The Literary and Cultural Studies (LCS) specialisation 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 specialisation 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 genres and how are they analyzed? What are the main trends in English Literature from the Elizabethan 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 Cultural 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 analyse 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 Cultural Studies specialisation prepares students for advanced graduate-level studies in comparative literature, English literature, cultural studies, cultural anthropology and other related disciplines of Humanities. With its emphasis on critical thinking, evaluative reading of varied texts and analytical writing, this specialisation enables students to pursue careers in Publishing, Editing, Content Writing, Journalism, Teaching and Academics.
The specialisation 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 concepts of literature and culture, aimed at exploring the range of literature and cultural forms and their contextual understanding. Intermediate courses focus on exposing students to the major theoretical frameworks of the discipline, literature of the 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 the 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 an interdisciplinary approach, evaluate multiple worldviews and generate critiques.
SPECIALIZATION AIMS
The Literary and Cultural Studies Major and Minor seeks to:
- Provide students with an understanding of concepts, relevant theoretical frameworks and multiple approaches in the pursuit of Literary and Cultural Studies
- Develop in students an interdisciplinary approach to the study of cultural forms across different geographical regions and enable them to develop an understanding of the social, political and cultural milieus
- Develop an understanding of varied literary forms across genres to introduce students to diverse literary traditions
- Expose students to indigenous knowledge systems and multiple worldviews towards creating empathetic readers and citizens
- Foster skills in close reading, critical analysis and teamwork
- Equip students with research methods skills and enable them to write different types of critical academic essays, evaluative response papers, etc.
- To prepare students for professional engagement in creative, evaluative and analytical profiles
MAJOR OUTCOMES: After successful completion of the Major, the student will be able to:
- Recognise varied literary traditions and cultural forms across genres and periods
- Demonstrate an appreciation of generic conventions
- Identify cultural dynamics through the use of relevant theoretical frameworks
- Discuss an informed and sensitized approach on varied cultural worldviews
- Apply inter-disciplinary tools of analysis and evaluation
- Critically evaluate texts across genres and media
- Evaluate scholarship to evidence analytical insight
- Critique texts and understand them as cultural products
- Generate original thought in written or other creative forms
MINOR OUTCOMES: After successful completion of the Minor, the student will be able to:
- Recognise varied literary traditions and cultural forms across genres and periods
- Demonstrate an appreciation of generic conventions
- Identify cultural dynamics through the use of relevant theoretical frameworks
- Discuss an informed and sensitized approach on varied cultural worldviews
- Apply inter-disciplinary tools of analysis and evaluation
- Critically evaluate texts across genres and media
- Evaluate scholarship to evidence analytical insight
- Critique texts and understand them as cultural products
42 MAJOR COURSES
| Introduction to Literature | Special Topics in Literary Studies or Art Studies or Cultural Studies | Children’s and Young Adult Literature |
| Introduction to Cultural Studies | Survey of Film | Film and Literature: Adaptation |
| Introduction to Digital Humanities | Foundational Critical Theory | Performance and Culture |
| European Literature | Modernism in Literature | Science Fiction |
| Iconography: Meaning and Myths of Icons | Research Methods in LCS | Special Topics in Literary Studies or Art Studies or Cultural Studies |
| Indian Society Through the Ages (ca. 1500 BCE to 1200 BCE) | Images of India | Autobiography Studies |
| World Literature | Understanding Gender | Indian Cinema |
| Why Art Matters | Special Topics in Literary Studies or Art Studies or Cultural Studies | Special Topics in Literary Studies or Art Studies or Cultural Studies |
| Comedy: Forms, Theories & Techniques | Contemporary Critical Theory | Literary Movements |
| Graphic Novels | Contemporary Literature | South Asian Cultural Studies |
| Poetry: From Sonnets to Slam Poetry | Indian Theatre | Environmental Writing |
| Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature | Issues and Debates in Indian History | Special Topics in Literary Studies or Art Studies or Cultural Studies |
| Digital Cultures | Special Topics in Literary Studies or Art Studies or Cultural Studies | Contemporary Debates in Literary and Cultural Studies |
| Survey of Literature | Understanding Myths | Graduation Project |
Introduction to Literature
This course aims to introduce students to a wide cross section of fundamental concepts and history associated with the reading, analysis and appreciation of literary works. Students will be exposed to major literary genres of narrative fiction, poetry, and essay and examine the interrelationships between language and form. We will also examine critical concepts with an emphasis on better understanding and appreciation of Literature beyond the freshman perspective.
