School of Business Studies and Social Sciences
Christ University
Syllabus
MA English with Cultural Studies
2017-18
Christ University, Bannerghatta Campus
Bangalore 560076, Karnataka, India
www.christuniversity.in
Index
1. Deanery Overview
2. Vision and Mission
3. Introduction to the Programme
4. Programme Objectives
5. Programme Structure
6. Semester-wise Courses
MA English with Cultural Studies
Syllabus
Programme Description
The Masters of Arts programme in English with Cultural Studies aims to
provide an interdisciplinary perspective on literary and cultural texts and
theories. The papers offered provide contemporary perspectives on
understanding literature and culture within not just historical frameworks but
also contemporary contexts. Texts and ideologies selected for study are aimed
at creating discursive spaces within as well as outside the classroom that
encourage learners to investigate the contexts in which they live. In keeping
with Christ University’s vision of excellence, this course is up to date with the
latest theories and application skills in the fields of literary and cultural
studies.
Programme Objectives
Among the objectives of the course are to provide:
 Advanced knowledge in terms of understanding literary history as well as
significant texts and movements
 An interdisciplinary focus on the cultural and sociopolitical contexts in
which we read literary texts
 Creative thinking skills that enable the learner to demonstrate
independence of thought
 Hands-on training in academic writing, starting with the basics and
culminating in a dissertation
 Development in higher order communication skills aimed at providing
students graduating from the course with essential skills to foster
research culture as well as professionalism in various branches of the
fields of study.
Duration: 4 semesters
Semester 1
Critical Theory I
Course code:
Credits: 4
hours: 60
Marks 100
Total no of
Course Description
This course is on the main trends in critical theory as it relates to the
interpretation and understanding of texts and their contexts. The course will
provide contextual frameworks for the readings and attempt to arrive at a
cogent understanding of philosophical and social perspectives on critical
questions such as how texts are produced and how we read them.
Course Objectives
Students will be able to:
7. explore and understand ways in which literary theory applies to their
own lives and cultures;
8.
demonstrate the ability to apply various theories to literary and cultural;
9. understand theoretical concepts and demonstrate comprehension
through written work and presentations;
10. identify and utilise secondary sources of reading into their written work.
Unit I: Classical/Neoclassical Theories
hours
 Aristotle: Poetics
 Plato: Republic Book X
 Sidney: An Apology for Poetry
 Johnson: Preface to Shakespeare
Unit II: Romanticism
 Wordsworth: The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
 Coleridge: BiographiaLiteraria — Chapters 4,13,14
 Keats: Extracts from the letters
 Shelley: A Defence of Poetry
15
15 hours
Unit III: Influential Nineteenth-Century Thinkers
15 hours
 Karl Marx
 Sigmund Freud
 Arnold : “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time”
Unit IV: Modernism
hours
 T.S.Eliot: “Tradition and the Individual Talent”
 Leavis
 I.A. Richards
 William Empson, from “Seven Types of Ambiguity”
 Cleanth Brooks, “The Well-Wrought Urn”
15
Testing Pattern
MSE: 50 marks
ESE: 50 marks
CIAs: Tasks based on research, application, and audio-visual components.
Bibliography
 Adams, Hazard. Critical Theory Since Plato. New York, Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1971.
 Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural
Theory. New Delhi: Viva Books, 2008.
 Habib, M.A.R. A History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to the Present.
London: Blackwell, 2005.
 Hall, Donald E. Literary and Cultural Theory: From Basic Principles to
Advanced Application. Boston: Houghton, 2001.
 Latimer, Dan. Contemporary Critical Theory. San Diego: Harcourt, 1989.
 Lentriccia, Frank. After the New Criticism. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1980.
 Lodge, David (Ed.) Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. London:
Longman, 1972.
 Murfin, Ross and Ray, Supriya M. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and
Literary Terms. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2003.
 Selden, Raman and Peter Widdowson. A Reader's Guide to Contemporary
Literary Theory. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1993.
 Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. New York:
Garland Publishing, 1999.
 Wolfreys, Julian. ed. Introducing Literary Theories: A Guide and Glossary.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003.
 Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. New York:
Garland Publishing, 1999.
Poetry
Course code:
Marks 100
Credits: 4
Total no of hours: 60
Description
This paper introduces students to key themes and concerns in poetry across
the globe. The learners will be able to read, appreciate and analyze different
types of poetry and able to connect with the context in which the poems were
written.
Objectives

