The Literary and Cultural Studies (LCS) Specialization aims to expose students to the study of various literatures and cultural aspects such as visual art, religion, music, historical traditions, law and communities. Drawing upon the concepts and theoretical frameworks from different disciplines such as literature, history, visual studies, musicology and sociology, this specialization enables students to evaluate varied perspectives to the study of literature, and cultural forms specific to gender, identity, nationality, religion and worldview. Through this interdisciplinary approach the students will examine a range of questions: What are different literary generes and how are they analyzed? What are the main trends in English Literature from the Elizabethian Age to Modernism? How is literature reflective of contemporary cultural milieu? What is culture? How are different cultural forms shaped, adapted and evolved in varied cultural contexts? How and why do issues of gender, nationality and identity impact cultural patterns and worldviews?
The Literary and Cultrual Studies major equips students to generate analysis and critical insights rooted in the appropriate methodological approaches, through reflective reading and writing practices. The students will be able to evaluate and analyze a wide range of different types of texts such as literary works, academic writing, travelogues, historical and geographical narratives, biographies and case studies. A sequence of courses will explore the significant concepts and theories of the discipline and introduce students to the range of literatures and varied cultural forms and their interpretations. The subsequent courses will focus on honing the students’ skills to connect varied arguments and theoretical models, and critically evaluate texts as cultural forms. Students will be trained to write analytical and interpretative essays, critique primary and secondary sources, and generate original insights.
The Literary and Cultrual Studies Specialization prepares students for advanced graduate-level studies in comparative literature, english literature, cultural studies, cultural anthropology and other related disciplines of Humanites. With its emphasis on critical thinking, evaluative reading of varied texts and analytical writing, this specialization enables students to pursue career in Publishing, Editing, Content Writing, Journalism, Teaching and Academics.
The specialization specific introductory courses in the major introduce students to broad surveys of English literature, and study of historical traditions, religion, film and music. The courses focus on introducing students to basic concpets of literature and culture, aimed at exploring the range of literatures and cultural forms and their contextual understading. Intermediate courses focus on exposing students to the major theoretical frameworks of the discipline, literatures of western world and thematic aspects of historical and musical traditions. These courses aim at exploring multiple perspectives while anchored in a relevant theoretical framework. Students learn to deconstruct the texts, write analytical essays and evaluate varied perspectives to the study of literary and cultural forms. Advanced courses delve into the thematic aspects of literature focusing on translated works from India and recent literary works from the erstwhile colonies of British Empire. The cultural studies courses explore themes of nationality, law, regionalism, musical traditions and religious studies, with specific focus on South Asia. In these courses students learn to use interdisciplinary approach, evaluate multiple worldviews and generate critiques.
SPECIALIZATION AIMS
The Literary and Cultural Studies intends to
- provide students with an understanding of concepts, relevant theoretical frameworks and multiple approaches in the study of Literary and Cultural Studies
- develop in students an interdisciplinary approach to the study of literature, visual culture, and cultural forms across different geographical regions and enable them to develop an understanding of the social, political and cultural milieu of these cultural forms
- develop an understanding of varied literary forms such as novels, novellas, short stories, poems, plays, anthologies and biographies and introduce students to translation studies as well as the literary tradition of translated texts
- expose students to multiple worldviews and foster skills in close reading, critical analysis and teamwork
- develop in students a sensitised approach to varied cultural forms
- equip students with research methods skills and enable them to write different types of critical academic essays, evaluative response papers, etc.
