As we come to the end of the Certificate Course on Philosophy/Existentialism

We have come to the end of the Certificate Course in Existentialism/Philosophy which began on 30 June 2008. Come to think of it, we have spent three months engaging with the topic.

First of all let me thank all of you - UG and PG students, especially those who have been supporting all the certificate courses i organise, office and teaching staff of the University, and those from industry for having taken part in this course. I am extremely grateful to Dr Kachappilly for teaching the course. I am not sure but for this semester we could have ever been able to get him. I personally appreciate his down-to-earth attitude and scholarship.

I thank my colleague and friend Padmakumar for chipping in during emergencies, and being a constant support in all my activities.

I am grateful to Associate Dean and HOD-Media Studies, Mr Kennedy for helping me make the course happen, Certificate Course Co-ordinator, Mr George and Dean Prof Krishnaswamy for their cooperation, and the management for their regular support for such innovative activities.

A gentle reminder about the viva on Monday between 3 and 4 and 5 and 6. The last date for paper submission is 5 Oct. You may email your papers to me.

I am planning to organise a Certificate Course in Indian Philosophy which will be an introduction to the six systems of Indian Philosophy in the the first two weeks of December 2008. Will be in touch as it materialises. Those interested are welcome.

(Photoes : Swatilekha Doloi)

Site on Literary Theory and Criticism

Aneesha has sent sites on literary theory and criticism. Here they are...
1. Critical Reading: An Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism
2. Dr Kristi Siegel's webpage

Below are the one's I have come across for more extensive academic engagement.
1. Marxists Internet Archive
2. Semiotics for Beginners
3. Textetc.com
4. Philosophy Study Guides from Sparknotes

'Paradise Lost' extract - notes

Siddarth has asked me to post material on the exact from Paradise Lost. Here it is.
1. From Sparknotes
2. From Pinkmonkey
3. A paper on invocation

Material on 'Macbeth'

1. Annotated hypertext
2. 'Enjoying Macbeth' by Ed Friedlander
3. From Sparknotes
4. From Classicnotes
5. From Wikipedia

'Semilogy and Rhetoric' Paul de Man - notes

1. A commentary by John Phillips
2. Notes by Richard Clarke

Announcement - Certificate Course in Philosophy

Next Saturday, 27 September 2008 will be the last day of the Certificate Course in Existentialism class. Dr Kachappilly will discuss Nietzsche on that day. Those interested are welcome.

There will be a photo session of the course participants after the class. Would request those who have digital camera to come with one as I do not have access to one.

On 28 Sept 2008, 2 pm onwards there will be viva for evaluation in Dr Kachappilly's office, DVK Auditorium Block near University car park.

Alternatively, those who wish to submit papers in the normal research paper format my do so latest by 5 October.

Notes on 'Alexander's Feast'

1. From Representative Poetry Online
2. Tercentenery Essays on Dryden
3. With 'sidenotes'!

Notes on 'Rape of the Lock'

1. From Sparknotes
2. From Wikipedia
3. From Cummings Study Guides
4. With Annotations
5. From Representative Poetry Online
6. From Literary Encyclopedia
7. From Enotes
8. An essay by Ian Mackean on 'Rape of the Lock'
9 'Rape of the Lock' Home Page

Department of Media Studies

presents
BACKSTAGE PASSES

(A PERFORMANCE BASED LITERATURE SEMINAR)

DATE- Sunday, 21st September 2008
TIME- 10 AM to 5 PM
VENUE- Christ University Auditorium

Inaugural Address - Dr.(Fr.) Thomas C Mathew
Vice-Chancellor, Christ University


Chief Guest

Shobhaa De
Novelist & Columnist

'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' by Thomas Gray - Notes

1. From The Thomas Gray Archive
2. With annotations
3. With related resources
4. From Representative Poetry Online - with extensive notes

Note: I will be circulating photocopied material tomorrow on 'Elegy...' and 'Rape of the Lock' through the class reps.

'Tyger' and 'Lamb' by William Blake

The Lamb (1789)
1. From Wikipedia
2. Write up by Ralph Dumain

The Tyger (1794)
1. From Sparknotes
2. From Wikipedia
3. Lecture on Youtube
4. 'Understanding William Blake's "Tyger"'

'The Lamb and the Tyger: Binary Archetypes' by Dr Sebastian Mahfood
Note: I wanted to mention in the class today that Blake married Catherine Boucher, an illiterate, whom he taught to read and write, and to help him in engraving and printing.