Introduction to Cultural Studies
This course offers an introductory view of the field of cultural studies. This inter-disciplinary field of study is useful to understanding the relationship between cultural texts and social forms by situating discussions.
By studying ‘media as a text’, the students will learn approaches to critical analysis and meaning-making by studying sociological variables such as caste, gender, nation, sexuality via popular media constructions.
By the end of this course, students will have a preliminary understanding of different issues and debates in the cultural realm, and an ability to navigate through them with the frameworks and toolkits provided by cultural studies, along with an understanding of the evolution of these frameworks.
Introduction to Digital Humanities
This course introduces students to humanities research in a digital environment. As digital pedagogies are explored, this course seeks to offer a familiarity with new tools to create digitally, defy hierarchies of access, and engage with cultural transitions to digitality. To become a learner in a digital environment is to learn forms, techniques and skills such as creating wordpress sites, audio documentaries, timelines etc. Digital Humanities also raises questions of authorship in collaborative environments and what it means to be "original" in a hyperlinked culture. To be culturally specific to an Indian model is to also be sensitive to varied models of creation and reception. To this end, this course aims to introduce students to some techniques spanning archiving and cultural analysis. We will use some DH tools through our assignments but the main focus of this course is to contextualize cultural analysis through creation while referencing an Indian historical framework.
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 familiarise the students with this wide diversity in thought and narratives that characterizes the literatures of Europe.
Iconography: Meaning and Myths of Icons
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.
Indian Society Through the Ages (ca. 1500 BCE to 1200 BCE)
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. It aims to explore changing interpretations of India's past to understand the role of history in shaping national and personal identity.
World Literature
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 familiarise the students with this wide diversity in thought and narratives that characterizes the literatures of the world. Topics covered and texts assigned are subject to change depending upon faculty interests.
Why Art Matters
This course is intended as an introduction to the diverse ways in which art can be interpreted and understood. It is neither intended as a connected historical development of art nor as a memorization of great artworks or master artists. Rather, it seeks to outline, infer, and explore the significance of art, and the representative themes through which it can be appraised. It intends to draw works of art from various civilizations, of diverse media, thinking of art not just as a product of a region or a time-frame, but of humans worldwide. It illustrates the idea that we all live in an interdependent global environment, and that the world has always had strong global relations. In that respect, this course seeks to explore and analyse art within the framework of how it expresses ideas related to the sacred, religious iconography, political authority, and so on.
Comedy: Forms, Theories & Techniques
What is comedy? What are the forms, theories, and techniques specific to comedic practices, from Greek times till Stand-up? These are the two broad questions this course will address and urge the students to take stances upon via the research work/writing the course will culminate in.
Graphic Novels
In this course, we will be reading and interpreting graphic novels. A graphic narrative is the combination of images and texts to convey meaning. The graphic novel, specifically, has gained legitimacy as a literary form in the twenty-first century. In this course, we will develop and exercise techniques for combing visual and textual analysis through the careful reading of graphic novels from around the world. In addition to close reading and analysis, we will work to contextualize the recent surge in the graphic novel’s mainstream popularity, examining themes such as identity and play, nostalgia, reportage, and cultural memory. We will also think critically about the term “graphic novel,” examining its key texts and limit cases.
Poetry: From Sonnets to Slam Poetry
This course shall survey poetry in English since the Renaissance till contemporary times. It seeks to introduce students to the variety of poetic forms and themes that echo the varieties of the spoken word through the history of the English language. Several poetic movements shall be highlighted towards demonstrating the innovations that occurred in poetic forms. Some of the poets we shall read include Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Auden, Pound, Eliot, Browning, Thomas, Plath, Ginsberg and Larkin. Secondary readings will include critical commentaries and historical overviews. We will also read comparatively across world poetry to trace the diversity of poetic productions.
Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature
This course offers a survey of Shakespeare's plays, with a selection from each sub-genre, tragedy, comedy, history, and trigicomedy. 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.
Digital Cultures
With base in cultural studies, this course examines the emerging debates, practices and contestations, in the digital sphere. It examines historical, social and economic aspects of digital technologies including mobile and handheld devices. Through the aegis to digital technologies the class will also bring politics, human- technology interactions, labour questions into discussion.
