MPHIL ENGLISH (LITERATURE) FIRST SEMESTER

Course Title: Advanced Literary-Cultural Research Methodology (core)

Level: MPhil English Literature Course Code: ENG 716
Course Description
This course introduces the basic and advanced concepts and practices in research. Since the
students are from the Humanities disciplines, the course will concentrate on qualitative methods.
It has been designed for scholars who have some basic knowledge of research practices.
Qualitative research complements quantitative research and there may be some areas where it is
more likely to reflect the complexity of observable data. For some social researchers, especially
those working in the human sciences, qualitative research may be more suitable to describe
human actions and their symbolic exchanges. As a major approach of conducting social inquiry,
qualitative research has become a critically important contributor of knowledge about human
social processes. The disciplines that have benefitted from qualitative research include literary
studies, ethnography, ethnology, anthropology, psychology, social work, sociology, comparative
religion studies, and critical theory.
Course Objectives
In this course, the students will be able to learn the following key elements of qualitative
research:

 identifying the setting and data

 choosing the appropriate qualitative research methods or combining/mixing methods
 fieldwork analysis
 reporting the results
The students should be introduced to the following methods of observation and data analysis:

 in-depth and unstructured interview

 life histories
 focus groups
 thematic categorization
 discourse analysis
 symbolic exchange/interaction analysis
 deconstruction/critique
 narrative analysis
Course Outline

 Introduction to Research
 Constructing valid research questions
 What’s a hypothesis/thesis statement/statement of the problem?
 Selection of text as representation and Interpretation
 Cognitive biases in the selection of text
 Politics of interpretation
 Examples and styles of Interpretation
 Concept of Research Paradigm and comparative study of major paradigms of research
 Place and process of literary studies in academic research
 Literary Research Methods:
1. Archival Research Methods
2. Auto/biography as a Research Method
3. Oral History as a Research Method
4. Visual Methodologies
5. Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis
6. Ethnography as a Research Method
7. Quantitative Methods for textual/literary studies
8. Textual Analysis as a Research Method
9. Creative Writing as a Research Method
10. Semiotics as a research method
Recommended Readings

