Gauhati University Question Papers for English 6th Semester

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SEMESTER VI

PAPER 15

Literary Criticism

Marks 75 (60+15) [15 Marks Internal Assessment]. Credits: 6

This paper acquaints students with some of the key ideas of Western literary criticism from Graeco- Roman antiquity to the modern period and expects them to examine the implications of ideas (e.g. mimesis or imagination), and orientations (classicism, romanticism and modernism) that have marked the history of literary criticism. The paper is designed to present students with the opportunity to study key concepts associated with the names of significant thinkers in this history. The paper comprises two parts, Section I dealing with concepts from Graeco-Roman antiquity and Section II with the early modern, neoclassical, Romantic and Victorian criticism.

Section I: Graeco-Roman Criticism

Students will answer 4 questions of 5 marks each or 2 questions of 10 marks each (4x5=20) or

(2x10=20) from this section.

Texts:

Plato (c. 428/7 – c.348/7): views on poetry, mimesis

Aristotle ( 384 – 322 BC): observations on poetry as being “more philosophical than history”, nature of mimesis, Tragedy ( Plot, Catharsis, Hamartia, Peripetia, Anagnorisis, Hubris)Horace ( 65 – 8 BC): the classical ideal

Longinus ( 1st or 3rd c BC ): the sublime

Section II: English Criticism : Early Modern to the Victorian

Students will answer 2 questions of 10 marks each (2x10=20) and 4 questions of 5 marks each

(4x5=20) from this section

Topics:

Stephen Gosson (1555-1624) and Philip Sidney (1554 – 1586): Poetry - For and Against

Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) : views on Shakespeare and the “Three Unities”

William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) : views on poetry (“spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”) and the language of poetry, “poetic diction”.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834) : imagination and fancy, organic form, poetic genius

John Keats ( 1795 - 1821) : negative capability

Matthew Arnold (1822 – 1888) : criticism and creation, the touchstone method, high seriousness, grand style

PAPER 16

Twentieth Century Criticism and Theory

Marks 75 (60+15) [15 Marks Internal Assessment]. Credits: 6

This paper introduces students to key ideas and texts that will familiarize students with the intellectual shifts in the reading of culture, language and literature in the 20th century and the emergence of Theory and acquaint them with common concepts and notions that, they are likely to encounter in the reading of theory. The paper has three sections, Section I dealing with ideas and concepts of 20th century criticism, Section II with ideas associated with movements like structuralism, poststructuralism, psychoanalytical criticism, feminism, new historicism and postcolonialism and Section III containing critical overviews.

Section I

Students will answer 4 questions of 5 marks each or 2 questions of 10 marks each (4x5=20) or

(2x10=20) from this section.

Twentieth Century Criticism

T.S.Eliot (1888 – 1965) - “impersonality” (“Poetry is not the turning loose of emotions ...”), objective correlative, dissociation of sensibility

I.A.Richards (1893 – 1979) – the two uses of language – referential and emotive, statement and pseudo-statement ; tenor and vehicle ; stock-response

F.R.Leavis (1895 – 1978) – Enactment

William Empson ( 1906 - 1984) –Ambiguity

The New Criticism – Allen Tate (1899-1979) - Tension, Cleanth Brooks (1906 – 1994) – Language of Paradox, W.K.Wimsatt (1907-1975 )and Monroe C.Beardsley (1915 – 1985) - Affective Fallacy, Intentional Fallacy

Section II

Students will answer 4 questions of 5 marks each or 2 questions of 10 marks each (4x5=20) or

(2x10=20) from this section.

Russian Formalism : Victor Shklovsky (1893 - 1984) – Defamiliarization ; Jan Mukarovsky (1891 - 1975 ) – foregrounding; Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) – dialogism, polyphony, heteroglossia

Structuralism : Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913): the sign ; Claude Levi Strauss (1908-2009) –

binary structures

Poststructuralism: Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) – signifier/signified, deconstruction difference/difference; Michel Foucault (1926-84) – discourse, power/knowledge

Feminist Criticism: Juliet Mitchell (1940 - ) – psychoanalysis and feminism; Helene Cixous(1937- ) - ecriture feminine

New Historicism: Stephen Greenblatt (1943 - ) - Historicity of the text and the textuality of history

Postcolonialism: Edward Said (1935 – 2003)orientalism

Section III

In this section students will read introductory essays on the development of literary theory and answer two questions of 10 marks each (2x10=20)

Texts:

Terry Eagleton (1943 - ): “What is Literature?” [from Literary Theory: An Introduction.]

Jonathan Culler (1944 - ): “What is Theory?” [from Literary Theory: A Very Short

Introduction]

PAPER 17

Nature

Marks 75 (60+15) [15 Marks Internal Assessment]. Credits: 6

Ecological literary criticism, or ecocriticism, emerged as a powerful field of study in the early 1990s, and has now become, like race, class and gender, an important dimension of literary and cultural studies. It is “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment”, examining literary texts through “an earth-centred approach”. This paper seeks to explore the process through which language and literature – as manifestations of culture – are produced by the interconnections between both nature and culture; it addresses nature not just as a passive background in literary texts but as a central presence determining the dynamic interpretations of the text itself.