Survey of Literature
This is introductory course to the study of literature, covering concepts of periodization, forms, genres, and literary techniques, as well as major themes in literature. Depending upon the instructor, this course will likely change a little every time it is taught, with a slight different focus each time. Primary texts on this syllabus will be either in translation or originally in English. Course texts and topics covered are subject to change depending upon faculty interest.
Survey of Film
This course is a historical survey of world cinema from the silent era to the present. Moving roughly in chronological order, it will examine the major movements and breakthroughs in the aesthetic, cultural and political development of cinema around the world. Each week is organized around a particular case study, typically framed by its specific historical, social and political contexts.
Foundational Critical Theory
What is theory? What is literary theory? And what do we do with it? As students of LCS, this course is designed to help you understand various ways academics and critics interpret literature and culture. Theory, in this sense, is a kind of methodology or approach for scholars in the humanities, one that enables you to understand the multiple meanings a text holds within itself and in society. How do we observe different phenomena as a result of changing our approach? This class doesn’t only cover or consider recent theoretical work—theories about literature and the arts have been around for as long as art and literature itself. Sometimes these theories identify what kinds of elements are desirable in a work, what makes it commendable or forgettable. Sometimes theorists seek to understand the onlooker, the viewer, the reader. Yet others wish to know why something is relevant and what it does in society. In our class, we will address all of these questions through our readings. AND, most importantly, we will learn to use the theoretical models we read about, enabling us to put theory into practice!
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.
Research Methods in LCS
This course is a combination of theory and practice. Throughout the semester, we will read and discuss major issues, debates, and methods in research in literary and cultural studies. Students will also explore different methods and practice some of them in a hands-on, and self-reflective environment. The first part of the semester will feature short assignments and focus on reading and reflective discussion. During the second part of the semester, students will be required to do less reading and will instead be asked to focus primarily on their own individual research and writing practices. Students will participate in step-by-step research and writing exercises to help you understand the research process as undertaken over time. They will also participate in peer review sessions with their classmates and discuss feedback one-on-one with your instructor as a part of an ongoing research process.
Images of India
India has had contacts with the outside world at least since 5th century BCE. The Persian, Greek, Roman, Chinese, Arab and European invaders, travellers and traders have been drawn to this region in search of riches and adventure. From Ctesias, Megasthanese to Fa-Hien, Hieun Tsang, Alberuni, Ibn Batutta, Vasco da Gama and innumerable Portuguese and British visitors, these foreigners have left their accounts of India; its customs, people and traditions.
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 and to analyse emerging patterns over two millennia. We will mainly focus on primary texts, but also review a few secondary accounts to investigate ethnographic trends in the study of the 'other'. We will also briefly review a few contemporary travel writings and other media such as films, tv shows and online platforms to understand the images of India in the western world today, both perceived and portrayed.
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.
Contemporary Critical Theory
This is an introductory course to critical theories of society and identity in cultural debates. It aims at familiarizing students with a basic critical vocabulary in the key ideas of media studies, postcolonial studies, gender studies and critiques of nationalism, science and society. Since it introduces students to the basic methods of literary and cultural studies, it offers a focus on methodological processes and theoretical frameworks. Beginning with the definition of culture and the historical ‘moment’, the course familiarizes students with historically successive theoretical lenses from Structuralism till Postmodernism, and cuts across introductory frameworks of critical analysis on gender, sexuality and caste.
Contemporary Literature
This course aims to introduce students to a representative selection of the wide gamut of literary works in English that have emerged from South Asian countries which were subject to colonial rule. We will survey literary production in countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and India, 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. In the second half of the course, we will focus on Indian writing in translation enabling readings and discussions from the diverse Indian literary paradigm.
Indian Theatre
This course offers 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.
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.
Understanding Myths
Myths are an integral and essential part of every society. These fantastic tales of gods, heroes and supernatural beings of primordial time have fascinated common people and scholars alike. While for common people, these stories have been an almost undeniable reality, the scholars have tried to find layers of meanings in the myths.
This course is a study in mythography and cultural studies. It seeks to reflect on various academic approaches to the understanding of myths over time. It analyzes a few selected myths across cultures from historical, religious, sociological, anthropological and psychological perspectives. We will primarily focus on Greco-Roman, Indian and folk myths from across cultures.
