Kristu Jayanti College
Department of English
[ENGLISH LITERATURES
SYLLABUS: 2015-2018]
The Department of English is offering English Literatures as a core paper for BA programme as a part of
the triple main combination.
Course Description:
The three-year English Literatures course, offers students an opportunity to understand the
literary, cultural and social dynamism of England’s varied past, European and Non-European
writing and integrates Indian writing in English facilitating a transcendence of linguistic
nativism.
Course Objective:
 To acquaint the learners of literature with the various genres and literary terms of
Literature.
 To sensitize them to the themes and styles of Literature.
 To introduce them to the socio-cultural milieu of different periods.
 To introduce multicultural sensibilities through literary works .
Course Matrix:
Sem.
Paper Code
Title of the Paper
Hours
Credits ESE
CIA
Total
I
OEN151201
British Literatures I
05
04
70
30
100
II
OEN152201
British Literatures II
05
04
70
30
100
III
OEN153201
British Literatures III -Victorian and
Modern
05
04
70
30
IV
OEN154201
American Literatures
05
04
70
30
100
V
OEN155201
Indian Literatures I
05
04
70
30
100
V
OEN155202
European & Non-European Literatures
I
05
04
70
30
V
HUM1352P1
Specialization Project
VI
OEN156201
Indian Literatures II
05
04
VI
OEN156202
European & Non-European Literatures
II
05
04
04
100
100
100
70
30
70
30
100
100
SEMESTER I
Semester I
OEN151201: British Literatures I
Credits: 04
Hours: 60
Objective:
 To give basic knowledge of some aspects of language
 To throw light on historical perspective to literature.
Unit I
Poetry
Unit II
Drama
15 hrs
(Poetry: Definition, Types- Subjective and Objective Poetry - the Lyric- the Ode - the
Sonnet - the Elegy- the Idyll - the Epic-the Ballad - the Satire,Stanza forms: The Heroic
Couplet, The Terza Rima, The Chaucerian stanza of Rhyme Royal, The Ottava Rima,
The Spenserian stanza.)
The Wife of Bath (General Prologue) : Geoffrey Chaucer ; With What Sharp Checks I in
Myself am Shent : Philip Sidney; Sonnet 79 : Edmund Spenser; Dr.Faustus –Act II, lines
110-Exit of Sins :Christopher Marlowe; Sonnet XVIII : William Shakespeare
15 hrs
( The dramatic Art, Tragedy, Comedy, Tragi-comedy, Farce,Melodrama, The Dramatic
Monologue,Interludes, Legend, Heroic Tragedy. Dramatic Irony, Aside, Surprise,
Soliloquy, Expectation, Stage Directions, Expressionism, Farce,, Catastrophe, Hamartia,
Catharsis Climax, Comic Relief.)
Macbeth : William Shakespeare
Unit III
Prose
15 hrs
Of Studies : Francis Bacon; Of Parents and Children: Francis Bacon; The Character of
Will Wimble: Joseph Addison
Unit IV
Aspects of Language
15 hrs
Language; Speech Sounds in English; The Structure of Words
Books for Reference
1. Hudson,W,H., A Handbook for Literature,
2. Alpers, Paul E. (1967),Elizabethan Poetry: Modern Essays In Criticism, OUP.
3. Daiches, David. (1960) A Critical History Of English Literature ;Seeker and
Warburg, London,
4. Ford. Boris Ed. (1990) The New Pelican Guide To English Literature: The Age Of
Shakespeare Vol.2 (Penguin, 1993) From Donne To Marvell Vol. 3 (Penguin,)
5. Keast. William B. (1971) Seventeenth Century English Poetry: Modern Essays In
Criticism ,OUP
SEMESTER II
Semester II
OEN152201: British Literatures II
Credits: 04
Hours: 60
Objective:
 To give basic knowledge of some aspects of language
 To throw light on historical perspective to literature.