To understand the different cultural, socio-political factors responsible
for the creation of such works of art

To be able to connect with the varied experiences of different times and
contemplate on it for academic enrichment
Level of knowledge: Appreciation for and interest in poetry
Expected Learning Outcome: The learners will be acquainted with different
forms and movements of poetry and will be able to strengthen their
intellectual potential through the study of poetry.
Unit-I: Renaissance Poetry

Sonnet 103: Oh Happy Thames-Sir Philip Sidney Or Shall I Compare
Thee To A Summer's Day? (Sonnet 18) - William Shakespeare

For Whom The Bell Tolls-John Donne

To His Coy Mistress- Andrew Marvell.
Unit-II: Romantic and Victorian Poetry

Ode on a Grecian Urn -John Keats

Tintern Abbey -William Wordsworth

Dover Beach -Matthew Arnold

In Memoriam- Alfred Lord Tennyson

Sister Rosa: A Ballad - Percy Bysshe Shelley

The Alchemist In The City -Gerard Manley Hopkins
Unit-III: Modern Poetry

In Memory of W.B. Yeats-W.H. Auden

Dover Beach -Matthew Arnold

Sailing to Byzantium Or The Second Coming- W B Yeats

The Hollow Men- T S Eliot

I Need Not Go- Thomas Hardy
Unit-IV: American and Australian Poetry

O Captain My Captain- Walt Whitman

Fire and Ice- Robert Frost

Of Modern Poetry- Wallace Stevens

To A Child- Judith Wright
Unit-V: Poetry from the Third world

Telephone Conversation - Wole Soyinka

The Sea Is History - Derek Walcott

Grandfather - JayantaMahapatra

A River - A K Ramanujan

Perfect Thy Motion- Sri Aurobindo

I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You- Pablo Neruda
Assessment
Formative assessment- group and class discussions will help the learners for
continuous feedback during the semester. They will receive oral and written
feedback on their assignments.
Summative Assessment- CIAs, mid-Semester and End-semester exams will
be the method of summative assessment throughout the semester.
Postwar Poetry (Elective)
Course code:
Credits: 4
hours: 60
Marks 100
Total no of
Course Description
Scholars have theorised that World War II necessitated the development of
postmodernism. In poetry, post-World War II writers engaged with form and
meaning in ways that had rarely been explored in earlier times. As we move
into an era of human history in which violence is ubiquitous and our
definitions of self, the nation, and the world require serious thought and
revision, we offer Postwar Poetry as a unique module that reflects
contemporary concerns and leads learners to reflect critically on issues
intrinsic to their identities, lives, and communities.
Course Objectives
Students will be able to:
1. become familiar with the basic history of poetry in the period1945-the
present.
2. begin to understand the place of poetry within the culturalmarket
during this period;
3. discover the main trends and authors of this time; and
4. develop critical insights into engaging with poetry of this period.
Unit I:
10 hours
 Bishop, North & South, A Cold Spring, Questions of Travel; Vendler,
“Elizabeth Bishop”, Geography III
 Brooks, A Street in Bronzeville Annie Allen, The Bean Eaters, In the
Mecca, To Disembark, “Interview with Ida Lewis”
 Baker, “The Florescence of Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s”
Unit II
10 hours