Children’s and Young Adult Literature
This course seeks to interrogate conceptions of childhood/young adulthood through the literature aimed at both. It examines these two categories through writings on pedagogy, developmental psychology, adaptation/translation of children's texts, historical debates on the child, as well as literature across multiple forms and genres. Further, it looks at the politics of publication of children's and young adult literature by surveying texts intended for children, young adults, and adults, primarily within India to interrogate 'who' is this figure imagined to be and what the texts seek to do in relation to its imagined readership. These texts are both fictional and non-fictional, oral and written, pedagogic texts, as well non-sense poetry.
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.
Performance and Culture
This course aims to enable the students to analyze the interface of the 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 the drama with reference to a selection of plays, performances and critical theories.
Science Fiction
As a genre, science fiction has often privileged narratives of travel, exchange, and contact in many forms. When humans meet others, whether on earth or elsewhere, the genre of science fiction contains a rich discourse about failures and successes, and benign and volatile encounters. Despite its futuristic orientation, however, science fiction’s many themes of confrontation and encounter rely on older tropes of colonial encounters and travelogues written between the 15th and 19th centuries. This course is designed to explore a few of these overlapping themes between colonial encounter theory and science fiction: language and translation, technology and domination, racial and bodily tropes, religious and social practices, and tropes of integration and assimilation. The specific focus of this course--the science fiction encounter--is subject to change depending upon the instructors interest, and could include themes such as artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and biology, climate change and environmentalism, among others.
Autobiography Studies
The study of non-fiction vis-à-vis the self is the focus of this course. Writing through one's positionality through negotiations in identity-groups have a particularly important relation to social and political history since self-writing is a powerful way to write about one/one's communities' relationship with power. In this course, our aim is to both use the framework of 'autobiography' and also to problematize it as we focus on contemporary forms of expressing self-hood, whether it be the memoir, collaborative autobiography, or graphic narratives and well as pay keep attention to their politics of publication. En route, the course will dwell upon processes which chart out self-enunciation, such as gender/caste/class/body in negotiation with dominant cultural and academic narratives, trauma and memory, among others.
Indian Cinema
This course aims to enable the students to analyze the interface of the 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 the drama with reference to a selection of plays, performances and critical theories.
Literary Movements
Literary culture is made and grows within many different contexts. One of the most coherent ways to understand literary culture is within the purview of a "movement" -- loosely defined as a historical formation in which artists and literati create works that cohere around similar concerns, whether formal, historico-political, socio-cultural, or others. While the instructor will choose which movements to consider in this class, materials will be limited roughly to the past 250 years, and may include anything from romanticism to postmodernism, empire writing to postcolonial fictions. Not limited to the novel, nor poetry, nor drama, instead this course will consider multiple literary genres as they become more or less significant in various literary movements as well as emerging genres. The pedagogy will place emphasis on development of practical skills of critical reading, writing, and effective communication.
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.
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 complimented 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 literatures of India.
Contemporary Debates in Literary and Cultural Studies
Contemporary Debates in Literary and Cultural Studies is designed as an advanced seminar for fourth year students eager to explore the latest trends in humanities scholarship. While the topics covered will be determined by each individual instructor, some topics likely to be included in this course are: the anthropocene, disability, empire, globalization, gender, digital humanities, utopias, democracy, and others. The pedagogy will place emphasis on development of practical skills of critical reading, writing, and effective communication.