COURSES (CORE AND ELECTIVE) **
30 MAJOR COURSES
| 1. Introduction to English Literature | 11. Iconography: Meaning and Myths | 21. Modernism in Literature |
| 2. Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies | 12. Indian Society Through Ages | 22. New Literatures in English |
| 3. Critical Theory | 13. Images of India | 23. Understanding Myths |
| 4. Survey of English Literature | 14. Great Books in Human History | 24. Understanding Gender |
| 5. European Literature | 15. Culture and Communication | 25. Indian Theatre |
| 6. Research Methods in LCS | 16. Autobiography Studies* | 26. Film and Literature: Adaptation |
| 7. Indian Cinema* | 17. World Cinema and Society | 27. Literary movements* |
| 8. Children’s and Young Adult Literature | 18. Drama, Performance and Society | 28. South Asian Cultural Studies* |
| 9. Visual Language and Grammar | 19. Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature | 29. Environmental Writing* |
| 10. Issues and Debates in Indian History | 20. Cybercultures | 30. Writing for Media* |
* 4th year undergraduate courses
1. Introduction to English Literature
Teaching literature is teaching how to read. How to notice things in a text that a speed-reading culture is trained to disregard, overcome, edit out, or explain away; how to read what the language is doing, not guess what the author was thinking ...(Barbara Johnson, "Teaching Deconstructively," in Writing and Reading Differently, ed. G. Douglas Atkins and Michael L. Johnson, University Press of Kansas: 1985)
This course aims to introduce students to the fundamental concepts and history associated with the reading, analysis and appreciation of literary works. Students will be exposed to the major literary genres of narrative fiction, poetry, and drama and examine the interrelationships between language and aesthetic experience. We will also look at critical concepts with an emphasis on better understanding and appreciation of Literature beyond the freshman perspective.
2. Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies
This course offers an introductory view of the application of literary and cultural studies in India. This inter-disciplinary field of study is useful to understanding the relationship between cultural texts and social forms by situating social analyses in the context of India.
3. Critical Theory
This course introduces students to the basic concepts of literary and cultural studies, focusing on theoretical frameworks and methodological processes. Beginning with the definition of culture, and initially focused in literary theory, the course goes on to offer an overview of the evolution of varied theoretical models to expose students to historically successive theoretical lenses from Structuralism till Deconstruction. It also explores varied theorists’ writings in schools such as Marxism and Feminism towards detailing methodological possibilities for literary and cultural studies.
4. Survey of English Literature
This module aims at familiarizing students with the historical overview and major events in English Literature from Renaissance to the advent of Modernism. Students focus on Poetry, Drama and Novel and read texts in relation to the changing world views and history of ideas. They study the evolution of English critical thought with reference to central authors like Milton, Wordsworth, Dickens, Conrad, Shaw to name a few. The course also involves a detailed investigation into the rise of the novel and the three revolutions: French, American and Russian: European colonialism through growing competition among the European nations culminating in the two World Wars, and their impact on English literature.
5. European Literature
This course aims to introduce students to some of the finest works of Literature spanning several centuries in Europe beyond the English speaking world by focusing on specific aspects of Literature, Culture and Critical theory. From Medieval to Modern, we will survey expressions in myriad literary genres and simultaneously students will be oriented to movements in literary thought like Absurdism, Naturalism, and Symbolism amongst several others. Diverse in language, culture and history, European Literature is representative of an interesting amalgamation of subject matter and styles and this course will endeavour to familiarize the students with this wide diversity in thought and narratives that characterizes the literatures of Europe.
6. Research Methods in LCS
The goal of this course is two-fold: to understand better the humanities—the study of how people process and document human experience—, and to develop and produce an original research to demonstrate our understanding of the humanities and their significance to the world we live in. We will familiarize ourselves with relevant areas of the humanities such as self, identity, philosophy, justice, art, literature, and language by reading excerpts from books that approach the humanities through many different interdisciplinary angles. These selected readings will allow us to raise questions concerning why and how the humanities matter.
7. Indian Cinema
India has many cinemas. However, it is often identified with popular Hindi cinema only largely made and produced in Mumbai through the use of the phrase “Bollywood”. This course will endeavour to explore film cultures of India that far exceed the popular representation of just one kind of Indian cinema. While analyzing these myriad film movements and cultures, we will also survey India’s historical past which has shaped cinema and the hopes and aspirations of a complex postcolonial nation. The class will discuss problems and challenges in studying Indian cinema and move on to a historical study of various phases in Indian cinema and in Indian popular consciousness. We shall begin with the mythological genre and cover the nation-building films of the Nehruvian era in the 1950s and 60s, the “angry young man” vigilante films of the 1970s that reflected a nation’s disillusionment with its own progress, other film cultures in India, some major themes in post-globalization movies of the 1990s onwards, such as terrorism, family, and diasporic life and new documentary film practices in India. The course will also discuss issues of identity, gender and representation in Indian Cinema.