Olson, “The Kingfishers” and “Projective Verse”
Davenport, “Charles Olson”
Duncan, “Poem Beginning with a Line by Pindar”
Altieri, “Introduction” and “Symbolist and Immanentist Modes of Poetic
Thought” from “Enlarging the Temple”.
Unit III
10 hours
 Ginsberg, “Howl”
 Rich, “Diving Into the Wreck”, “The Dream of a Common Language”,
“Writing as Re-Vision”
 Ashbery, “Clepsydra,” “The Double-Dream of Spring”
 O’Hara, “Meditations in an Emergency,” “The Day Lady Died,” “You are
Gorgeous and I’m Coming,” “To the Film Industry in Crisis”
 Bloom, “John Ashbery: The Charity of the Hard Moments”
 Perloff, “Barthes, Ashbery, and the Zero Degree of Genre”
 Ashbery, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, “Daffy Duck in Hollywood”
Unit IV
10 hours
 Bernstein, Controlling Interests, “Semblance”
 Bob Perelman, “Language Writing and Literary History” from “The
Marginalization of Poetry”
 Fredric Jameson, “Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late
Capitalism”
 Moss, Tokyo Butter
Unit V
 Faiz Ahmed Faiz, The Rebel’s Silhouette
 Anna Akhmatova
 Pablo Neruda
 Czeslaw Milosz
 Carol Ann Duffy
 John Burnside, from “A Lie about My Father”
 Agha Shahid Ali, The Country without a Post Office
 Ali, Introduction to “Ravishing (Dis)Unities”
 Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Ayodha Cantos
 RanjitHoskote, “The Cartographer’s Apprentice”
 Seth, Golden Gate
20 hours
Testing Pattern
MSE: 50 marks
ESE: 50 marks
CIAs: Tasks based on research, application, and audio-visual components.
Required Texts
 Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems
 Gwendolyn Brooks, Blacks
 Allen Ginsberg, Howl
 Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language
 John Ashbery, The Mooring of Starting Out: The First Five Books of Poetry
 John Ashbery, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
 Charles Bernstein, Controlling Interests
 C.D. Wright, Deepstep Come Shining
 Thylias Moss, Tokyo Butter
 Carol Ann Duffy
 John Burnside
 Agha Shahid Ali, The Country without a Post Office
 Agha Shahid Ali, Ravishing (Dis)Unities
 Michael Ondaatje, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid
 Vikram Seth, Golden Gate
 Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Ayodha Cantos
 Faiz Ahmed Faiz, The Rebel’s Silhouette
 Anna Akhmatova
 Pablo Neruda
 Czeslaw Milosz
 RanjitHoskote, “The Cartographer’s Apprentice”
 Handouts of poems by other authors
 Critical essays—will be provided by course facilitator.
Narrative (Elective)
Course code:
Marks 100
Credits:
Total no of hours: 60
Course Description: This course introduces students to the modes of
narratives, both in its textual sense and beyond. The course aims to familiarize
students with methods and approaches to reading and understanding aspects
of narrative and narratology.
Objectives:
The paper attempts to make our students get a critical sense of
·
the fundamentals of story telling
·
the process of story telling
·
different narrative forms
·
our ways of ordering
·
how we construct meaning through narratives
·
how the processes of interpreting narratives operate
·
how narratives shape any discourse
Level of knowledge: A working knowledge of narratives and culture
Expected Learning Outcome:
Time: The course is designed to meet 60 hours of teaching and classroom
interaction
Unit 1
Introducing Narrative
General Introduction to the Course
General Introduction to Narrative and Narratology
Unit II
Reading Genres
This unit introduces some modalities of reading genres both fiction and
non-fiction from the point of view of the concepts discussed in Unit 1
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller
Time’s Arrow: or The Nature of the Offence by Martin AMis
The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
Unit III
Reading Disease
This module will introduce students to understanding the narrativisation of
Health and Disease.
1.
Selections from Cancer Journals
2.
Selections from works of Siddhartha Mukherjee
Unit IV
Reading Violence
This module will introduce students to how violence is narrativised especially
in the 20th and 21 century.
AshisNandy “The Ambivalent Homecoming of the Homopsychologicus”
