|
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH COURSE OFFERINGS
The course descriptions given below cover all courses offered
by the Department of English across the undergraduate
curriculum. They are to be read in tandem with: [i] The
English Department account in the College Prospectus; and [ii] The
University of Delhi syllabi pertinent to the courses described. The
aim is to convey a strong sense of how the English Department at St.
Stephen’s College actually imparts instruction in the courses
leading to an undergraduate degree, and the challenges to be faced
over this three year period.
Requirements and snap delineations of courses specifically
for English Honours students are listed as an asterisked item on the
last page. Unlike most other departments, MA English students have
to take mandatory tutorials in College in addition to classes at the
Arts Faculty. These are arranged under the supervision of the Head
of Department.
BA
(HONOURS) PROGRAMME*
PART I: 1st YEAR
Paper I: English Literature 4
This paper provides an introduction to major Victorian writers and a
brief overview of the Victorian period in England. Thus, the student
will be responsible for demonstrating the importance of context in
the works prescribed. Effectively this means shaping readings beyond
just summary or surface analysis. In turn, this means assimilating
literary theory as discussed in class and facility with writing
within standard MLA formats. The course is extensive. However, you
will have the opportunity to discuss some works in detail; the
challenge lies in applying what you learn to describing the
‘atmosphere’ of Victorian England, the basic issue of what the term
“Victorian” means. In the process, we shall also examine the
relevance of that era to ours: to reconstruct a Victorian world view
that undeniably shapes our own world views today. Generally,
“Victorian” as a category is associated with restraint and prudery.
Yet the period was also one of excess, of great upheaval and reform.
How can we resolve the opposing directions of movement? This course
revolves largely around that problem.
At its end, our connecting texts to their context will also
establish an appreciation of how "literary" and "non-literary"
writing are related as rhetorical forms. This involves formal study
of poetry, fiction and a selection of prose as distinct but
inter-connected genres. Coherent grasp of texts orally and in
writing is the basic imperative in tutorials and seminars. Writing
assignments in the latter (and the house exams) will call for
strong, effective prose. You will be graded on the quality and
clarity of your writing as well as the content.
Paper II: Twentieth-Century Indian
Writing
Covering a range of genres such as the novel, drama, short story and
poetry, this course aims to introduce students to the diversity and
quality of literature produced in India in the last century. Moving
from early twentieth century nationalism to late twentieth century
globalitarianism, the course addresses contexts critical to the
shaping of modern India and the identity of its people. The
prescribed texts are united by themes common to the literature of
this period such as the various partitions, urbanisation and
alienation, tradition versus modernity, creative construction of a
literary identity, language politics, colonial and post-colonial
selves, and modern uses of ancient myths. Most of these works are in
various Indian languages and read in translation. Some are
originally written in English.
Prospective students are expected to be aware of and alert to the
historical context of this period, and sensitive to the literature
produced in India in general. They should also be familiar with the
various formal structures utilized in different genres. Although
most of the works are read in translation, some familiarity with the
Indian languages (such as Hindi, Bangla and Telugu), will be a plus.
PART II: 2nd YEAR
Paper III: English Literature 1
This course covers a sizeable period of English literary history,
from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, through selected
texts, background readings and topics. The range of texts and
contexts covered is also vast. Several of the selected texts
represent the formation and consolidation of distinctive generic and
literary styles within an English Renaissance context.
A selection from Middle English literature presents students with
the challenge of working with an unfamiliar language, a complex
narrative mode and a concentration of competing/interconnected
discourses in the late medieval English context.
The selection of lyric poetry from late sixteenth century England
requires students to read beyond the selected texts in order to
trace the development of the courtly love tradition and the sonnet
form, etc, from their continental context to their new expressions
in an Elizabethan context.
Similarly, the selections from late sixteenth century English drama
require students to be able to trace the development of English
Renaissance drama, its distinctive features/ generic modes
(popular/erudite, tragedy, comedy), its contexts and conditions of
staging (censorship, cross-dressing, etc). Centrally, this course
requires students to connect important strains within the European
Renaissance and Reformation (humanism, Calvinism, etc) with forms of
literary expression and literary discourse, within changing
historical and material conditions.