IFEP OE CIA 3 Test

Tomorrow between 11 and 12 there will be Optional English CIA 3 Test on Northanger Abbey. The questions will include objective types, fill in the blanks and true or false. There will be 20 questions in all carrying one mark each. All the best.

Kubla Khan notes

1. From Representative Poetry Online
2. From enotes
3. From Sparknotes
3. From ....

Resolution and Independence notes

1. Tenets of Wordsworth in Resolution and Independence
2. An analysis

To Sir with Love Script

Please click here to view the complete script of To Sir With Love

Enhancing Quality of Answers - Presentation

What does a question test?
• Comprehension of the question
• Logic of answering- sentences, paragraphs
• Spelling, punctuation
• Expression within the given word limit

Common Mistakes/Errors

Mistakes/Errors	Appropriate Usage
english	English
actually, basically	???????????
tough	Difficult, challenging
don’t, can’t	do not, cannot (Contractions)
called as	called
eg, for eg,	e.g.
Yours Faithfully	Yours faithfully
Your’s	Yours

• Difference between speaking and writing
• No religious symbols – Malpractice
• Draw margins and write question numbers outside the margin
• Make paragraphs for longer answers
• Do not write answers in points
• Single inverted commas for titles of poems or essays
• Underline titles of books, plays, films
• Names begin with capital letters
• Quote only if you know exactly
• Avoid use of green or red ink

To Sir with Love - Presentation

Why film?

• Shift from print to visual culture
• Different from other texts

Trivia

• Sidney Poitier- First African- American actor to win Oscars (1963)
• Poitier in Blackboard Jungle (1955)
• Sequel -To Sir With Love II (1996)
• Based on the memoir of E R Braithwaite
• Broke box-office records in 1967 in the US

The Film
Title: To Sir with Love (1966/7)
Director: James Clavell
Producer: James Clavell
Script: James Clavell (from the novel by E.R. Braithwaite -1959)
Cinematography: Paul Beeson

The Cast
Sidney Poitier -Mark Thackeray
Christian Roberts -Denham
Judy Geeson -Miss Pamela Dare
Suzy Kendall -Gillian Blanchard
Ann Bell -Mrs. Dare
Faith Brook -Grace Evans
Chris Chittell -Potter
Geoffrey Bayldon -Weston
Patricia Routledge -Clinty

The Story

• Why does Mr Thackeray take to teaching?
• His early experiences of the school, of students, and staff
• “Ah, so you're the new lamb for the slaughter - or should I say, black sheep?” – Weston
• The classroom experience
• Mr Thackeray learns! Or students teach him (Thackeray loses temper)
• The realisation and the change (books find a better place!)
• The test of the new relationship
• Too fat to jump - Thackeray becomes PT teacher
• Seal’s mother dies
• Pamela’s issue
• The museum visit

• Survival training
• Thackeray gets a letter
• The farewell party
• The dance
• The gift
• ‘To sir with love’
• The next term’s class – mission incomplete

DVD Chapters
1. The start
2. North Quay Secondary School
3. The staff
4. Mid-day dance session
5. Hackman’s classes
6. The silent treatment
7. Their proper places
8. Seales
9. Studying South America
10. Pranks & filthy games
11. Responsible adults
12. Questions and answers
13. Thackeray’s story
14. The museum trip
15. Miss Dare’s move
16. Surviving training
17. Mark & Gillian
18. Too high for Fats
19. Passing the hat
20. Mrs Dare
21. “I got me a job”
22. Counselling Miss Dare
23. A boxing lesson
24. The Seales’ funeral
25. The celebration begins
26. Ladies’ choice
27. A little remembrance
28. Next term’s class

Themes

• Racial issues
• Inspirational teacher
• Education as a catalyst
• Teenage angst
• Mr Thackeray v students
• Mr Thackeray v other teachers
• Pedagogy
• Leadership

Thackeray’s Battle

• Against
• Narrow-minded administrators
• In-bred social ideas – race, difficult children
• Pessimistic colleagues
• Student crush
• Many more….

Some Questions

• How does Thackeray help his students to break out of the pattern of intolerance and roughness into which the society had placed them?