Selections from VeenaDasViolence and Subjectivity
Unit V
Reading Archives
This module will introduce students to the narrativisation of archives and
archival objects. A trip to the Government Musuem, Bangalore is a part of this
module.
Compulsory Books:
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller
Time’s Arrow
The Glass Palace
Recommended Reading:
Abbot, H. Porter. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge: CUP.
2002. Print.
Cobley , Paul. Narrative. London: Routledge, 2001. Print.
Dorairaj. A. Joseph. Philosophical Hermeneutics. Chennai: Satya Nilayam. 2011.
Print.
Fish, S. E. Is there a text in the class ? the authority of interpretiveCommunities
Cambridge , MA: Harvard University Press, 1980. Print.
Freeman, M. 'Mythical time , historical time, and the narrative fabric of the
Self’ Narrative Inquiry 8 (1): 27-50, 1998. Print.
Genette, G. Narrative discourseOxford : Basil Blackwell, 1982. Print.
Jenkins, H. Textual Poachers: Television and Participatory Culture, London:
Routledge, 1992. Print.
Kothari, Rita and Rupert Snell, eds. Chutnefying English: The Phenomenon of
English. New Delhi: Penguin, 2011. Print.
Lothe ,J. Narrative in fiction and film : An Introduction Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2000. Print.
Majumdar, Boria and J.A. Mangan, eds. Sport in South Asian Society. India:
Routledge, 2005. Print.
Murray
.Hamlet
on
the
Holodeck:
The
Future
of
Narrative
in
CyberspaceCambridge: MIT Press, 1997. Print.
Nandy, Ashis. “Gandhi after Gandhi after Gandhi” the little magazine. Vol. I:
Issue 1. n.d. Web. 15 Jan 2013.
Ong,W.J) Morality and Literacy : The technologies of the word, London:
Methuen, 1982. Print.
Ricoeur, P. 'Narrative time' in W.J.T.Mitchell (ed.) On Narrative Chicago and
London: University of Chicago Press. 1981. Print.
Snyder, I.'Beyond the hype: reassessing hypertext' in Page to Screen: Taking
Literacy in the electronic era, London: Routledge. 1998. Print.
Toker, I. Eloquent reticence: withholding information in fictional narrative
Kentucky: university press of Kentucky. 1993. Print.
English and/in India
Course code:
Marks 100
Credits: ?
Total no of hours: 60
Objectives:
· To create a disciplinary awareness of English in India
· To familiarize with the social life of English in India
· To understand the politics of language in India
Level of knowledge: A working knowledge of basic theoretical categories
Expected Learning Outcome:
Time: The course is designed to meet 60 hours of teaching and classroom
interaction
Unit 1
English in disciplines
This unit provides a brief overview and survey of the development of English
as a discipline
Terry Eagleton “The Rise of English”
David Palmer’s selections
Spivak “The Burden of English”
Unit II
English and Colonization
This unit provides a survey of the modes of English transmission in India
during colonization. Readings from colonial documents would be central to
understanding the debates in this unit
Charles Grant
Wood’s Despatch
GauriVishwanathanMasks of Conquest
Unit III
English and Caste
This unit introduces the social life of English in India especially in the
context of caste. It will aim to bring forth debates regarding English and
caste
VellikeelRaghavan
Rita Kothari on translating caste
KanchaIliah
Chandra Bhan Prasad
Unit IV
English and Cosmopolitanism in India
Selections from Chutneyfying Hinglish by Rita Kothari
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Popular Culture in India (Elective)
Course code:
Marks 100
Credits: 3
Total no of
hours: 60
Course Description
This course Popular Culture in India will introduce students to the area of
popular culture studies within academia. It will trace the trajectories and
concerns that determine this area and also the field of study in general. It will
specifically acquaint the students and help them engage with forms of popular
culture in India and help them read these popular culture forms as ‘texts’ –
signifying systems that produce meanings in specific ways. It will look at the
politics of the production, dissemination and consumption of these texts.
Objectives
The objective of this paper is to attempt to help students