Unit I
Poetry
16 hrs
Poetry Reformation and Restoration
(Metaphysical Poetry; Neo classical/Augustan age; Romantic age ; Puritan age)
The Flea: John Donne; To His Coy Mistress : Andrew Marvell; Paradise Lost(Book I –
Man’s Disobedience) : John Milton; Rape of the Lock : Alexander Pope; Chimminey
Sweepers: William Blake;Kubla Khan : Samuel Taylor Coleridge ; Ode to a Skylark: P B
Shelley;Ode to a Nightingale: John Keats; Prisoner of Chillon: George Gordon Byron
Unit II
Prose
15 hrs
Kinds of Essays-Personal Essays-Character Essay-Periodical Essays-Periodicals-Spectator
Club
Personal Essay
Superannuated Man : Charles Lamb
Character Essay
A City Night Piece: Oliver Goldsmith
Periodical Essay
Of the Club: Richard Steele
Unit III
Novel
15 hrs
Short story, Novel, novella, Flat and Round Characters
Science fiction-Horror-Romance-German Gothic Novels-Modern Prometheus
Gothic Novel
Frankenstein : Mary Shelly
Unit IV
Aspects of Language
14 hrs
Literary Terms
Alliteration, Blank Verse, Burlesque, Conceit, Diction, Epigram, Epithet, Euphemism,
Imagery, Imitation, Metaphor, Anecdote, Ballad, Anastrophe, Simile, Synecdoche,
Onomatopoeia, Sprung Rhythm, Imagery and symbol, Dramatic Irony, Aside, Surprise,
Soliloquy, Expectation, Stage Directions, Expressionism, Farce, , Catastrophe, Catharsis
Climax, comic Relief, Four Humours
Books for Reference
1.Hudson,W,H., A Handbook for Literature,
2.Ricks. Christopher.( 1993) The Penguin History Of English Literature Vol.3.
Penguin.
3.Ford. Boris Ed. (1993) The New Pelican Guide To English Literature: The Age Of
Shakespeare Vol.2 Penguin.
4. Ford. Boris Ed .( 1990) From Donne To Marvell Vol. 3 Penguin.
5. Bacon, Francis.( 1858) Bacon’s Essays. London: John W. Parker and Son.
6. Lamb, Charles. (1938) Selected Essays of Lamb. London: Oxford University Press.
7. Baldick, Chris. (2005) Oxford Book of Literary Terms. London: Oxford University Press.
8. Childs, Peter, Roger Fowler. The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms.
9. Abrahams, M.H. (2008) A Glossary of Literary Terms. New Delhi: Cleanage.
10. Dominic Head. (2000) The Cambridge Introduction to Modern British Fiction, 19502000.Cambridge University Press.
11. Rogers, Pat. (ed) (1998) An Outline of English Literature. Oxford University Press.
12. Sanders, Andrew. (2004) Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford University
Press.
SEMESTER III
Semester III
OEN153201: British Literatures III -Victorian and Modern
Credits: 04
Hours: 60
Objective:
 To give basic knowledge of some aspects of language
 To throw light on historical perspective to literature.
Unit I
British Poetry
15 hrs
(Victorian Age
The English novel and language in the nineteenth century, Pre-Raphaelites; Darwin and
the publication of Origin of Species; Realism; Naturalism.
Twentieth Century
Modernism; The world war; The Boer war; Russian Revolution; Surrealism; Cubism; And
Expressionism)
1. The Victorian Age
Ulysses : Alfred Lord Tennyson; The Lady of Shallotte: Alfred Lord Tennyson;
Windhover : Gerald Manley Hopkins
2. Modern Poetry
The Second Coming : W B Yeats; Hollow Man: T S Eliot
3. The Poetry of the 1930s and 1940s
The Force That Drives: Dylan Thomas
4. The Poetry of the 1950s
Jaguar : Ted Hughes
Unit II
British Play
Pygmalion: George Bernard Shaw
Unit III
Fiction
Oliver Twist: Charles Dickens
15 hrs
15 hrs
Unit IV
Aspects of Language
15 hrs
Discourse;
Literary Terms - Myth, Objective Correlative, Parable, Parody, Pastoral, Pathetic Fallacy,
Pathos, Periodic Sentence, Personification, Picaresque Novel, Narrative Plot, Poetic
Diction, Poetic Justice, Problem Plays, Pun, Rhetoric, Sarcasm, Satire, Sentimentalism,
Stream of Consciousness, Surrealism, Tragic Flaw, Three Unities, Wit.