• What are the preconceived ideas that Mark Thackeray and his students have of each other? What makes them change these ideas?

• The concept of human beings able to alter their ways is a crucial element in the film. How far do you think is it possible in the case of rural as well as urban India marked by rigid social structures like caste, family tradition, parental pressure, and market driven society?

• What could be the social and environmental conditions that are responsible for the condition of the children in the film?

• In what ways can the film be adapted to the Indian situation?

• Critics argue that the film portrays a simplistic, commercially palatable rather than a realistic image of the challenges of teaching, leading the viewer to a distorted perception of the implications of the various discourses employed. Do you agree with it?

• What are the different notions of education (discourses) at work in the film?

• Is the notion of education prescribed in the film problematic, practical or idealistic?

• Thackeray’s character has been accused of making students conformists and not critical thinkers. Do you agree with this view? Did Thackeray have a choice?

• Attempt a character sketch of Mark Thackeray?

• Do we have such disadvantaged schools and children? What can we do to bring them to the mainstream?

Gurudakshina

• Switch off the lights
• Close the taps
• Throw the cups in dustbins
• Do not misplace books in the library

Grateful to…..

• YOU
• Rajan
• Mr Kennedy, Ms Ramaswamy
• The Dept of Media Studies
• Vice-Chancellor, Dean
• Other dept heads and teachers
• Akshay Rajmohan

YOU become a TEACHER -with a difference.

Notes on Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelly

1. From Sparknotes
2. Filmic adaptation of the poem
3. Analysis

Notes on Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn

1. Analysis
2. Analysis
3. Meaning in the Conclusion
4. From Sparknotes

III PSEng Questions on Psychoanalytic Criticism/Essays

The III PSEng students may post their questions on the essays on Psychoanalytic Criticism here. In addition you may also try to respond to others' or your own questions.

I Semester Optional English Q Paper - Mid Sem 2008

Christ University, Bangalore
I Semester BA Optional English

Paper I: British Literature: Anglo-Saxon to the Present

Note: You are encouraged to keep the answers as brief and concise as possible. Answers exceeding the prescribed word limit may be penalized.

I. Answer any six of the following in not more than 200 words each. 30 marks
1. Locate Chaucer, Shakespeare, Bacon, Defoe and Goldsmith within the ‘Print culture and Rise of Nation-States’ framework through the texts you have studied.
2. How is the world that comes across in the Prologue of the Wife of Bathe different from that of Shakespeare’s sonnets?
3. Critically examine the concept of courtly love as exhibited in Shakespeare’s sonnets.
4. What problems do we encounter in making a comparative study of the description of Wife of Bathe and ‘the young man’?
5. What does the essay “The Man in Black” tell us about the socio-political situation of England?
6. Trace the imperial rhetoric in Robinson Crusoe.
7. Write a note on the Greek concepts of Drama.
8. Differentiate the style and content of the two essays you have studied.

II. Answer any two of the following in not more than 250-300 words each. 20 marks
1. Write a note on rise of English Drama with reference to the Miracle Moralities.
2. What is the central argument in the sonnet ‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds’? Discuss.
3. Write a note on the concept of the Metaphysical conceit.
4. Write a note on the rise of the genre – novel.
5. Explore the ideas of ‘God’ as they come across in Robinson Crusoe, keeping in mind Defoe’s own religious inclination.

Feedback on Mid Semester question papers

HI
Can I have feedback on I Semester Optional English mid-semester question paper? Could you email your comments to me on ajpinto42 at gmail dot com?

“An Introduction” By Kamala Das notes for II JPEng students

Some propositions on the poem.

The poem, “An Introduction” by Kamala Das, has strong existentialist moorings proposed by Søren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir. Although it is unlikely that Das has read either Kierkegaard or Satre, it is most likely that she has read The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir.

The assertion of the self against the various given social roles, identities and communal demands is an indicator of the existentialist leanings of the poet. The first person narrative of the poem also reinforces the idea of the asserting self. The assertion in terms of the issues and the roles it is rejecting presents the inverted pyramid structure of the poem. The use of the indefinite article ‘An’ in the title is also indicative of the fluid but resisting and self-determining position of the poet.