Engage with popular culture as an academic domain

Understand popular culture and read popular culture forms

Acquaint themselves with the history of popular culture studies

Understand and read popular culture forms in India

Understand the political in the popular.
Level of knowledge: Interest in cultural studies, knowledge of cultural
theories and interest in the ‘popular’.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Students are expected to historically understand popular culture studies,
understand popular culture texts and be able to read and interpret popular
culture ‘texts’ and problematize them. They are expected to understand these
‘texts’ as mediated and ideological formations.
Time: The course is designed to meet 60 hours of teaching and classroom
interaction
Unit I
15 Hrs
Popular Culture and Popular Culture Studies: General Perspectives
1. Leo Lowenthal: “Historical Perspectives of Popular Culture”
2. Leo Lowenthal: “The Debate Over Art and Popular Culture: A Synopsis”
3. John Fiske: “Understanding the Popular”
4. Stuart Hall: “Notes on Deconstructing the ‘Popular’”
5. Leo Lowenthal: “Popular Culture: A Humanistic and Sociological
Concept”
6. Guy Debord: “Society of the Spectacle”
Unit II
Situating Popular Culture in India
10
Hrs
1. MotiGokulsing and WimalDissanayake: “Introduction”
2. Ram Punyani: “India: Religious Nationalism and Changing Profile of
Popular Culture”
3. Sara Pendergrast: “Clothing, Headgear and Body Decorations in India”\
4. K. MotiGokulsing: “What is an Indian Soap Opera?”
5. Rajiv Malhotra: “Order and Chaos”
Unit III
hrs
Indian Cinema and Music
10
1. ShakuntalaBanaji: “Hindi Films: Theoretical Debates and Textual
Studies”
2. Asha Kasbekar: “Music”
3. Peter Kveto: “Private Music: Individualism, Authenticity and Genre
Boundaries in the Bombay Music Industry”
4. Anna Morcom: “Indian Popular Culture and its ‘Others’: Bollywood
Dance and Anti-Nautch in Twenty-First-Century Global India”
Unit IV
5
hrs
Popular Culture of the Streets
1. BhaskarMukhopadhyay: “The Discreet Charm of Indian Street Food”
2. Frederick Norohna: “Who’s Afraid of Radio in India?”
3. BoriaMajumdar: “Soaps, serials and the CPI(M), Cricket Beats Them All:
Cricket and Television in Contmeporary India”
Unit V
Other Forms of Popular Culture
20
Hrs
1. Pramod K Nayar: “Star Power: The Celebrity as Power”
2. ShehinaFazal: “Emancipation or Anchored Individualism?: Women and
TV Soaps in India”
3. Nalin Mehta: “Breaking News, Indian Style’: Politics, Democracy and
Indian News Television”
4. KarlineMaclain: “Gods, Kings and Local Telugu Guys: Competing Visions
of the heroic in Indian Comic Books”
5. Asha Kasbekar: Consumer Culture : Café, Pubs, multiplexes, malls, high
fashion and new Age Gurus
6. Lynne Ciochetto: “Advertising in a Gobalised India”
7. ShomaMunshi: “Reality TV: So Bad, it’s Good?”
8. Social Media – youtube, trolls, memes etc.
Compulsory Reading:A compilations of these texts.
Testing Pattern
MSE: 50 marks
ESE: 50 marks
CIAs: Relevant CIAs linked to research, practical aspects, audio-visual
components.
Reading List
Shoma, Munshi: Remote Control: Indian Television in the New Millenium
K MotiGokulsing: Soft-Soaping Inida: The World of Indian Televised Soap
Operas
Asha Kasbekar: Popular Culture: India!
MotiGokulsing and WimalDissanayake: Popular Culture in a Globalised India