Books for Reference
1. Hudson,W,H., A Handbook for Literature,
2.Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall, (1987), Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the
English Middle Class, 1780-1850
3.Michel Foucault, (1977) Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison
4.E. P. Thompson, (1963) The Making of the English Working Class
SEMESTER IV
Semester IV
OEN154201: American Literatures
Credits: 04
Hours:60
Objective:
 To acquaint the learners of literature with the various genres and literary terms of
American Literature
 To sensitize them to the themes and styles of American Literature
 To introduce them to the socio-cultural milieu of twentieth century America
 To enhance their understanding of American, African American and
Multicultural sensibilities by introducing them to the literary works representing them
Unit I
Poetry
15 hrs
Ain’t I a Woman : Sojourner Truth; And Still I Rise: Maya Angelo; The Raven: Edgar
Allan Poe; The emperor of ice cream : Wallace Stevens; Noiseless Patient Spider: Walt
Whittman; As I Grew Older : Langston Hughes; I Thank You, God : E E Cummings;
To the Brooklyn Bridge : Hart Crane
:
Unit II
Novel
15 hrs
The Grapes of Wrath :John Steinbeck
Unit III
Play
A Raisin in the Sun: Lorraine Hansberry
15 hrs
Unit IV
Short Fiction
15 hrs
A Rose for Emily: Faulkner; The Cat in the Rain: Hemingway; The Chief’s Daughters
: An Otoe legend; The Life of Fredrick Douglass: Fredrick Douglass
Books for Reference
1. Hudson,W,H., A Handbook for Literature
2.Hudson, William Henry. (2007) An Introduction to the Study of Literature. New Delhi:
Atlantic,.
3.Kernan, Alvin B., ed, (1967) The Modern American Theater. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.:
Princeton Hall,.
4.Kiernan, Robert F. (1983). American Writing since 1945: A Critical Survey. New York:
Frederick Ungar,
5.Lawrence, Shaffer. (2000).History of American Literature and Drama. New Delhi:
Sarup,
SEMESTER V
Semester V
OEN155201: Indian Literatures I
Credits:04
Hours: 60
Objective:
 To introduce learners to the various phases of evolution in Indian Writing in English
 To acquaint learners to the pluralistic dimensions of this literature
 To help them understand the different genres of this elective
 To sensitize them to the value system of this literature
Unit I
Critical study of feminism in Indian Genre
15 hrs
The Stone Women: ShashiDeshpande (one short story); Lifting The Veil(one short story):
IsmatChugtai ; Devdas (an extrart): Sarat Chandra Chatterjee; ChauthiBhint : UrmilaPawar;
The Dance of the Eunuchs : Kamala Das
Unit II
Novella
15 hrs
Parineeta : Sarat Chandra Chatterjee; Samskara : U R Anantha Murthy
Unit III
Drama & Movie
15 hrs
Nagamandala : Girish Karnad
Unit IV
Prose
1. Introduction from Women Writing in
India:600 BC to the Present : Susie Tharu & K. Lalitha
2. Politics of Failure: S.V.Srinivas
15 hrs
Books for Reference
1. Hudson,W,H., A Handbook for Literature
2.Bassnett, Susan and Harish Trivedi (eds). 2002 [1999]. Postcolonial
translation: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge
3. Bharucha, Nilufer and Vilas Sarang (eds). 1994. Indian English Fiction, 198090: An Assessment. Delhi: B R Publishers.
4. Bharucha, Nilufer and Vrinda Nabar (eds). 1998. Mapping Cultural Spaces:
Postcolonial Indian Literature in English, Essays in Honour of Nissim Ezekiel.