 Kilito, Abdelfattah. “Dog Words.” In: Angelika Bammer (ed.), Displacements: Cultural
Identities in Question. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994, pp.
xxi–xxxi.
 American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
 Best, J. W. & Kahn, J. V. (2006). Research in Education (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn &
Bacon.
 Cone, J. D. & Foster, S. L. (1993). Dissertations and theses from start to finish:
Psychology and related fields. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
 DiTiberio, J. K. & Jensen, G. H. (1995). Writing and personality: Finding your voice,
your style, your way. Palo Alto, CA: DaviesBlack Publishing.
 Jan Blommaert and Dong Jie. The Ethnographic Fieldwork .
 McMillan, J. H. & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in education (7th ed.). Boston:
Pearson.
 Morgan, G. A. & Griego, O. V. (1998). Easy use and interpretation of SPSS for
Windows: Answering research questions with statistics. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Inc.
 Rudestam, K. E. & Newton, R. R. (1992). Surviving your dissertation: A comprehensive
guide to content and process. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
 Sternberg, D. (1981). How to complete and survive a doctoral dissertation. New York: St.
Martin’s Press.
 Waugh, C. K. (2013). WED 594 – Advanced Research Methods Student Manual. SIUC:
Department of Workforce Education and Development
 Weedman, C. (1975). A guide for the preparation and evaluation of the dissertation or
thesis. San Diego, CA: Omega.
Course Title: Critical Theories (core) Level: MPhil English Literature
Course Code: ENG 717
Course Description
This course traces the development of literary theory as a reaction to the failure of Enlightenment
movement. As a discipline, critical theory assumed great significance in the second half of 20th
century. The emphasis would be on the developments after Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and
Freud had presented their theories. However, these developments and the subsequent ones will
consistently be seen in relation to ideas that dominated the Western thought before and after the
two World Wars that comprehensively frustrated the promise of the enlightened humanist view
of the world. As literary theory continues to colour our worldview and interpretations of
literature, this course focuses on conceptual anti-foundational developments and not merely the
historicisation of critical thought from Aristotle to Eliot. The students will be introduced to the
dialogic nature of various theoretical strands and methodologies used to interpret literature.
During the course of the semester, they will be encouraged to apply those methods on their
reading of literature.
Course Contents
1. Introduction.
The common ground between literary criticism, philosophy and literary theory should be
delineated. The course will include an introduction to the fundamental shift in Western thought
in 19th century. The thinkers (e.g. Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and Friedrich
Nietzsche) who caused this shift will be introduced. During the discussion, the contribution and
influence of three literary critics from England, I. A. Richards, William Empson and F. R.
Leavis, who triggered new critical trends, will also be discussed.
2. New Criticism.
This section focuses on the shift from Liberal Humanism to new modes of interpreting literature.
William Empson’s Epilogue to Seven Types of Ambiguity will be used to highlight this shift.
3. Neo-Marxism and Marxist Criticism. Karl Marx “Consciousness Derived from Material
Conditions”, a selection from The German Ideology, will be discussed to understand the basics
of Marxist theoretical framework. The students will be apprised of this framework’s bearings on
literary studies through a discussion of Terry Eagleton’s “Categories for a Materialist Criticism”,
a selection from Criticism and Ideology.
4. Structuralism
This section includes discussion on Ferdinand De Saussure’s “Nature of the Linguistic Sign”
(from The Course in General Linguistics). The following discussion will underline the
implications of de Saussure’s findings on the relationship between word and things. In the latter
half of the session, Claude Levi-Strauss’s “The Structural Study of Myth” will be discussed. The
discussion will foreground Levi-Strauss’s application of structuralist methods in analysing
mythology.
5. Post-structuralism/Deconstruction.
Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of Levi-Strauss’s study of myth laid down the foundations of a
new, and perhaps the most radical, school of thought, that is, deconstruction, of the 20th century.
The beginning of post-structuralist/deconstructionist thought and its challenge to binaries in
Western critical tradition would be discussed in the light of Derrida’s essay “Structure, Sign and
Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences.” Michel Foucault’s “What is an Author?” will also
be discussed.
6. Semiotics.
Umberto Eco’s “The Myth of Superman” analyses the relation between human beings and stories
of cyclical nature. Eco views Superman as a modern myth and theorises its bearings on modern
thought.
7. Psychoanalytical Criticism.
Psychoanalysis is akin to the study of literature. Like literature, it allots greater importance to
covert meaning in our use of language. Sigmund Freud’s “Creative Writers and Daydreaming,”
