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.

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 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.