–703. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/984946.
Stevick, Robert D. “Plus Juncture and the Spelling of the ‘Ormulum.’” The Journal of English and
Germanic Philology, vol. 64, no. 1, 1965, pp. 84–89. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27714587.
Ebbs, John Dale. “Stylistic Mannerisms of the ‘Gawain’-Poet.” The Journal of English and Germanic
Philology, vol. 57, no. 3, 1958, pp. 522–525. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27707128.
Wuest, Charles. “Chaucer's Enigmatic Thing in ‘The Parliament of Fowls.’” Studies in Philology, vol. 113,
no. 3, 2016, pp. 485–500., www.jstor.org/stable/43921896.
Ryan, William M. “Modern Idioms in 'Piers Plowman'.” American Speech, vol. 34, no. 1, 1959, pp. 67– 69.
JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/454164.
Griffiths, Jane. “'An Ende Of An Olde Song': Middle English Lyric And The Skeltonic.” The Review of
English Studies, vol. 60, no. 247, 2009, pp. 705–722. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40587868.

Hoffman, Richard L. "Ovid And The Structure And Theme Of The Canterbury Tales." In Ovid and the
Canterbury Tales, 1-20. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1966.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv512wmh.4.

Rouse, Robert Allen. “An Exemplary Life: Guy Of Warwick As Medieval Culture-Hero.” Guy Of
Warwick: Icon And Ancestor, Edited By Alison Wiggins And Rosalind Field, Ned - New Edition Ed.,
Boydell And Brewer, 2007, Pp. 94–109. Jstor, Www.Jstor.Org/Stable/10.7722/J.Ctt163tc9h.13.

Stone, Charles Russell. “'Many Man He Shal Do Woo': Portents And The End Of An Empire In ‘Kyng
Alisaunder.’” Medium Ævum, Vol. 81, No. 1, 2012, Pp. 18–40. Jstor,
Www.Jstor.Org/Stable/43632899.

Stevenson, Barbara. “Middle English Ferumbras Romances and the Reign of Richard II.” Studies in
Philology, vol. 113, no. 1, 2016, pp. 19–31., www.jstor.org/stable/43921876.
 MA (English) Semester I
Pool I, Paper II
Poetry from Caroline Age to Neo-Classical, Augustan and Transitional Period
(1485-1790)
Course No. EOM1102
Credits: 04
Course Description: This course aims to make the students familiar with the major
poets of the Caroline Age who contributed to the development of the different genres of
literature. It also includes the major poets, thought and culture of the Augustan, Neoclassical
and Transitional periods of English literature.
Course Outcomes: By the end of the semester, the students will be able to-

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristic features of the Caroline Age e.g. the civil
war, rise of Puritanism, lack of spirit of unity, dominance of intellectual spirit and decline
of drama and also to provide the background to the three schools of poetry viz. Puritan,
Metaphysical and Cavalier.
2. Develop an understanding of the Enlightenment as a European intellectual movement of the
late 17th and 18th centuries
3. Perceive how Industrial Revolution brought about a shift from rural to urban.
4. Critically analyze the impact of colonialism.
5. Identify emerging genres and styles as forms of response to the changing social, economic,
legal and political structures of England.

Course Content:
Donne: ‘The Good Morrow’, ‘The Flea’, ‘The Sunne Rising’, The Canonization, The Relique, This
is my play’s last scene.

Marvell: ‘To His Coy Mistress’, ‘On a drop of Dew’, ‘The Garden’

George Herbert: ‘The Agonie’ , ‘The Collar’, ‘Jordan’

Crashaw: ‘A Hymn of the Nativity’

Milton: Excerpts from Paradise Lost Bks I & II
Dryden: Excerpts from MacFlecknoe
Pope: Excerpts from The Rape of the Lock

Gray:’ Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ , The Progress of Poesy Collins:

To Evening
.

Essential Reading
Extracts from:
Eliza Haywood, Selections from The Female Spectator (1744-46)
Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (Milton, Cowley, Pope).
Brewer, John. The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Calhoun, Bonnie (2012) "Shaping the Public Sphere: English Coffeehouses and French Salons
and the Age of the Enlightenment," Colgate Academic Review: Vol. 3 , Article 7.
Suggested Reading
Rupert Christiansen. Romantic Affinities: Portraits From an Age, 1780–1830. London:
Bodley Head, 1988.
Sanders ,Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature, Oxford: Clarendon Press,1994.
Aers, David, Bob Hodge and Gunther Kress, eds., Literature, Language and Society in England,
1560-1680. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1981.
Stachniewski, John. The Persecutory Imagination: English Puritanism and the Literature of Religious
Despair. Oxford: Clarendon, 1991.
Worden, Blair. Literature and Politics in Cromwellian England. Oxford: OUP, 2007.
 MA ENGLISH I SEMESTER
POOL 2/PAPER I
Prose and Fiction of the Early English Period to Romantic Age
Course No.: Credits: 4
BACKGROUND / Purpose / SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COURSE/PAPER:
The paper introduces the students to the fusion of the Anglo-Saxon and the
Franco-Norman literature. The Literary origin of English is traced back to
the 7th C to Caedmon and the unknown author of Beowulf. Thus Anglo-Norman by
the 12th C is distinguished by a more marked didactic and utilitarian
tendency. The literature thus developed a practical and prosaic sentiment
towards the end of the 12th C. A few writings appeared mainly on piety.
Homilies, sermons in prose and in verse, translation of the Psalm or parts
of the Bible, rules for a devout life, lives of the saints and prayers--
these fill the pages of what may be called English Literature until about
the middle of 17th C.

SPECIFIC OUTCOMES:
BY THE END OF THIS COURSE, STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO:
1. Display holistic knowledge of the origin of English Literary tradition
2. Analyse the development of prosaic sentiment
3. Asses the transition from prose to individual sentiment celebrated in
fiction.
4. Create write-ups with critical frame work on the historical and
sociocultural significance of the prose prescribed.
LIST OF CONTENTS:
Prose from 1350-1702
Thomas More: Utopia. Book II (selections)
a) Of their Trades, and Manner of Life
b) Of their Slaves and of their manners of Life
c) Of the Religion of the Utopians
Robert Burton: The Anatomy of Melancholy (selections)
a) The Author’s Abstract of Melancholy ( Rhymed)
b) God, a Cause of Melancholy (Member 3, subsect 1)
John Bunyan: The Pilgrims Progress
a) The Author’s Apology for his Book
b) The Pilgrim’s progress, in the Similitude of a Dream;
The First Part
Francis Bacon: Of Truth,
Of Friendship,
Sir Thomas Browne: Religio Medici (Excerpt)
The first part, Sect 1-25
George Herbert: The Country Parson
a) Of a Pastor ( Chapter 1)
b) The Parson’s Life (Chapter IV)
c) The Parson’s Liberty ( Chapter XXXIII) Abraham Cowley: Of
Liberty,

Prose and Fiction from 1702 to 1740

Jonathan Swift: The Battle of the Books
Danial Defoe: Robinson Crusoe
Addison: Sir Roger at Home
The Spectator’s Account of Himself
Character of Will Wimble
Steele: The Coverley Household
 Sir Roger’s Ancestors
Sheridan: The School for Scandal
Prose and Fiction from 1740 to the Romantic Period
Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility
Henry Fielding: Joseph Andrews
Hazlitt: My First Acquaintance with Poets
On Reading Old Books
Lamb: Dream Children
Poor Relations

ESSENTIAL READINGS: (WILL BE A PART OF ASSESSMENT)

Erasmus: In Praise of Folly
John Lyly: Anatomy of Wit, Arcadia
Robert Greene: Mamillia
Thomas Nash: Christ Tears over Jerusalem
The Unfortunate Traveller
Thomas Dekker: Wonderful Years
The Bachelors Banquet
Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor
Romeo and Juliet (excerpt of the gossiping muse)
Henry IV (excerpt centring around Falstaff)
Sir Thomas Browne: Urn Burial
Milton: Areopagitica
Bernard Mandeville: The Grumbling Hive
Oliver Goldsmith: The Vicar of Wakefield
Sir Walter Scott: Old Mortality

SUGGESTED READINGS:
A Critical History of English Literature, Volume I &II by David Daiches
Studies in Early English Literature by Emelyn W. Washburn
A History of English Literature by Emile Legouis and Louis Cazamian
Landmarks of English Literature by Hentry James Nicoll
The New Oxford Book of English Prose by John Gross (Editor)
The Cambridge History of Early Medieval English Literature. Edited by
Claire A Lees Mackery End in Herfordshire

Assessment Plan:
End Semester Examination: 70 Marks
Continuous Assessment: 30 Marks (as detailed
below)
i. Diagnostic Test (MCQ / A small Quiz) carrying 05 Marks
ii. Presentation carrying 10 Marks, in a group of 4-5 students,
but evaluation to be done of individual students on the basis
of their performance
iii. A small Quiz / MCQ carrying 05 Marks, to test
understanding or for revision
iv. An Assignment carrying 10 Marks, to be given at least
three weeks in advance, as a part of teaching and not
after teaching.
v. A Sessional (as a Make up Test) to be conducted in last
week
Important Notes:
1. Suggestions To Students On Reading / Expectations From Students:
a. Each student will join the course with a prior understanding of the nature of the
course and mode of teaching / learning
 b. Students will come to the class with a prior reading of the prescribed text /
essential study materials / suggested study material that the teacher wishes to
discuss in the classroom.
c. Students need to be aware of the developments in the classroom.
d. students need to read additional materials on research methodology and resarch
ethics
2. Suggestions To Students On Writing Assignments / Expectations From Students:
a. Students need to meet the deadlines for each instruction / assignment given by
the teacher.
b. Students need to follow the detailed guidelines for each assignment and
presentation as provided by the teacher.
c. Students need to follow research methodology and ethics and avoid any stance of
plagiarism. cases of plagiarism will be penalised as per the gazette notification
of government of India, as adopted by AMU.
3. Teacher’s Role:
a. Teachers will provide the syllabus, guidelines, study materials (except prescribed
materials) in the form of hard or soft copies.
b. Teachers will announce each test / quiz / assignment / sessional well in advance.
c. Teachers need to be prepared with diagnostic test, Quiz / MCQ / A4 size detailed
guidelines for presentation & assignment.
d. Teachers will share the answer scripts and provide feedback if the students want
to have it.
e. Marks obtained by students for all tests / continuous assessments will be announced
by the teacher.
f. The teacher will destress students by explaining the students that continous
assessment is not an examination, rather it is a part of teaching and learning
where they get marks for their efforts and contributions in the form of assignments
/ presentations. they have an opportunity to improve their grade by taking a make
up test.

g. Our university has recently implemented Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPD)
Act 2016 which mandates equal participation, accessibility of teaching and learning
process, accessible course materials, and accessible examination with proper
scribe and extra time to those who avail scribe facility.

h. All the teachers will strive to make their teaching and testing accessible to
students with disabilities.

4. Class Policies:
i. Policy on late and unsubmitted tasks: those students who submit their
assignments will not get same / better marks than those whose submit in
time.
teachers are always receptive to any emergency situations.
ii. Class attendance: as per university rules, 75% attendance is mandatory.
5. Additional Weekly, Post Class Discussion Sessions:
Students may arrange additional classes in consultation with the teacher concerned,
if time and situation permits.
Note: The teacher reserves the right to make changes in the syllabus during the semester as
s/he deems necessary.
 MA ENGLISH I Semester/
Pool 2- Paper II
Victorian Prose and Fiction
Course No. Credits: 04

Victorianism has been a way of life which permeated the world in

different times and different ways. This age presents the most lucid
contrast to the present one, which valued the old world charms while
struggling with the new fangled ideas of science. The tussle between
tradition and modernity has since then, been part of life everywhere.
The proposed course aims to elucidate the same. Course
Outcomes:

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

1. Trace developments in the prose and fiction of the Victorian
period.
2. Identify the impact of imperial expansion on literature.
3. Express an understanding of Victorian values and humanism.
4. Identify struggles faced by common people and women as portrayed
in the literature of the times.
5. Demonstrate and ability to engage in advanced literary analysis
pertaining to Traditionalism & experimentation.
6. Express verbal and writing skills in discussing the literary
works of Victorian times.

Course Content:

Novels

Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities

Thackeray: Vanity Fair

Essays :

John Ruskin: Sesame and Lilies. Lecture II :

Lilies of Queens ‘ Garden
Charles Darwin : Excerpts from On the Origin of
Species

Short Stories:

Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet

Elizabeth Gaskell: The Old Nurse’s Story
Oscar Wilde: The Nightingale and the Rose; The
Happy Prince

Essential Readings:

Charles Dickens: The Pickwick Papers, Chapters1

and 2.

Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights

J. Rudyard Kipling: Kim
John S. Mill : On Liberty, Utilitarianism

Suggested Readings:

1. Altick, D. Richard. Victorian People and Ideas: A Companion for

the Modern Readers of Victorian Literature. WW Norton&Company:
NY, 1973.

2. Bough, C. Albert. Literary History of England: The Nineteenth

Century and After. Routledge: UK, 1992.

3. Cassis, A. F. "A Note on the Structure of Hardy's Short Stories."

Colby Library Quarterly 10 (1974): 287-296
4. Dalby, Richard (February 1995). "The Historical Fiction of Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle". _The Book and Magazine Collector_. Diamond
Publishing Group (131).
5. Danahay A. Martin. State Power and the Victorian Subject. Prose
Studies. Vol. 15.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01440359208586459

6. Emig Rainer. Eccentricity Begins at Home: Carlyle’s Centrality

in
Victorian Thought. Textual Practice. Vol. 17.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0950236032000094890

7. Gilbert, Sandra M. & Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic: The
Woman eriter and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination, London:
YUP, 1987

8. Glancy, Ruth."Dickens and Christmas: His Framed-Tale Themes."

Nineteenth-Century Fiction 35 (1980): 53-72.
9. Gordon Ray, Thackeray: The Uses of Adversity, 1811-1846 (1955)
10. Gordon S. Haight, George Eliot, A Biography (1968)
11. Carol T. Christ — The Finer Optic: The Aesthetic of Particularity
in Victorian Poetry

12. Richard Dellamora — Masculine Desire: The Sexual Politics of

Victorian Aestheticism

13. John Henry newman's “the idea of a university” and the present
socio-cultural context.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13511610.1990.9968
191
14. Mitchell, Sally. Daily Life in Victorian England, 2nd
Edition,ISBN-10: 0313350345
15. Moore, Grace. Colonialism in Victorian Fiction. Dickens Studies
Annual. Vol. 37. Pp. 251-86.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44372164

16. Moore, James (2006), _Evolution and Wonder – Understanding

Charles Darwin, _ Radio talk
17. N. John Hall, Trollope: A Biography (1991)
 18. Perry, Seamus & Nicholas Shrimpton. Stephen Wall, Trollope and
Character and Other Essays on Victorian Literature. Anthem
Press: UK, 2018.

19. Sandra, Gilbert & Susan Guber. The Madwoman in the attic.
Worldview Publications: ., 2000
20. Schwarzbach, S. F. Victorian Literature and the City: A Review
Essay. Dickens Studies Annual. Vol. 15 (1986), pp. 309-335.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44371576

21. Stevenson, Lionel. The Modern Values of Victorian Fiction. CLA

Journal. Vol. 4. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44327927
22. Matthew Arnold, Essays on Criticism, Culture and Anarchy,
Democracy
23. Walter Pater, Studies in Art and Poetry
Assessment Plan:
End Semester Examination: 70 Marks
Continuous Assessment: 30 Marks (as detailed
below) vi. Diagnostic Test (MCQ / A small Quiz) carrying 05 Marks
vii. Presentation carrying 10 Marks, in a group of 4-5
students, but evaluation to be done of individual students
on the basis of their performance
viii. A small Quiz / MCQ carrying 05 Marks, to test
understanding or for revision
ix. An Assignment carrying 10 Marks, to be given at least
three weeks in advance, as a part of teaching and not
after teaching.
x. A Sessional (as a Make up Test) to be conducted in last
week
Important Notes:
6. Suggestions To Students On Reading / Expectations From Students:
e. Each student will join the course with a prior understanding of the nature of the
course and mode of teaching / learning
f. Students will come to the class with a prior reading of the prescribed text /
essential study materials / suggested study material that the teacher wishes to
discuss in the classroom.
g. Students need to be aware of the developments in the classroom.
h. students need to read additional materials on research methodology and resarch
ethics
7. Suggestions To Students On Writing Assignments / Expectations From Students:
d. Students need to meet the deadlines for each instruction / assignment given by
the teacher.
e. Students need to follow the detailed guidelines for each assignment and
presentation as provided by the teacher.
f. Students need to follow research methodology and ethics and avoid any stance of
plagiarism. cases of plagiarism will be penalised as per the gazette notification
of government of India, as adopted by AMU.
8. Teacher’s Role:
i. Teachers will provide the syllabus, guidelines, study materials (except prescribed
materials) in the form of hard or soft copies.
j. Teachers will announce each test / quiz / assignment / sessional well in advance.
k. Teachers need to be prepared with diagnostic test, Quiz / MCQ / A4 size detailed
guidelines for presentation & assignment.
l. Teachers will share the answer scripts and provide feedback if the students want
to have it.
m. Marks obtained by students for all tests / continuous assessments will be announced
by the teacher.
n. The teacher will destress students by explaining the students that continous
assessment is not an examination, rather it is a part of teaching and learning
where they get marks for their efforts and contributions in the form of assignments
/ presentations. they have an opportunity to improve their grade by taking a make
up test.
 o. Our university has recently implemented Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPD)
Act 2016 which mandates equal participation, accessibility of teaching and learning
process, accessible course materials, and accessible examination with proper
scribe and extra time to those who avail scribe facility.

p. All the teachers will strive to make their teaching and testing accessible to
students with disabilities.

