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MEG-05: Literary Theory & Criticism

By Dr. Rajesh Kumar   |   Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi
Learners enrolled: 439
This course is a compulsory course for doing M.A. in English. This is a very important course where the realm of Literary theory discourses will enable the learners to broaden their horizon of knowledge towards developing a broad appreciation of global literature. Reading a text through the lens of literary theory always provides a new perspective to better understand literature, learn more about different authors' intentions, and generally improve the quality of literature for both authors and readers. It is literary theory that formulates the relationship between author and work; literary theory develops the significance of race, class, and gender for literary study, both from the standpoint of the biography of the author and an analysis of their thematic presence within texts. The works of literary criticism will help the learners to make better sense of the work, form judgments about literature, study ideas from different points of view, and determine on an individual level whether a literary work is worth reading.
Summary
Course Status : Completed
Course Type : Core
Language for course content : English
Duration : 16 weeks
Category :
  • Language
Credit Points : 8
Level : Postgraduate
Start Date : 01 Jan 2024
End Date : 30 Apr 2024
Enrollment Ends : 29 Feb 2024
Exam Date : 25 May 2024 IST
Shift :

Shift-I

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

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Course layout

Weeks

Topics

 

Week-1: Block-1 An Introduction

Unit- 1: Literature, Criticism and Theory

Unit-2:  Overview of Western Critical Thought

Unit-3: Twentieth Century

 

Week-2: Block-1 An Introduction

 

Unit-4: The Function f Criticism

Unit-5:  Indian Aesthetics

Unit-6: Resistance to Theory/How to Read a Reader

 

Week-3: Block-2  Classical Criticism

Unit-1: Features of Classical Criticism

Unit-2: Plato on Imitation and Art

Unit-3 : Aristotle’s Theory of Imitation

 

Week-4: Block-2  Classical Criticism

Unit-4: Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy-I

Unit-5: Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy-II

Unit-6: Criticism as Dialogue

 

Week-5: Block-3  Romantic Criticism

Unit-1: Romanticism

Unit-2: Wordsworth: Preface to Lyrical Ballads

 

 

Week-6: Block-3  Romantic Criticism

 

Unit-3: Coleridge: Biographia Literaria

Unit-4: P.B. Shelley: A Defence of Poetry

 

Week-7: Block-4  New Criticism

Unit-1:  I.A.Richards

Unit-2: T.S.Eliot

Unit-3: F.R. Leavis

 

 

Week-8: Block-4  New Criticism

 

Unit-4:  John Crowe Ransom and Cleanth Brooks

Unit-5: W.K. Wimsatt

Unit-6:  Conclusion

 

Week-9:  Block-5 Marxist View of Literature

Unit-1: Marxism and Literature

Unit-2: Society and History: Marxist View

Unit-3: Representing and Critiquing society: Superstructures

 

Week-10: Block-5 Marxist View of Literature

Unit-4: Commitment in Literature

Unit-5: Autonomy in Literature

Unit-6: Literature and Ideology

 

Week-11: Block-6 Feminist Theories

Unit-1:  Features of Feminist Criticism

Unit-2: Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Unit-3: Virginia Woolf: A Room of One’s Own

 

Week-12: Block-6 Feminist Theories

Unit-4:  Simone De Beauvoir: The Second Sex

Unit-5:  Elain Showalter: ‘Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness’

Unit-6: Feminist Concern in India Today

 

Week-13: Block-7 Deconstruction

Unit-1: Roots: New Criticism and Structuralism

Unit-2: Beginning Deconstruction

Unit-3: Implications

 

Week-14: Block-7 Deconstruction

Unit-4: Deconstructing Poetry

Unit-5: Deconstructing Drama

Unit-6: Re-assessing Deconstruction

 

Week-15: Block-8 Contemporary Literacy Theory

 

Unit-1: Some Basic Issues

Unit-2: Postmodernism: The Basics

Unit-3: Psychoanalysis: Freud and Lacan

 

Week-16: Block-8 Contemporary Literacy Theory

Unit-4: Postcolonial Theory: Said, Spivak and Bhabha

Unit-5: Beginnings of Cultural Studies and New Historicism

Unit-6: Literary Criticism and Theory: A Summing Up

Instructor bio

Dr. Rajesh Kumar

Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi
Rajesh Kumar, PhD., an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, has taught for almost two decades in a college in University of Delhi, New Delhi before joining the faculty of English, SOH, IGNOU. He has a  PhD in English Literature on “Dalit Writings and Aboriginal Writings: Convergences & Divergences” and an MPhil in English Literature on “The dialectics of Australian Aboriginal Identity in Aboriginal Women’s Autobiographies” from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is a recipient of UGC Research Award (2016-18) during which he worked on a project on “Santali Dance-Songs of Jharkhand: Contextualizing Art & Culture’. He has also been an Associate (2018-20) at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS), Rashtrapati Niwas, Shimla. He has authored four books: Santal Folk-Dance Songs. Contextualizing Art &Culture; Dalits Vs Aboriginal Australians: Convergences& Divergences;  Of Dalit and Australian Aboriginal Writings & Culture; Australian Aboriginal Autobiographies: Reading Identity, Aboriginality and Belongingness; and  edited one Volume: Literaria: An International Journal of New Literature across the World, special issue on Literatures of Margin, Bahri Publications: New Delhi.vol.2, no.1, Jan-Jun 2012. ISSN:2229-4600. He has published many scholarly articles in national and international journals on various subjects and issues relating to literatures of margin and presented several papers in national and International Conferences. His areas of interest include Digital Humanities, Culture Studies, Post-colonial Studies, Literary Criticism, Dalit Literature, Australian Literature, Literatures of margin/ Marginality, Sociology of Dalit discourse, Dalit Autobiographies, Australian Aboriginal Autobiographies, Performing Arts & Culture, Dance Studies, Folklore Studies and Tribal Folk Literature of India. He is also currently developing a Diploma Programme in Digital Humanities


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