8. Children’s and Young Adult Literature
This course seeks to interrogate conceptions of childhood/young adulthood through the literature aimed at both sets. It examines these two categories through writings on pedagogy, and the politics of adaptation/translation of texts. Further, it looks at the politics of publication by surveying texts intended for children, young adults, and adults, primarily within India to attempt to understand the imagined audience/s and their differences. These texts are fictional and non-fictional, oral and written, pedagogic texts as well non-sense poetry.
9. Visual Language and Grammar
The moving image has a rich history of styles, treatments and techniques. While some fundamentals remain consistent—in the hands of masters, great innovations and signature palettes have evolved. This course will attempt to take a journey to understand what these fundamentals are & how distinctive styles can be innovated upon. This is designed as a bridge-course, for those interested in visual arts to graduate from the realm of film theory to filmmaking, and is advisable not just for film students but also for the casual enthusiasts.
10. Issues and Debates in Indian History
This course aims to explore specific themes, debates and issues of Indian history and understand how these have been interpreted over time. It aims to reflect on how and why the historiography has changed in the context of intellectual developments and political agendas. It attempts to understand how history continues to impact and shape our present and also our future; and how closely it is tied to the notion of nation and national/individual identity
11. Iconography: Meaning and Myths
This course provides an overview of the iconographic representations of the various forms of deities in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, and seeks to study the meanings and myths of these icons. It explores the rich heritage of Puranic mythology, the historical development of multiple religious traditions of India and cultural adaptations as evident in the icons
12. Indian Society Through Ages
India is one of the oldest living civilizations with traditions that date back to centuries. The cultural fabric of Indian society is composed of multiple and diverse historical traditions, social customs, languages and practices, which have evolved over a long period of time. This has been the result of various local, regional and foreign influences and indigenous development of cultural processes. This course introduces students to India’s cultural history from around 15th century BCE to 12th century CE. It explores the political traditions, social institutions and economic scenario of different periods and focuses on cultural changes over time.
13. Images of India
This course aims to reflect on varied perceptions and images of India in the foreign mind as gleaned from the Greek accounts of 4th-3rd century BCE through the 19th century records of British period. It explores a variety of texts such as travelogues, historical and geographical narratives, biographies and religious accounts to unravel the foreign views on India.
14. Great Books in Human History
This course aims to introduce students to some of the finest works of Literature spanning several centuries in the world. It encourages students to engage the primary texts from the ancient to modern worlds. We will survey expressions diverse languages, cultures and histories. The “great books” selected represent an interesting amalgamation of subject matter and styles and this course will endeavour to familiarize the students with this wide diversity in thought and narratives that characterizes the literatures of the world15.
15. Culture and Communication
This course attempts to understand the pivotal role of culture and media in contemporary society. It looks at a variety of cultural practices through an interdisciplinary lens and in particular, through grounding in technologies, forms, institutions and effects of media.
16. Autobiography
The study of non-fiction vis-à-vis the self is the study of this course. It will chart a historical journey from Saint Augustine and Babar, one of the first to write autobiographies to new forms of expressing self-hood, whether it be the selfie, portrait, or graphic narratives. En route, the course will dwell upon processes which chart out self-enunciation, such as spiritual awakening, pedagogical concerns, gender in negotiation, trauma and memory, among others.
17. World Cinema and Society
This course aims to offer students an exposure to the best in world cinema; to study trends in the contents and form of world cinema and to understand the changing human condition in different parts of the world as reflected in its cinema.
18. Drama, Performance and Society
Dramatic work and performances consciously and unconsciously interact with cultural stories, political contestations, gender conventions, class and caste histories, and aesthetic and formal traditions. This course aims to enable the students to study the key issues of interface of literary form of drama, and society and history through the reading of dramatic literature, performances and analysis of drama-histories. The course will focus mainly on the literary aspects of drama and critical discourses on drama with reference to a selection of plays, performances and critical theories.
19. Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature
This course offers a survey of Shakespeare's plays, with a selection from each sub-genre, tragedy, comedy, history, and tragicomedy. We will discuss Shakespeare's world and the relationships between his works and the culture, society, and politics of early modern England. In addition, we will place the plays in context of contemporary literary criticism and global contexts of rewriting, production, and performance. The primary mode of instruction will be close reading and class discussion, with lecture and supplementary film, and other media as appropriate
20. Cybercultures
The arrival of the Digital Age has fundamentally changed the way humans make meaning of society. In addition to its myriad implications in the world of commerce and statecraft—it has also fundamentally challenged very basic ideas about the human condition so to speak. We are living in an era where we have to constantly re-negotiate and re-invent our understanding of identity, gender, sexuality, privacy, surveillance & the State—as well as new business models oriented around human networks, start-ups, social media, sharing & curating economies. This course will seek to establish grounding in the anthropology of such Cyber-Cultural issues & themes.
21. Modernism in Literature
Modernism cannot be classified as a literary movement alone. It is an attitude in literary expression which defies temporal restrictions. Greatly influenced by Karl Marx’s writings, Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic findings, Nietzsche’s philosophy and Darwin’s theories, Modernist literature is characterized by a self-conscious break from traditional styles of prose and verse. Experimentation and Individualism came to be identified as some of the key features of these writings. Techniques such as stream of consciousness, interior monologues, multiple narrators, juxtapositions, irony and satire were also widely adopted in such works. Often closely related to Futurism, Imagism, Surrealism and Symbolism which flourished during this period, Literature was used as a platform to address alternative views on existing social concepts, to reject traditional thoughts and social norms, and even to express anger against the World Wars, a dominant theme of the time. This course will endeavour to introduce students to some of the most defining works produced by a modest cross-section of British and American Modernist authors and poets chronicling the aforementioned central themes and also map the trajectory of literary thought and analysis.
22. New Literatures in English
This course aims to introduce students to a representative selection of the wide gamut of literary works that have emerged from countries which were subject to colonial rule or have a relatively recent history of creative expression in the English language. Besides, we will also engage with literature in translation. The course will survey literary production in countries like Canada, Australia, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India and parts of Africa noted for their indigenous literary expression in the English language. The class shall explore critical concepts and relevant theoretical models to assess the ‘newness’ and concerns largely addressed in these writings. In addition to examining literary texts, we will investigate responses to colonialism, anti-colonialism, and processes of decolonization in other forms of cultural production, namely critical essays, literary theory, and/or documentary films.
23. Understanding Myths
To be added soon
24. Understanding Gender
This course is a seminar on understanding gender in literary and cultural studies. Students will read a selection of theoretical and critical texts in tandem with literary and cultural productions from a variety of geographic and cultural contexts across the modern era. We will begin with foundational texts in gender studies, including foundational works in feminist theory, the history of women's movements, masculinities studies, and the methodology of intersectionality. We will then read early women's writing and women's writing on the subject of writing. We will proceed through a series of special topics units, including media and visual culture and globalization, and the semester will end with student presentations on contemporary issues based upon their individual research.
25. Indian Theatre
This is an introductory course offering a brief historical survey of performance and theatre traditions in India. It would provide a composite coverage of the socio-political contexts that have influenced development of classical Sanskrit drama, the living forms of traditional performance practices like Tamasha and Kathakali, early colonial, post- colonial and contemporary political and artistic theatre in India. Because the course is designed for students in various disciplines; it assumes no significant prior theoretical knowledge of performance theory. Instead, the course hopes to enable students to approach theatre in India and its different aspects from diverse and analytical perspectives.
26. Film and Literature: Adaptation
This course interrogates the poetics and politics of translation/adaptation from the written text onto the screen. It examines the source texts and film adaptations of works drawn from a variety of literary genres like short story, novel, novella, drama and graphic novel with relevant theoretical orientation.
27. Literary movements
This course allows for more specialized study of one of the major literary movements of the 19th or 20th centuries, such as Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Realism, Naturalism, Magical Realism, Symbolism, Futurism, Surrealism, Modernism, Expressionism, Postmodernism, and others (to be alternated). In addition to gaining a better understanding of the philosophical undercurrents that gave rise to a particular movement, students will familiarize themselves with relative aesthetic trends and topics by reading some of the most representative works.