It seeks to understand and interrogate the representations of nature in literary texts; to examine

whether there is a difference between how men and women depict and respond to nature; to ponder over the possibility of characterising nature writing as a completely new genre; to look at ways through which our understanding of and relationship has changed over the centuries as the human race has achieved varying degrees of ‘progress’; and to question the very idea of ‘progress’ itself and its manifestations in the face of a serious environmental crisis. It will also be an attempt to revisit texts generated at various ages in history with a view to re-appraise the relationship between the human and the natural world as reflected in literature.

Section I

This section will attempt to look at the changing notions of the relationship between humans and nature and between nature and culture over the ages. For example, during the Anglo-Saxon age, nature constituted a synthesis of ‘pagan’ elements (like animism and mother worship) and early Christian notions. A sense of fatalism and resignation to the ways of nature defined the medieval response to nature, while in the Elizabethan age nature was invested with moral attributes. The Enlightenment registered the beginnings of the split between nature and culture. During the later 17th century there were attempts to conquer or mould nature into cultural patterns by rigorous attention to geometrical order and symmetry in the creation of gardens. This trend continued well into the 18th century when gardens registered changing notions of nature (see Pope’s “Epistle to Burlington”). However, that age also saw the emergence of a newer notion of the garden (particularly in England) that tried to recreate the natural environment with its asymmetry within the bounds of the garden itself. Romantic attitudes to nature, Transcendentalism, and later, nature as an irrevocable agent of destruction are trends that defined the 19th century. The 20th century registers a quest for the reinstatement of nature as a positive creative process in the context of modernity and urbanisation.

In this section students will study concepts and ideas that have been integral to the understanding of nature in the various ages in England and America and answer 2 questions of 10 marks each or 4 questions of 5 marks each. (2x10 / 4x5)

The Sublime (Burke)

The Picturesque

Landscaping and improvement

Romanticism and Nature

Pastoral

Reason/Nature

Women and nature

Section II

In this section students will study diverse texts representing attitudes to nature at different points of time in England and America and answer 4 questions of 10 marks each. (4x10)

Texts:

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Charlotte Smith(1749-1806):

William Blake (1757-1827): Epistle to Burlington

Written at the Close of Spring, The Sea View

To Spring, To Autumn

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Selection from The Prelude (The Boat Stealing Episode,

Book I, ll. 357-400)

John Clare (1793-1864): The Peasant Poet, The Cat Runs Races With Her Tail

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862): Selections from Walden [The Ponds]

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886): A Bird Came Down the Walk, A Narrow Fellow in the

Grass

Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): From In Memoriam [Sections 55, 56]

Charles Darwin (1809-1882): From The Origin of Species [‘Struggle for Existence’]

G. M. Hopkins (1844-1889): Spring

Edward Thomas (1878-1917): Rain

D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930): Snake, Pan in America

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953): Fern Hill

Ted Hughes (1930-1998): The Jaguar, Second Glance at a Jaguar

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961): The Old Man and the Sea

M. S. Swaminathan (1925-): ‘What Should We Do with Genetically Modified Foods in the Twenty-First Century?: India: Resist Them, Unless ...’

in World and I, Vol. 14, Issue 12, December 1999.

PAPER 18

Western Mythology: Introducing Classical & Judeo-Christian Myth

Marks 75 (60+15) [15 Marks Internal Assessment]. Credits: 6

This course is an introduction to the study of Classical and Judeo-Christian myth and their recurrence in later social, historical, cultural and literary contexts. It is expected to provide a gateway to the reception of mythical ideas and images in western art and literary cultures. In the first section the emphasis is on obtaining knowledge of a specific range of myths and mythical characters and their function, and in the second section, we study the presentation of myths in a variety of literary material

– in poetry, drama and fiction.

Section I: Introduction to Myth

In a short introduction, students will negotiate with the concept of myth, and will be introduced to western classical antiquity through a selection of figures, stories and episodes from western mythology in order to make them acquainted with their genealogy and symbolism. Students will have to answer 4 short questions of 5 marks each from this section (4x5=20)

The Greek Pantheon (the Twelve Greek gods) & The Titans (Kronos, Atlas)

Hercules, Perseus, Icarus (the demigods / heroes)

Stories / Episodes in brief: Jason and the Golden Fleece; Pandora’s Box; Narcissus and Echo; Apollo and Artemis; Perseus and Medusa, Oedipus

Judaic-Christian Mythology: Cain and Abel; David and Goliath; Job; Noah’s Ark; The Magi; The Quest for the Holy Grail

Section II: Representative Mythical Narratives

In this section, we give the students a taste of a few representative mythical narratives, retold (and translated) by modern classical scholars and authors. Students will have to answer 2 essay-type questions of 10 marks each from this section (2x10=20).

Seeds of Pomegranates (Hawthorne)

Sisyphus (Graves)

The Fifth Labour : the Stables of Augeias (Graves)

Section II: the Myth in Literature

In this section, the students will consider myth in its uses in literature and study its allegorical and

symbolic manifestation in the following texts; they will answer 2 essay type questions of 10 marks each

(2x10=20).