Here are some interesting write ups on the poem and her poetry in general. Click on the links to go the the specific sites

1. Split-Self And Self Assertion In The Poetry Of Kamla Das

2. Calling Kamala Das Queer: Rereading My Story

3. Kamala Das

4. The Histrionics of Kamala Das

5. IGNOU Interview with Kamala Das

Shakespeare's Sonnets - material + replies to Questions Raised in the classroom

Here is some material on Sonnets.

The site contains reliable interpretation/analysis of the sonnets. Please click on the sonnets to get to the site.

Three I JPEng students had asked for the explanation of three lines from sonnet 74. Those lines have been explained in the link provided below. Should there be further doubt on those three lines, please get back to me via blog.


Sonnet 18 : Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?


Sonnet 74 : But be contented when that fell arrest


Sonnet 116 : Let me not to the marriage of true minds

A question on litotes in the comment section below led me to this fascinating site on figures of speech. Please click on the link below and search for Shakespeare's sonnets that are prescribed for you. You may also use the short cut key : Ctrl F

Sonnet Sqeezing

End-Semster Model Question Paper - V Semester Optional English - OEN 531 Literary Theory and Criticism

CHRIST COLLEGE, BANGALORE -29
(Autonomous)

End-semester Examination - October 2008

Course: BA Time: 3 hours
Subject: Optional English Max Marks: 100 Paper: OEN 531 - Literary Theory and Criticism

Section A

I. Answer in not more than 200 words. 10x4=40

1. What is literature according to Eagleton?
2. “No poet, no artist of any art has his complete meaning alone.” – TS Eliot. Discuss the efficacy of the historical-biographical approach in the light of the statement.
3. Criticism should dissociate art from mystery and concern itself with how literary texts actually worked. How does this statement reflect formalist concerns?
4. What are the two major contributions of Saussure to Structuralism according to Rivkin and Ryan?
5. How did Derrida’s concept of “difference” challenge the central assumptions of Plato’s metaphysics?
6. Explain the three parts of the mind as proposed by Freud.
7. What is the contribution of French feminists to feminism?

Section B

II. Answer in not more than 350 words. 15X4=60
1. How does Eagleton challenge the ideas of literature upheld by various schools of thought?
2. Critique the central assumptions in the essay ‘Are Poems Historical Acts’?

3. Attempt a formalist critique of the following text.

After his Death

It turned out
that the bombs he had thrown
raised buildings;

that the acid he had sprayed
had painfully opened
the eyes of the blind.

Fishermen hauled
prizewinning fish
from the water he had polluted.

We sat with astonishment
enjoying the shade
of the vicious words he had planted.

The government decreed that
on the anniversary of his birth
the people should observe
two minutes pandemonium.

- Norman MacCaig

4. How does Levi-Strauss attempt a structuralist reading of Oedipus the King?

5. What principles of poststructuralism does Hillis Miller draw upon in his reading of “A Slumber did my Spirit Seal”?

6. Attempt a psychoanalytic criticism of the following poem.

A slumber did my spirit seal;

I had no human fears:

She seemed a thing that could not feel

The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;

She neither hears nor sees;

Rolled round in earth's diurnal course,

With rocks, and stones, and trees.

- William Wordsworth

7. Attempt a feminist critique of the following text.

Piano

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;

Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see

A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings

And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song

Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong

To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside

And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour

With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour

Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast

Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

D.H. Lawrence

******************

Sample Questions - I Sem Optional English Mid Sem Exam

Sartaj had asked me for sample questions yesterday. Today Abey reminded me about them. Hence this post.

The questions may be :

• Single-text based
• Asking for comparison of two texts in terms of their style, world view or themes.
• Questions asking about literary genres or movements, namely novel, metaphysical poetry, sonnets, Puritanism, early theatre in England, early theatre in Greece,
• Questions asking you to locate texts in larger frameworks the syllabus or course plans try to engage you in, namely, print culture and nation states or similar frameworks, if mentioned.

Some Sample Questions

What is conceit?

How does Chaucer describe Wife of Bathe?

How do Shakespeare’s and Donne’s poems you have studies differ from each other?

How does the worldview of Shakespeare’s sonnets differ from that of Donne’ poems?

Locate the texts you have studied in the print culture and nation-state framework.

All the best.