9. Class Policies:
iii. Policy on late and unsubmitted tasks: those students who submit their
assignments will not get same / better marks than those whose submit in
time.
teachers are always receptive to any emergency situations.
iv. Class attendance: as per university rules, 75% attendance is mandatory.
10. Additional Weekly, Post Class Discussion Sessions:
Students may arrange additional classes in consultation with the teacher concerned,
if time and situation permits.
Note: The teacher reserves the right to make changes in the syllabus during the semester as
s/he deems necessary.
 MA I Semester English
POOL 3/ PAPER I
Drama from Elizabethan to Nineteenth Century

Course No.: Credits: 04

Background: Drama is a classical tradition of Europe where every European

region and country of Europe has its own story to tell. England too has a
rich drama/theatre tradition and Elizabethan period is golden period of
this tradition. What made drama such a successful and popular engagement
in Elizabethan England? How did Elizabethan theatre culture evolve to be
conducive for great drama exponents like Marlowe, Christopher Marlow,
Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, Thomas Middleton, Thomas Kyd and
Shakespeare? These and more such questions will be addressed in this
paper. The Elizabethan drama/theatre culture has a lasting impact on the
scholarship, artefacts, theatre-culture, intellectual discourses,
researches and academic trends that followed all over the world. This
paper offers studies in British drama till nineteenth century wherein
Elizabethan period is the point of departure. The paper presents the
students a survey and comparative study of different drama trends that
emerged in Britain during various periods till the nineteenth century as
embodiments of contemporary socio-political issues and changes in the
field of performance spheres.
Course Outcomes:
By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Display holistic knowledge of major themes, techniques, traits and

characteristic features of drama produced in different age and times
in Britain.
• Formulate analytical studies of the literary, cultural and
performative paradigms of the texts prescribed while reading them and
writing about them.
• Simulate arguments in critiquing the evolution of British drama
tradition while handling characters, dialogues, speeches, soliloquies
and plots.

Content:

• Background
• History of England/ English Theatre
• Elizabethan and Jacobean Theatre (1552-1642)
• Thomas Kyd: The Spanish Tragedy (1587)
• Christpher Marlowe Dr. Faustus (1592)
• Webster: The Duchess of Malfi (1612-13)
• Restoration Theatre (1660-1700)
• William Congreve The Way of the World (1700)
• English Drama in the 18th Century
• Oliver Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer (1773)
• Richard Brinsley Sheridan The Rivals (1775)
• 19th Century Theatre in England
• Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

Essential Reading (Excerpt):

 • Bloom, Harold. Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus. 2008
• Mack, Peter. Elizabethan Rhetoric: Theory and Practice. 1990.
• Nettleton, George Henry. English Drama of the Restoration and
Eighteenth Century (1642-1780). 1914.
• Nicoll, Allardyce. A History of English Drama, 1660-1900 | Early
Eighteenth Century Drama - Vol. 2. 1955.
• White, Martin. Renaissance Drama in Action: An Introduction to Aspects
of Theatre Practice and Performance. 1998.

Suggested Reading:

• Aphra Behn The Rover (1677)

• Ben Jonson Every Man in his Humour (1598)
• John Dryden Marriage a la Mode (1673)
• John Fletcher The Faithful Shepherdess (1608)
• William S. Maugham The Constant Wife (1926)
• Brake, Laurel. “Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband and W. Somerset
Maugham’s The Constant Wife: A Dialogue.” Oscar Wilde And Modern
Culture: The Making Of A Legend, Edited By Joseph Bristow, 1st Ed.,
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio, 2008, Pp. 209–233. JSTOR,
Www.Jstor.Org/Stable/J.Ctt1j7x92q.15.
• ‘‘Another Taste of Wit’: 1673–1676.” John Dryden and His World, by
James Anderson Winn, Yale University Press, New Haven; London, 1987,
pp. 243–284. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ww3v8f.12.
• “Marlowe Lost and Found.” Christopher Marlowe: A Renaissance Life, by
Constance Brown Kuriyama, Cornell University Press, ITHACA; LONDON,
2002, pp. 163–172. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv2n7dfp.16.
• “Recent Literature of the English Renaissance.” Studies in Philology,
vol. 21, no. 2, 1924, pp. 403–465. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/4171887.
• “The Faithful Shepherdess: The Politics of Chastity.” Court and Country
Politics in the Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, by Philip J.
Finkelpearl, Princeton University Press, 1990, pp. 101–114. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7ztkj7.8.
• “The Maugham Enigma.” William Somerset Maugham: The Man and His Work
/ Leben Und Werk, by William W. Jonas, 1st ed., Harrassowitz Verlag,
Wiesbaden, 2009, pp. 29–38. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc16m99.9.
• “Wild Thoughts and Desire! Things I Can’t Tell You – Words I Can’t
Speak!’: The Drama Of Identity In The Importance Of Being Earnest And
Guy Domville.” Henry James, Oscar Wilde And Aesthetic Culture, By
Michèle Mendelssohn, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2007, Pp.
163–196. Jstor, Www.Jstor.Org/Stable/10.3366/J.Ctt1r2bbr.10.
• Barish, Jonas A. “The Uniqueness of Elizabethan Drama.” Comparative
Drama, vol. 11, no. 2, 1977, pp. 103–112. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/41152710..
• Colley, John Scott. “Opinion, Poetry, and Folly in ‘Every Man in His
Humor.’” South Atlantic Bulletin, vol. 39, no. 4, 1974, pp. 10– 21.
JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3198225.
• Craig, Hardin. “Morality Plays and Elizabethan Drama.” Shakespeare
Quarterly, vol. 1, no. 2, 1950, pp. 64–72. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/2866678.
• Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature. Paperback.
• Diamond, Elin. “Gestus and Signature in Aphra Behn's The Rover.” ELH,
vol. 56, no. 3, 1989, pp. 519–541. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/2873196.
• Fitzmaurice, James. “The Language of Gender And a Textual Problem in
Aphra Behn's ‘The Rover.’” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, vol. 96, no.
3, 1995, pp. 283–293., www.jstor.org/stable/43346105.
• Gertrude van Arsdale Ingalls. “Some Sources of Goldsmith's She Stoops
to Conquer.” PMLA, vol. 44, no. 2, 1929, pp. 565–568. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/457481.
• Hellenga, Robert R. “Elizabethan Dramatic Conventions and Elizabethan
Reality.” Renaissance Drama, vol. 12, 1981, pp. 27–49. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/41917190.
• Kaufman, Anthony. “Language and Character in Congreve's The Way of the
World.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language, vol. 15, no. 3,
1973, pp. 411–427. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40755227.
• Kendrick, Matthew. “Humoralism and Poverty in Jonson's ‘Every Man in
His Humour.’” South Central Review, vol. 30, no. 2, 2013, pp. 73–90.,
www.jstor.org/stable/44016831.
• Levin, Harry. “The End of Elizabethan Drama.” Comparative Drama, vol.
3, no. 4, 1969, pp. 275–281. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41152514.
• Lewinsohn-Zamir, Daphna. “THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST: TWO NOTIONS
OF INTERNALIZATION.” The University of Toronto Law Journal, vol. 65,
no. 2, 2015, pp. 37–84. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24311947.
• Lowenstien, David. The Cambridge History of Early Modern English
Literature. 2003.
• Lyons, Charles R. “Disguise, Identity, and Personal Value in ‘The Way
of the World.’” Educational Theatre Journal, vol. 23, no. 3, 1971, pp.
258–268. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3205354.
• Mazzio, Carla. “Staging the Vernacular: Language and Nation in Thomas
Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900,
vol. 38, no. 2, 1998, pp. 207–232. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/451034.
Mincoff, Marco. “The Faithful Shepherdess: A Fletcherian Experiment.”
Renaissance Drama, vol. 9, 1966, pp. 163–177. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/41917000.
• Ornstein, Robert. “Marlowe and God: The Tragic Theology of Dr.
Faustus.” PMLA, vol. 83, no. 5, 1968, pp. 1378–1385. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/1261310.
• Ribner, Irving. “Criticism of Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama.”
Renaissance Drama, a Report on Research Opportunities, no. 6, 1963,
pp. 7–13. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43264644.
• Thompson, James. “Sheridan, The School for Scandal, and Aggression.”
Comparative Drama, vol. 42, no. 1, 2008, pp. 89– 98. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/23038080.
• Willbern, David P. “Thomas Kyd's ‘The Spanish Tragedy’: Inverted
Vengeance.” American Imago, vol. 28, no. 3, 1971, pp. 247–267. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/26302674Assessment Plan:
Assessment Plan:
End Semester Examination: 70 Marks
Continuous Assessment: 30 Marks (as detailed
below) xi. Diagnostic Test (MCQ / A small Quiz) carrying 05 Marks
xii. Presentation carrying 10 Marks, in a group of 4-5
students, but evaluation to be done of individual students
on the basis of their performance
xiii. A small Quiz / MCQ carrying 05 Marks, to test
understanding or for revision
xiv. An Assignment carrying 10 Marks, to be given at least
three weeks in advance, as a part of teaching and not
after teaching.
xv. A Sessional (as a Make up Test) to be conducted in last
week
Important Notes:
11. Suggestions To Students On Reading / Expectations From Students:
i. Each student will join the course with a prior understanding of the nature of the
course and mode of teaching / learning
j. Students will come to the class with a prior reading of the prescribed text /
essential study materials / suggested study material that the teacher wishes to
discuss in the classroom.
k. Students need to be aware of the developments in the classroom.
l. students need to read additional materials on research methodology and resarch
ethics
12. Suggestions To Students On Writing Assignments / Expectations From Students:
g. Students need to meet the deadlines for each instruction / assignment given by
the teacher.
h. Students need to follow the detailed guidelines for each assignment and
presentation as provided by the teacher.
i. Students need to follow research methodology and ethics and avoid any stance of
plagiarism. cases of plagiarism will be penalised as per the gazette notification
of government of India, as adopted by AMU.
13. Teacher’s Role:
q. Teachers will provide the syllabus, guidelines, study materials (except prescribed
materials) in the form of hard or soft copies.
r. Teachers will announce each test / quiz / assignment / sessional well in advance.
s. Teachers need to be prepared with diagnostic test, Quiz / MCQ / A4 size detailed
guidelines for presentation & assignment.
t. Teachers will share the answer scripts and provide feedback if the students want
to have it.
u. Marks obtained by students for all tests / continuous assessments will be announced
by the teacher.
v. The teacher will destress students by explaining the students that continous
assessment is not an examination, rather it is a part of teaching and learning
where they get marks for their efforts and contributions in the form of assignments
/ presentations. they have an opportunity to improve their grade by taking a make
up test.

w. Our university has recently implemented Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPD)
Act 2016 which mandates equal participation, accessibility of teaching and learning
process, accessible course materials, and accessible examination with proper
scribe and extra time to those who avail scribe facility.

x. All the teachers will strive to make their teaching and testing accessible to
students with disabilities.

14. Class Policies:

v. Policy on late and unsubmitted tasks: those students who submit their
assignments will not get same / better marks than those whose submit in
time.
teachers are always receptive to any emergency situations.
vi. Class attendance: as per university rules, 75% attendance is mandatory.
15. Additional Weekly, Post Class Discussion Sessions:
Students may arrange additional classes in consultation with the teacher concerned,
if time and situation permits.
Note: The teacher reserves the right to make changes in the syllabus during the semester as
s/he deems necessary.
 MA English I Semester

POOL 3 PAPER II

SHAKESPEARE

Course No: Credits:

04

Background / Purpose / Significance:

The plays of Shakespeare represent significant aspects of literature,

culture, theatre and language. In all times and places, Shakespeare has
consistently been open to fresh vistas of intellectual inquiries and
researches. This paper will take the students into the world of
Shakespearean characters, plots, themes, intrigues, dialogues/speeches,
monologues, soliloquies, sonnets and the relevant critical works on him.
The paper will consider these plays within different contexts, including
performance history as well as literary history. The paper will present
for students an assessment of Shakespeare’s lasting cultural impact.

COURSE OUTCOMES:

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

1. Demonstrate a proper grounding in Shakespearean studies.

2. Assess Shakespeare’s oeuvre as embodiment of Elizabethan and
Renaissance spirit.
3. Produce critical readings in the light of various schools of
Shakespearean criticism.
4. Exhibit productively a holistic knowledge of theatre and performance
dimensions of Shakespeare’s plays.

Introduction

Background
Introduction to the idea of Shakespeare
Shakespeare and his role in English theatre and poetry

Plays (Histories, Tragedies, Romance, Comedies)

Measure for Measure (1603-04)

Hamlet (1602)
King Lear (1606)
Twelfth Night (1601-1602)
Winter's Tale (1610-1611)

Sonnets and Poems

Sonnet 106 (When in the chronicle of wasted time)

Sonnet 138 (When my love swears that she is made of truth)
Sonnet 29 (When, in disgrace eith fortune and men’s eyes)
Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?)
Sonnet 86 (So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse)
Sonnet 104 (To me, fair friend, you never can be old)
 Excerpts- “Venus and Adonis” and “The Rape of Lucrece"

Criticism (Excerpts):
Coleridge, S. T. “On The Characteristic Excellencies of Shakespeare’s
Plays”, 1813
Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy.(1904)
Brook, Peter. King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Dryden, John. “Of Dramatick Poesie” (1668)
Dowden, Edward. Shakespeare: A Critical Study of His Mind and Art (1875)
Hazlitt, William. Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays. (1817)
Knights, L. C. Hamlet and other Shakespearean Plays. (1979)
Theobald, Lewis. Shakespeare Restored (1726).
Greenblatt, Stephen. Renaissance Self-Fashioning (1980)
Johnson, Samuel. “Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth”
(1745) from Johnson on Shakespeare.
Knight, G. Wilson. The Wheel of Fire. Routledge. 2001.
Parker, Patricia. Shakespeare from the Margins: Language, Culture,
Context (1996)

Suggested Reading:

Henry V (1599)
Greenblatt, Stephen, Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of
Social Energy in Renaissance England (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1988)
“‘Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair’: The Radical Ambivalence of
Macbeth.” Ambivalent Macbeth, by R.S. White, Sydney University
Press, AUSTRALIA, 2018, pp. 33–58. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv19x5cq.6.
“AN ESSAY BY HAROLD BLOOM.” Hamlet, by William Shakespeare et al., Yale
University Press, New Haven; London, 2003, pp. 229–244. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1njkw8.6.
“Cosmetics and Poetics in Shakespearean Comedy.” Cosmetics in
Shakespearean and Renaissance Drama, by Farah Karim-Cooper, Edinburgh
University Press, Edinburgh, 2006, pp. 132–151. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1r2572.10.
“Hamlet.” How Shakespeare Put Politics on the Stage: Power and
Succession in the History Plays, by PETER LAKE, Yale University Press,
NEW HAVEN; LONDON, 2016, pp. 511–533. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1gxxpsd.28.
“Performance: Macbeth.” Shakespeare, by Gabriel Egan, Edinburgh
University Press, Edinburgh, 2007, pp. 180–202. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g0b374.12.
“Shakespeare and His Stage.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 48, no. 5,
1997, pp. 548–550. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2871319.
Barroll, Leeds. “A New History for Shakespeare and His Time.”
Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 4, 1988, pp. 441– 464. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/2870707.
Bate, Jonathan, and Dora Thornton (eds), Shakespeare: Staging the World
(London: British Museum, 2012)
 Briggs, Julia, This Stage-Play World: English Literature and its
Background, 1580-1625 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983)
Crawforth, Hannah.et all. Shakespeare in London (London: Bloomsbury
Arden Shakespeare, 2015)
Dent, Robert W. “Shakespeare in the Theater.” Shakespeare Quarterly,
vol. 16, no. 3, 1965, pp. 154–182. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/2867593.
Farrelly, James P. “Johnson on Shakespeare: ‘Othello.’” Notre Dame
English Journal, vol. 8, no. 1, 1972, pp. 11–21. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/40066592.
Harris, Duncan. “Tombs, Guidebooks and Shakespearean Drama: Death in
the Renaissance.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study
of Literature, vol. 15, no. 1, 1982, pp. 13–28. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/24777744.
Holland, Peter, ‘Shakespeare, William (1564–1616)’, Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004; online
edn, Jan 2013)
Hunter, G.K. English Drama 1586-1642: The Age of Shakespeare.1997.
JACKSON, MACD. P. “Shakespeare's ‘Richard II’ and the Anonymous ‘Thomas
of Woodstock.’” Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, vol. 14,
2001, pp. 17–65. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24322987.
Matheson, Lister M. “English Chronicle Contexts for Shakespeare's
Death of Richard II.” From Page to Performance: Essays in Early English
Drama, edited by John A. Alford, Michigan State University Press,
1995, pp. 195–220. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/j.ctt7zt7mq.14.
McNeir, Waldo F. “Comedy in Shakespeare's Yorkist Tetralogy.” Pacific
Coast Philology, vol. 9, 1974, pp. 48–55. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/1316569.
Petronella, Vincent F. “The Place of Ecstasy in ‘The Merchant Of
Venice.’” CEA Critic, vol. 48, no. 2, 1985, pp. 68–77. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/44377392.
Reibetanz, John. “Theatrical Emblems in King Lear.” Some Facets of King
Lear: Essays in Prismatic Criticism, edited by ROSALIE L. COLIE and
F.T. FLAHIFF, University of Toronto Press, TORONTO; BUFFALO, 1974, pp.
39–58. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctt1gxxrc5.6.
Stenson, Matthew Scott. “Unlocking Meaning: The Act of Reading in
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.” Christianity and Literature,
vol. 64, no. 4, 2015, pp. 377–399. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/26194855.
Tebbetts, Terrell L. “Shakespeare's Henry V: Politics and the Family.”
South Central Review, vol. 7, no. 1, 1990, pp. 8–19. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/3189210.
Weis, René, Shakespeare Revealed: A Biography (London: John Murray,
2007)