41 MINOR COURSES
| Introduction to Literature | Special Topics in Literary Studies or Art Studies or Cultural Studies | Children’s and Young Adult Literature |
| Introduction to Cultural Studies | Survey of Film | Film and Literature: Adaptation |
| Introduction to Digital Humanities | Foundational Critical Theory | Performance and Culture |
| European Literature | Modernism in Literature | Science Fiction |
| Iconography: Meaning and Myths of Icons | Research Methods in LCS | Special Topics in Literary Studies or Art Studies or Cultural Studies |
| Indian Society Through the Ages (ca. 1500 BCE to 1200 BCE) | Images of India | Autobiography Studies |
| World Literature | Understanding Gender | Indian Cinema |
| Why Art Matters | Special Topics in Literary Studies or Art Studies or Cultural Studies | Special Topics in Literary Studies or Art Studies or Cultural Studies |
| Comedy: Forms, Theories & Techniques | Contemporary Critical Theory | Literary Movements |
| Graphic Novels | Contemporary Literature | South Asian Cultural Studies |
| Poetry: From Sonnets to Slam Poetry | Indian Theatre | Environmental Writing |
| Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature | Issues and Debates in Indian History | Special Topics in Literary Studies or Art Studies or Cultural Studies |
| Digital Cultures | Special Topics in Literary Studies or Art Studies or Cultural Studies | Contemporary Debates in Literary and Cultural Studies |
| Survey of Literature | Understanding Myths |
Introduction to Literature
This course aims to introduce students to a wide cross section of fundamental concepts and history associated with the reading, analysis and appreciation of literary works. Students will be exposed to major literary genres of narrative fiction, poetry, and essay and examine the interrelationships between language and form. We will also examine critical concepts with an emphasis on better understanding and appreciation of Literature beyond the freshman perspective.
Introduction to Cultural Studies
This course offers an introductory view of the field of cultural studies. This inter-disciplinary field of study is useful to understanding the relationship between cultural texts and social forms by situating discussions.
By studying ‘media as a text’, the students will learn approaches to critical analysis and meaning-making by studying sociological variables such as caste, gender, nation, sexuality via popular media constructions.
By the end of this course, students will have a preliminary understanding of different issues and debates in the cultural realm, and an ability to navigate through them with the frameworks and toolkits provided by cultural studies, along with an understanding of the evolution of these frameworks.
Introduction to Digital Humanities
This course introduces students to humanities research in a digital environment. As digital pedagogies are explored, this course seeks to offer a familiarity with new tools to create digitally, defy hierarchies of access, and engage with cultural transitions to digitality. To become a learner in a digital environment is to learn forms, techniques and skills such as creating wordpress sites, audio documentaries, timelines etc. Digital Humanities also raises questions of authorship in collaborative environments and what it means to be "original" in a hyperlinked culture. To be culturally specific to an Indian model is to also be sensitive to varied models of creation and reception. To this end, this course aims to introduce students to some techniques spanning archiving and cultural analysis. We will use some DH tools through our assignments but the main focus of this course is to contextualize cultural analysis through creation while referencing an Indian historical framework.
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 familiarise the students with this wide diversity in thought and narratives that characterizes the literatures of Europe.
Iconography: Meaning and Myths of Icons
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.
Indian Society Through the Ages (ca. 1500 BCE to 1200 BCE)
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. It aims to explore changing interpretations of India's past to understand the role of history in shaping national and personal identity.
World Literature
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 familiarise the students with this wide diversity in thought and narratives that characterizes the literatures of the world. Topics covered and texts assigned are subject to change depending upon faculty interests.
Why Art Matters
This course is intended as an introduction to the diverse ways in which art can be interpreted and understood. It is neither intended as a connected historical development of art nor as a memorization of great artworks or master artists. Rather, it seeks to outline, infer, and explore the significance of art, and the representative themes through which it can be appraised. It intends to draw works of art from various civilizations, of diverse media, thinking of art not just as a product of a region or a time-frame, but of humans worldwide. It illustrates the idea that we all live in an interdependent global environment, and that the world has always had strong global relations. In that respect, this course seeks to explore and analyse art within the framework of how it expresses ideas related to the sacred, religious iconography, political authority, and so on.
Comedy: Forms, Theories & Techniques
What is comedy? What are the forms, theories, and techniques specific to comedic practices, from Greek times till Stand-up? These are the two broad questions this course will address and urge the students to take stances upon via the research work/writing the course will culminate in.
Graphic Novels
In this course, we will be reading and interpreting graphic novels. A graphic narrative is the combination of images and texts to convey meaning. The graphic novel, specifically, has gained legitimacy as a literary form in the twenty-first century. In this course, we will develop and exercise techniques for combing visual and textual analysis through the careful reading of graphic novels from around the world. In addition to close reading and analysis, we will work to contextualize the recent surge in the graphic novel’s mainstream popularity, examining themes such as identity and play, nostalgia, reportage, and cultural memory. We will also think critically about the term “graphic novel,” examining its key texts and limit cases.