Tomorrow's class cancelled

Some of the course participants begin their exams tomorrow. Hence, they requested me not to have Existentialism classes as they would miss out on the lecture on Kierkegaard. I spoke Dr Kachappilly. He has agreed to cancel tomorrow's class.

Bottom line: NO PHILOSOPHY CLASS TOMORROW.

Link to Concept of Nation for IFEP and I JPEng

Here is a very good link to the concept of nation

Please click on the following word: Imagining the Nation.

Question paper Pattern, I Sem Optional English, IFEP, IJPEng, IPSEng

Question paper Pattern

Christ University, Bangalore

Mid Semester Examination – August 2008
Paper: OEN 131: British Literature: Anglo-Saxon to the Present

Time 2 Hours Maximum Marks: 50

Note: You are encouraged to keep the answers as brief and concise as possible.
Answers exceeding the prescribed word limit may be penalized.

I. Answer any six of the following in not more than 200 words each (6x5=30)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9

II. Answer any two of the following in not more than 250-300 words each. (2x10=20)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

***************

Further notes
• The questions are on novel, drama and poetry.
• Macbeth is not there for exam.
• The spacio-temporal location of ‘texts’ is important. E.g. the socio-political and economic conditions that produced these texts, genres like novel, sonnet, frame-narrative.
• All the best

Disclaimer
This pattern and instructions posted here are not to be treated as official. Should there be be any discrepancy i may decline to take any responsibility. The post is purely a personal attempt to address the student concerns. If you wish to verify the veracity of the matter on this post, you may consult the teacher concerned. The class representatives may take initiative in this direction.

I JPEng Optional English Questions

I JPEng students may post their questions and comments on the portion of the Optional English syllabus dealt with so far and classroom discussion here.

I FEP Question Answers on Novel

Dear FEP 08-11 Students, please post your questions and answers in the comment section of this blog.

However, it is important that you give the complete URL of the internet source you have referred to to find the answer. In case of a book, give the complete title, author's names, place of publication, publisher's name and year of publication.

For better idea so citing/referencing please enter 'bibliography' in the search box above and find my write up on that.

Questions on the novel

Following are the questions IBA (FEP)students asked me on the novel in about 45 minutes. Of course they are going to find answers for their own question! It's really an intriguing list.

1. Who wrote the first novel? Where? When? Why?
2. When did the first novel come to existence?
3. Why do they call novel a novel?
4. What is the purpose of a novel?
5. Why do we have to study it?
6. Characteristics of a novel.
7. What are the different types of novels?
8. What is the relevance of novel?
9. What is the difference between a short story and a novel?
10. Why do we have different editions of a novel?
11. Structure of the novel.
12. Why is novel a popular genre?
13. Who are the target audience of a novel?
14. Why did the genre survive?
15. What makes a novel a classic?
16. Why do novels drag the narrative?
17. Why should we critically analyze a novel?
18. How to critically analyse a novel?
19. Which is the first most famous novel?
20. Why is detective fiction famous?
21. Limitations of the novel genre.
22. Were novels meant to entertain?
23. What is the length of a novel - min/max?
24. Why are novels so melodramatic?
25. What are the uses of a novel?
26. What motivates the novelist to write a novel?
27. How to write a novel?
28. Which is the longest novel in the world?
29. Which is the first bestseller in the world?
30. Has novel evolved?
31. What are the topics on which novels are written ?
32. Relation between print culture and the novel.
33. How does one interpret the depth of a novel?
34. Should you have antagonist at all in a novel ?
35. Why do people write novels?
36. Why do only the novels from England become famous?
37. What kinds of novels are popular?
38. How many novels have been written till date?
39. How far do novels help us understand an age?
40. When did novel become a hyped genre ?
41. Which is the worst-rated novel?
42. Which is the first novel written by an Indian?
43. Etymology of the word novel.
44. Most controversial novel.
45. Difference between an epic and novel.
46. When did interdisciplinary novel arise?
47. What are the different styles of writing a novel?
48. Do we approve novels made into movies?
49. What role imagination plays in writing a novel?
50. Politics of rating a novel.
51. Subject of a novel.
52. How do novels become bestsellers?
53. Role of novel in social movement and awareness?
54. Impact of novel on society.
55. Can you analyze author's personality by reading a novel?

Suggested reading list

Note: Abey has been asking me to put up a list of books that i wish my students read. The following are some of the titles i suggest. Will add some more slowly.