Assessment Plan:

End Semester Examination: 70 Marks

Continuous Assessment: 30 Marks (as detailed
below)
i. Diagnostic Test (MCQ / A small Quiz) carrying 05 Marks
ii. Presentation carrying 10 Marks, in a group of 4-5 students,
but evaluation to be done of individual students on the basis
of their performance
 iii. A small Quiz / MCQ carrying 05 Marks, to test understanding
or for revision
iv. An Assignment carrying 10 Marks, to be given at least
three weeks in advance, as a part of teaching and not
after teaching.
v. A Sessional (as a Make up Test) to be conducted in last
week Important Notes:
1. Suggestions To Students On Reading / Expectations From Students:
a. Each student will join the course with a prior understanding of the nature of the
course and mode of teaching / learning
b. Students will come to the class with a prior reading of the prescribed text /
essential study materials / suggested study material that the teacher wishes to
discuss in the classroom.
c. Students need to be aware of the developments in the classroom.
d. students need to read additional materials on research methodology and research
ethics
2. Suggestions To Students On Writing Assignments / Expectations From Students:
a. Students need to meet the deadlines for each instruction / assignment given by
the teacher.
b. Students need to follow the detailed guidelines for each assignment and
presentation as provided by the teacher.
c. Students need to follow research methodology and ethics and avoid any stance of
plagiarism. cases of plagiarism will be penalised as per the gazette notification
of government of India, as adopted by AMU.
3. Teacher’s Role:
a. Teachers will provide the syllabus, guidelines, study materials (except prescribed
materials) in the form of hard or soft copies.
b. Teachers will announce each test / quiz / assignment / sessional well in advance.
c. Teachers need to be prepared with diagnostic test, Quiz / MCQ / A4 size detailed
guidelines for presentation & assignment.
d. Teachers will share the answer scripts and provide feedback if the students want
to have it.
e. Marks obtained by students for all tests / continuous assessments will be announced
by the teacher.
f. The teacher will destress students by explaining the students that continuous
assessment is not an examination, rather it is a part of teaching and learning
where they get marks for their efforts and contributions in the form of assignments
/ presentations. they have an opportunity to improve their grade by taking a makeup
test.
4. Class Policies:
i. Policy on late and unsubmitted tasks: those students who submit their
assignments will not get same / better marks than those whose submit in time.
Teachers are always receptive to any emergency situations.
ii. Class attendance: as per university rules, 75% attendance is mandatory.
5. Additional Weekly, Post Class Discussion Sessions:
Students may arrange additional classes in consultation with the teacher concerned,
if time and situation permits.

Note: The teacher reserves the right to make changes in the syllabus during the semester as
s/he deems necessary.
 MA (English) I Semester
Pool 4, Paper I

Course Title: Philosophy of Literature

Course No.: Credits: 04

Background:
What is literature? What does literature do for us? Does it advance
any truth claims? Does it help us know ourselves? Can we make a moral
case for literature? Does it serve the human good? What is the promise
of literature as different from other forms of writing and discourse?
What is the relationship between literature and philosophy? What is
“literary” about philosophy and what is “philosophical” about
literature? Why read, study, teach literature at all? Age-old and
perennial, questions as these confront us starkly as we continue to
be intrigued by the powers, pleasures and possibilities of literature.
In this course, we will grapple with such questions by exploring
modern philosophical understandings of literature with an emphasis on
metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, epistemology, ethics, and
aesthetics and by tracing the genealogy of the relationship between
literature and philosophy.

Course Outcomes:
At the end of the course, students will:

• Appraise various aspects of literature by dealing with the

fundamental questions and concerns that lie at the heart of the
literary.
• Analyze the intersections, affinities, tensions and
disjunctions between philosophy and literature.
• Develop critical vocabulary required to undertake philosophical
investigations of literary texts.
• Construct interpretive arguments on various dimensions of
literature and philosophy in a clear, coherent and organized
way.
• Discover philosophical questions about the literary, which then
they can develop into research problems for further enquiry.

Topics and Reading:

Foundational Classic Sources:
• Republic: Plato (selections)
• Poetics: Aristotle (selections)
• “Of Tragedy”: David Hume
• The Birth of Tragedy: Friedrich Nietzsche (selections)
“Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming”: Freud Definition
of Literature:
• “The Concept of Literature”: Monroe Beardsley
• “What Isn’t Literature?”: ED Hirsch, Jr
• What Is Literature?: Jean-Paul Sartre (selections) Ontology of
Literature:
• “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”: Jorge Luis Borges
Fiction:
• “The Logical Status of Fictional Discourse”: John Searle
 • “What is Fiction”: Gregory Carrie Morality:
• “The Virtues, the Unity of a Human Life and the Concept of a
Tradition”: Alasdair MacIntyre
• “Literature, Truth and Philosophy”: Peter Lamarque and Stein
HaugomOslen
• “Romantic Morality: The Real” by Irving Babbitt from Rousseau
and Romanticism.
Logic:
• “Logic and Criticism” Peter Lamarque Metaphor:
• “What Metaphors Mean”: Donald Davidson Interpretation:
• “The Postulated Author”: Alexander Nehamas Emotion:
• “Applicant”: Harold Pinter
• “An Interview with Jacques Derrida,” Acts of Literature: Derrida
andAttridge Theatre:
• “Nietzsche, the Mask and the Problem of the Actor”: Tom Stern
Literary Values:
• “Finely Aware and Richly Responsible”: Martha Nussbaum
• “The Ethics of Reading”: J. Hillis Miller

Essential Reading (Relevant Excerpts):

• “Literature and Knowledge”: Catherine Wilson
• “Literature, Truth, and Philosophy”: Peter Lamarque and Haugom
Olsen
• “Nietzsche, the Mask and the Problem of the Actor”: Tom Stern
in The Philosophy of Theatre, Drama and Acting. Rowman and
Littlefield International, 2017.
• “Philosophy and/as/of Literature”: Arthur Danto
The Pleasure of the Text: Roland Barthes (selections)
• “The Pleasures of Tragedy”: Susan Feagin
• “Truth in Fiction”: David Lewis
• Eileen John and Dominic McIver Lopes (eds.), Philosophy of
Literature: Contemporary and Classic Readings, An Anthology
(2004: Blackwell).
• Martha C. Nussbaum, Reading for Life, 1 Yale J.L. &
Human. (1989). Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol1/iss1/10

Suggested Reading:
• Peter Lamarque. The Philosophy of Literature
• Garry Hagberg and Walter Jost (eds). A Companion to the
Philosophy of Literature
• Noel Caroll and John Gibson (eds). The Routledge Companion to
Philosophy of Literature
• Martha Nussbaum. Love’s Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and
Literature
Michael Weston. Philosophy, Literature, and the Human Good
Severin Schroeder (ed). Philosophy of Literature
Christopher New. Philosophy of Literature: An Introduction

Assessment Plan:
End Semester Examination: 70 Marks
 Continuous Assessment: 30 Marks (as detailed
below) xvi. Diagnostic Test (MCQ / A small Quiz) carrying 05 Marks
xvii. Presentation carrying 10 Marks, in a group of 4-5 students, but
evaluation to be done of individual students on the basis of their
performance
xviii. A small Quiz / MCQ carrying 05 Marks, to test
understanding or for revision
xix. An Assignment carrying 10 Marks, to be given at least
three weeks in advance, as a part of teaching and not
after teaching.
xx. A Sessional (as a Make up Test) to be conducted in last
week
Important Notes:
16. Suggestions To Students On Reading / Expectations From Students:
m. Each student will join the course with a prior understanding of the nature of the
course and mode of teaching / learning
n. Students will come to the class with a prior reading of the prescribed text /
essential study materials / suggested study material that the teacher wishes to
discuss in the classroom.
o. Students need to be aware of the developments in the classroom.
p. students need to read additional materials on research methodology and research
ethics
17. Suggestions To Students On Writing Assignments / Expectations From Students:
j. Students need to meet the deadlines for each instruction / assignment given by
the teacher.
k. Students need to follow the detailed guidelines for each assignment and
presentation as provided by the teacher.
l. Students need to follow research methodology and ethics and avoid any stance of
plagiarism. cases of plagiarism will be penalised as per the gazette notification
of government of India, as adopted by AMU.
18. Teacher’s Role:
y. Teachers will provide the syllabus, guidelines, study materials (except prescribed
materials) in the form of hard or soft copies.
z. Teachers will announce each test / quiz / assignment / sessional well in advance.
aa. Teachers need to be prepared with diagnostic test, Quiz / MCQ / A4 size detailed
guidelines for presentation & assignment. bb. Teachers will share the answer
scripts and provide feedback if the students want to have it. cc. Marks obtained
by students for all tests / continuous assessments will be announced by the
teacher. dd. The teacher will destress students by explaining the students that
continuous assessment is not an examination, rather it is a part of teaching and
learning where they get marks for their efforts and contributions in the form of
assignments / presentations. they have an opportunity to improve their grade by
taking a makeup test.
19. Class Policies:
vii. Policy on late and unsubmitted tasks: those students who submit their
assignments will not get same / better marks than those whose submit in
time.
Teachers are always receptive to any emergency situations.
viii. Class attendance: as per university rules, 75% attendance is mandatory.
20. Additional Weekly, Post Class Discussion Sessions:
Students may arrange additional classes in consultation with the teacher concerned,
if time and situation permits.
Note: The teacher reserves the right to make changes in the syllabus during the semester as
s/he deems necessary.
 MA SEMESTER I, POOL 4, PAPER II
Literary Criticism from Classical to Victorian Age

Course No.: Credits: 4

BACKGROUND / Purpose / SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COURSE/PAPER: This paper is aimed

to introduce literary criticism as a survey of Western Literary Theory and
Criticism with an emphasis on the most prominent theorists, texts, schools
and ideas. It is a course in the history of ideas - specifically, ideas
related to the theory and criticism of literary texts.

Objectives:

1.To provide a clear understanding of these ground breaking texts in

the history of theory and criticism.

2. To stress on the practical value of these seminal texts for

understanding the historical attitudes toward literature, and for
clarifying current issues in literary theory, precisely from the
Classical to the Victorian age.

3. To train the students in connecting the ideological dots of

literature and philosophy by reading some of these original works.

Course Outcomes: By the end of the course students will be able to

1) Identify major ground breaking texts in the history of theory and

criticism.

2)Analyze these texts in original and apply these concepts to

Contemporary literary texts.

3) Critically evaluate these prominent theorists, texts, schools and

ideas upto the Victorian age.

A. Classical Criticism
1. Plato : Republic (Extracts) 2.
Aristotle: Poetics
3. Horace : The Art of Poetry

B. Medieval and Renaissance

1. Dante: Letter to Can Grande 23della Scala

2. Sidney: An Apology for Poetry

C. Eighteenth Century

1. Johnson : Preface to Shakespeare

2. Hume: Of the Standard of Taste

3. Kant : Critique of Judgement

4.Schiller : On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry

5. Wordsworth: Preface to Lyrical Ballads(1801) [Selected Chapters]

6. Coleridge : Biographia Literaria (1817) [Selected Chapters]

7. Mary Wollstonecraft : AVindication of theRights of Women (Extracts)

(1792)

8. Shelley: Defence of Poetry (1821)

D. Modernism

1.Hegel: Lectures on Aesthetics (1835)

2.Arnold: TheFunction of Criticism (1864)

Suggested Readings:

1. John Keats: Negative Capability

2. John Locke: Concerning Human Understanding
3. Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde: Aestheticism
4. Schiller, from On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry
5. Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction
6. Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction
7. Groden, Michael, Martin Kreiswirth, and Imre Szeman, eds. The
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
8. Habib, M. A. R., A History of Literary Criticism and Theory:
From
Plato to the Present.
9. Harmon, William and C. Hugh Holman, A Handbook to Literature
10. Murfin, Ross and Supryia M. Ray, The Bedford Glossary of Critical
and Literary Terms
11. Selden, et al. A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Theory
Assessment Plan:
End Semester Examination: 70 Marks
Continuous Assessment: 30 Marks (as detailed
below)
xxi. Diagnostic Test (MCQ / A small Quiz) carrying 05 Marks xxii.
Presentation carrying 10 Marks, in a group of 4-5 students, but
evaluation to be done of individual students on the basis of their
performance
xxiii. A small Quiz / MCQ carrying 05 Marks, to test
understanding or for revision
xxiv. An Assignment carrying 10 Marks, to be given at least three
weeks in advance, as a part of teaching and not after
teaching.
xxv. A Sessional (as a Make up Test) to be conducted in last week
Important Notes:
21. Suggestions To Students On Reading / Expectations From Students:
q. Each student will join the course with a prior understanding of the nature of the
course and mode of teaching / learning
r. Students will come to the class with a prior reading of the prescribed text /
essential study materials / suggested study material that the teacher wishes to
discuss in the classroom.
s. Students need to be aware of the developments in the classroom.
t. students need to read additional materials on research methodology and resarch
ethics
22. Suggestions To Students On Writing Assignments / Expectations From Students:
m. Students need to meet the deadlines for each instruction / assignment given by
the teacher.
 n. Students need to follow the detailed guidelines for each assignment and
presentation as provided by the teacher.
o. Students need to follow research methodology and ethics and avoid any stance of
plagiarism. cases of plagiarism will be penalised as per the gazette notification
of government of India, as adopted by AMU.
23. Teacher’s Role:
ee. Teachers will provide the syllabus, guidelines, study materials (except prescribed
materials) in the form of hard or soft copies.
ff. Teachers will announce each test / quiz / assignment / sessional well in advance.
gg. Teachers need to be prepared with diagnostic test, Quiz / MCQ / A4 size detailed
guidelines for presentation & assignment. hh. Teachers will share the answer
scripts and provide feedback if the students want to have it. ii. Marks obtained
by students for all tests / continuous assessments will be announced by the
teacher. jj. The teacher will destress students by explaining the students that
continous assessment is not an examination, rather it is a part of teaching and
learning where they get marks for their efforts and contributions in the form of
assignments / presentations. they have an opportunity to improve their grade by
taking a make up test.
kk. Our university has recently implemented Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPD)
Act 2016 which mandates equal participation, accessibility of teaching and learning
process, accessible course materials, and accessible examination with proper
scribe and extra time to those who avail scribe facility.

ll. All the teachers will strive to make their teaching and testing accessible to
students with disabilities.

24. Class Policies:

ix. Policy on late and unsubmitted tasks: those students who submit their
assignments will not get same / better marks than those whose submit in
time.
teachers are always receptive to any emergency situations.
x. Class attendance: as per university rules, 75% attendance is mandatory.
25. Additional Weekly, Post Class Discussion Sessions:
Students may arrange additional classes in consultation with the teacher concerned,
if time and situation permits.
Note: The teacher reserves the right to make changes in the syllabus during the semester as
s/he deems necessary.
 MA II Semester (Elective Paper)
2019-2020
Postcolonial Performance Studies
Course Code : EOM-2012
Credits: 04 Max Marks: 100

Course Outcomes:

By the end of this course the student will be able to :

1. Demonstrate grounding in the basic knowledge of performance as an academic and

research paradigm.
2. Exhibit comprehensive analytical skill in viewing and reading performances as
postcolonial texts.
3. Asses the significance of performativity as a tool of resistance in democratic and
intellectual perspectives.
4. Create write-ups through productive integration of the field of performance and research.
5. Produce independently and participate in performance and its various spheres according
to their choices.

Unit I: An Introduction to Performance Studies

a) Defining Performance and its aspects

b) Postcolonial Paradigms in Performance
c) Cultural Politics and Performance

Unit II: Postcolonialism and Performance Tradition:

a) Performance and Postcolonial Movements

b) Performance and Protest
c) Performance and Media

Unit III:

A. Postcolonialism and Performance in India

a) Theatre
b) Operatic Performance
c) Music and Dance
B. Project OR Research Paper OR Field Work through:
a) Conducting interviews meetings with performers,
b) Watching live performances
c) Participating in the production of a performance texts

Sessional : 30 marks
End Sem: 70 marks with following distribution:

50 marks written test

20 marks for Project or Research Paper or Field Work in Unit III Section B

Recommended Readings:
• Dharwadker, Aparna. Theatres of Independence. (Oxford University Press, 2008)
• Schechver, Richard. Performance Theory (London, Routledge, 2003)
• (Post) Colonial Stages: Critical & Creative Views on Drama, Theatre & Performance by
Helen Gilbert (1999).
• Gilbert, Helen and Joanne Tompkins. Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics.
(London : Routledge, 1996)
 M.A. (English) III Semester (Elective Paper)
2019-2020
Course Title: Film Studies
Course Code: EOM 3033 Credits: 04

The objective of this course is to introduce the students to basic concepts in film studies. They
would be required to writ reviews/long comments on films as part of their sessional and
semester examinations. Viewing of some selected films (both English and Hindi) and taking
notes on them will be mandatory as they will required to write theoretically – sound criticism
on those films and not a mere summary of the plot Unit I: Film as an art:
The nature of art
Ways of looking at art
Film and the other art

Unit II: The Language of Film:

Signs-Perception of images
Denotative and connotative meaning.
Film and Ideology
Cinematic codes: Mise-en-scene, setting, props, costume, performance and movement, lighting, camera
and camera movement, editing, sound, narrative.