Paper 4: English Literature 2
This is a compulsory course in English (Hons), offered to students
in the second year. The objective of this paper is to critically
engage with representative mainstream English literature from
seventeenth century to early eighteenth century. From Shakespeare’s
Antony and Cleopatra to Pope’s The Rape of the Lock,
the texts prescribed in this course would be evaluated with
reference to, on the one hand, the socio-political and religious
attitudes and material conditions of life in this period and their
intrinsic literary and artistic merit, on the other.
Students are expected to have a working knowledge of English
literary history especially the literature of the period covered in
this course. They would be required to submit one assignment per
term.
Paper V Option (b): Classical Literature
This paper is situated as
both a preliminary and as a referent in the field of
literary studies; that is, its aim is both to familiarize
students with the classical foundation of subsequent European and
English literature, and to acquaint them with the “origins”
of different forms of writing--the epic, drama, dialectical and
narrative modes, for instance--that later flourished across Europe
and America as both inspiration and model.
The paper is comparative
and divided into two sections: classical Greek and classical Indic
texts. Although the term classical in both cases refers to texts
generated before 400 A.D. or so, these two sections are intended
not only as an introduction in the foundational texts of two
separate cultures--the Northern Mediterranean and the Southern
Asian--they are also intended as an introduction in
comparative analysis: to evaluate (for example) whether texts called
Epics in the two cultures are foundationally similar or not, whether
they explore the same issues or not, use the same literary devices
or not, overlap substantially, or partially, or not all; and so on.
There has been an attempt
to ascertain the inclusion of broadly "similiar" texts in the Indic
and Grecian sections of the paper (Drama, Theory, Epic, for example)
but of course these similarities are themselves issues to be
discussed and examined over the course of the academic year.
Apart from the core texts (three from the Sanskrit and three from
the Greek), the course also familiarizes students with a number of
prescribed subsidiary texts: essays, theories, and studies culled
from centuries of observations by intellectuals and
commentators on the main texts themselves.
PART III: 3rd YEAR
Paper VI: English Literature 3
This course explores the literature of the Neo-classical and
Romantic Periods in order give the student a substantial foundation
in the literature and cultural history of one the most vibrant
epochs in English literature (from 1720 to 1824). It examines the
major literary genres and forms used by the Augustans, the late
Augustans and the Romantics while also considering the major themes
and ideas dominating these ages. We will follow the literature as it
unfolds during this crucial period, reading it chronologically using
modern and, in some instances, contemporary philosophical and
critical paradigms and notions. The Augustans and the mid-eighteenth
century poets/writers will be read in the context of the
Enlightenment as also the rise of Industrial revolution. The
Romantics’ participation in and, in some instances, witness to the
great social, intellectual, and political upheavals in European
history (Bastille, the Reign of Terror, Napoleon, Holy Alliance)
will also be discussed in order to come to terms with the radically
visionary poetics they were articulating.
The course situates the canonical poets/writers in the context of
the broad conventions and traditions in which they wrote. We will
consider in detail the writings of Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson,
Thomas Gray, Oliver Goldsmith, William Blake, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, William Wordsworth, P.B. Shelley, Mary Shelley, John
Keats and Lord Byron in order to identify, analyse and evaluate each
poet/writer’s distinguishing formal, aesthetic and ethical
characteristics and preoccupations.
Paper VII: English Literature 5
This course introduces the students to select texts of British
literary modernism covering the first 60 years of the 20th Century.