Critical texts
Plato – Republic
Aristotle – On Poetics
Foucault – History of Sexuality 1 & 2
Foucault –Discipline and Punish
Lacan – Ecretis
Barthes – Mythologies
Marx - German Ideology
Stanislavski – An Actor Prepares
Stuart Hall -
Raymond Williams -
Ashis Nandy – Intimate Enemy
Partha Chatterjee – Nation and its discontents
Louis Althusser - Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes Toward an Investigation
Marshall Mcluhan - Understanding Media
Daniel Chandler - Semiotics for Beginners


Plays
Euripides - Medea
Aristophanes - Frogs
Sophocles - Oedipus Rex
Ibsen - A Doll’s House



Novels
Eco - Name of the Rose
Italo Calvino -
Marquez -
Rushdie – Midnights Children
Amitav Ghosh – See of Poppies

I will be in the library ....

In the beginning of the year I had mentioned that I would be available in the department from 08.30 to 09.00 am on working days. It's nearly two months and I have hardly had anyone meeting me to consult during this period. It seems to me that we do not have a practice of meeting teachers to discuss ideas or texts, other than meeting them to give vent to angst, for personal attention or submission of assigned works. Hence, I have decided not to waste my time in the department and head straight to the library. Those of you who wish to see me can have a look in the dept. If i am not found there, I will either be in classroom or library.

However, two more channels are still open for you - the brown hard-bound book on my table and the email.

Claude Levi-Strauss on a structuralist approach to Oedipus the King

• The Structural Study of Myth – Levis-strauss
• Gives insight into Sophocles’ play
• Interaction bw linguistics, anthropology, and literature
• Basic problem of contradiction in myth
• In a myth anything can happen
• No logic no continuity
• Any characteristic can be attributed to any subject
• But there is similarity in the myths collected in different regions throughout the world
• Ancient philosophers and language
• Definite sounds related to definite meaning
• But differ across language
• Saussure – relations among units of sounds and not units of sound produces meaning
• Carl Jung’s attempt to find meaning in basic units of myth (archetypes) similar to ancient philosophers
• Saussure - language
• Unchanging elements - grammar
• Changing elements – sequence of words
• Synchronic and diachronic
• Myth expresses meaning both
• diachronically (
• synchronically (part of larger myth)
• Similar to a sentence
• Jack hates Jill
• Jill hates Jack
• Levis-Strauss – basic elements of myth are not isolated relations but “bundles of such relations”
• To read a myth properly need to pay attention to the story as it proceeds and to relations within, btwn, among stories
• Need to see wh happens before and after the story
• Cadmus – Europa –Zeus – Delphic oracle – city – Thebes – kills Ares the god of war – saws teeth – Spartois spring up – flings a stone – they kill each other – Son Polydorus fathers Oedipus
• Oedipus’ sons - Etocles kills Polynieces – denied burial – sister Antigone give funeral – buried alive
• All relations in one column exhibit a common feature
• I column – overemphasized blood relations More intimate than they should be
• II column – (inverted) Underrating blood relations
• III Column – monsters being slain
• IV Column – difficulties in walking straight and standing upright
• Relations btwn and among columns
• I & II logical contrast
• III 0- killing monsters – dragons associated with the earth – a dragon must be slain before men can be born from earth – sphinx will not permit men to live
• Livi- Strauss – Basic origin of human life addressed by many cultures
• Vegetable springs from earth – decays and back into earth – human bodies
• Judeo-Christian culture – man from clay
• Today people are born from union of two
• III- monsters are overcome by men – denial of the origin of humans from the earth
• Myth therefore includes both aspect of human origin of life
• Myths that show humans springing from earth all over the world also talk of initial difficulty of walking
• IV column affirms individual origin in the earth
• III denies it
• Original problem – born from one or born from two?
• Born from different or born from same
• Earlier and later versions of myth
• Both are not true – coz myth made of all its variants
• Freud’s concept of “Oedipus Complex” - latest variation of the myth itself – child trying to overvalue one parent against the other – born of one or two
• Levi-Struss shows issues around and in the play
• Also shows myth as dramatic - both aspects of human expression are less concerned with delivering the message than dramatizing the intractable questions about the meaning of human life.
• Therefore Lev-Struass – another myth

'Structuralism and Literary Criticism' - Gerard Genette

Following is a note sent by Adarsh of III Year PSEng on the essay:

Ideas Dropped :

Gerard Genette tries to establish differences between the following:

Bricoleur : makes use of things that are not meant for the purpose.
Engineer : makes use of things that are meant for the purpose.