Unit III: Approaches to cinema:

Genre, Star and auteur
The film spectator
Analysis and interpretation of selected films: Hindi and English

Suggested Reading:

 Christian Metz (from Film Language: A semiotics of the Cinema)

 “ On the impression of reality in cinema”  “ Some points in the semiotics of the
cinema”
 Monaco James. How to read a film. Oxford University Press, 2009.
 John Burger, Ways of seeing
 Dudley Andrew. Concepts in Film Theory.
 Andre Bazin (from what is cinema)
 Selected Films

Course Evaluation (Maximum Marks: 100)

Sessional Test: 30 marks End Semester : 70 marks
 MA English Literature (Elective Paper)
2019-2020
Subaltern Studies
Course Code: EOM-1013
Credit: 04 Max. Marks:
100
Course Objective:
The need to introduce a paper on Subaltern Studies in MA (Elective Courses) emerges
with a desire to deconstruct the traditional historiography which has erased histories
of subordinated groups in a sustained manner. The rationale behind this paper is to
familiarize students about the basic concepts and theories related to subaltern
discourse. This MA elective paper will enhance the skills of students to understand the
issues related to socially excluded and marginalised groups and develop strategies
to deal with these issues successfully.

This Course will be divided into three Units:

Unit one will comprise of Discourses on subaltern perspective which will help in understanding
Social and political exclusion based on Caste, Tribe and Gender.

The Second Unit will deal with deconstructing historiography. It will focus on rewriting history
of marginalized class by Challenging hegemony and social structure.

The Third Unit will be application of Subaltern theories on Selected literary works.

Unit-I

Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, Few Chapters from "Notes on
Italian History", and from "The Study of Philosophy."
Amitav Ghosh, "The Slave of Ms. H.6", ( Subaltern Studies, vol. VII )
E. J. Hobsbawm, Primitive Rebels (Norton Publication. 1965)
Susie Tharu, "Response to Julie Stephens",(Subaltern Studies , Vol.VI)

Unit-II Ranajit Guha, “On Some Aspects of

the Historiography of Colonial India", and "The Prose of Counter-Insurgency”.(
Selected Subaltern Studies, ed. R. Guha and Gayatri Spivak (New York: Oxford,
1988).
Patha Chatterjee, "Caste and Subaltern Consciousness", (Subaltern Studies VI)
Ranajit Guha, "Chandra's Death", in Subaltern Studies V (Delhi: Oxford, 1987)
Vasantha Kannabiran and K. Lalitha, "That Magic Time: Women in the Telangana
People's Struggle", ( Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History, eds. Kumkum
Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, Rutgers University Press, 1989).
Unit-III
*Saadat Hasan Manto-“Toba Tek Singh”(Toba Tek Singh: The Story in Multiple Translations,
FourCorners, 2008)
*Mahasweta Devi-“Draupadi” and “Breastgiver”(Seagull Books,1997)
*Baburao Bagul- “Mother”(Poisoned Bread: Translation from Modern Marathi Dalit Literature,
Arjuna Dangale, Orient Longman , 1992)

Sessional Test: 30 marks

End Semester : 70 marks

Suggested Readings:

1. Ashis Nandy, "History's Forgotten Doubles", History and Theory (Vol. 34, No. 2, Theme
Issue 34: World Historians and Their Critics (May, 1995), pp. 44-66) Published by Wiley for
Wesleyan University.

2.------------------- The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of self Under Colonialism,OUP,2009.

3.Dipesh Chakarabarty: Habitations of Modernity: Essays in the Wake of Subaltern Studies,

University of Chicago Press, 2002.

4.Edward W. Said: Orientalism. Newyork, Pantheon, 1978

5.Gayatri C. Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in Reflections on the History of an Idea. Edited by
Rosalind Morris, 2010.
6.Partha Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse.
University of Minnesota Press,1986.

7.Ranajit Guha, Dominance Without Hegemony: History and Power in Colonial India, Harvard
University Press, 1997.
8.-------------------, A Subaltern Studies Reader, 1986-1995, University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
9.Sharma R. S., Indian Feudalism, Macmillan, 1981.

10.Uma Chakraborty, Gendering Caste Through a Feminist Lens, Popular Prakashan, 2003.

11.Vivek Chibber: Postcolonial Theory and Specter of Capital,Verso,2013.

 COURSE NO.
TITLE: MIGRATED/DIASPORIC WOMEN’S WRITINGS
Credit: 4
SEMESTER/SESSION- M. A. ENGLISH (ELECTIVE POOL V) LINK
ON AMU WEBSITE:

TEACHER:
TEACHING HOURS: 42 EMAIL:

TEACHING ASSISTANTS: (ENGAGE YOUR RESEARCH SCHOLARS, ISSUE A FORMAL LETTER

FOR ACCOUNTABILITY AND ISSUE THEM CERTIFICATES AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER(S))
1.
2.

BACKGROUND TO THE COURSE/PAPER-

The establishment of diasporic communities, particularly since the European
colonization, has constructed new, hybrid identities of communities that
have been the focus of attention by the academic world for quite some time.
Writings by individual members of such communities- known variously as
Diasporic Writing, Migrant Writing and Exile Writing-have their own unique
character wherein the authors speak in forked tongues, riding
simultaneously, the two cultures involved in their location/relocation.
Nostalgia, alienation, rootlessness, displacement, exile, assimilation and
a quest for identity, therefore, are the dominant themes of their works, be
they stories, novels, poems, autobiographies or plays.
Migrant women are victims of a double disadvantage- being women
and being migrants. They write differently from their male counterparts-
both in terms of perspectives and the manner of narration. It is this -
writings by migrant Women from various parts of the world- that will be the
primary focus of study in this Course.
PURPOSE OF THE COURSE - The Course aims at familiarizing the students with
the socio- cultural situation of migrant women through a reading of their
select writings. The choice of various genres- novels, stories, poems, a
play and an autobiography from writers belonging to various cultures and
regions- Asia, Africa, The Middle East and The West Indies- make the sample
fairly representative.
Employing a female perspective of analysis and evaluating, the
Course will try to highlight the unique as well as the universal character
of such writings by migrant women.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COURSE/PAPER

The significance of the course is to study cultures in contact and

those impacting one another as reflected through writings by immigrant women.

OBJECTIVES

The course hopes to achieve the objective of informing and sensitizing the
students about the problems relating to migration, particularly with women
immigrants. Further it is proposed to familiarize the students with the
reflection of all this in writings by migrant women.

COURSE OUTCOMES
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
i. Study the Diaspora culture and Diaspora/migrant subjectivities.
ii. Identify the relationship between geography and form as well as
location and representation.
iii. Analyze the representation of dislocation, relocation,
acculturation and assimilation in the selected works.
iv. Appraise the writers’ configurations of the notions of home,
cultural identity and belongingness.
v. Compare and comprehend the female perspective and manner of
narration.

LIST OF CONTENTS:

• Understanding Diaspora, migration and the related terms.

• Understanding the representation of Motherland by the stay at home
writers and the migrant writers.
• Focus on highlighting their issues and their representation in
literature.

Poetry
1971 (taken from Seam) - Tarfiya Faizullah (Bangladesh-America)
The Terrorist at My Table - Imtiaz Dharker (Pakistan-Britain)
Glass Coffins (taken from Because of India) - Suniti Namjoshi (India-
America)
A Letter for Home - Himani Banerjee (India-Canada)
Letter to Perspective Immigrant - Laxmi Gill (Phillipines-Canada)
Framed – Claire Harris (West Indies-Canada)

Short Stories
A Confined House –Maryam Mahboob (Afghanistan-India-Canada)
Against an African Sky–Farida Karodia (South Africa-Canada)
Something Old Something New- Leila Aboulela (Sudan-Scotland)
Through the Tunnel –Doris Lessing (Britain-Zimbabwe)
The Gold Mountain Coat – Judy Fong Bates (China-Canada)
Tilled Earth –Manjushree Thapa (Nepal-Canada)
Saving the World – Tahmima Anam (Bangladesh)

Play
Sons Must Die- Uma Parmeswaran (India-Canada)

Memoir
Reading Lolita in Tehran- Azar Nafisi(Iran-America) or
Jahajin- Peggy Mohan (Trinidad-India)

Novels
An American Brat – Bapsi Sidhwa (Pakistan-America)
Second Class Citizen/ Bride Price – Buchi Emecheta (Nigeria-Britain)
Turtle Nest –Chandani Lokuge (Sri Lanka-Australia)

** The course content may be modified according to the constraints of the

semester-teaching hours.

Essential Readings (excerpts or full articles can be decided by the course

instructors)
Aziz, Nurjehan. Ed. Her Mother’s Ashes and Other Stories by South Asian
Women in Canada and United States. TSAR Publications, Canada. 1994.
(ONLY INTRODUCTION)
Bezhan, Faridullah. “Maryam Mahboob and her Short Stories”. Women, War and
Islamic Radicalisation in Maryam Mahboob’s Afghanistan. Monash
Unievrsity Publishing. 2016.
Chao, Lien. Cha, Jinn Wong. Ed. Strike the Wok. TSAR Publications, Canada.
2003. (ONLY INTRODUCTION)
 “Introduction: Overseas Emigration in the Nineteenth Century”. Indian
Communities Abroad: Themes and Literature. Jain, R. K. Manohar
Publishers and Distributers, New Delhi. 1993.
Narang, Harish. “Piya Gaye Rangoon: Inheritance and Ideology in Diaspora
Women’s Writing”. Gender and Narrative. Jain, Jasbir. Agarwal,
Supriya. Rawat Publications. 2002.

Suggested Readings (Suggested Readings can be modified by the course

instructors)
Al-Kadhimi, Shaymaa Hadi. Women's Diaspora: A Swing between Two Worlds.
Omni Scriptum & Company. 2015.
Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice
in Post-Colonial Literatures. London: Rout ledge, 1989. 33.
Print.
“Breaking the Circle: Recreating the Immigrant Self in Selected Works of
Himani Bannerji”. Theorizing and Critiquing Indian Diaspora. Sharma,
Kavita. Chakrabarti, Tapas. (ed). Creative Books, New Delhi. 2004.
Breto , Isabel Alonso-. “A Poetics of Disruption”: Farida Karodia’s A
Shattering of Silence and the Exiled Writer’s Dihiliz Position.
Prague Journal of English Studies Volume 4, No. 1, 2015.
Cohen, Robin. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 2008.
Faron, Frantz. “From Concerning Violence” in The Wretched of the Earth,
included in Black Identity. Ed. Francis Kearns. New York: Holt,
Rinehart & Winston, 1970. 168. Print.
Hassan, Waïl S. “Leila Aboulela and the Ideology of Muslim Immigrant
Fiction”. NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction. NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction. Vol.
41, No. 2/3. 2008. pp. 298-319.
Jain, Ravindra K. Indian Communities Abroad: Themes and Literature.
Manohar Publichers, Delhi. 1993.
Mcgifford, Diane. The Geography of Voice. TSAR Publications, Canada.1992
Narang, Harish. “You will Flow Back to your Beginnings: Problems of Identity
and Aesthetics in Canadian Literature of Indian Diaspora”.
Multiculturalism: Canada and India. Dhawan, R. K. Pabby, D. K. (ed).
Prestige Books, New Delhi. 2005.
Rastegar ,Kamran. “Trauma and Maturation in Women's War Narratives: The
Eye of the Mirror and Cracking India”. Journal of Middle East
Women's Studies. Vol. 2, No. 3. 2006. pp. 22-47. Duke University
Press.
Singh, Gurupdesh. Diasporic Studies : Theory and lIterature. Gurunanak Dev
University, Amritsar. 2007.
Thilakarathne, Indeewara. "Diaspora and Diasporic Literature." Sunday
Observer. 2011. Web. 16 Mar. 2012. .
Veviana, Coomy S. Godard, Barbara. Ed. Intersexions. Creative Books, New
Delhi. 1996. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/06/04/memoirs-of-
disease-anddisbelief
https://tinhouse.com/sick-an-interview-with-porochista-khakpour/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40874104?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25090048
https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/imtiaz-dharker
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/148764/9/09%20love%20an
d%20protest%20in%20the%20select%20poems%20i.pdf+
https://www.academia.edu/10369932/THE_PLACE_OF_NOSTALIGIA_IN_DIASPORA_WR
IT ING_HOME_AND_BELONGING_IN_THE_FICTION_OF_BHARATI_MUKHERJEE

Assessment Plan (The pattern of continuous assessment can be

decided/changed be decided by the course instructors)
End Semester Examination: 70 Marks
Continuous Assessment: 30 Marks (as detailed below)
i. Diagnostic Test (MCQ / A small Quiz) carrying 05 Marks ii.
Presentation carrying 10 Marks, in a group of 4-5 students, but
evaluation to be done of individual students on the basis of their
performance
iii. A small Quiz / MCQ carrying 05 Marks, to test understanding or for
revision
iv. An Assignment carrying 10 Marks, to be given at least three weeks
in advance, as a part of teaching and not after teaching.
v. A Sessional (as a Make up Test) to be conducted in last week
Important Notes:
1. Suggestions To Students On Reading / Expectations From Students:
a. Each student will join the course with a prior understanding of the
nature of the course and mode of teaching / learning
b. Students will come to the class with a prior reading of the
prescribed text / essential study materials / suggested study
material that the teacher wishes to discuss in the classroom.
c. Students need to be aware of the developments in the classroom.
d. students need to read additional materials on research methodology
and research ethics
2. Suggestions To Students On Writing Assignments / Expectations From
Students:
a. Students need to meet the deadlines for each instruction /
assignment given by the teacher.
b. Students need to follow the detailed guidelines for each assignment
and presentation as provided by the teacher.
c. Students need to follow research methodology and ethics and avoid
any stance of plagiarism. cases of plagiarism will be penalized as
per the gazette notification of government of India, as adopted by
AMU.
3. Teacher’s Role:
a. Teachers will provide the syllabus, guidelines, study materials
(except prescribed materials) in the form of hard or soft copies.
b. Teachers will announce each test / quiz / assignment / sessional
well in advance.
c. Teachers need to be prepared with diagnostic test, Quiz / MCQ / A4
size detailed guidelines for presentation & assignment.
d. Teachers will share the answer scripts and provide feedback if the
students want to have it.
 e. Marks obtained by students for all tests / continuous assessments
will be announced by the teacher.
f. The teacher will distress students by explaining the students that
continuous assessment is not an examination, rather it is a part
of teaching and learning where they get marks for their efforts and
contributions in the form of assignments / presentations. they have
an opportunity to improve their grade by taking a make-up test.
4. Class Policies:
i. Policy on late and unsubmitted tasks: those students who submit
their assignments will not get same / better marks than those
whose submit in time. Teachers are always receptive to any
emergency situations.
ii. Class attendance: as per university rules, 75% attendance is
mandatory.
iii.
5. Additional Weekly, Post Class Discussion Sessions:
Students may arrange additional classes in consultation with the
teacher concerned, if time and situation permits.
Note: The teacher reserves the right to make changes in the syllabus during
the semester as s/he deems necessary.

SIGNATURE OF TEACHER:
NAME OF TEACHER:
Chairperson
Department of English
 MA (English) Semester II
Pool I, Paper II
Poetry from Modern to Contemporary Period
Credits: 04
Course Description: The course explores the development of British poetry from early
twentieth century to contemporary times. It places emphasis on the distinctive methods of
poetic experimentation employed by different schools
Course Outcomes: By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1. Recognize and analyze the distinctive style and techniques of each poet.
2. Demonstrate in writing and discussion how poetic ideas are communicated, represented
and interpreted.
3. Debate theoretical questions and thematic concerns and express them clearly in polished,
academic English.

Contents
Yeats: ‘No Second Troy’, ‘The Second Coming’, ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ ,’Leda and the
Swan’
Eliot: Excerpts from The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock
Excerpts from The Waste Land
Auden: “Muses de Beaux Arts’, ‘The Shield of Achilles’, ‘Partition’
Spender: ‘The Prisoners’, ‘The Express’
Larkin: ’Toads Revisited’,’Mr. Bleaney’. ‘Churchgoing’
Hughes:’Hawk Roosting’,’Thought Fox’,
Heaney:’The Railway Children’, ‘Rite of Spring’’,’Traditions’, ‘Anahorish’
Simon Armitage:’.I Am Very Bothered’, ‘Poem’, ‘The Hard’
Essential Reading
Extracts from:
Eliot :Tradition and the Individual Talent
Yeats:The Symbolism of Poetry
Brooks: Modern Poetry and theTradition

Suggested Reading
James Acheson and Romana Huk, ed. Contemporary British Poetry: Essays in Theory and Criticism.
SUNY P, 1996.
Steven Connor, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism. 2004
Collins, A.S. English Literature of the Twentieth Century
Williamson George,A Reader’s Guide to T.S.Eliot
 MA (English) Semester II
Pool I, Paper I
Poetry from Romantic to Victorian Age
Credits: 04
Course Description: This course offers an overview of the poetry and poetics of the
Romantic and the Victorian ages. It examines the significance of lyrical poetry through selected
poems,of longer works through excerpts and themes and issues of poetics and aesthetics
foregrounded in prose writings of the period.
Course Outcomes: Over the course of the semester the students will be able to :
1. Develop critical, interpretative and analytical ability required for reading Romantic and Victorian
poetry.
2. Acquire and use vocabulary for discussion and for writing academic essays.
3. Decipher the interconnections of structure, content and context.
4. Understand the value, role and impact of poetry in literature and life.