It encompasses drama, poetry and the novel as genres, and includes
major English, Irish and expatriate writers such as D. H. Lawrence,
Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, John Osborne, W. B. Yeats, Samuel
Beckett, T. S. Eliot and Joseph Conrad. Chronologically, the course
follows up on the 1st Year study of Victorian literature course but
also laterally connects with Paper IX, and partly Paper VIII, which
are described below. Framed by the political context of the two
world wars, the rise of socialism, suffrage movements, the last
moments of colonial glory and the rise of other Literatures in
English, this course simultaneously introduces us to High Modernism
through experiments in literary form that elaborate broad
philosophical and social movements. From free verse to the stream
of consciousness novel, the texts and genres covered are thus to be
fully experienced using an interdisciplinary approach referring to
the plastic and visual arts, the scientific and semi-scientific
advances that, in this period, informed public and philosophical
discourse in their interpretation of the various ‘realities’ of
human experience. Consequently, co-curricular readings will drawn
on sociology, psychology, aesthetics and philosophy to comprehend
movements like Existentialism, Surrealism, Impressionism, Imagism,
Marxism, Psychoanalysis, Structuralism and early Postmodernism,
among others, in order to bring alive the broadest significance of
what we call Modernism.
Paper VIII: Contemporary Literature
The all-inclusive title of this course specifically entails the
‘discovery’ and ‘exploration’ of non-Eurocentric literature covering
the Novel, Poetry and Drama from Africa, Latin America, Canada and a
volcanic Italian counter-culture. The central problematic of the
course is how this literature radically deploys the tropes of
‘discovery’ and ‘exploration,’ which undermine the violence of such
tropes used in the colonialist project. During the period of study
indicated above, we will go through the poetry of Margaret Atwood,
Derek Walcott and Pablo Neruda, together with novels by Chinua
Achebe, Marquez and Nadine Gordimer. Two plays by Ngugi and Dario
Fo complete our main focus of study. Our more literary reading of
their work will be supported by prescribed prose excerpts, mainly
drawn from writings on colonial and post-colonial issues.
Co-curricular prose writings considered will include, among others,
extensive references to contemporary classics like George Lamming’s
The Pleasures of Exile, Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the
Family, Neruda’s Memoirs. Theoretical issues to be
discussed with reference to the work of Walter Benjamin, Foucault,
Roland Barthes, Theodor Adorno, Mary L. Pratt and Edward Said will
address the following topics: the novel and traditional
storytelling, oral and print culture, Nature and the (post)colonial
gaze, the concept of the author.
Paper IX (Option b): Literary Theory
This course in Literary Theory introduces students to seminal texts
by literary theorists and philosophers that have shaped the study of
literature in recent times. Classified under broad rubrics such as
Marxism, Feminism, Postcolonialism, Postmodernism and Culture
Studies, the course aims to instruct students in analysing
theoretical texts, in addition to the pragmatic use of understanding
literary texts by means of contemporary critical thought. Through
this process, students learn how the body of criticism around
literary texts is constituted. A diachronic/historically consequent
dimension to the course is provided by the background texts that
cover critical frameworks such as Formalism, Structuralism and
Psychoanalysis which are antecedent to the debates in the main texts
and influence their bearing. The readings also challenge the
category of literature, philosophy, psychology, history and art as
exclusive and separate from theory. Thus, the course is a broad but,
at the same time, focused threshold to literary theory for those who
wish to continue literary studies at the postgraduate level as also
a platform for students who wish to move on to disciplines outside
literature such as sociology and culture studies.
Paper IX (Option d): Modern European Drama
This course focuses on a selection of late 19th and 20th
century European theatre texts in order to examine a variety of
performance modes, theatre practices and dramatic theories. It aims
to introduce students to significant developments in theatrical
theory and practice from the onset of realism to the 1960s. The
emphasis is on developing appropriate methods of analyzing specific
texts, which manifest significant differences in theatrical method
and examine how drama serves as a means of mediating the
social/cultural/historical discourse of a given time.
The students are expected to demonstrate knowledge of the relation
between reading and the viewing of modernist theatre texts of the
period to broader historical developments of performance modes
(Realism/Naturalism, Expressionism/Surrealism, Epic/Political
Theatre and Existentialism/ Theatre of the Absurd) They should be
able to participate in debates (written and oral) about the
relationship between theatrical theory and praxis and critically
read dramatic texts as indicators of complex socio-cultural,
political and theatrical events. In doing so, assess the possible
impact of European theatre tradition on the contemporary global
stage.