Leda and the Swan (Yeats)

Ulysses (Tennyson)

Adonaïs (Shelley)

Billy Budd (Melville)

PAPERS 19 AND 20 (Optional Papers)

Option A: Indian English Literature

The two papers in this Option introduce students to the distinctive literature produced in India in the wake of English education, first under British colonial rule and then after independence. Since there has been a distinction made in the study of this literature between pre and post independence concerns, this is an element that should be kept in mind while studying the texts in this paper. At the same time, given the student’s present location in modern India an attempt has to be made to place texts in this context and read them in the light of the historical, cultural and political circumstances of their production. A conception of modern India along with some preliminary knowledge of the politics of British ideas about the entity India is desirable for entry into and understanding of the area that has come to be called Indian English Literature.

It is expected that knowledge of this literature against this particular intellectual backdrop and in its vigorous and idiosyncratic interpretations of modern India, will help students to articulate themselves as individuals, readers and critics, and develop reading positions that will facilitate their engagement with all the literature they will study in the Major Course.

Indeed since the development of a critical position is perceived to be as important as interpreting the literature, the first paper in this Option offers basic readings that address some of the questions relevant to this area. Issues discussed in these readings are expected to give students a foundation in ideas that will help in the readings of literary texts in these papers. Questions in both papers will try and elicit from students their understanding of texts against this background, being both textual and

contextual.

PAPER 19

Indian English Literature: Intellectual Contexts

Marks 75 (60+15) [15 Marks Internal Assessment]. Credits: 6

Section A: Contexts

Students will answer 2 questions of 12 marks and 2 short questions of 6 marks each on the argument and the issues raised by the texts prescribed. (2x12 + 2x6)

Texts:

Guha, Ranajit (1922 - ): The Small Voice of History (from Subaltern Studies IX)

Romila Thapar(1931 - ):

Sunil Khilnani (n.a.): The Antecedents (from A History of India 1)

Who is an Indian? (from The Idea of India)

Section B: Non-Fictional Prose

Students will answer 1 question of 10 marks and I short question of 5 marks or 3 questions of 5 marks each from the following texts. (10+5 or 5x3)

PAPER 20

Indian Poetry, Fiction and Drama

Marks 75 (60+15) [15 Marks Internal Assessment]. Credits: 6

Section A: Poetry

In this section, students will answer two short questions (which may be context questions) and one long question which could be on an individual poet, on trends, themes or on the poetry set against a cultural and historical background. For example the poetry of Toru Dutt may be read in the light of the development of early nationalist consciousness as well as in the context of ‘women and nationalism.’ (12+5x2)

Texts:

Toru Dutt (1856-1877): Our Casuarina Tree; Sita.

A.K Ramanujan 1929-1933): Self Portrait; Breaded Fish; Love Poems for a Wife1.

Eunice de Souza (1940-): Advice to Women; For Rita’s Daughter; Twice Born.

Aga Shahid Ali (1949-2001): Postcard from Kashmir; Snowmen; The Season of the Plains;

Cracked Portraits.

Section B: Fiction Questions here may be on the location of each writer, the development of a

‘narrative world’ in each text, and the modern Indian milieu with its class and caste divisions, social and moral values, and human relationships that each text represents in unique and individual ways. (12+10)

Namita Gokhale (1956 -): Shakuntala

Section C: Drama

The plays in this section, translated from regional languages into English are deeply embedded in folk and classical dramatic traditions and are expected to be studied against this context. At the same time the adaptation of these traditional forms, themes and conventions to interpret contemporary issues will also be kept in mind. Questions will accordingly address these issues. (12+4)

Texts:

Girish Karnad (1938-): Tughlak

Vijay Tendulkar 1928-2008): Kanyadaan (from Collected Plays in Translation)

Option B: American Literature

Papers 19 and 20 (Option B) introduce students to the distinctive flavour of American Literature. Students will be expected to have a broad overview of the historical development of this literature and study texts against their socio-historical contexts. For example, a novel by Melville will be studied against the panorama of the American Renaissance of the 19th century, which includes the literary- philosophical impetus of Transcendentalism, and it is expected that students will familiarize themselves with other literary experiments of the period.

In keeping with current developments in the approaches to American literature, students will also be expected to consider the axes of race and gender as vital components of literary production.

Therefore, while no attempt is made to be exhaustive, a fair sample of texts produced under varied conditions is required to be studied. Short pieces are prescribed in order to facilitate comprehension. However the large number of texts will in no way provide an opportunity for random omission, since questions may often be cross-referential, or on a cluster of texts, and not necessarily confined to one text or author

PAPER 19

Cultural Documents and Poetry

Marks 75 (60+15) [15 Marks Internal Assessment]. Credits: 6

Section A: Cultural Documents

In this section students will use the prescribed texts to study the beginnings of the construction of the American self and writer, the issues that vitalize concerns and doubts about themselves, the importance of slavery and the historical erasure of the native American, and of course the confidence and assertions of the American writer. Students will be expected to answer one long question of 12 marks and one short one of 10 marks. (1x12 + 1x10 =22)

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Gauhati University Question Papers for English 6th Semester