28. South Asian Cultural Studies
To understand the significant impact of cultural processes on modern South Asian social formations, this course will address the paradoxical influences of regionalisms, international forces and the state. By looking at literary, historical, ethnographic and cinematic texts, this class explores contemporary South Asian cultures in their historical contexts whereby individuals and communities are united and distinguished through discourses of hybridity. The narration of South Asian distinctions has subsequently been crucial to the fashioning of national identities as Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali and Sri Lankan subjects, even though they all emanate from common cultural origins.
29. Writing for Media
This course will acquaint students with different types of writing, reading and editing skills required for a career in the domain of media and culture. Through intensive workshops and readings, the course will explore various modules on writing for effective communication in media, publishing and arts or curatorial practices.
30. Environmental Writing
This course focuses on an eco-critical reading of literature that draws attention to the complexities of preservation and conservation of species, interspecies relations, environmental justice, and the representation of socio-ecological conditions that require new modes of conception of environmental degradation and ways of addressing them. The course work will be focusing on environmental conditions and English literature in India. Additionally, the India focus will be complemented by the African perspective of the environment by looking at a selection of text not only to explicitly state environmental concerns but also to explore, to use Cajetan Iheka’s term, ‘aesthetics of proximity’ by looking into the diverse aspects of a text. In this, the attempt would be to investigate and discuss how a literary work articulates coexistence of human and non-human lives. It will focus on class-discussions on descriptions, diction, narrative voice, metaphorical images, and thematic preoccupation with reference to a selection of the texts. This course will use oral history methodologies to understand environmental issues examined in the literature of India.
30 MINOR COURSES
| 1. Introduction to English Literature | 11. Iconography: Meaning and Myths | 21. Modernism in Literature |
| 2. Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies | 12. Indian Society Through Ages | 22. New Literatures in English |
| 3. Critical Theory | 13. Images of India | 23. Understanding Myths |
| 4. Survey of English Literature | 14. Great Books in Human History | 24. Understanding Gender |
| 5. European Literature | 15. Culture and Communication | 25. Indian Theatre |
| 6. Research Methods in LCS | 16. Autobiography Studies* | 26. Film and Literature: Adaptation |
| 7. Indian Cinema* | 17. World Cinema and Society | 27. Literary movements* |
| 8. Children’s and Young Adult Literature | 18. Drama, Performance and Society | 28. South Asian Cultural Studies* |
| 9. Visual Language and Grammar | 19. Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature | 29. Environmental Writing* |
| 10. Issues and Debates in Indian History | 20. Cybercultures | 30. Writing for Media* |
* 4th year undergraduate courses
1. Introduction to English Literature
Teaching literature is teaching how to read. How to notice things in a text that a speed-reading culture is trained to disregard, overcome, edit out, or explain away; how to read what the language is doing, not guess what the author was thinking ...(Barbara Johnson, "Teaching Deconstructively," in Writing and Reading Differently, ed. G. Douglas Atkins and Michael L. Johnson, University Press of Kansas: 1985)
This course aims to introduce students to the fundamental concepts and history associated with the reading, analysis and appreciation of literary works. Students will be exposed to the major literary genres of narrative fiction, poetry, and drama and examine the interrelationships between language and aesthetic experience. We will also look at critical concepts with an emphasis on better understanding and appreciation of Literature beyond the freshman perspective.
2. Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies
This course offers an introductory view of the application of literary and cultural studies in India. This inter-disciplinary field of study is useful to understanding the relationship between cultural texts and social forms by situating social analyses in the context of India.
3. Critical Theory
This course introduces students to the basic concepts of literary and cultural studies, focusing on theoretical frameworks and methodological processes. Beginning with the definition of culture, and initially focused in literary theory, the course goes on to offer an overview of the evolution of varied theoretical models to expose students to historically successive theoretical lenses from Structuralism till Deconstruction. It also explores varied theorists’ writings in schools such as Marxism and Feminism towards detailing methodological possibilities for literary and cultural studies.