BA PROGRAMME
PART I: 1st YEAR
Compulsory English: Stream-A
This course is designed primarily to encourage students to speak in
English so as to help them learn the language. The textbook
prescribed in this course contains articles, short stories, poems
and a play. The course is designed to give extensive practice in
reading, writing, listening and speaking. In addition to this, the
texts included in this course bear on a range of issues that concern
the lives of men and women in the contemporary world. The
discussions in the class are to serve the dual purpose of providing
language practice to the students and to make them think about
issues such as gender equality, class and caste issues and so on.
Students are expected to have a basic understanding of the English
language. By the end of the course they are expected to acquire some
level of fluency in speaking in English. They would be required to
submit an assignment or take a class test per term on the texts
covered.
Compulsory English: Stream B
This is an English language learning course. It is meant for Honours
students of subjects other than English. It is directed at students
who wish to learn English as a medium of communication for everyday
use. This course uses a textbook designed to help students
understand the practical usage and grammar of English in a
step-by-step manner. Course work includes practice sessions to
revise rules of grammar as well as problem solving with reference to
the use of language in real-life situations. Students are expected
to actively participate in class activity as it is essential for
acquiring the language and retaining it.
*Discipline Course in English: The Individual and Society: An
Anthology
This course covers the prescribed text The Individual and Society
comprising poems, fictional writing and essays of different types
and styles. The topics and authors included fall under the broad
categories of caste, class, gender, race and war, and how they
affect the individual. Some of the authors prescribed are Omprakash
Valmiki, Premchand, Tagore, Virginia Woolf, Margret Atwood, A.K
Ramanujan, Ambai, Eunice D’Souza, Wole Soyinka, Bertolt Brecht and
Langston Hughes. The texts have been deliberately chosen from widely
different backgrounds precisely because the aim of this paper is to
enable the student to appreciate the ways in which his or her
situation is analogous to the experiences of other races, classes or
nationalities.
The student is expected to examine how the use of language and
choice of genre affect the writer’s meaning and the reader’s
response. Students are also encouraged to develop the skills of
textual analysis and discuss irony, narrative point of view,
metaphorical language and structural devices holding a short story
together. Discussion of one text in the light of others is an
integral component of classroom lectures and the students are
encouraged to develop their own insights and interpretations.
*(This
option continues for the entire three years period of the BA
Programme. Students are advised to consult the detailed reading for
three years of Discipline English, which may be found on pages 69-73
of the BA Programme syllabus posted as PDF document on the Delhi
University website. It should also be available on the College
website.)
PART II: 2nd YEAR
Discipline Course in English: English Literature
Continuing on from the 1st Year course with the same title, and
within the limitations of a non-honours offering, this course is
designed to give the students a more extended idea of the history of
English literature. It contains one Shakespeare play, one nineteenth
century novel, one twentieth century novel and a selection of twenty
four short poems from the Renaissance to the twentieth century.
Class discussions would include looking at the literary achievements
accomplished in particular texts as well as relating the texts to
their wider socio-cultural contexts. Through this course students
can glimpse the evolution and development of the English literary
tradition.
Students are expected to have a working knowledge of English and to
be interested in English literature. They would be required to
submit one assignment per term based on the texts covered in that
term.
PART III: 3rd YEAR
Compulsory English: Stream A
(Advanced English)
The Advance English course offered to BA Programme Stream A students
includes the prescribed texts Fluency in English (Part II) and
Martin Hewing's Advanced English Grammar. The course is designed to
enhance basic knowledge of English writing and its application in
all contexts – communication, technical and creative. Therefore, the
course is taught under the broad categories of Reading, Writing,
Listening, Speaking, Vocabulary and Grammar, each covering a
specific aspect of the course objective. Students are encouraged to
critically appreciate the content and context as well as analyze the
use of poetic/symbolic language in both poetry and short stories.
The students are expected to undertake a fairly strenuous exercise
in the form of regular creative writing tests, written assignments,
presentations as well as a detailed year end project.