Blake: Introduction, Earth’s Answer, The Tyger, The Little Vagabond, The Voice of the Ancient
Bard, London
Wordsworth: Excerpts from The Prelude, Tintern Abbey,
‘Three years she grew in sun and shower’, ‘She dwelt among Untrodden ways’.
Coleridge: Excerpts from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan,
‘ Frost at Midnight,’ ‘The Day Dream’

Byron: Excerpts from Don Juan, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,

‘ When we two parted’, ‘She walks in beauty’

Shelley: Excerpts from The Masque of Anarchy, Adonais,
‘Ode to the Westwind,’
Keats: Excerpts from Endymion , Lamia
‘Ode to Autumn’, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’
Tennyson: Excerpts from The Lotus Eaters, The Palace of Art,
‘The Two Voices’, ‘Ulysses’

Browning:’ Andrea Del Sarto’, ‘The Last Ride Together’, ‘Rabbi Ben Ezra’, ‘Porphyria’s Lover’

Arnold: ‘Dover Beach’, ‘To Maguerite (yea, in the sea of life)’, ‘Shakespeare,’ ‘The Scholar Gipsy’

Hopkins: ‘The Windhover’, ‘The Starlight Night,’ ‘No Worst, there is none’

Essential Reading
Extracts from:
Preface to The Lyrical Ballads
Coleridge: Biographia Literaria
Shelley: A Defence of Poetry
Arnold: The Function of Criticism at the Present Time

Suggested Reading

Abrams, M. H. The Mirror and the Lamp

Bowra, Maurice The Romantic Imagination
Bush, Douglas. Mythology and the Romantic Tradition in English Poetry
Armstrong, Isobel. The Major Victorian Poets
Buckley, Jerome. The Victorian Temper
Christ, Carol T. Victorian and Modern Poetics
Hough, Graham The Last Romantics
Houghton, Walter E. The Victorian Frame of Mind
 M.A. English II Semester
POOL 2 : British Prose and Fiction from Modern to Contemporary Period
Paper I: Prose and Fiction in Modern Period
Prof. Shahla Ghauri (Convener)
Prof. Aysha Munira
Dr. Akbar J.A. Syed

Background/ Purpose/ Significance of the Course/ Paper:

The literature of the 20th century has become a ‘consumer product’. The political changes in
the 20th Century lead to the spread of education, better standards of living, increased
purchasing power and also more leisure. With a surfeit in print matter it is hard to distinguish
what is commodity and what is a writer’s message. The prose and fiction of the times
celebrates moderation and circumspection. Even when the ‘Angry Young Men’ give volume
to their grievances there is a marked degree of self-possession and inclination towards
understanding.

Course Outcomes:
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Trace the broad developments in British prose and fiction in the modern period
• Identify and discuss the concerns of modern novelists and prose writers
• Identify some of the changes in the forms of modern prose and fiction
• Demonstrate a capacity for a close critical reading of a literary text Communicate
clearly, in writing, an informed response to the text

FICTION:

Somerset Maugham:
The Razor’s Edge (1944)

James Joyce:
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)

Virginia Woolf:
Jacob’s Room (1922)

D.H. Lawrence
The Rainbow (1915)

Graham Greene:
The Heart of the Matter (1948)

PROSE:
Max Beerbohm:

“A Christmas Garland”

“A Clergyman”

A.G. Gardiner:
Leaves in the Wind (1920) essays

Robert Lynd:
The Green Man (1928)

“Writing Letters”

“Hope: A Brevity”

Essential Readings:
E. M. Forster, Essays in Two Cheers for Democracy
“What I Believe”

“The Challenge of Our Times”

George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty Four (1949)

Jean Rhys : Good Morning, Midnight (1939)
Virginia Woolf: Collected Essays

“Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown”

“Modern Fiction”

Suggested Readings:
EDN, et al. “Booksearch:Voices of Our Times: Twentieth Century Prose”, The English
Journal, Vol 82, No.7 (Nov. 1993)

MILLER BROOKS, Self-Consciousness in Modern British Fiction, London: Palgrave,

2013.DOI : 10.1057/9781137076656

• Faulkner, Peter (ed.), A Modernist Reader: Modernism in England 19101930(London:

Batsford, 1986)
 • Goldman, Jane, Modernism 1910-1945: Image to Apocalypse (Basingstoke: Macmillan,
2004)
• Huyssen Andreas, After the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass Culture, Postmodernism
• Haffenden, John, Novelists in Interview (London: Methuen, 1985)
• Jed Esty, A Shrinking Island: Modernism and National Culture in England, Princeton:
UP, 2004 (Introduction and Chapter 1)
• Lodge, David, The Art of Fiction (London: Penguin, 1992)
• Marcus, Laura, Auto/biographical Discourses (Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 1994)
Mullan, John, How Novels Work (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Peter Childs, Modernism, Routledge, 2000 (Introduction)
Raymond Wiliams “Metropolitan Perseptions and the emergence of Modernism” in The
Politics of Modernism: Against the New Conformists, London:
Verso, 1989. 37-48
• Rita Felski, The Gender of Modernity, Cambridge, MA:Harvard UP, 1995 (Introduction
and Chapter 1)
• Sage, Lorna, Women in the House of Fiction (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 19
• Waugh, Patricia, Metafiction (London: Methuen, 1989)
• Woolf, Virginia, Women and Writing, ed. by Michele Barrett (London: Women's Press,
1989)
ENTER KEYWORDS
 MA II SEMESTER
POOL 2: BRITISH PROSE AND FICTION FROM POSTMODERN
PAPER II: TO CONTEMPORARY PERIOD

Prof. Shahla Ghauri, Prof. Aysha Munira, Prof. Nazia Hasan, Dr. Akbar Syed, Dr. Kishwar
Zafeer

After the mayhem of the Second World War, a new century was born together with a literature
that broke the framework into which it had been confined. The journey to ‘Inferno’ caused
writers to challenge the notions of the past. The superficial equilibrium and solidity rendered
Europe into a desert. Hopelessness and cynicism plunged the individual into the dark corners of
the self. Dislike of readymade solutions, adaptability to contemporary times, partiality to the
psychology of nature, Post-modern literature is concerned with the follies and vices of the age.

Course Outcomes:
By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Trace the broad developments in prose and fiction from postmodern to contemporary period
• Identify and discuss major concerns of prose and fiction writers of the period

• Identify and discuss themes, concerns, and aesthetic strategies of postmodern fiction
• Exhibit through a knowledge of the major theoretical and critical arguments regarding
postmodernism
• Demonstrate the ability to engage in research and advanced literary analysis
• To Participate, orally and in writing, in discussions of literary works

CONTENT

Fiction:
William Golding: Lord of the Flies (1954)
C.P. Snow: Corridors of Power (1964)
John Fowles: The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969)
Zadie Smith: White Teeth (2000)
Farrukh Dhondy : Selections from East End at Your Feet (1976)
Julian Barnes: selections from The Lemon Table (2004)
Ali Smith: True Short Story (The First Person and Other Stories, 2008) Non
Fiction:
Terry Eagleton: The Ideology of the Aesthetic (1990)
Salman Rushdie: Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism (1992) Autobiography:

Gai Eaton (Hassan Abdul Hakeem)- A Bad Beginning and the Path to Islam (2009) Essential

Reading:
Angela Carter: Night at the Circus (1984)
Martin Amis: The War Against Cliche (2001) - Selections Robert

Harris: Dictator (2015)

Suggested Reading:

BRADFORD, Richard, The Novel Now. Contemporary British Fiction, Oxford : OUP, 2007.

CHAMBERS, Claire, British Muslim Fiction: Interviews with Contemporary Writers, London:
Palgrave, 2011.

CHILDS, Peter, Contemporary Novelists. British Fiction since 1970, 2nd ed. London: Palgrave,
2005.

DIX, Hywel, Postmodern Fiction and the Break-Up of Britain, London: Continuum, 2010.

GANTEAU, Jean-Michel and Susana ONEGA, eds., Trauma and Romance in Contemporary British
Literature, London: Routledge, 2013.

GASIOREK, Andrzej, Post-war British Fiction. Realism and After, London: Edward Arnold, 1995.

JAMES, David, The Legacies of Modernism: Historicising Postwar and Contemporary Fiction,
Cambridge: CUP, 2011.

———, Contemporary British Fiction and the Artistry of Space: Style, Landscape, Perception,
London: Continuum, 2012.

Rod MENGHAM and Philip TEW, eds., Contemporary British Fiction, Cambridge: Polity, 2002.

MACPHEE, Graham, Postwar British Literature and Postcolonial Studies, Edinburgh: Edinburgh
UP, 2011.

MILLER, Brook, Self-Consciousness in Modern British Fiction, London: Palgrave, 2013. DOI :
10.1057/9781137076656

ONEGA, Susana and Jean-Michel GANTEAU, eds., Ethics and Trauma in Contemporary British
Fiction, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2011.

PRINCE, Tracy J., Culture Wars in British Literature: Multiculturalism and National Identity,
London: McFarland, 2012.

RODRIGUEZ, Laura, ed., Women’s Short Fiction from Virginia Woolf to Ali Smith, Pieterlen: Peter
Lang, 2012.

SCANLAN, Margaret, Traces of Another Time: History and Politics in Postwar British Fiction,
Princeton: Princeton UP, 1990.

SQUIRES, Claire, Marketing Literature: The Making of Contemporary Writing in Britain, London:
Palgrave, 2009.

TEW, Philip, The Contemporary British Novel, London: Continuum, 2007.

TEW, Philip and Leigh WILSON, eds., The 1980s: a Decade of Contemporary British Fiction,
London: Continuum, 2012.

TODD, Richard, Consuming Fictions: The Booker Prize and Fiction in Britain Today, London:
Bloomsbury, 1996.
TOMOIAGA, Ligia, Elements of the Picaresque in Contemporary British Fiction, Newcastle:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012.

WELLS, Lynn, Allegories of Telling / Self-referential narrative in Contemporary British fiction,

Amsterdam: Rodopi, Costerus New Series, 2003.
 MA ENGLISH II SEMESTER

POOL III, PAPER I

Course Title: Modern British Drama

Teachers: Prof. Vibha Sharma, Dr. Saquib Abrar, Ms. Alisha Ibkar

Course No.: Credits: 04

BACKGROUND / Purpose / SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COURSE/PAPER:
Modern British drama refers to the oeuvre of some major drama exponents at
the turn of the last century in the UK. With Henrik Ibsen’s Doll’s House, a
major shift in the art and themes of European drama-culture took place. The
modern and modernity that have been evolving over the previous centuries
started meeting voices of unease, rejection and disillusionment in the later
nineteenth century. It is important that modern drama in England and other
European countries is a consolidation of the voices born against
modern/modernities that had culminated with industrial revolution. That is
how modernism emerged. Therefore, modern British drama is a documentation
of major changes in art, themes and techniques. The stage gets converted
into a drawing room of urban middle class families. The role of audience
changed phenomenally and there was a bigger space and responsibility for the
audience in theatre-productions. All these creative under-currents produce
formidable modern classics on stage as well as on page. This paper deals
with modern British plays and playwrights in the backdrop of the
aforementioned paradigm. The modern crisis gave birth to a very conducive
environment for creative experiments on stage and the paper will foreground
these, through works of major British playwrights.

COURSE OUTCOMES:
By the end if the course, the students will be able to:
Display a holistic knowledge of philosophical and ideological discourses
of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century British Drama.
Assess modern British dramas as embodiments of the modernist paradigms
of art, ideology and philosophy.
Appreciate the performance value of a play through tools of inquiry to
produce analytical write-ups and presentations.
Formulate critiques of theatre and performance in the light of related
literatures.
Connect the modern drama as precursory thesis to postmodern drama.

Primary Concept / Texts:

Background, Foundational Paradigms of Modern English Drama
Pygmalian by George Bernard Shaw
The Words Upon the Window-pane by W. B. Yeats
Juno and the Paycock by Sean O Casey
Chicken Soup with Barley by Arnold Wesker
Family Reunion by T. S. Eliot
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter
Rosencrantz and Goldenstein are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Essential Readings:
(Note: Related chapters from books and excerpts from articles)
Artaud’s Antonin, Theatre of Cruelty.
 Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus
Esslin, Martin. Modern Theatre 1890 - 1920. In John Russell Brown.
1995. The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. ISBN 0-19-212997-X.
Esslin, Martin. The Field of Drama, Methuen, London and New York, 1987
Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd, Anchor Books, New York, 1961
Eyre, Richard and Nicholas Wright. Changing Stages: A View of British
and American
Gassner, John. Directions in Modern Drama and Theatre.
Innes, Christopher. Modern British Drama: 1890-1990, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 1992.
Krsaner, David. A history of Modern Drama (2011)
Nicoll, Allardyce. The Theory of Drama
Styan J.L. Modern Drama in Theory and Practice, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge 1981
Tynan, Joseph L. “A History of Modern Drama.” CEA Critic, vol. 10, no.
4, 1948, pp. 4–4. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44419313.

Suggested Readings:

“THE WORDS UPON THE WINDOW-PANE.” Prolegomena to the Study of Yeats's

Plays, by George Brandon Saul, University of Pennsylvania Press,
Philadelphia, 1958, pp. 86–88. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv51372p.24.
Airth, Cathy. “Making the Least of Masculine Authority: Sean O'Casey's
‘Paycock’ and ‘Plough and the Stars.’” The Canadian Journal of Irish
Studies, vol. 32, no. 2, 2006, pp. 42–47. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/25515638.
Aston, Elaine. “Communities in Dramatic Dialogue” in Caryl Churchill.
Liverpool University Press, 2010. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv5rdts4.
Bailar, Melissa Ann. “Names and Their Doubles: Shifting Signifiers in
Pinter's Plays.” The Harold Pinter Review, vol. 3, no. 1, 2019, pp.
66–74. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/haropintrevi.3.1.0066.
Ballard-Thomas, David. “Waiting for Godot.” Blackfriars, vol. 36, no.
428, 1955, pp. 439–439. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43816817.
BRANFORD, W. R. G. “MYTH AND THEME IN THE PLAYS OF T. S. ELIOT.” Theoria:
A Journal of Social and Political Theory, no. 7, 1955, pp. 101–110.
JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41801424.
Donoghue, Denis. “Synge: Riders to the Sea: A Study.” University Review,
vol. 1, no. 5, 1955, pp. 52–58. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25504329.
Esslin, Martin Pinter: A Study of His Plays, Eyre Methuen, London, 1970
Gooding-Williams, Robert. “Nietzsche's Pursuit of Modernism.” New German
Critique, no. 41, 1987, pp. 95–108. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/488277.
Gassner, John. “Forms of Modern Drama.” Comparative Literature, vol.
7, no. 2, 1955, pp. 129–143. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1769127.
Hoxby, Blair. “History, Myth, and Early Modern Drama.” History and
Drama: The Pan-European Tradition, edited by Joachim Küpper et al.,
1st ed., De Gruyter, Berlin;Boston, 2019, pp. 38–41. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbkjx1b.6.
Hunter, Frederick J. “The Value of Time in Modern Drama.” The Journal
of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 16, no. 2, 1957, pp.
 194–201. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/427599.
Justice, John Galsworthy (1910)
Kleinberg, Robert. “Seriocomedy in ‘The Wesker Trilogy.’” Educational
Theatre Journal, vol. 21, no. 1, 1969, pp. 36–40. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/3205775.
Kleinberg, Robert. “Seriocomedy in ‘The Wesker Trilogy.’” Educational
Theatre Journal, vol. 21, no. 1, 1969, pp. 36–40. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/3205775.
Lukács, George, and Lee Baxandall. “The Sociology of Modern Drama.” The
Tulane Drama Review, vol. 9, no. 4, 1965, pp. 146– 170. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/1125039.
Maura, Sister. “Explication.” The English Journal, vol. 57, no. 1, 1968,
pp. 20–20. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/812514.
Nellis, Mike. “JOHN GALSWORTHY'S JUSTICE.” The British Journal of
Potter, Rosanne G. “Toward a Syntactic Differentiation of Period Style
in Modern Drama: Significant Between-Play Variability in 21
EnglishLanguage Plays.” Computers and the Humanities, vol. 14, no. 3,
1980, pp. 187–196. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30207335.
ROTHBERG, ABRAHAM. “East End, West End: Arnold Wesker.” Southwest
Review, vol. 52, no. 4, 1967, pp. 368–378. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/43467923.
Sato, Yoko. “‘The Words upon the Window-Pane’: From Spiritualism to
'Noh' to Acoustic Images.” Journal of Irish Studies, vol. 22, 2007,
pp. 105–115. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27759591.
SCHOENE, BERTHOLD. “The Union and Jack: British Masculinities,
Pomophobia, and the Post-Nation.” Across the Margins: Cultural
Identity and Change in the Atlantic Archipelago, edited by GLENDA
NORQUAY and GERRY SMYTH, Manchester University Press, Manchester; New
York, 2002, pp. 83–98. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt155j6f1.10.
Sternlicht, Sanford. Modern Irish Drama: W. B. Yeats to Marina Carr,
Second Edition. Syracuse University Press, 2010. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1j5d9wk.Shaw's ‘Pygmalion.’” Irish
University Review, vol. 29, no. 2, 1999, pp. 294–304. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/25484816.
Unwin, Stephen & Carole Woddis A Pocket Guide to 20th-Century Drama,
London, Faber & Faber, 2001
White, Harry. “IRELAND AND THE IRISH IN PINTER.” AAA: Arbeiten Aus
Anglistik Und Amerikanistik, vol. 14, no. 2, 1989, pp. 161–165. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/43023500.

