CBCS SCHEME
I SEMESTER M.A. (ENGLISH)
PAPER – I BRITISH LITERATURE

Objectives:
1. To view English literary history in its socio-cultural and political contexts.
2. To create an awareness of the problems of canon formation and literary representation.

Prefatory Note:
The structure of the paper offers a periodization of English literary history. Within each period, along with canonical pieces, the paper tries to accommodate some marginal voices. It is expected that the historical and cultural contexts provided with each period will help the students prepare for the UGC-NET

I. (1) Medieval England :
(a) Chaucer – Prologue
(b) Isabella Whiney – –( A Sweet Nosegay, Will and Testament)

(2) The Elizabethan Age (Renaissance & Reformation)
(a) Sidney : Sonnet (Selection)
(b) Spenser : extract from the Faerie Queen
(c) Shakespeare : 2 Sonnets, Othello
(d) Elizabeth’s Speech to the Troops of Tilbury
(e) Two Renaissance women poets

II. (1) The Cavalier & Puritan influence:
(a) Milton : “On his Blindness”
(b) Andrew Marvell : To his Coy Mistress”.
(c) Donne :
    (i) “Death, be not pound”
    (ii) “The Canonization.”

SJEC MA English
Creative Writing Syllabus


1. First impressions: people, places, objects. (4 exercises)
2. Close Observation: processes, events, rituals/performances (4 exercises)
3. Writing dialogue (4 exercises)
4. Forms: Writing poetry: haiku, free verse (4 exercises)
5. Forms: Writing fiction: plot, character and setting in the short story (6 exercises)
6. Forms: Writing Non-fiction: personal experience, profiling people, food (6 exercises)

Each exercise must be followed by the reading/discussion of a model by a published writer

The student must write in class every week, and work on the piece further. He/she must submit a portfolio of 4000-4500 words two weeks before the semester's classes end, and then appear for a viva voce with a writer as external examiner. The marks obtained can be converted into a grade.

Paper – I (V) European Classics Revisited – Part- I

Objectives:
1. To help students read texts in the wider contexts of European history.
2. To encourage students to develop new and original methods of interpretation even while surveying ‘traditional’ texts.

Prefatory Note:
Though the inclusions are recognizable canonical, the paper is designed to bring in a fresh perspective to the prescribed texts through the critical method of New Historicism. Accordingly, the texts will be read not only in relation to the historical context of their production but also in relation to issues related to immediate present. It is expected that this temporal grounding give to the texts will keep each text open to new interpretations.

Part – I
Unit – I :
1) Homer : Extracts from The Iliad.
2) Sophocles : “Oedipus Rex”
3) Sappho: 2 Lyrics

Unit – II :
1) Aesop’s Fables : Extracts
2) Abelard and Heloise : 2 Letters
3) Cervantes: Extract from Don Quixote (Fight with the Windmil)


Paper – I (III) Indian Literatures in English – Part- I

Objectives:
1. To understand both Indian Writing in English and regional literatures in India translated into English as part of Indian Literatures.
2. To show students a cultural world they are familiar with, and to show the prevalence of several cultural world within any apparently uniform culture.

Prefatory Note:
The paper tries to rectify a problem that has been lying unaddressed in many English department Syllabi. It collapses Indian Writing in English and Modern Indian Literatures translated into English into one paper and identifies the two varieties as two sides of the Indian Literature coin. Part- I of the paper traces the evolution and development of Indian Writing in English and Part-II invitees the students to examine the literatures produced in India from pre-modern to present times. The rubric, “Indian Literatures written in English” brings together Indian literature written in English and Indian Literature that is available in English translation.

Indian Writing in English: A Historical Overview
Unit – I : The Beginnings

Unit – II : The Novel and Drama (1930 to 1990s)

Unit – III : Post Independence Poetry: Selections

(Teachers may use Aravind Mehrotra edited, A Concise History of Indian Literature in English. Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2008 to introduce the prescribed texts)

Recommended Reading:
1. Susie Tharu, “Refiguring Indian Writing in English”
2. Meenakshi,Mukherjee, Introduction to The Perishable Empire
3. P. Lankesk: Gunamuka

Reading and Writing-I

Objectives:
This course is based on the notion that effective readers are also efficient writers. It aims at enabling students to read effectively and to write efficiently through an engagement with a variety of texts. It also seeks to familiarise students with many contemporary genres of writing, including the non-fictional long form. Students will also re-visit some important literary devices and some current literary theory as well. Students will therefore be expected to be involved in reading and writing on a regular basis.

Unit I
a) Robert Frost ‘ Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening”
b) Archibald MacLeish “ Ars Poetica”
Literary Devices:
• Simile, Metaphor, Metonym, Synecdoche,
Reading Ideas
• Aristotle: Extract from The Poetics (in English Critical Texts, Enright &Chickera pp.387-390)

Unit 2:
a) Margaret Drabble “An introduction to poetry of Wordsworth
b) Arthur Krystall “What is literature?” Harper’s Magazine
Reading ideas
1) Text and Context 2) Author 3) Language 4) Culture

Unit 3:
a) George Orwell “What is Science”
b) DH Lawrence “Why the Novel Matters”
Reading Ideas:
1) Character 2) Plot 3) Narrative 4) Critique

Unit 4:
a) Toni Morrison in an Interview with Terry Gross…”On race”
b) Elaine Showalter “Women’s literature in the 19th century ( An Extract)
Reading Ideas
1) Race 2) Gender 3)Sexuality

Reading list
MH Abrams A Glossary of literary Terms
The Bedford Glossary for critical and literary Terms

Theatre Studies
Course Code - THR

Objectives:
• To introduce students to learn about acting, drama, design, theatre history, and technical theatre.
• This program provides basic knowledge and research tools for understanding the social and cultural significance of theatre and performance.
• Learn to examine and appreciate the way theatre influences and is influenced by the context in which it occurs.

Basic knowledge level:
• The course ranges from performance and design to drama and history. In addition to coursework, it involves practical experience in plays or musicals.

Learning Outcome:
• Increased knowledge and understanding of theatrical art.

Course Content:
1. Introduction to World Theatre
2. Understanding Indian Theatre
3. Modern Theatre
4. Understanding Basic Theatre Techniques
5. Working on a Production

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