Compulsory English: Stream B
(Intermediate English)
This course covers the prescribed texts English at the Workplace
Part II and Intermediate English Grammar. The aim of this
course is to develop oral as well as written skills in English
language so as to enable the students to apply the same in any
context and vocation. The course covers basic grammar and syntax
formations, vocabulary building through reading, listening and
comprehension exercises. The students are encouraged to apply their
vocabulary to vocational exercises such as letter and report
writing, comprehension passages, descriptive paragraphs and full
length essays.
During the course of study, the student is expected to undertake
weekly tests in grammar and syntax exercises, submit written
assignments and a year end project. Besides this, through regular
presentations and public speaking exercises the course endeavours to
enhance students’ interpersonal skills.
Discipline Course in English:
Post-colonial Literature
Both in terms of content and inter-disciplinary approaches, this
course extends the scope of the student’s knowledge of the
literature component of the humanities and social sciences of the BA
Programme. The paper is divided into three sections spanning the
literatures of Latin America, Africa and India. It covers virtually
every literary genre: Drama, the Novel, Poetry, Prose and the Short
Story. A BA (Prog) student who has opted for the English Discipline
Course should, therefore, find its contents exciting to tackle with
the analytical methods s/he would have acquired in the first two
years of the Programme. It would be a fitting climax to her or his
undergraduate experience in College with the English Department
CONCURRENT AND OTHER CREDIT/ QUALIFYING COURSES
PART I: 1st YEAR BA (HONS )
Concurrent Language Credit Course in
English (except English Hons)
The concurrent course in English, popularly known as the Credit
English course is offered to students of all 1st year BA honours
subjects. It is taught by the English faculty to non-literature
students. The course is an introduction of literature to students of
different disciplines and aims to develop their ability to think
critically in reading texts. It also addresses and assesses writing
skills of students, honing them over the course of the year. The
university has prescribed an anthology of essays, plays, poetry and
stories that is used as primary text. The text helps open up several
classroom discussions pertaining to genre, authorship, identity and
other interdisciplinary areas. Apart from regular assignments,
students submit a well researched project where they can use this
interdisciplinary approach to studying literature
Concurrent Interdisciplinary Credit Course:
The Individual and
Society* Through its interdisciplinary base,
this course focuses on a variegated selection of texts that aim to
explore the sensitive relationship between the individual and his
social, cultural, racial and political formations. In critically
evaluating the impact of the ideological pressures of caste/class,
race/gender, violence/war on the individual psyche, the student is
encouraged to appreciate ways in which his/her situation is
analogous to other cultures and nationalities. Beginning with a
general introduction to sociological issues, the course moves on to
address specific genres such as Literature of revolt, the question
of gender, post and neo colonial theories, religious and
politically motivated issues such as partition and exile.
Students are expected to examine how the use of genre, narrative
point of view and poetic language manifest the writer’s intention
and condition the reader’s response. They are encouraged further to
develop skills of textual analysis through written assignments, oral
presentations and a year end project submission
*Offered
as option in lieu of Language Credit Course for English Honours
Students
PART II: 2nd YEAR
Discipline Centered Concurrent
Course: English (i) Modern Indian Literature, Etc
This course consists of two discrete sections.
In Section A, one of four optional (canonical) texts (two plays and
two novels) will be offered. The aim is for the student to do an in
depth study of the text through close reading, awareness of context
and important themes, and analytical response (oral and written) to
the text.
Section B uses a prescribed text, Modern Indian Literature: Poems
and Short Stories (edited for the Department of English,
University of Delhi). As seen from the title, the selections include
only on two genres – poems and short stories – in Indian literature
of the twentieth century. The aim is to give students an overview of
some movements and styles in Indian literature in English and some
other languages (such as Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, etc. available
through translation) through particular texts. Because of the
twentieth century focus, these movements include various kinds of
modernisms in Indian writing. Students will be required to closely
read and analyze these texts in terms of genre and style, but also
in terms of context (historical, political, cultural, etc) and
themes. Biographical criticism also finds a place in the analysis of
these texts. The range of themes and styles are suitably very
varied, reflecting the vast differences in linguistic, regional and
historical context. While maintaining a strong literary focus, the
course opens up interesting explorations of various issues/problems
relating to identity reflected in Indian writing – post-colonialism,
linguistic difference, etc.