Jacques Lacan’s “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function as Revealed in Psychoanalytic
Experience” (From Écrits: A Selection), and Julia Kristeva’s “Psychoanalysis and Polis” will
provide the bases of discussion on this relationship between literature and psychoanalysis.
8. Feminist Criticism.
What is feminism? Do women writers need to (re)create language to write a literature of their
own? And most importantly, how do they relate themselves to their male and female
predecessors? These questions will be debated in the light of Sandra M Gilbert and Susan
Gubar’s “Infection in the Sentence” (The Madwoman in the Attic) and Elaine Showalter’s
“Toward a Feminist Poetics” (From The New Feminist Criticism).
9. Green Studies and Ecocriticism
Primary Texts
New Criticism
1. William Empson. Epilogue to Seven Types of Ambiguity.
Marxist Critical Theory
1. Karl Marx. “Consciousness Derived from Material Conditions” from The German Ideology.
2. Terry Eagleton. “Categories for a Materialist Criticism” From Criticism and Ideology.
Structuralism
1. Ferdinand De Saussure. “Nature of the Linguistic Sign” From The Course in General
Linguistics.
2. Claude Levi-Strauss. “The Structural Study of Myth.”
Post-structuralism
1. Jacques Derrida. “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences.”
2. Michel Foucault. “What is an Author?”
Semiotics
1. Umberto Eco. “The Myth of Superman” From The Role of the Reader.
Psychoanalytic Critical Theory
1. Sigmund Freud. “Creative Writers and Daydreaming.”
2. Jacques Lacan. “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function as Revealed in
Psychoanalytic Experience” From Écrits: A Selection.
3. Julia Kristeva. “Psychoanalysis and Polis.”
Feminism
1. Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar. “Infection in the Sentence” From The Madwoman in the
Attic.
2. Elaine Showalter. “Toward a Feminist Poetics” From The New Feminist Criticism.
Gender Theory
1. Hélène Cixous. “The Laugh of the Medusa.”
Further Recommended Texts
1. Adorno, Theodor W. From Minima Moralia.
2. Barthes, Roland. “From Work to Text” From Image – Music – Text.
3. Beauvoir, Simone de. The Nomads
4. Certeau, Michel de. Walking in the City from The Practice of Everyday Life
5. Chow, Rey. Where Have All the Natives Gone?
6. Clastres, Pierre. Power in Primitive Societies
7. Clastres, Pierre. The Duty to Speak
8. Derrida, Jacques. Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences
9. Derrida, Jacques. Racism’s Last Word
10. Engels, Friedrich. The Family
11. Foucault, Michel. From The History of Sexuality
12. Irigaray, Luce. From This Sex Which is not One
13. Nietzsche, Friedrich. On Truth and Lie in an Extra moral Sense
14. Sontag, Susan. Against Interpretation
15. Spivak, Gayatri C. Can the Subaltern Speak?
Recommended Readings
1. Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory. This is an easy-to-use introduction to literary theory which in
a very accessible way introduces beginners to different theoretical schools and complex ideas of
critical theory. This book is invaluable for its understandable explanations of theoretical
concepts, which a beginner otherwise might find intimidating.
2. Bennett, Andrew, Nicholas Royle. Literature, Criticism and Theory. This book elaborates the
relationship between the text and reader, reader and author, and reader’s role in interpreting the
text.
3. Cuddon, J A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. An essential
reference book that every student of literature must have in his/her personal collection. This book
is meant not only to be consulted frequently but read as well.
4. Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. A slightly advanced introduction to
Literary Theory, as Eagleton focuses on selected theoretical trends. However, Eagleton connects
literature and theory in his known lucid style, which makes this book a wonderful read.
5. Malpas, Simon, Paul Wake. Routledge Companion to Literary Theory. A useful selection of
essays about major theories. It is a very helpful introduction to Literary Theory, designed for
those who have already been initiated into it. At the end, it provides an explanation of frequently
used theoretical terms and ideas.
6. Payne, Michael, John Schad. Life. After. Theory. This book discusses whether theory has
overstayed its welcome or has it left a permanent imprint on our consciousness and thus debates
about it have become irritatingly repetitive.
7. Richter, David H. The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. A
comprehensive work that covers critical tradition from the earliest developments in critical
thought to recent developments in critical thought. It has selections of original works from Plato
to Terry Eagleton. Canonical texts of great thinkers and critics are placed in different sections
according to the school of thought they represent. At the beginning of each section, an insightful
introduction is provided about that particular school of thought.
1. Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User Friendly Guide. Another brilliant introduction for
candidates who are starting a course in Literary Theory. Tyson provides a detailed introduction
to contemporary literary trends and their development. She explains most frequently encountered
theoretical approaches to study literature using examples every reader can relate to.