Assessment Plan:
End Semester Examination: 70 Marks
Continuous Assessment: 30 Marks (as detailed
below)
i. Diagnostic Test (MCQ / A small Quiz) carrying 05 Marks

ii. Presentation carrying 10 Marks, in a group of 4-5

students, but evaluation to be done of individual
students on the basis of their performance

iii. A small Quiz / MCQ carrying 05 Marks, to test

understanding or for revision
 iv. An Assignment carrying 10 Marks, to be given at least
three weeks in advance, as a part of teaching and not
after teaching.

v. A Sessional (as a Make up Test) to be conducted in last

week
Important Notes:
1. Suggestions To Students On Reading / Expectations From Students:

a. Each student will join the course with a prior understanding of the nature of the
course and mode of teaching / learning

b. Students will come to the class with a prior reading of the prescribed text /
essential study materials / suggested study material that the teacher wishes to
discuss in the classroom.
c. Students need to be aware of the developments in the classroom.
d. students need to read additional materials on research methodology and resarch
ethics

2. Suggestions To Students On Writing Assignments / Expectations From Students:

a. Students need to meet the deadlines for each instruction / assignment given by
the teacher.

b. Students need to follow the detailed guidelines for each assignment and
presentation as provided by the teacher.
c. Students need to follow research methodology and ethics and avoid any stance of
plagiarism. cases of plagiarism will be penalised as per the gazette notification
of government of India, as adopted by AMU.
3. Teacher’s Role:
a. Teachers will provide the syllabus, guidelines, study materials (except prescribed
materials) in the form of hard or soft copies.
b. Teachers will announce each test / quiz / assignment / sessional well in advance.
c. Teachers need to be prepared with diagnostic test, Quiz / MCQ / A4 size detailed
guidelines for presentation & assignment.

d. Teachers will share the answer scripts and provide feedback if the students want
to have it.
e. Marks obtained by students for all tests / continuous assessments will be announced
by the teacher.

f. The teacher will destress students by explaining the students that continous
assessment is not an examination, rather it is a part of teaching and learning
where they get marks for their efforts and contributions in the form of assignments
/ presentations. they have an opportunity to improve their grade by taking a make
up test.
4. Class Policies:
i. Policy on late and unsubmitted tasks: those students who submit their assignments will
not get same / better marks than those whose submit in time. teachers are always receptive
to any emergency situations.
ii. Class attendance: as per university rules, 75% attendance is mandatory.

5. Additional Weekly, Post Class Discussion Sessions:

Students may arrange additional classes in consultation with the teacher concerned,
if time and situation permits.
Note: The teacher reserves the right to make changes in the syllabus during the semester as
s/he deems necessary.
 MA ENGLISH II SEMESTER
POSTMODERN TO CONTEMPORARY BRITISH DRAMA
POOL III, PAPER II

John Arden Edward Bond John Mcgarth Timberlake Wertenbaker Joe Penhall

Nina Raine Tanika Gupta Jez Butterworth

TEACHER: PROF S. N. Zeba / PROF. VIBHA SHARMA / DR. MD. SAQUIB ABRAR
BACKGROUND / PURPOSE / SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PAPER:
With non-white Meghan Merkle giving birth to a British prince, the white
blue-blood has genetically been ushered onto a path of inclusiveness which
will open new discourses to ponder over. This has not been new to the
commoners of the UK as there has been a rigorous cultural shift due to the
emerging non-white discourse in all spheres. When the euphoric discourses
centred on postcolonialism settled down, it gave way to alternate concerns
in British literature, theatre and drama. With the UK emerging as a home to
millions of Asians and Africans from the erstwhile colonies, equations
between the British and the formerly-colonised peoples acquired new
dimensions. British literature is now identified with the voices of nonwhite
discourses as well. Though, all is not hunky-dory between the whites and the
non-whites since a neo-assertion of the white supremacy is also witnessed.
Thus, there are varied perspectives identifiable with the present day UK and
these are very well represented in the British postmodern drama and theatre.
The beauty of postmodernity is that it does not have uniform manifestations
across the genres. Postmodern theatre/drama may be different from postmodern
fiction and poetry since a sartorial and palpable cultural
connect/transformation keep happening in theatre. Thus, fragmentation,
individualism, the real and disjointedness are primarily manifest on stage
and not just in the pages. Hence, studying drama requires an engagement with
performance and production oriented undercurrents as well. This paper will
engage the students with all these perspectives to expose them to an academic
and intellectual paradigm of British drama/theatre in contemporary times
which otherwise remains overshadowed by the fiction discourse ruled by
Bookers and Pultizers.

COURSE OUTCOMES:
By the end of this course, the students will be able to:

Define and discuss the characteristic traits and theatre cultures in

postmodern and contemporary British drama.
Assess theatre and drama within theoretical paradigm of postmodernity
and contemporaniety.
 Illustrate distinctiveness of drama/theatre as genre of studies in
comparison to fiction and poetry.
Appraise the performance dimension of drama/theatre as a source to
socio-cultural, philosophical, ideological and intellectual insights
into a text.

Content:

i. Introduction and Background Discussion ii. Literary trends in

Postmodern and Contemporary British theatre iii. John Arden: Serjeant
Musgrave's Dance, An Un-historical Parable
(1959) iv. Edward Bond:
Lear (1961)
v. John Mcgarth: The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black Black Oil (1970)
vi. Timberlake Wertenbaker: Our Country’s Good (1988)
vii. Joe Penhall: Some Voices (1994)
viii. Nina Raine: Rabbit (2006) ix. Tanika Gupta: Sugar Mummies (2006)
x. Jez Butterworth: Jerusalem (2009)

Essential Readings (Excerpts):

Maggie B. Gale (Editor), John F. Deeney (Editor) The Routledge Drama

Anthology: Modernism to Contemporary Performance. (2016)
Malkin, Jeanette R., Memory: Theater and Postmodern Drama (Theater:
Theory/Text/Performance)
Miller, Frederic P., Agnes F. Vandome, McBrewster John (Edited).
Postmodern Theatre.
Watt, Stephen. Postmodern/Drama: Reading the Contemporary Stage.
University of Michigan Press, 1998.

Suggested Readings:

“Adaptation and Transposition – Reinterpreting the Past.” Contemporary

British Drama, by David Lane, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh,
2010, pp. 157–187. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g0b7c4.12.
“Back Matter.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 122, no.
4, 2002, pp. 929–941. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3217682.
“Conclusion: Late Modernism in Jerusalem.” The Politics and Poetics of
Contemporary English Tragedy, by SEAN CARNEY, University of Toronto
Press, Toronto; Buffalo; London, 2013, pp. 285–300. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442663503.10.-
“In-Yer-Face Theatre and Legacies of the New Writing
Boom.” Contemporary British Drama, by David Lane, Edinburgh University
Press, Edinburgh, 2010, pp. 24–57. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g0b7c4.7.
“John Arden: The Playwright Who Wouldn’t Play Ball.” The Making of
Theatrical Reputations: Studies from the Modern London Theatre, by
YAEL ZARHY-LEVO, University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, 2008, pp. 119–
160. JSTOR, www.jstor.org
“John Arden: The Playwright Who Wouldn’t Play Ball.” The Making of
Theatrical Reputations: Studies from the Modern London Theatre, by
YAEL ZARHY-LEVO, University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, 2008, pp. 119–
160. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt20mvdmc.7.
“New English Tragedians: The Tragedy of the Tragic.” The Politics and
Poetics of Contemporary English Tragedy, by SEAN CARNEY, University
of Toronto Press, Toronto; Buffalo; London, 2013, pp. 231–284. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442663503.9.
“Pulitzer Prize Winner, Vilified Misogynist (1981–1985).” Becoming John
Updike: Critical Reception, 1958-2010, by Laurence W. Mazzeno, Boydell
and Brewer, 2013, pp. 67–89. JSTOR.
“Verbatim Theatre – The Rise of a Political Voice.” Contemporary
British Drama, by David Lane, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh,
2010, pp. 58–81. JSTOR, www.jstor.org
Abrams, Joshua. “STATE OF THE NATION: New British Theatre.” PAJ: A
Journal of Performance and Art, vol. 32, no. 2, 2010, pp. 8–16. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/40856536.
Aleks Sierz. “Beyond Timidity? The State of British New Writing.” PAJ:
A Journal of Performance and Art, vol. 27, no. 3, 2005, pp. 55– 61.
JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4140087.
Arden, John. Silence among the Weapons: some events at the time of the
failure of a Republic, London: Methuen. 1982.
Arden, John. To present the pretence: essays on the theatre and its
public, London: Methuen. 1977.
Ashton, Elaine. Feminist Views on the English Stage: Women Playwrights,
1990-2000. 2003.
Basnett, Susan. Studying British Cultures. 2003.
Billington, Michael, et al. “The State of British Theatre Now: An
Interview with Michael Billington.” Atlantis, vol. 26, no. 1, 2004,
pp. 89–100. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41055138.
Childs, Peter. Encyclopaedia of Contemporary British Culture. 1999.
Culberston, Diana. “Sacred Victims: Catharsis in the Modern Theatre”.
CrossCurrents. Vol. 41, No. 2, Michelangelo's Carnal Spirituality
(Summer 1991), pp.179-194. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24459835.
DiGaetani, John L. A Search for a Postmodern Theater: Interviews with
Contemporary Playwrights.1991.
Donell, Alison. Companion to Contemporary British Black Culture.2002.
Foster, Verna A. “After Chekhov: The Three Sisters of Beth Henley, Wendy
Wasserstein, Timberlake Wertenbaker, and Blake Morrison.” Comparative
Drama, vol. 47, no. 4, 2013, pp. 451– 472. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/
24615298.
Gömceli, Nursen. “Timberlake Wertenbaker’s ‘Radical Feminist’
Reinterpretation of a Greek Myth: The Love of the Nightingale.” AAA:
Arbeiten Aus Anglistik Und Amerikanistik, vol. 34, no. 1, 2009, pp.
79–102. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26430888.
MacMillan, Fiona, and John McGrath. “Working Class Hero.” Fortnight,
no. 360, 1997, pp. 31–31. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25559283.
Neher, Erick. “Theater on Theater.” The Hudson Review, vol. 67, no.
2, 2014, pp. 279–286. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43489320.
Patterson, Charles. Strategies of Political Theatre: Post-War British
Playwrights. 2003.
Preuss, Stefanie. “ʺMetaphors for the Scots Todayʺ: History and National
Identity in Scottish Drama after 1945.” Haunted Narratives:
Life Writing in an Age of Trauma, edited by GABRIELE RIPPL et al.,
University of Toronto Press, Toronto; Buffalo; London, 2013, pp. 161–
178. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctt2tts3d.12.
Raine, Nina. ‘Rabbit’. Nick Hern Books. NHB Modern Plays. ISBN:
9781854599353.
 Rogoff, Gordon, editor. “British Theater: Kinky, Arrogant, and Frankly
Magnificent (1966).” The Drama Is Coming Now: The Theater Criticism
of Richard Gilman, 1961-1991, Yale University Press, 2005, pp. 16–
23. JSTOR, www.jstor.org
Thomas R. Atkins. “The London Theater: A Devaluation.” The Kenyon
Review, vol. 31, no. 3, 1969, pp. 348–366. JSTOR.
www.jstor.org/stable/4334915.
www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt284tfb.8.

ASSESSMENT PLAN:
Week 1-2: Diagnostic Test
Week 6: Presentation
Week 8: Presentation/ Short Write-ups of appreciation/analysis
Week 9: Preparing Proposal for Term Paper and Putting up short
Performance/watching a performance followed by discussion of the
performance.
Week 13: Term Paper Submission
Week 14: Feedback on Term Paper and Sessional Test if needed
IMPORTANT NOTES:
i. SUGGESTIONS TO STUDENTS ON READING / EXPECTATIONS FROM
STUDENTS:
1. EACH STUDENT WILL JOIN THE COURSE WITH A PRIOR UNDERSTANDING OF THE
NATURE OF THE COURSE AND MODE OF TEACHING / LEARNING
2. STUDENTS WILL COME TO THE CLASS WITH A PRIOR READING OF THE PRESCRIBED
TEXT / ESSENTIAL STUDY MATERIALS / SUGGESTED STUDY MATERIAL THAT THE
TEACHER WISHES TO DISCUSS IN THE CLASSROOM.
3. STUDENTS NEED TO BE AWARE OF THE DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CLASSROOM.
4. STUDENTS NEED TO READ ADDITIONAL MATERIALS ON RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND
RESARCH ETHICS ii. SUGGESTIONS TO STUDENTS ON WRITING ASSIGNMENTS /
EXPECTATIONS FROM STUDENTS:
a. STUDENTS NEED TO MEET THE DEADLINES FOR EACH INSTRUCTION /
ASSIGNMENT GIVEN BY THE TEACHER.
b. STUDENTS NEED TO FOLLOW THE DETAILED GUIDELINES FOR EACH ASSIGNMENT
AND PRESENTATION AS PROVIDED BY THE TEACHER.
c. STUDENTS NEED TO FOLLOW RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND ETHICS AND AVOID
ANY STANCE OF PLAGIARISM. CASES OF PLAGIARISM WILL BE PENALISED AS
PER THE GAZETTE NOTIFICATION OF GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, AS ADOPTED BY
AMU.
iii. TEACHER’S ROLE:
a. TEACHERS WILL PROVIDE THE SYLLABUS, GUIDELINES, STUDY MATERIALS
(EXCEPT PRESCRIBED MATERIALS) IN THE FORM OF HARD OR SOFT COPIES.
b. TEACHERS WILL ANNOUNCE EACH TEST / QUIZ / ASSIGNMENT / SESSIONAL
WELL IN ADVANCE.
c. TEACHERS NEED TO BE PREPARED WITH DIAGNOSTIC TEST, QUIZ / MCQ / A4
SIZE DETAILED GUIDELINES FOR PRESENTATION & ASSIGNMENT.
d. TEACHERS WILL SHARE THE ANSWER SCRIPTS AND PROVIDE FEEDBACK IF THE
STUDENTS WANT TO HAVE IT.
e. MARKS OBTAINED BY STUDENTS FOR ALL TESTS / CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENTS
WILL BE ANNOUNCED BY THE TEACHER.
f. THE TEACHER WILL DESTRESS STUDENTS BY EXPLAINING THE STUDENTS THAT
CONTINOUS ASSESSMENT IS NOT AN EXAMINATION, RATHER IT IS A PART OF
 TEACHING AND LEARNING WHERE THEY GET MARKS FOR THEIR EFFORTS AND
CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE FORM OF ASSIGNMENTS / PRESENTATIONS. THEY HAVE
AN OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE THEIR GRADE BY TAKING A MAKE UP TEST. iv.
CLASS POLICIES:
a. POLICY ON LATE AND UNSUBMITTED TASKS: THOSE STUDENTS WHO SUBMIT
THEIR ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT GET SAME / BETTER MARKS THAN THOSE WHOSE
SUBMIT IN TIME. TEACHERS ARE ALWAYS RECEPTIVE TO ANY EMERGENCY
SITUATIONS.
b. CLASS ATTENDANCE: AS PER UNIVERSITY RULES, 75% ATTENDANCE IS
MANDATORY.

5. ADDITIONAL WEEKLY, POST CLASS DISCUSSION SESSIONS:

STUDENTS MAY ARRANGE ADDITIONAL CLASSES IN CONSULTATION WITH THE
TEACHER CONCERNED, IF TIME AND SITUATION PERMITS.
NOTE: THE TEACHER RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MAKE CHANGES IN THE SYLLABUS DURING
THE SEMESTER AS S/HE DEEMS NECESSARY.

SIGNATURE OF TEACHER:
NAME OF TEACHER: DR/PROF XYZ
Chairperson
Department of English
 MA ENGLISH II SEMESTER

POOL 4, PAPER I

TITLE: Contemporary Literary Theory (From Formalism

to Structuralism)

BACKGROUND / Purpose / SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COURSE/PAPER:

COURSE NO. 1234, TITLE: Literary Theory is an important subject in literature
classrooms today. It has deeply influenced the nature and organization of
literary studies. The subject has an interdisciplinary nature and often
draws its concepts from various fields. Theory asks meta questions about the
nature of culture, art, literature and genres. A subject that is very
openended, theory interrogates our assumptions about the world, the
ideologies that sustain it, and the interrelationships that operate in it.
Theory has not replaced literary criticism; it rather asks newer sets of
questions. At the individual level theory can enhance one’s understanding
of the world; it can help a person look at his/her world more critically.
But beware, theory can also be addictive.

Course Outcomes:
BY THE END OF THIS COURSE, STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO:
a.Display knowledge of seminal works of literary theorists.
b. Demonstrate grounding in the important concepts in theory.
c. Incorporate in their academic endavours two important dimensions of
theory(i) Reading theory can be very illuminating in its own right
without necessarily being instrumental(ii) Reading theory can greatly
help in the interpretation and analysis of literary and other texts.
d.Assess relationships between different theoretical positions.
e.Evaluate and analyse literary texts in the light of theory.
LIST OF CONTENTS:
*: Essential Readings
**: Suggested Readings

Foundation of English Studies; Historical Emergence of the Concept of

Literature; Institutional Bases of Literary Studies; What is
Literary Theory?
 * (Excerpts) D. J. Palmer's The Rise of English Studies (1965)
* Terry Eagleton’s “The Rise of English” in Literary Theory: An
Introduction.
**Doyle, Brian. 'The Invention of English.' In Colls, Robert, and Dodd,
Philip, eds. Englishness: Culture and Politics. 1880-1920.
(Beckenham: Croom Helm. 1986). pp. 89-115
** Ryan, Michael. (from) Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction

Russian Formalism: Shklovsky, Mukarovsky, Eichenbaum, Jakobson; The

Bakhtin School; Russian Formalism and New Criticism. What is
Formalist reading of a text?