Delhi: Vision Books.
5. Bhongle, Rangrao (ed.). 2003. The Inside View: Native Responses to
Contemporary Indian English Novel. Delhi: Atlantic Publishers.
Semester V
OEN155202: European and Non-European Literatures I
Credits:04
Hours:60
Objective:
 To enable students develop English language abilities and skills essential for classroom
interaction.
 To introduce students to some of the classics in English
 To serve important educational objectives through exposure to great literature.
Unit I
Poetry
15 hrs
Trojan Women: Euripides; Inferno: Dante; Ithaka: Constantine P Cavafy; From the Iliad:
Homer; Extract from “ The Requiem”: Anna Akmatova; In Warsaw: Czeslaw Mislov;
Absent Soul: Federico Garcia Lorca
Unit II
Novella
Heart of Darkness : Joseph Conrad
Unit III
Drama
15 hrs
15 hrs
The Caucasian Chalk Circle : Bertolt Brecht
Unit IV
Short Fiction
15 hrs
The Metamorphosis :Franz Kafka; The Black Swan :Thomas Mann; The Fool : Singer
Gimpel; The Myth of Sisyphus :Albert Camus
Books for Reference
1. Hudson, W H.( 1990), A Handbook for Literature
2. Curtius,Ernst Robert.( 1991 ), European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages ,
Princeton University Press
3. John Gerard Peters (2006). The Cambridge introduction to Joseph Conrad. Cambridge
University Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-521-83972-3.
4. Orme, Mark (2007). The Development of Albert Camus's Concern for Social and Political
Justice, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
5. Conacher, D. J. (1967). Euripidean Drama: Myth, Theme, and Structure. London: Oxford
University Press.
SEMESTER VI
Semester VI
OEN156201: Indian Literatures II
Credits:04
Hours:60
Objective:
 To introduce learners to the various phases of evolution in Indian Writing in English
 To acquaint learners to the pluralistic dimensions of this literature
 To help them understand the different genres of this elective
 To sensitize them to the value system of this literature
Unit I
Poetry
(Translations of Vachanas, Kabir, Tamil Women Poets, Meera and Kabir)
1. In a Brahmin House
How can I feel right?
: Basavanna
2. I have Maya for mother-in-law
People: male and female
Other men are thorns
: Mahadeviyakka
3. Unite me with my Lord O Kamadeva
: Andal
4. Anger of the little minded
: Avvaiyar
5. Sagging breasts and swollen veins
: Karaikal Ammaiyar
6. My love is reserved for Giridhar Gopal
: Meera
7. The Maker himself becomes the potter
While in mother’s womb
: Kabir
15 hrs
Unit II
Drama
.
The King of the Dark Chamber: Rabindranath Tagore
15 hrs
Unit III
Novel
Chemmeen : Thagazhi Sivasankara Pillai
15 hrs
Unit IV
Essays
15 hrs
Indian Literature in English Translation: G.N. Devi; Is There an Indian Way of
Thinking?: A K Ramanujan
Books for Reference
1. Hudson,W,H., A Handbook for Literature
2.de Souza, Eunice (ed). 2008. Both Sides of The Sky: Post-Independence Indian
Poetry in English. New Delhi: National Book Trust.
3. de Souza, Eunice (ed). 2010 [2005]. .Early Indian poetry in English: An
Anthology 1829-1947. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
4. Datta, Amresh. 1994. The Encyclopedia of Indian Literature. New Delhi:
Sahitya Academy.
Semester VI
OEN156202: European and Non-European Literatures II
Credits:04
Hours:60
Objective:
 To enable students develop English language abilities and skills essential for classroom
interaction.
 To introduce students to some of the classics in English
 To serve important educational objectives through exposure to great literature.