Course Title: Shakespearean Studies Level: MPhil English Literature

Course Code: ENG 718
Course Description
The focus of the course is to study Shakespeare in the light of revisionist criticism such as
postcolonial theory and contemporary cultural theory at large. The course includes plays from
Shakespeare's histories, tragedies and comedies. While these genres might at first glance seem to
exist in radically different realms—histories dealing with political struggles and the public
world, tragedy with a downfall of a hero, comedies with love and private lives --- the emphasis
will be upon change that these genres share. For example, Trauma and transformation are
Shakespeare's subjects in all of these plays: Richard III, Henry IV part 1, Henry V, Henry VI part
3, A Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and Twelfth
Night. The course will explore development of Shakespeare’s dramatic powers in history,
tragedy, and comedy from the early plays to the middle of his career, and to the rich and varied
achievements of his later plays. Dramatic forms, themes, characters, and styles will be studied in
the contexts of Shakespeare’s theatre and his society. The culture and language of a very distant
time period and how it appears in the plays will be focused, as a prelude to an examination of
how the plays' poetic forms help express pain and reconciliation. Shakespeare’s
greatness/universality will also be explored/questioned in his plays and sonnets.
Course Objectives
1. The course is expected to develop student’s ability to critically appreciate Shakespeare and
explore different dimensions of his characters, dramatic forms and themes.
2. The course hopes to develop literary competence by a comparative analysis of different genres
and plays.
3. The course will enable students to critique, evaluate and reflect on Shakespeare’s contribution
to sonnet.
Course Outcomes
After completion of the course, students are expected to
1. Refine their analytical ability and in-depth understanding of Shakespeare as a dramatist and
poet.
2. Write response papers on Shakespeare in the light of postcolonial critical theories.
Course Contents
1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
2. Hamlet
3. Henry V
4. Julius Caesar
5. King Lear
6. Othello
7. Richard III
8. Tempest
9. The Merchant of Venice
10. The Taming of the Shrew
11. Twelfth Night
Recommended Readings
● Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: The Berkley Publishing
Group, 1999.
● Booth, Stephen. Shakespeare’s Sonnets. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000.
● Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy. Middlesex: The Echo Library, 2007.
● Evans, G. Blakemore. Elizabethan Jacobean Drama: The Theatre in Its Time. New York: New
Amsterdam Books, 1998.
● Garber, Marjorie. Shakespeare After All. New York: Anchor, 2005.
● Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. London:
W.W. Norton, 2005.
● Loomba, Ania. Postcolonial Shakespeare.
● Neil, Samuel. Shakespeare: a Critical Biography. London: Houlston and Wright, 1863.
● Nye, Robert. The Late Mr. Shakespeare. New York: Allison and Busby, 2001.
● Ribner, Irving. The English History Play in the Age of Shakespeare. Irving: Routledge, 2005.
● Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare’s Sonnet. England: Thomas Thorpe, 1609.
● Stanley Wells, and Michael Dobson. The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2001.
Course Title: Postmodern American Literature
Level: MPhil English Literature Course Code: ENG 719
Course Description
The course is designed to introduce students to postmodern American literary panorama. The
aim is to understand postmodernism in terms of literary theory and practice. The contents
highlight how postmodernist literature is marked with literary techniques such as fragmentation,
paradox, unreliable narrators, often unrealistic and downright impossible plots, games, parody,
paranoia, dark humor and authorial self-reference. This means considering postmodern literature
in terms of form rather than context. This further leads to assessing how social and cultural
change might prompt changes in literature and how literature positions its readers to respond to
it. The course examines in particular the uneven effects of postmodernity and postmodernism as
shaped by differences in race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, gender, and region. In this regard, the
question of what constitutes "America" in postmodern world will be seen as a critical issue. The
course introduces a variety of postmodern American authors who tend to reject outright
meanings in their novels, stories and poems, and, instead, highlight and celebrate the possibility