4. Survey of English Literature
This module aims at familiarizing students with the historical overview and major events in English Literature from Renaissance to the advent of Modernism. Students focus on Poetry, Drama and Novel and read texts in relation to the changing world views and history of ideas. They study the evolution of English critical thought with reference to central authors like Milton, Wordsworth, Dickens, Conrad, Shaw to name a few. The course also involves a detailed investigation into the rise of the novel and the three revolutions: French, American and Russian: European colonialism through growing competition among the European nations culminating in the two World Wars, and their impact on English literature.
5. European Literature
This course aims to introduce students to some of the finest works of Literature spanning several centuries in Europe beyond the English speaking world by focusing on specific aspects of Literature, Culture and Critical theory. From Medieval to Modern, we will survey expressions in myriad literary genres and simultaneously students will be oriented to movements in literary thought like Absurdism, Naturalism, and Symbolism amongst several others. Diverse in language, culture and history, European Literature is representative of an interesting amalgamation of subject matter and styles and this course will endeavour to familiarize the students with this wide diversity in thought and narratives that characterizes the literatures of Europe.
6. Research Methods in LCS
The goal of this course is two-fold: to understand better the humanities—the study of how people process and document human experience—, and to develop and produce an original research to demonstrate our understanding of the humanities and their significance to the world we live in. We will familiarize ourselves with relevant areas of the humanities such as self, identity, philosophy, justice, art, literature, and language by reading excerpts from books that approach the humanities through many different interdisciplinary angles. These selected readings will allow us to raise questions concerning why and how the humanities matter.
7. Indian Cinema
India has many cinemas. However, it is often identified with popular Hindi cinema only largely made and produced in Mumbai through the use of the phrase “Bollywood”. This course will endeavour to explore film cultures of India that far exceed the popular representation of just one kind of Indian cinema. While analyzing these myriad film movements and cultures, we will also survey India’s historical past which has shaped cinema and the hopes and aspirations of a complex postcolonial nation. The class will discuss problems and challenges in studying Indian cinema and move on to a historical study of various phases in Indian cinema and in Indian popular consciousness. We shall begin with the mythological genre and cover the nation-building films of the Nehruvian era in the 1950s and 60s, the “angry young man” vigilante films of the 1970s that reflected a nation’s disillusionment with its own progress, other film cultures in India, some major themes in post-globalization movies of the 1990s onwards, such as terrorism, family, and diasporic life and new documentary film practices in India. The course will also discuss issues of identity, gender and representation in Indian Cinema.
8. Children’s and Young Adult Literature
This course seeks to interrogate conceptions of childhood/young adulthood through the literature aimed at both sets. It examines these two categories through writings on pedagogy, and the politics of adaptation/translation of texts. Further, it looks at the politics of publication by surveying texts intended for children, young adults, and adults, primarily within India to attempt to understand the imagined audience/s and their differences. These texts are fictional and non-fictional, oral and written, pedagogic texts as well non-sense poetry.
9. Visual Language and Grammar
The moving image has a rich history of styles, treatments and techniques. While some fundamentals remain consistent—in the hands of masters, great innovations and signature palettes have evolved. This course will attempt to take a journey to understand what these fundamentals are & how distinctive styles can be innovated upon. This is designed as a bridge-course, for those interested in visual arts to graduate from the realm of film theory to filmmaking, and is advisable not just for film students but also for the casual enthusiasts.
10. Issues and Debates in Indian History
This course aims to explore specific themes, debates and issues of Indian history and understand how these have been interpreted over time. It aims to reflect on how and why the historiography has changed in the context of intellectual developments and political agendas. It attempts to understand how history continues to impact and shape our present and also our future; and how closely it is tied to the notion of nation and national/individual identity
11. Iconography: Meaning and Myths
This course provides an overview of the iconographic representations of the various forms of deities in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, and seeks to study the meanings and myths of these icons. It explores the rich heritage of Puranic mythology, the historical development of multiple religious traditions of India and cultural adaptations as evident in the icons
12. Indian Society Through Ages
India is one of the oldest living civilizations with traditions that date back to centuries. The cultural fabric of Indian society is composed of multiple and diverse historical traditions, social customs, languages and practices, which have evolved over a long period of time. This has been the result of various local, regional and foreign influences and indigenous development of cultural processes. This course introduces students to India’s cultural history from around 15th century BCE to 12th century CE. It explores the political traditions, social institutions and economic scenario of different periods and focuses on cultural changes over time.