Unit I
Poetry
15 hrs
I am explaining a few things… : Pablo Neruda; Australia: A.D.Hope; Helen of Troy
does Countertop Dancing : Margaret Atwood; All the Generations Before Me
: Yehuda Amichai; A Far Cry From Africa: Derek Walcott; On an Asian Poet Fallen
Among Americans : Yasmine Goonaratne; This Landscape, These People: Zulfikar
Ghosh
Unit II
Re-reading post colonial literature
Wide Sargasso sea :Jean Rhys; Arrow of God :Chinua Achebe
15 hrs
Unit III
Critical Theory
Marxist Criticism; Feminist Criticism; Theory of Deconstruction
15 hrs
Unit IV
Essays
15 hrs
Discourse and Counter Discourse
Minute on Education : Macaulay; Hind Swaraj : Mahatma Gandhi; Forward to
Kanthapura : Raja Rao
Books for Reference
1. Hudson,W,H., A Handbook for Literature
2.Curtius,Ernst Robert. (1991), European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages ,
Princeton University Press.
3. Holcombe, Garan (2005). "Margaret Atwood". Contemporary Writers. London: British Arts
Council.
4. Agetua, John (ed.) (1977). Critics on Chinua Achebe, 1970–76. Benin City, Nigeria: Bendel
Newspapers Corp.
Semester V
Practical Component: Term Paper
Project Guidelines for Undergraduate Programme (Autonomous) - Semester V
English literature project offers the opportunity to undertake independent research on a topic of
your choice within the field of literature. It enables you to explore a topic in more depth than an
assignment essay. As it is your piece of work you have to:
 have an idea for an area of research
 identify your research questions
 decide how to undertake the research
 analyse and write up the data critically
Module Objectives
On completion of your dissertation you should be able to:
 demonstrate the ability to conduct an inquiry by using research approaches and secondary
data acquired
 demonstrate academic written skills through the presentation of an extended piece of
writing
Selection of Topics
Selection of topics is restricted to the following areas:
 Literature of the 20th and 21st Centuries
 Postcolonial Literature
 Twentieth-Century Fiction
 Comparisons between two novels- If the novels seem completely different but represent
the same genre or come from the same time period, this may be something you want to
explore.
 Comparisons between two characters-This can be between characters in the same
novel or two different ones. How are their differences and similarities important to the
novel?
 Historical background-Who is the author and what is their story? Were there
controversies associated with him/her or their work? What is the significance of this
novel in the time it was written? How does it reflect the society and beliefs of its time?
 Gender roles- How are the roles of men and women portrayed in the novel? Are they
distinctly different? Do they have equal rights? What gender expectations do they follow
or fight against?
Identifying the Guide
Once you are allocated a guide you need to make contact with her/him. It is not the responsibility
of your guide to chase you as this is an independent piece of work. Your guide will offer
guidance and support in relation to your research questions, methodology, analysis and literature
through tutorial sessions.
Writing Your Dissertation
The following is a guideline for your chapters’ structure:
 Title Page
 Contents Page
 Chapter 1: Introduction
A brief outline of the topic and how you came to choose it; what you wanted to find out;
how you tackled it, and perhaps how your results fit into the broader picture. It is also the
place to include a brief description of the background, context and setting in which the
study has taken place.
Approximately 750 words plus.
 Chapter 2: Literature Review
A review of the literature you have found on your subject, with particular emphasis on
theories and debates on the subject. This will place your project into a broader academic
context and may give you a theory or hypothesis that you wish to test in your empirical
research. Approximately 750 words.
 Chapter 3: Methodology
A review of the methods you used to carry out your research with a discussion of the
strengths and weaknesses of the approach you followed and the approaches you rejected.
A discussion of any ethical issues raised by the research. Approximately 750 words.
 Chapter 4: Results
An account of what you found from your study. Approximately 750 words.
 Chapter 5: Discussion
A more critical analysis of the results in which you discuss the results in the context of
your original aims, the literature review. Approximately 750 words.
 Chapter 6: Conclusion Approximately 500 words.
 References
Evaluation:
Research Process/Internship
Dissertation
Viva Voce
40 marks
30 marks
30 marks