Art critic : will not use a painting in the process of criticism of art.
Literary critic : only person to use the same thing (literature or writing) in the process of literary criticism.

Writer : questions the world/universe which is nothing but a 'sign' to him.
Critic : questions literature. The work, which is a sign for the writer is meaning for the critic; the view of the world is sign for the critic and meaning for the writer.
Thus, Structuralism is a method with literature as it's object. The essay tries to find the principles through which Structuralism could reach it's 'object' and thus offer itself as the 'fruitful' method (as compared to Formalism)

Genette establishes the difference between Formalism and Structuralism by citing limitations of the former and the importance of the latter.

Limitations of Formalism :

1. Only worried about word/sound/sentence. The sentence would thus be the largest form that Formalism is concerned with.
2. Unlike Structuralism, it only concerns itself with the 'codes' and not the 'messages.'
3. Content for them is not the concern.
4. Formalism treats literature as a dialect.


Importance of Structuralism :

1. Establishes the relation between the form and the message. It is concerned with the message too i.e, the bone structure.
2. Semantic phenomenon i.e, it attacks the meanings.
3. Larger unities of discourse. (systems)
System of Forms - Code
System of Meanings - Meaning
4. Study of structures wherever they occur.

Genette goes on to say that, Structuralism tries to conceive structures rather than perceive them. In other words, they think they are discovering, but are actually inventing.

Certificate Course in Existentialism

A few words regarding the course...

• The classes are held every Saturday from 2 to 5 pm in Room 102 which is on the first floor of Main Block, Christ College
• A short break of 15 minutes is given at about 3.30 pm
  
• After the classes you can join Kurian at the kiosk over a cup of tea for an informal, free-wheeling discussion around Philosophy. Bring-your-own-tea.
  
• Please be in the class in time both for the class and post-break session
• Please be regular
• There is an evaluation at the end of the course to award credits (for Christ Colleges students) and certificates. The course participants have a choice of choosing the manner of evaluation which could be a paper or a viva voce or a performance or any other means with the prior permission of the course teacher. It can also be a combination of these methods.
  
• A handout consisting of key points on the lectures/discussion is already distributed in the first class held last Saturday. Those who were not there in the last class may collect it from me in person.
• For any clarification please free to email me.
• If you wish to meet me in person I am usually available in Room 107, First Floor, Main Block between 8.30 and 9am.
• You can obtain membership of DVK library which is one of the finest libraries for Philosophy in Asia. You can directly approach the DVK library or get in touch with Kurian or me to know the process of application for membership there.
• Christ College library too has a small collection of books on Philosophy. It also has secondary works on some of the philosophers we are studying.
  
• Ravi has mooted the idea of having a blog on existentialism for the group. Kanasu has volunteered to manage/moderate it. Her email id is: kanasihi at gmail dot com I wish this initiative goes a long way.
  
• Kurian's following books are available with me if you wish to go through them.
  
• Process: Implications and Applications
• God-talk Reconstructed: An Introduction to Philosophy of God
• God of Love: A Neoclassical Inquiry
• I will make them available in the college library within a week or so
• If you wish to buy them at at 40% discount whose cover price in rupee is 120, 120, and 150 respectively, you may either contact Kurian or me.
• All the best. I am sure this course will set you on newer and diverse intellectual journeys.

MA English - Literary Criticism Syllabus

Department of Media Studies

Christ College (Autonomous), Bangalore

Subject: MA in English with Communication Studies Credits: 4

Paper Title: Western Aesthetics (Plato to New Critics) Total Hours: 60

Paper Code: MEL133 Max Marks: 100

The selection provides a comprehensive account of intellectual traditions and critical movements from Plato to the New Critics.

Objectives

· To explore the various currents, pressures, and directions in contemporary criticism as aspects of the cultural present and as an ongoing conversation with intellectual precursors and earlier traditions of literary study.

· To enable readers to build their own sense of the map of modern literary critical practice.