Poetry: From Sonnets to Slam Poetry
This course shall survey poetry in English since the Renaissance till contemporary times. It seeks to introduce students to the variety of poetic forms and themes that echo the varieties of the spoken word through the history of the English language. Several poetic movements shall be highlighted towards demonstrating the innovations that occurred in poetic forms. Some of the poets we shall read include Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Auden, Pound, Eliot, Browning, Thomas, Plath, Ginsberg and Larkin. Secondary readings will include critical commentaries and historical overviews. We will also read comparatively across world poetry to trace the diversity of poetic productions.
Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature
This course offers a survey of Shakespeare's plays, with a selection from each sub-genre, tragedy, comedy, history, and trigicomedy. 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.
Digital Cultures
With base in cultural studies, this course examines the emerging debates, practices and contestations, in the digital sphere. It examines historical, social and economic aspects of digital technologies including mobile and handheld devices. Through the aegis to digital technologies the class will also bring politics, human-technology interactions, labour questions into discussion.
Survey of Literature
This is introductory course to the study of literature, covering concepts of periodization, forms, genres, and literary techniques, as well as major themes in literature. Depending upon the instructor, this course will likely change a little every time it is taught, with a slight different focus each time. Primary texts on this syllabus will be either in translation or originally in English. Course texts and topics covered are subject to change depending upon faculty interest.
Survey of Film
This course is a historical survey of world cinema from the silent era to the present. Moving roughly in chronological order, it will examine the major movements and breakthroughs in the aesthetic, cultural and political development of cinema around the world. Each week is organized around a particular case study, typically framed by its specific historical, social and political contexts.
Foundational Critical Theory
What is theory? What is literary theory? And what do we do with it? As students of LCS, this course is designed to help you understand various ways academics and critics interpret literature and culture. Theory, in this sense, is a kind of methodology or approach for scholars in the humanities, one that enables you to understand the multiple meanings a text holds within itself and in society. How do we observe different phenomena as a result of changing our approach? This class doesn’t only cover or consider recent theoretical work—theories about literature and the arts have been around for as long as art and literature itself. Sometimes these theories identify what kinds of elements are desirable in a work, what makes it commendable or forgettable. Sometimes theorists seek to understand the onlooker, the viewer, the reader. Yet others wish to know why something is relevant and what it does in society. In our class, we will address all of these questions through our readings. AND, most importantly, we will learn to use the theoretical models we read about, enabling us to put theory into practice!
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.
Research Methods in LCS
This course is a combination of theory and practice. Throughout the semester, we will read and discuss major issues, debates, and methods in research in literary and cultural studies. Students will also explore different methods and practice some of them in a hands-on, and self-reflective environment. The first part of the semester will feature short assignments and focus on reading and reflective discussion. During the second part of the semester, students will be required to do less reading and will instead be asked to focus primarily on their own individual research and writing practices. Students will participate in step-by-step research and writing exercises to help you understand the research process as undertaken over time. They will also participate in peer review sessions with their classmates and discuss feedback one-on-one with your instructor as a part of an ongoing research process.
Images of India
India has had contacts with the outside world at least since 5th century BCE. The Persian, Greek, Roman, Chinese, Arab and European invaders, travellers and traders have been drawn to this region in search of riches and adventure. From Ctesias, Megasthanese to Fa-Hien, Hieun Tsang, Alberuni, Ibn Batutta, Vasco da Gama and innumerable Portuguese and British visitors, these foreigners have left their accounts of India; its customs, people and traditions.
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 and to analyse emerging patterns over two millennia. We will mainly focus on primary texts, but also review a few secondary accounts to investigate ethnographic trends in the study of the 'other'. We will also briefly review a few contemporary travel writings and other media such as films, tv shows and online platforms to understand the images of India in the western world today, both perceived and portrayed.
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.
Contemporary Critical Theory
This is an introductory course to critical theories of society and identity in cultural debates. It aims at familiarizing students with a basic critical vocabulary in the key ideas of media studies, postcolonial studies, gender studies and critiques of nationalism, science and society. Since it introduces students to the basic methods of literary and cultural studies, it offers a focus on methodological processes and theoretical frameworks. Beginning with the definition of culture and the historical ‘moment’, the course familiarizes students with historically successive theoretical lenses from Structuralism till Postmodernism, and cuts across introductory frameworks of critical analysis on gender, sexuality and caste.