PART I: BSc (HONS) and BSc PROGRAMME
BSc (Honours) Qualifying English for
Chemistry, (BSc)Maths , Physics Students
This course is designed as a compulsory language course for honours
students of the sciences. The prescribed textbook aims at honing
their comprehension and analytical skills and to develop their
writing. The essays, short stories and poems included in this course
are selected with special care to encourage students of science to
approach literature with some amount of confidence rather than just
uncomprehending curiosity. Course work includes précis writing,
essay writing, analytical pieces, comprehension, and so on.
BSc (Programme)
Technical Writing and Communication
in English (HU 112)
This course introduces students of the BSc Program to technical
writing in English, building from the base of communication. The
course consists of three units. The first unit is mostly
theoretical, focusing on communication, the role of language in
communication, and features of speech and writing. The second and
third units are both theoretical and practical, the final focus
being practical. The aim is to help students understand the
theoretical, technical aspects of good writing skills (developing
paragraphs, developing a thesis, coherence and cohesion) various
styles of writing (description, argumentative), formal and informal
writings (reports, letters, minutes), etc, but more importantly to
practically apply this knowledge. This course is geared toward the
professional development of students by training them in the much
required skills of professional, technical communication
*English
Honours Courses & Required Concurrent Courses
1st Year (Part I)
Paper I: English Literature 4
(Victorian Fiction, Poetry and Background Prose)
Paper II: Twentieth Century
Indian Writing (Fiction, Drama, Poetry and Background Prose)
Non-Honours Compulsory Concurrent
Courses:
1. Language Credit Course. Choice between
(a) Hindi/Sanskrit
OR
(b) “Individual and Society”
Or
“Hindi Language, Literature and Culture”
2. Qualifying Language Course. Choice between
Hindi/Sanskrit, WITHOUT repeating choice for Language Credit Course.
3. Inter-disciplinary Credit Course. Choice between courses
offered by the History, Philosophy and/or Economics departments,
WITHOUT repeating any choice from (1) or (2). Consult write-ups
from these departments.
2nd Year (Part II)
Paper III: English
Literature 1 (English Lyric and Narrative Poetry, Drama, and
Background Prose: from Chaucer to Shakespeare and Donne)
Paper IV: English Literature
3 (English Poetry, Drama and Background Prose: from Shakespeare and
Jacobean Drama to Pope and early 17th century Poetry,
Drama and Background Prose)
Paper V: Optional
Paper (at present, we offer only Option [b]): Classical
Literature. (Greek and Indic poetry, drama, and prose texts from
the classical period)
Non-Honours Compulsory Concurrent
Courses
Choice between the following:
a) Sanskrit Text and Grammar
b) Hindi Literature
c) Delhi: Ancient. Medieval, Modern
d) Principles of Economics
e) Elements of Analysis
d) Formal Logic
or
Theories of Consciousness
3rd Year (Part III)
Paper VI: English
Literature 3 (Neo-classicism and Romanticism: prose and poetry from
Swift to Keats & Shelley)
Paper VII: English
Literature 5 (Early- and mid-20th century British Fiction, Drama,
Poetry, and Background Prose: from Conrad and Yeats to Sam Beckett
and Osborne)
Paper VIII: Contemporary
Literature (Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Background Prose: from Pablo
Neruda, Walcott, Atwood to Achebe, Marquez, Dario Fo , Ngugi and
Frantz Fanon)
Paper IX: [Options as per
enrollment.]
Option (b): Literary Theory
(Entire spectrum from Marxism/ Deconstructivism to Feminism/Cultural
Materialism/Post-colonialism/Post-structuralism)
Option (d): Modern European
Drama (Plays and theories of drama from Strindberg and Brecht to
Genet, Ionesco and Artaud) |