13. Images of India
This course aims to reflect on varied perceptions and images of India in the foreign mind as gleaned from the Greek accounts of 4th-3rd century BCE through the 19th century records of British period. It explores a variety of texts such as travelogues, historical and geographical narratives, biographies and religious accounts to unravel the foreign views on India.
14. Great Books in Human History
This course aims to introduce students to some of the finest works of Literature spanning several centuries in the world. It encourages students to engage the primary texts from the ancient to modern worlds. We will survey expressions diverse languages, cultures and histories. The “great books” selected represent an interesting amalgamation of subject matter and styles and this course will endeavour to familiarize the students with this wide diversity in thought and narratives that characterizes the literatures of the world15.
15. Culture and Communication
This course attempts to understand the pivotal role of culture and media in contemporary society. It looks at a variety of cultural practices through an interdisciplinary lens and in particular, through grounding in technologies, forms, institutions and effects of media.
16. Autobiography
The study of non-fiction vis-à-vis the self is the study of this course. It will chart a historical journey from Saint Augustine and Babar, one of the first to write autobiographies to new forms of expressing self-hood, whether it be the selfie, portrait, or graphic narratives. En route, the course will dwell upon processes which chart out self-enunciation, such as spiritual awakening, pedagogical concerns, gender in negotiation, trauma and memory, among others.
17. World Cinema and Society
This course aims to offer students an exposure to the best in world cinema; to study trends in the contents and form of world cinema and to understand the changing human condition in different parts of the world as reflected in its cinema.
18. Drama, Performance and Society
Dramatic work and performances consciously and unconsciously interact with cultural stories, political contestations, gender conventions, class and caste histories, and aesthetic and formal traditions. This course aims to enable the students to study the key issues of interface of literary form of drama, and society and history through the reading of dramatic literature, performances and analysis of drama-histories. The course will focus mainly on the literary aspects of drama and critical discourses on drama with reference to a selection of plays, performances and critical theories.
19. Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature
This course offers a survey of Shakespeare's plays, with a selection from each sub-genre, tragedy, comedy, history, and tragicomedy. We will discuss Shakespeare's world and the relationships between his works and the culture, society, and politics of early modern England. In addition, we will place the plays in context of contemporary literary criticism and global contexts of rewriting, production, and performance. The primary mode of instruction will be close reading and class discussion, with lecture and supplementary film, and other media as appropriate
20. Cybercultures
The arrival of the Digital Age has fundamentally changed the way humans make meaning of society. In addition to its myriad implications in the world of commerce and statecraft—it has also fundamentally challenged very basic ideas about the human condition so to speak. We are living in an era where we have to constantly re-negotiate and re-invent our understanding of identity, gender, sexuality, privacy, surveillance & the State—as well as new business models oriented around human networks, start-ups, social media, sharing & curating economies. This course will seek to establish grounding in the anthropology of such Cyber-Cultural issues & themes.
21. Modernism in Literature
Modernism cannot be classified as a literary movement alone. It is an attitude in literary expression which defies temporal restrictions. Greatly influenced by Karl Marx’s writings, Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic findings, Nietzsche’s philosophy and Darwin’s theories, Modernist literature is characterized by a self-conscious break from traditional styles of prose and verse. Experimentation and Individualism came to be identified as some of the key features of these writings. Techniques such as stream of consciousness, interior monologues, multiple narrators, juxtapositions, irony and satire were also widely adopted in such works. Often closely related to Futurism, Imagism, Surrealism and Symbolism which flourished during this period, Literature was used as a platform to address alternative views on existing social concepts, to reject traditional thoughts and social norms, and even to express anger against the World Wars, a dominant theme of the time. This course will endeavour to introduce students to some of the most defining works produced by a modest cross-section of British and American Modernist authors and poets chronicling the aforementioned central themes and also map the trajectory of literary thought and analysis.