Contemporary Literature
This course aims to introduce students to a representative selection of the wide gamut of literary works in English that have emerged from South Asian countries which were subject to colonial rule. We will survey literary production in countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and India, 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. In the second half of the course, we will focus on Indian writing in translation enabling readings and discussions from the diverse Indian literary paradigm.
Indian Theatre
This course offers 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.
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.
Understanding Myths
Myths are an integral and essential part of every society. These fantastic tales of gods, heroes and supernatural beings of primordial time have fascinated common people and scholars alike. While for common people, these stories have been an almost undeniable reality, the scholars have tried to find layers of meanings in the myths.
This course is a study in mythography and cultural studies. It seeks to reflect on various academic approaches to the understanding of myths over time. It analyzes a few selected myths across cultures from historical, religious, sociological, anthropological and psychological perspectives. We will primarily focus on Greco-Roman, Indian and folk myths from across cultures.
Children’s and Young Adult Literature
This course seeks to interrogate conceptions of childhood/young adulthood through the literature aimed at both. It examines these two categories through writings on pedagogy, developmental psychology, adaptation/translation of children's texts, historical debates on the child, as well as literature across multiple forms and genres. Further, it looks at the politics of publication of children's and young adult literature by surveying texts intended for children, young adults, and adults, primarily within India to interrogate 'who' is this figure imagined to be and what the texts seek to do in relation to its imagined readership. These texts are both fictional and non-fictional, oral and written, pedagogic texts, as well non-sense poetry.
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.
Performance and Culture
This course aims to enable the students to analyze the interface of the 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 the drama with reference to a selection of plays, performances and critical theories.
Science Fiction
As a genre, science fiction has often privileged narratives of travel, exchange, and contact in many forms. When humans meet others, whether on earth or elsewhere, the genre of science fiction contains a rich discourse about failures and successes, and benign and volatile encounters. Despite its futuristic orientation, however, science fiction’s many themes of confrontation and encounter rely on older tropes of colonial encounters and travelogues written between the 15th and 19th centuries. This course is designed to explore a few of these overlapping themes between colonial encounter theory and science fiction: language and translation, technology and domination, racial and bodily tropes, religious and social practices, and tropes of integration and assimilation. The specific focus of this course--the science fiction encounter--is subject to change depending upon the instructors interest, and could include themes such as artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and biology, climate change and environmentalism, among others.
Autobiography Studies
The study of non-fiction vis-à-vis the self is the focus of this course. Writing through one's positionality through negotiations in identity-groups have a particularly important relation to social and political history since self-writing is a powerful way to write about one/one's communities' relationship with power. In this course, our aim is to both use the framework of 'autobiography' and also to problematize it as we focus on contemporary forms of expressing self-hood, whether it be the memoir, collaborative autobiography, or graphic narratives and well as pay keep attention to their politics of publication. En route, the course will dwell upon processes which chart out self-enunciation, such as gender/caste/class/body in negotiation with dominant cultural and academic narratives, trauma and memory, among others.
Indian Cinema
This course aims to enable the students to analyze the interface of the 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 the drama with reference to a selection of plays, performances and critical theories.
Literary Movements
Literary culture is made and grows within many different contexts. One of the most coherent ways to understand literary culture is within the purview of a "movement" -- loosely defined as a historical formation in which artists and literati create works that cohere around similar concerns, whether formal, historico-political, socio-cultural, or others. While the instructor will choose which movements to consider in this class, materials will be limited roughly to the past 250 years, and may include anything from romanticism to postmodernism, empire writing to postcolonial fictions. Not limited to the novel, nor poetry, nor drama, instead this course will consider multiple literary genres as they become more or less significant in various literary movements as well as emerging genres. The pedagogy will place emphasis on development of practical skills of critical reading, writing, and effective communication.
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.
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 complimented 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 literatures of India.
Contemporary Debates in Literary and Cultural Studies
Contemporary Debates in Literary and Cultural Studies is designed as an advanced seminar for fourth year students eager to explore the latest trends in humanities scholarship. While the topics covered will be determined by each individual instructor, some topics likely to be included in this course are: the anthropocene, disability, empire, globalization, gender, digital humanities, utopias, democracy, and others. The pedagogy will place emphasis on development of practical skills of critical reading, writing, and effective communication.