*(Excerpts) Roman Jakobson, “Linguistics and Poetics”

*(Excerpts) Shklovsky ______________
*(Excerpts) Mukarovsky _______________
*(Excerpts) Eichenbaum _____________
*(Excerpts) Bakhtin ___________
** Suggested Readings

Phenomenology: Husserl, Heidegger and Gadamer; German Reception Theory.

*(Excerpts) Husserl _________
*(Excerpts) Heidegger ____________
*(Excerpts) Gadamer __________
**Pages on Phenomenology ______________
**Pages on German Reception Theory _______________

Structuralism: What is Structuralism? Language & Literature as

Structure, Saussure; Structuralist Narratology: Propp, Levi
Strauss, A.J.Greimas,Todorov, Barthes, Genette;
Implications of Structualism for the study of
literature; Structuralism and Semiotics.
*(Excerpts) Roland Barthes, S/Z
*(Excerpts) Roland Barthes, Elements of Semiology
*(Excerpts) Saussure (from) Course in General Linguistics
*(Excerpts) Yury Lotman (from) The Analysis of the Poetic Text
*(Excerpts) Vladimir Propp (from) The Morphology of the Folktale
*(Excerpts) Todorov ___________________
**Suggested Readings
________________________ Some more SUGGESTED
READINGS:
i. Terry Eagleton “What is Literature” in Literary Theory: An
Introduction ii. Ryan, Michael.(from) Literary Theory: A
Practical Introduction iii. Raman Selden(From) Practicing Theory
Reading Literature
 MA ENGLISH SEMESTER II
Pool 4 Paper II
Linguistic Turn in Criticism
Credit: 4 Course No.

Chomsky Frege Wittgenstein Saussure Derrida Russel

BACKGROUND / Purpose / SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COURSE/PAPER:

20th Century Linguistic Turn in Criticism is an integral part of the
Postgraduate Programme in English Literature. Undergoing this course helps
in developing an understanding of the turn towards linguistics in philosophy
and related strategies for the deconstruction of texts. The course will
proceed through a reading of seminal readings in order to extract central
concepts, that the student will be required to demonstrate working knowledge
of rather than rote learning, in multiple assessments involving
presentations/term papers/assignments. The reading of core texts will be
supplemented with introductory lectures and complemented with interactive
assignments involving hands on application of concepts learnt.

COURSE OUTCOMES:
STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO:
Identify the Nodal Junctions influencing the Linguistic Turn in
philosophy and literary criticism.
ii. Assess the Turn as a commensurable paradigmatic shift that interplays
across various disciplines in humanities and social sciences
influencing Modernism and Postmodernism.
Demonstrate familiarity and dexterity in the usage of critical terms
and concepts.
Apply the theoretical formulations in various texts chosen for the
purpose, in generating critical interpretations of their own.

LIST OF CONTENTS: (Questions only on application of concepts)

The Linguistic Turn
Frege The Foundations of Arithmetic (Identity of a
Numerical Proposition as Linguistic: Para 62)
Russel "On Denoting", Mind, New Series, Vol. 14, No. 56.
(October 1905) P. 479-493.
Wittgenstein Tractatus Logico Philosophicus Trans. Ramsay &
Ogden.
Statements 1, 2, 6.373- 7

Debates in Linguistics
Saussure Course in General Linguistics Trans. R. Harris,
London: Duckworth, 1983 (Extracts for
signifier, signified, langue, parole,
padigmatic and syntagmatic relations)
 Derrida i."Differance" Speech and Phenomena. Northwest
University Press, Illinois, 1973
ii."Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of
Human Sciences" Writing and Difference, University
of Chicago Press, 1978
Chomsky i. Syntactic Structures. Mouton, The Hague, 1957
(Selection on Theory)
ii. Topics on the Theory of Generative Grammar.
Mouton, The Hague, 1966 (Traditional Grammar
vs. Generative Grammar, Deep Structure/Surface
Structure, Transformational Grammar, Universal
Grammar)
Debates in Psychoanalysis
Freud i."On Aphasia" ii. "The Case of Little Hans" (Castration
Anxiety) iii. "The Case of Anna O". (The
Talking Cure and Practice)From The
Interpretation of Dreams, Penguin (2004)
Lacan i. "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I
Function". Ecrits: A Selection. Norton, New York. 1977
ii. The Four Fundamental Concepts of
Psychoanalysis.Trans. Alan Sheridan. Norton,
New York. 1977. P. 144, 247. (Extracts on
Ideal Ego)
Barthes S/Z Trans. Richard Miller. Jonathan Cape,
London and Hill & Wang, New York, 1975 (Extracts to exemplify Death
of the Author, Death due to void, Castration due to Capitalism)

Debates in Marxism and Post-Marxism

Stalin "Concerning Marxism in Linguistics" Marxism and Problems
of Linguistics. Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow,
1984
Baudrillard "The Precession of Simulacra" Simulacra and
Simulation. University of Michigan, 1994
Zizek. i. "The Poetic Torture-House of Language" Poetry March
2014, Chicago ii."Language, Violence and Non Violence" IJZS 2/3,2016
https://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/129/129

Debates in Gender Theory

Canning, Kathleen. "Feminist History after the Linguistic Turn:
Historicizing Discourse and Experience," Signs: Journal of Women in
Culture and Society 19, no. 2 (Winter, 1994): 368-404.
Kristeva, Julia. Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature
and Art. Columbia University Press, 1980
Irigaray & Carlston “The Language of Man.” Cultural Critique, no. 13,
1989, pp. 191–202. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1354273.
Cameron, Deborah. “Introduction: Language and Feminism” in Feminism and
Linguistic Theory. 1992

ESSENTIAL READING: (Literary Texts/ Movies for demonstration/application.

Questions may be set on other texts/images provided in assessment
framework)
1) Mary Shelly Frankenstein
2) Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre
3) Borges The Library of Babel
4) Michael Herr Dispatches
 5) Movie Chuck Palahnuik Fight Club
6) Movie Lana & Lilly Wachowski The Matrix

SUGGESTED READINGS:
i. Richard Rorty, The Linguistic Turn Chicago: University of
Chicago Press(1967)
ii. Chris Weedon, Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist
Theory iii. Catherine Belsey, "Constructing
the Subject,
Deconstructing the Text," in Feminisms, 593-609.

Assessment Plan:
End Semester Examination: 70 Marks
Continuous Assessment: 30 Marks (as detailed
below)
1. Diagnostic Test (MCQ / A small Quiz) carrying 05 Marks
2. Presentation carrying 10 Marks, in a group of 4-5 students, but
evaluation to be done of individual students on the basis of their
performance
3. A small Quiz / MCQ carrying 05 Marks, to test understanding or for
revision
4. An Assignment carrying 10 Marks, to be given at least three weeks in
advance, as a part of teaching and not after teaching.
5. A Sessional (as a Make up Test) to be conducted in last week
Important Notes:
a. Suggestions To Students On Reading / Expectations From Students:
a. Each student will join the course with a prior understanding of the nature of the
course and mode of teaching / learning
b. Students will come to the class with a prior reading of the prescribed text /
essential study materials / suggested study material that the teacher wishes to
discuss in the classroom.
c. Students need to be aware of the developments in the classroom.
d. students need to read additional materials on research methodology and research
ethics
b. Suggestions To Students On Writing Assignments / Expectations From Students:
a. Students need to meet the deadlines for each instruction / assignment given by
the teacher.
b. Students need to follow the detailed guidelines for each assignment and
presentation as provided by the teacher.
c. Students need to follow research methodology and ethics and avoid any stance of
plagiarism. cases of plagiarism will be penalised as per the gazette notification
of government of India, as adopted by AMU.
c. Teacher’s Role:
i. Teachers will provide the syllabus, guidelines, study materials (except
prescribed materials) in the form of hard or soft copies.
ii. Teachers will announce each test / quiz / assignment / sessional well in
advance.
iii. Teachers need to be prepared with diagnostic test, Quiz / MCQ / A4 size detailed
guidelines for presentation & assignment.
iv. Teachers will share the answer scripts and provide feedback if the students
want to have it.
v. Marks obtained by students for all tests / continuous assessments will be
announced by the teacher.
vi. The teacher will destress students by explaining the students that continuous
assessment is not an examination, rather it is a part of teaching and learning
where they get marks for their efforts and contributions in the form of
assignments / presentations. they have an opportunity to improve their grade
by taking a make-up test.
d. Class Policies:
i. Policy on late and unsubmitted tasks: those students who submit their
assignments will not get same / better marks than those whose submit in
time.
 Teachers are always receptive to any emergency situations.
ii. Class attendance: as per university rules, 75% attendance is mandatory.
5. Additional Weekly, Post Class Discussion Sessions:
Students may arrange additional classes in consultation with the teacher concerned,
if time and situation permits.
Note: The teacher reserves the right to make changes in the syllabus during the semester as
s/he deems necessary.
 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
A.M.U. ALIGARH.
M.A. English IV Semester
2019-2020
POETRY FROM DONNE TO MILTON

COURSE NO. EOM 4001 Max. Marks : 100

Credits: 04

Unit I : Textual questions (passages for explanation from the starred texts)

Unit II : Donne : The following poems

from Helen Gardener’s anthology:
The Metaphysical Poets
(Penguin)
*‘The Good Morrow’
*‘The Flea’
*‘The Sunne Rising’
*‘The Canonization’
*‘The Relique’
*‘This is my play’s last scene’

Andrew Marvell : *‘To His Coy Mistress’

*‘On a Drop of Dew’
‘The Garden’

George Herbert : ‘The Agonie’

*‘The Collar’
*‘Jordan’ (I)
Crashaw : ‘A Hymne of the Nativity’

Unit III: Milton : *Paradise Lost Book I and II (Book I for detailed study)

Sessional Test: 30 marks

End Semester : 70 marks
 M.A. English IV Semester
2019-2020
MODERN BRITISH LITERATURE AFTER 1950 – B

COURSE NO. EOM 4002 Max. Marks: 100

Credits: 04
Course Outcomes: By the end of the semester, the student will be able to :

Unit I : (A) Textual questions (passages for explanation from the starred texts)
(B) Critical questions on Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney.

Philip Larkin : ‘Poetry of Departures’

‘Toads Revisited’
* ‘Mr Bleany’
* ‘Churchgoing’

Ted Hughes : *‘Hawk Roosting’

*‘Thought Fox’
‘Hawk in the Rain’

Seamus Heaney : *‘Traditions’

‘Punishment’
‘The Railway Children’

Unit II Angus Wilson : Late Call

Paul Scott Staying on
John Fowles : The French Lieutenant’s Woman

Unit III Harold Pinter : The Birthday Party

Arnold Wesker : Chicken Soup with Barley
Tom Stoppard : Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Sessional Test: 30 marks

End Semester : 70 marks

1. Develop and displays expertise in the concepts and theories related to modernism that led to
the break with traditional modes.
2. Identify and critically analyze how traditional assumptions about society are reassessed
through the different genres.
3. Produce independent research papers.
 M.A. English IV Semester
2019-2020
CONTEMPORARY LITERARY THEORY

COURSE NO. EOM 4003 Max. Marks : 100

Credits: 04

Unit 1 A). Conceptual Framework of Contemporary Literary Theory: Literary Criticism and
Theory, Philosophical Background to Literary Theory (Brief Introduction to
Concepts of Empiricism, Phenomenology, Linguistic Determinism)

B). Foundation of English Studies, Historical Emergence of the Concept of

Literature, Impact of Theory on English Studies, English Studies in India.

Unit 2 A). Structuralism: Language & Literature as Structure; Structuralist Narratology;

implications of Structualism for the study of literature.

B). Deconstruction: Critique of logocentricism; undecidability of meaning;

difference and dissemination; American deconstruction.

C). Psychoanalytic Theory: Discovery of the Unconscious: Freud; Deviations

from Freudian mapping of the Unconscious: Jung and Otto Rank; Egocentrist
approach to theory and practice of psychoanalysis: the American School;
Lacan and his revolt against ego-centrist psychoanalysis.

Unit 3 A). New Historicism: The culture scape of American; conditions necessitating the
deviation from historicism and dialectical materialism; the theory.

B). Cultural Materialism: The culturescape of Europe; impact of World Wars and
Fascism; the theory.

C). Feminism: Relationship of theory to Feminism; critique of androcentricism,

gynocriticism.

Sessional Test: 30 marks

End Semester : 70 marks

Suggested Readings :
Roger Webster, Studying Literary Theory (Second Edition, Arnold, London, 1996)
Raman Seldan, Practising Theory and Reading Literature : An Introduction(Hemel Hempstead,
Harvester, 1989).
Art Berman, From the New Criticism to Deconstruction (University of Illoinois Press, Urbana and
Chicago)
Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory : An Introduction (Blackwell : 1983)
Terence Howkes, Structuralism and Semiotics (Methuen : 1997)
Christopher Norris, Deconstruction : Theory and Practice (Routledge, 1991)
Maggie Humm, Feminisms : A Reader (Longman, 1992)
K. K. Ruthren, Feminist Literary Studies: An Introduction (Cambridge, 1984)
H. Aram Veeser (ed.), The New Historicism (Routledge 1989)
Jonathan Dollimore and Sinfield, Alan (eds.), Political Shakespeare : New Essays in Cultural
Materialism (Manchester University Press, 1994)
Raman Selden, Peter Widdowson and Brooker, Peter, A Reader : Guide to Contemporary Literary
Theory (Harvester, 1996)
Maud Ellmann (ed.) Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism (Longman, 1994)
David Lodge and Wood Nigel (eds.) Modern Criticism and Theory : A Reader (Longman, 1999).
Patricia Waugh (ed) Literary Theory and Criticism (OUP, 2006)
M. H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms.(Macmillan)
 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
A.M.U. ALIGARH.
M.A. English IV Semester
2019-2020

AMERICAN POETRY AND DRAMA

COURSE NO. EOM 4011 Max. Marks : 100

Credits: 02
Unit I : (A) Textual questions (passages for explanation from the starred texts)

Unit II : Walt Whitman : ‘Song of Myself’

*‘Crossing Brooklyn Ferry’
*‘Out of the Cradle’

Emily Dickinson :Selections in American Literature

(1890 to 1965)
*The following poems:
67, 130, 258, 303, 341, 712, 812,
1463, (All poems for detailed study)

Robert Frost : Selections in American Literature

(1890 to 1965) Urasia, 1966
*‘Mending Wall’
*‘After Apple-Picking’
*‘The Road Not Taken’
*‘Birches’
*‘West-running Brook’

Carl Sandburg : ‘I am the People, the Mob’

‘Who am I?’
‘Chicago’

Unit III : Eugene O’Neill : The Hairy Ape

Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie
Edward Albee : The Zoo Story

Sessional Test: 30 marks

End Semester : 70 marks

Note : There is a choice between EOM4011 and EOM4012.

 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
A.M.U. ALIGARH.
M.A. English IV Semester
2019-2020
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING– B
(ELT)

COURSE NO. EOM 4012 Max. Marks : 100

Credits: 02

Unit I : Teaching of Writing: Writing as Communication; Approaches to Writing; Flower &

Hayes’ Model of Writing; Assessing Writing; Task Component; Designing Writing Tasks.

.
Unit II : Teaching Oral Communication: Teaching the sounds of English; the syllable; word
stress, sentence stress, rhythm and intonation in English.

Unit III : Grammar, Communication Technology and Testing in ELT: Role of grammar
in language pedagogy; types of grammar; Application of Communicative Technology in

ELT; Place of testing in ELT curriculum; Types of tests and their objectives.

Sessional Test: 30 marks End

Semester : 70 marks

Note : There is a choice between EOM4011 and EOM4012.

 M.A. English IV Semester
2019-2020
POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE – B

COURSE NO. EOM 4021 Max. Marks : 100

Credits: 02

Unit I : Textual questions (passages for explanation from the starred texts)

Unit II : Sarojini Naidu : ‘The Palanquin Bearers’

*‘Dirge’ (In sorrow of her bereavement)
‘Indian Weavers’

Kamala Das : *‘My Grandmother's House’

*‘The Sunshine Cat’
‘A Hot Noon in Malabar’

Nissim Ezekiel : *‘Good Bye Party for Miss Pushpa’

*‘Night of the Scorpion’
*‘The Visitor’
‘Enterprise’
‘Background’

A. K. Ramanujan : ‘Conventions of Despair’

*‘Snakes’

Keki N. Daruwala : *‘The Mistress’

‘Parsi Hell’

Prescribed Anthology: R. Parthasarthy,(ed.),Ten 20th Century Indian

Poets,(OUP)

Unit III: R. K. Narayan : The Financial Expert

Raja Rao : The Serpent and the Rope
Amitava Ghosh : The Glass Palace.
Anita Desai : Where Shall We Go This Summer?

Sessional Test: 30 marks End

Semester : 70 marks

Note : There is a choice between EOM4021, EOM4022 and EOM4023.

 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
A.M.U. ALIGARH.
M.A. English IV Semester
2019-2020
CONTINENTAL FICTION – B

COURSE NO. EOM 4022 Max. Marks : 100

Credits: 02

Unit I : Milan Kundera : The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Thomas Mann : Buddenbrooks

Unit II: Guy de Maupassant : The following short stories are

prescribed:
1. ‘The Necklace’
2. ‘A Family’
3. ‘The Devil’
4. ‘Simon’s Papa’
5. ‘The False Gems’

Gustave Flaubert : Madame Bovary

Unit III: Franz Kafka : The Castle

Sessional Test: 30 marks

End Semester : 70 marks

Note : There is a choice between EOM4021, EOM4022 and EOM4023.