22. New Literatures in English
This course aims to introduce students to a representative selection of the wide gamut of literary works that have emerged from countries which were subject to colonial rule or have a relatively recent history of creative expression in the English language. Besides, we will also engage with literature in translation. The course will survey literary production in countries like Canada, Australia, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India and parts of Africa noted for their indigenous literary expression in the English language. The class shall explore critical concepts and relevant theoretical models to assess the ‘newness’ and concerns largely addressed in these writings. In addition to examining literary texts, we will investigate responses to colonialism, anti-colonialism, and processes of decolonization in other forms of cultural production, namely critical essays, literary theory, and/or documentary films.
23. Understanding Myths
To be added soon
24. Understanding Gender
This course is a seminar on understanding gender in literary and cultural studies. Students will read a selection of theoretical and critical texts in tandem with literary and cultural productions from a variety of geographic and cultural contexts across the modern era. We will begin with foundational texts in gender studies, including foundational works in feminist theory, the history of women's movements, masculinities studies, and the methodology of intersectionality. We will then read early women's writing and women's writing on the subject of writing. We will proceed through a series of special topics units, including media and visual culture and globalization, and the semester will end with student presentations on contemporary issues based upon their individual research.
25. Indian Theatre
This is an introductory course offering a brief historical survey of performance and theatre traditions in India. It would provide a composite coverage of the socio-political contexts that have influenced development of classical Sanskrit drama, the living forms of traditional performance practices like Tamasha and Kathakali, early colonial, post- colonial and contemporary political and artistic theatre in India. Because the course is designed for students in various disciplines; it assumes no significant prior theoretical knowledge of performance theory. Instead, the course hopes to enable students to approach theatre in India and its different aspects from diverse and analytical perspectives.
26. Film and Literature: Adaptation
This course interrogates the poetics and politics of translation/adaptation from the written text onto the screen. It examines the source texts and film adaptations of works drawn from a variety of literary genres like short story, novel, novella, drama and graphic novel with relevant theoretical orientation.
27. Literary movements
This course allows for more specialized study of one of the major literary movements of the 19th or 20th centuries, such as Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Realism, Naturalism, Magical Realism, Symbolism, Futurism, Surrealism, Modernism, Expressionism, Postmodernism, and others (to be alternated). In addition to gaining a better understanding of the philosophical undercurrents that gave rise to a particular movement, students will familiarize themselves with relative aesthetic trends and topics by reading some of the most representative works.
28. South Asian Cultural Studies
To understand the significant impact of cultural processes on modern South Asian social formations, this course will address the paradoxical influences of regionalisms, international forces and the state. By looking at literary, historical, ethnographic and cinematic texts, this class explores contemporary South Asian cultures in their historical contexts whereby individuals and communities are united and distinguished through discourses of hybridity. The narration of South Asian distinctions has subsequently been crucial to the fashioning of national identities as Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali and Sri Lankan subjects, even though they all emanate from common cultural origins.
29. Writing for Media
This course will acquaint students with different types of writing, reading and editing skills required for a career in the domain of media and culture. Through intensive workshops and readings, the course will explore various modules on writing for effective communication in media, publishing and arts or curatorial practices.
30. Environmental Writing
This course focuses on an eco-critical reading of literature that draws attention to the complexities of preservation and conservation of species, interspecies relations, environmental justice, and the representation of socio-ecological conditions that require new modes of conception of environmental degradation and ways of addressing them. The course work will be focusing on environmental conditions and English literature in India. Additionally, the India focus will be complemented by the African perspective of the environment by looking at a selection of text not only to explicitly state environmental concerns but also to explore, to use Cajetan Iheka’s term, ‘aesthetics of proximity’ by looking into the diverse aspects of a text. In this, the attempt would be to investigate and discuss how a literary work articulates coexistence of human and non-human lives. It will focus on class-discussions on descriptions, diction, narrative voice, metaphorical images, and thematic preoccupation with reference to a selection of the texts. This course will use oral history methodologies to understand environmental issues examined in the literature of India.