of multiple meanings, or a complete lack of meaning, within a single literary work. The course
does not deal with passive reading, rather it prepares readers to be skeptical about commonplace
truths. It encourages students to question the truths of postmodern world, read critiques and write
their responses. The course is challenging as it requires the reader to be an active co-creator of
meaning. So that students need to work on their own views about postmodern literature so they
may utilize their own ideas for carrying out research in future.
Course Objectives
The course aims to:
▪ Introduce the concept of postmodernism in American literature.
▪ Familiarize students with techniques of postmodernism such as fragmentation, paradox,
unreliable narrators, unrealistic plots, plurality, paranoia, dark humor and introduce concepts of
pastiche, intertextuality and magical realism etc.
▪ Enable students to analyze literary texts in the light of postmodern literary theory.
▪ Make students aware of the responses, criticism and theatrical debates on postmodernism in
order to develop a better understanding of modern literature.
Course Contents
Poetry:
1. Lyn Hejinian- Oblivion
2. Alan Davies- The New Sentience
3. Tom Mandel- Poussin; Gray May Now Buy
4. Christopher Dewdney- The Beach; The theatre Party
5. Sherman Alexie- Poverty of Mirrors; What the orphan inherits; I would steal horses
6. Allen Ginsberg- Howl; America; A Supermarket in California
7. Sylvia Plath- Ariel; Daddy
Drama:
1. Tennessee Williams- Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire
2. Arthur Miller- The Crucible
3. August Wilson- Fences
4. Kurt Vonnegut- Happy Birthday Wanda June, God Bless you, Mr. Rosewater
5. Edward Albee- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Fiction:
1. Don DeLillo – White Noise, Libra
2. William S. Burroughs – Naked Lunch, Junky, Cities of the Red Night
3. Toni Morrison – Beloved, Jazz, Song of Solomon
4. Ishmael Reed- Mumbo Jumbo, The Last Days of Louisiana Red
5. Thomas Pynchon. The Crying of Lot 49, Mason and Dixon, Vineland, gravity’s Rainbow
6. Kurt Vonnegut- Slaughterhouse-Five
7. Foster Wallace- The Broom of the System
8. John Fowles- The French Lieutenant Woman, A Maggot
9. John Barth- Letters, Chimera
Outcome(s) of the course
● The course is challenging but it will enable students to develop a critical approach.
● The course will provide theoretical and conceptual understanding of postmodern American
literature so it will enable students to be more conversant with the ideas of relative truth and
fragmented reality in these postmodern times.
● It is expected that students will be able to explore new ideas and write research papers in this
subject area and hence grow in the field of research, which is indispensable to make a place in
the academia.
Suggested Readings
● Arac, Jonathan, ed. Postmodernism and Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1986. Web.
● Bertens, Hans. The idea of the postmodern: A History. New York: Routledge, 1995.
● Couturier, Maurice. Representation and Performance in Postmodern Fiction. Université Paul
Valéry, 1983.
● Fokkema, Douwe Wessel. Literary History, Modernism, Postmodernism. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins Publishing Company, 1984. Web.
● Gregson, Ian. Postmodern Literature. NP: Bloomsbury Academic, 2004.
● Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Inquiry into the Origins of Cultural
Change. Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 1990.
● Hogue, W. Lawrence. Postmodern American Literature and its other. NP: University of Illinois
Press, 2009. Web.
● Hoover, Paul, ed. Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology, 2nd Ed. NP: W.W.
Norton & Company, 2013. Web.
● Hutcheon, Linda. Politics of Postmodernism. New York: Routledge, 2002.
● Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1984. Web.
● McHale, Brian, and Len Platt, ed. The Cambridge history of Postmodern Literature. New
York: Cambridge University Press,2016.
● McHale, Brain. Postmodernist Fiction. Methuen: Methuen & Company Ltd., 1987. Web.
● McHale, Brian. Constructing Postmodernism. NP: Routledge Press, 1993. Web.
● McGowan, John. Postmodernism And Its Critics. New York: Cornell University, 1991. Web.
● Nicol, Bran. The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2009.
● Paula Geyh, Fred G. Leebron and Andrew Levy, eds. Postmodern Fiction: A Norton
Anthology. NP: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. Web.
● Platt, Len, and Sara Upstone, ed. Postmodern Literature an Race. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2015.
● Ziegler, Heidi, ed. The End Of Postmodernism: New Directions. NP: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1993. Web.