Course Outcomes: By the end of the semester, the student will be able to :

1. Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the Literature of 19th Century Continental Europe,

the historical period and the conventions of genres.
2. Link Literary tests to 19 C literary movements like romanticism, Realism, Naturalism and
Impressionism.
3. Closely read the texts and form critical interpretations and reproduce them in literary essays.
 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
A.M.U. ALIGARH.
M.A. English IV Semester
2019-2020
CONTINENTAL DRAMA – B

COURSE NO. EOM 4023 Max. Marks : 100

Credits: 02

Unit I : (a) Brecht : The Caucasian Chalk Circle

(b) Short notes on styles and trends in Modern Drama and Character Sketches

Unit II: Chekhov : The Cherry Orchard

Gorky : Lower Depths

Unit III: Beckett : Waiting for Godot

Ionesco : The Chairs

Sessional Test: 30 marks

End Semester : 70 marks

Note : There is a choice between EOM4021, EOM4022 and EOM4023.

 M.A. ENGLISH IV SEMESTER (ELECTIVE PAPER)
2019-20
Course Title: Prison Literature
Course No. EOM 4032
Credits: 04

Objective: A work of literature is a manifest labour of the author’s social and political experiences.
Some scintillating literary works were penned in prisons and these works shed a very different light on
their authors and the works.

Unit I: Review of Prison Writings: Political and personal experiences impacting literary
perspectives.
Faiz: “A Prison Nightfall,” “A Prison Daybreak,” “We who were Murdered.” “The
Window,” “Africa Come Back”

Nazim Hikmat: “Some Advice to Those Who will Spend Time in Prison”, “Istambul House
of Detention”

Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak ed. Marc Falloff, University of Iowa Press.
• Death Poems – Jumah al Dossari
• Humiliated in Shackles – Sami al Haj
• Prison Darkness – Abdul Aziz
• Two Fragments – Shaikh Abdurraheem Dost
• Ode to the Sea – Ibrahim Al Rubaish
Passages for Explanation will be given from Prescribed Poems

Unit II: Prison Fiction/Non-Fiction selections from:

Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Stephen King: Shawshank Redemption

Unit III Freedom Movements and Prison Literature. Selections from:

Nehru: Letters From a Father to His Daughter
Antonio Gramsci: Prison Notebooks

Sessional Test: 30 marks

End Semester : 70 marks

Suggested Readings:
• Papillon by Henri Charriere
• The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela.
• Toward Freedom: The Autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru, & The Discovery of India by Nehru.
• Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth by M.K. Gandhi.
• Spain in My Heart: Songs of the Spanish Civil War by Pablo Neruda.
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• The Bamboo Gulag: Political Imprisonment in Communist Vietnam by Nghia M. Vo Letters from
Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.
• Detained: A Prisoner’s Diary by Ngugi Wa Thiong’O
• Great Books Written in Prison : Essays on Classic Works from Plato to Martin Luther King Jr. by J. Ward
Regan. McFarland & Company, 2015.
• Prison Writing in India by C.N. Srinath. Sahitya Akademi,2014.
• We Are Our Own Liberators: Selected Prison Writings. by Jalil A. Muntaqim. Arissa Media Group LLC, 2010
Brandreth, Gyles. Created in captivity. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1972.
• Brombert, Victor H. The romantic prison : the French tradition. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1978.
• Davies, Ioan. Writers in prison. Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, Mass., USA: Basil Blackwell, 1990.
• Dowd, Siobhan. This prison where I live ; the PEN anthology of imprisoned writers. London : New York, NY
: Cassell, 1996.
• Harlow, Barbara. Barred : women, writing, and political detention. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New
England, 1992.
• Sinha, Shabnam. Novelist as prisoner : the South African experience. 1st. Patna: Janaki Prakashan, 1992.
• Sobanet, Andrew. Jail sentences : representing prison in twentieth-century French fiction. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 2008.
 M.A. ENGLISH IV SEMESTER (ELECTIVE PAPER)
2019-2020
Course Title: Ecocritism
Course No. EOM-4033
Credits: 04
Course Objective:
1. To understand the representation of nature in Literature.
2. To apply principles of Ecocriticism to a range of literary genres.
3. To interpret historical shifts in the representation of nature.

Syllabus :
Unit I
a) Concepts – Ecological system, Occidental & Oriental views of nature
b) Ecocriticism, Phases of Ecocriticism.
c) Rise of Ecofeminism.

Unit II
a) Ecological Practices in reading
b) Concepts of Eden, Arcadias, Utopias; Historical Shifts in these concepts, Wilderness
c) Practice Texts: ‘Garden’ Andrew Marvell, ‘To Autumn’ – John Keats, Excepts from ‘The Hungry
Tide – T. S. Eliot

Unit III
a) Concepts of Sublime & Otherness; Man made and natural disasters.
b) Nothing at the future – Apocalypse, Dystopia & Hope.
c) Practice Texts: Excerpts From
d) ‘King Lear’, ‘Tempest’ – Shakespeare;
Nectar in a Sieve – Kamla Markandaya;
Avtar (Movie) 20th Century Fox – James Cameron.

Full Marks: 100

Sessional Test: 30 marks
End Semester : 70 marks
 M.A (English) IV Semester (Elective Paper)
2019-2020
Comparative Literature

Course No. EOM-4035 Max. Marks: 100

Credits: 04

Course Description:
This course is a critical introduction to the field of Comparative Literature, which mobilizes comparative
insights for studying literatures and cultures across nations, languages, time-periods, genres, etc. The
course aims at familiarizing students with critical scholarship on comparative literary studies with a
view to developing in them comparative analytical skills necessary to appreciate and engage literary
cultures across the globe, including Indian literary formations and traditions. This reading-intensive
course is research-oriented and helps students discover topics and problems for their own research
projects in the future.

UNIT ONE
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: DISCIPLINE/INDISCIPLINE/INTERDISCIPLINE?

Required Reading:
1. "Comparative Literature: Its Definition and Function." Henry Remak (from Comparative Literature:
Method and Perspective, ed. Newton Stallknecht and Horst Frenz, 1971).
2. "Conjectures on World Literature," Franco Moretti.
3. "In the Name of Comparative Literature," Rey Chow (from Comparative Literature in the Age of
Multiculturalism, ed. Charles Bernheimer, 1994, Part 3 [10]).

Recommended Reading:
1. "Literature and Its Cognates," Rene Wellek.
2. Three Reports to the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) "The Levin Report, 1965"
—"The Greene Report, 1975" -—"The Bernheimer Report, 1993" (from Comparative Literature in the
Age of Multiculturalism, ed. Charles Bernheimer, Part 1 [1,2,3]).
3. "The Vicissitudes of Text" Jonathan Culler.
4. "Crossing Borders", Gayatri Spivak (from Death of a Discipline, 2003, Chapter 1).

UNIT TWO
COMPARATIVE READING

Required Reading:
1. "Connecting Empire to Secular Interpretation" and "Narrative and Social Space," Edward Said (from
Culture and Imperialism, 1993, Chapter 1 [v] and Chapter 2 [i].
2. "Reading across Cultures," David Damrosch (from How to Read World Literature, 2009 Chapter 3).
3. Reading practice activity: Othello and Heart of Darkness in Tayyib Salih's Season of Migration to the
North (1969).

Recommended Reading:
1. "Disliking Books at an Early Age," Gerard Graff.
2. "Introduction" to Orientalism, Edward Said, 1978.
3. "Reading in Translation," David Damrosch (from How to Read World Literature, 2009, Chapter 4).
4. The Pleasure of the Text, Roland Barthes, 1975.
 5. "Linguistics and Poetics," Roman Jakobson, 1960.

UNIT THREE
COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES AND INDIAN LITERARY CULTURES

Required Reading:
1. Excerpts from Selected Writings on Literature and Language, Rabindranath Tagore, 2001.
2. "Introduction" to Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia, Sheldon Pollock, 2003.
3. "Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation," A. K. Ramanujan
(from The Collected Essays of A. K. Ramanujan, 1999). I
4. Texts for Comparative Analysis (suggestive):
Colonialism and modernity vis-a-vis Indian Literature: Senapati's Six Acres and a Third (1897-99) and
Tagore's Gora (1907-09).
NB Students have the freedom to choose any two texts (of any genre) from among the wide-ranging
literary cultures across India and perform close readings from a comparative methodology. Students
are encouraged to take up for analysis texts written in vernaculars with which they are most familiar and
discuss them in class.

Recommended Reading:
1. "The Historical Formation of Indian English Literature," Vinay Dharwadker in Literary Cultures in History,
ed. Sheldon Pollock, 2003, Chapter 3.
2. '"Indian Literature': Notes towards the Definition of a Category," Aijaz Ahmad (from In Theory:
Classes, Nations, Literatures, 1992, Chapter 7).
3. "Orientalism and the Institution of World Literatures," Amir Mufti.
4. "Comparative Literature in India," Amiya Dev (CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 2.4 (2000).
5. "Comparative Literature in Indian Languages," Anand Balwant Patil (from Companion to Comparative
Literature, World Literatures, and Comparative Cultural Studies, eds. Steven Totosy de Zepetnek and
Tutun Mukherjee, 2013, Part 2).

Notes:
1. The recommended readings are intended to assist in the understanding of the units, with a view to
providing students with materials which they can pursue on their own.
2. Students are expected to write a short response paper/reading notes on each course reading for peer
review. These papers/notes may be posted on the course group to be created on Google every year.
3. The course will be taught as a graduate seminar, requiring students to come to class having read the
reading/s for each meeting and to participate in classroom discussion. Students will also have to make
at least one short presentation on any of the course readings.

General References

 Aldridge, Owen, ed. Comparative Literature: Matter and Method. Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1964.
 Apter, Emily. The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature. Princeton University Press, 2005.
 Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Trans. Willard Trask.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953.
 Bassnett. Susan. Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction. Oxford. UK/Cambridge. USA:
Blackwell. 1993.
 Behdad, Ali, and Dominic Thomas. A Companion to Comparative Literature. Oxford: Blackwell, 2011.
 Damrosch, David. What is World Literature? Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.
  Dev, Amiya, and Sisir Kumar Das. Eds. Comparative Literature: Theory and Practice. Shimla: HAS and
Allied, 1989.
 Jost, Francois. Introduction to Comparative Literature. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1974.
 Guillen, Claudio. The Challenge of Comparative Literature. Trans. Cola Franzen. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1993.
 Levin, Harry. Grounds for Comparison. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972.
 Wellek, Rene, and Austin Warren. Theory of Literature, 3rd ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World,
1956.
 Damrosch, David et al. The Princeton Sourcebook in Comparative Literature. New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 2009.
 Saussy, Haun. Ed. Comparative Literature in the Age of Globalization. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 2006.

Course Evaluation (Maximum Marks : 100)

Sessional Test: 30 marks

End Semester : 70 marks
 M. A. (English) IV Semester (Elective Paper)
2019-20

Course Title: Language and Power

Course Code: EOM-4036
Credits: 04

Course Objective: The aim of this course is to provide and understanding of how language works to
express power-relations and ideology in different kinds of text – both written and spoken.
Unit I: Discourse, Ideology, Hegemony, Cultural capital and Resistance
Unit II: Structuralism and Deconstruction
Unit III: Analysis of select speeches by Macaulay, John F. Kennedy, Hitler, Martin, Luther, Karl Marx
and Gandhi.
Analysis of excepts from plays of Shakespeare – The Tempest and Julius Ceasar Suggested
Readings:
1. Alan Bullock and Stephen Trombley. (eds.) The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought
(3rd ed.) 1999.
2. Antonio Gramsci and Joseph A. Buttigieg. (ed.) Prison Notebooks, New York City: Columbia
University Press, 1992
3. Bernard S. Cohn. Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India, Princeton
University Press, 1996.
4. C. Lewis “Making sense of common sense: A framework for tracking hegemony”.
5. Fairclough, N: Language and Power, London Longman, 2001.
6. J. Storey, (ed.) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader (4th ed.). Essex, UK: Pearson
Education Limited, 2009.
7. Kress and Hogan, Language as Ideology, London Rutledge, 1979
8. Mark Haugaard. The Constitution of Power: A Theoretical Analysis of Power, Knowledge and
Structure, Manchester University Press: New York: 1997.
9. Mary M. Talbot, Karen Atkinson and Davit Atkinson, Language and Power in the Modern World,
Edinburgh University Press, 2003.
10. Noam Chomsky and Carlos Peregrine Otero. Language and Politics, Okland, Calif: AK Press,
2004.
11. R. Flower, Hodge et. al. Language and Control, London Rutledge, 1979.
12. R. G. Kelley. “An archaeology of resistance” American Quarterly, 44(2), 1992.
13. Said E. Culture and Imperialism, Random House, London, 1993.
14. Phillipson, R. ‘The linguistic imperialism of neoliberal empire’ Critical Inquiry in Language
Studies, 5/1, 2008.

Course Evaluation (Maximum Marks: 100)

Sessional Test: 30 marks
End Semester : 70 marks
 M.A (English) IV Semester (Elective Paper)
2019-2020
African – American Drama
Course Code: EOM-4037 Credits:
04

The objective of this course is to introduce major works of representative African-American dramatists
of contemporary era with particular focus on their techniques, ideas and cultural milieu in which the
works were produced. The study of this course will familiarize the students with an overall view of the
contribution of the notable African-American dramatists in the realm of English Literature.

Unit I:

Introduction to African-American Drama, Black Theatre, Racism and Racial Identity in

AfricanAmerican Society, Oppression of Women in the Black Society, Violence, Search for Identity,
Exile and Alienation, Class Struggle, Conflict between the American "white" and "black" population.

Lorraine Hansberry: A Raisin in the Sun

Unit II:

Charles Fuller: A Soldier’s Play August

Wilson: Fences

Unit III:

Adrienne Kennedy: Funny house of a Negro

Suzan-Lori Parks: In the Blood

Suggested Readings:
1. Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth, ed. Wines in the Wilderness: Plays by African American Women from the
Harlem Renaissance to the Present. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
2. Hatch, James V., ed. The Roots of African American Drama. Detroit: Wayne State University Press,
1991.
3. Hay, Samuel A., Don B. Wilmeth. African American Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2003.
4. Houston Baker, Jr. Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature. Chicago: Chicago University Press,
1964.
5. Okur, Nilgun Anadolu. Contemporary African-American Theatre: Afrocentricity in the Works of Lorry
Neal, Amiri Ear oka and Charles Fuller. UK: Routledge, 2011.

Sessional Test: 30 marks

End Semester : 70 marks
 M. A. (English) IV Semester (Elective Paper)
2019-2020
Course Title: Politics of English Studies
Course Code: EOM-4039
Credits: 04

Course Description: In this course, we will examine the disciplinary formation, practice, and
ideology of English Studies with special reference to the Indian scenario. While historicizing
the disciplinary formation of English in India, the course will also consider the contemporary
status of the discipline in the Indian academia. The main objectives of the course shall be to
familiarize students with the knowledge-power relations as well as to make them self-reflexive
about their own subject-positions and disciplinary practices.
Unit I
English Studies: Institution and Disciplinary Formation
1. The Rise of English, Terry Eagleton (from Literary Theory: An Introduction, 1983).
2. The Great Tradition (Chapter One), F. R. Leavis, 1948.
3. Minute on Indian Education, Thomas Macaulay, 1935.
4. Introduction to Masks of Conquest, Gauri Viswanathan, 1989.
5. Translation, Colonialism and the Rise of English, Tejaswini Niranjana, (from Rethinking English,
ed. Svati Joshi, 1991).
6. The Politics of Knowledge, Edward Said, 1991.
7. Disciplinary English: Third-Worldism and Literature, Aijaz Ahmad, (from Rethinking English, ed.
Svati Joshi, 1991).
Unit II
Doing/Un-doing English
1. On the Abolition of the English Department, Ngugi wa Thiong’o (from Homecoming: Essays,
1972).
2. Education and Neocolonialism, Philip Altbach, 1971.
3. A Note on Language, and the Politics of English in India, Badri Raina (from Rethinking English,
ed. Svati Joshi, 1991).
4. The Burden of English, Gayatri Spivak (from The Lie of the Land: English Literary Studies in
India, ed. Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, 1992).
5. Attitudinal Orientation towards Studying English Literature in India, Yasmeen Lukmani (from
The Lie of the Land: English Literary Studies in India, ed. Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, 1992).
6. The Alchemy of English, Braj Kachru, 1986.
Unit III
Politics and the English Classrooms
1. The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education, Paulo Freire (from Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970).
2. The Means of Correct Training, Michel Foucault (from Discipline and Punish, 1975).
3. Ideology in the Classroom: A Case Study in the Teaching of English Literature in Canadian
Universities, Arun Muhkerjee, 1986.
4. The Social Politics and the Cultural Politics of Language Classrooms, Alastair Pennycook,
2000.
5. Postcoloniality, Critical Pedagogy, and English Studies in India, K. C. Baral, 2006.
6. Student Presentations on the Politics of English Studies. (Students are required to make
a short presentation on issues, concerns, and questions addressed in the course by trying to
 bring their own experiences of doing English to bear upon their reflections and meditations on
the subject).

Course Evaluation (Maximum Marks: 100)

Sessional Test: 30 marks
End Semester : 70 marks
 M.A. English IV Semester
2019-2020
COMPREHENSIVE VIVA VOCE

COURSE NO. EOM 4071 Max. Marks : 100

Credits: 04