Module I 20 hrs

Concepts of Criticism and Aesthetic Origins:

Mimesis: Ancient Greek Literary Theory

Mimesis

Fiction and falsehood

The audience

Catharsis

Expressivity: The Romantic Theory of Authorship

Expression

Confession

Composition

Inspiration

Imagination

Interpretation: Hermeneutics

The defence of non-theoretical understanding

Art and truth

Do texts have ‘objective’ meanings?

Gadamer’s Defence of Reading as Freedom

Value: Criticisms, Canons, and Evaluation

The origin of canons

The test of time: reputation and value

For and against literary value judgements

The containment of literature and the preservation of value

Postmodernism and the retreat from value

Module II 20 hrs

Criticism and Critical Practices in the Twentieth Century:

Literature and the Academy

Criticism incorporated

A brief prehistory

Modernism and the purification of criticism

Criticism decentred

I.A. Richards

Intellectual contexts: Cambridge philosophy

The meaning of meaning

Principles of literary criticism

Practical criticism

Critical legacies

T.S. Eliot and the Idea of Tradition

‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’ - then and now

F.H. Bradley – the historical sense

Impersonality – the closet Romantic

Literary and socio-political hierarchies

Legacies: theory

Legacies: poetry

Anthropology and/as Myth in Modern Criticism

‘Myth’ and ‘reason’

Varieties of Modernist mythopoeia

Literary anthropology

Structuralism and the break up of Modernist mythopoeia

Myth and the marvelous

F.R. Leavis: Criticism and Culture

Leavis’ cultural criticism

Leavis and scientific management

Leavis’ literary criticism

Marxist Aesthetics

Marx before Marxism

Art, authorship, ideology

Base and superstructure

Marxism, realism, typicality

Art, antiquity, and modernity

Marxism since Marx

Module III 20 hrs

William Empson: From Verbal Analysis to Cultural Criticism

Verbal analysis

Cultural criticism

Contra clerisies: moral criticism

The example of Empson

The New Criticism

Origins

Methods and characteristics

Influence and legacy

Testing pattern

Mid-semester

Sections	A	B
No. of Questions in each Sections	3	3
No. of Questions to be answered	2	2
Marks for each question	10	15
Maximum marks for each Section	20	30
Total Marks : 50

End-semester

Sections	A	B
No. of Questions in each Sections	6	6
No. of Questions to be answered	4	4
Marks for each question	10	15
Maximum marks for each Section	40	60
Total Marks : 100

Required Texts:

1. Literary Theory and Criticism An Oxford Guide; Ed. Patricia Waugh
2. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism; Ed. Vincent B. Leitch

The Rise of English - Some pointers for MA English students

• The Roles of Mathew Arnold, F R Leavis and TS Eliot in shaping Englsih literary studies in England
• Arnold's relationship with the rising middle class
• The romantic recourse to and obsesion symbol and the consequent loss
• Religion and literature as similar in terms of ideology
• The conception of literature disseminated by Scrutiny
• Conception of Practical criticism
• Conception of new criticism
• Historical conditions that necessitated the birth of new criticism in the US
• Notion of ogranic society
• Our Leavisian legacy
• The pedagogic narrative of literary studies

Feel free to add more pointers in the comment section below

Literary Theory Class 3- III PSEng

The following note is by Adarsh. Thanks Adarsh.

Names dropped : Saussure, Barthes, Claude Levi-strauss

Concepts dropped : Philology, Diachronic and Synchronic Studies, Language as a sign system; Signifier and Signified (1st Order System)

Points :

1. 'A course in general linguistics' - Ferdinand de Saussure. 1916. Compilation of notes made by his students. The book proved to be the turning point in semiotics.
2. Philology is the study of historical development of language.
3. Diachronic studies study language with history in mind, while Synchronic studies study language at a particular point in time. Saussure was a believer of the Synchronic model.
4. He put forward two propositions :
a. Language is a sign system.
b. Language is arbitrary.
5. A sign is the coming together of the 'signifier' and the 'signified'.
The signifier is word itself while the signifies is the suggestive meaning it creates. This was called the 'First order system'
Barthes Pushed the First order system into the level of visuals, thus making the relation between the signifier and the signified arbitrary.
This led to the loss of sacredness of the language.
Barthes later, in 1954, revised this to say that a it is possible to have a definite meaning which is called a myth. This was thus known as the 'Second order system.'