Literary Forms and Movements

Level: BS 2nd Course Code: ELL106

Course Description: This course covers two foundational schemes regarding the study of literature: 1) Forms, and 2) Movements. The term “forms” refer to the study of literary genres and their subtypes in such a way as to introduce the students to their structures and styles with its focus on the following: 1) Poetry; 2) Fiction; 3) Drama; 4) Prose/Non-fiction; and 5) Short Story. The term “movement” is rather loosely used to characterize literary texts produced in different cultures under the influence of or for the propagation of certain ideas as their hallmarks/signatures. The course has been designed to intellectually groom the students for a broad understanding of the major literary movements in the history of world literature, especially British and American: Idealism (Greek), Renaissance/Early Modern, Neoclassicism, Enlightenment, Romanticism, Victorianism, Raphaelitism, Realism, Transcendentalism, Modernism, Colonialism, Symbolism, Imagist and post-Colonialism, Feminism and post-Feminism.

Course Objectives

Build students’ capacity for grasping the meaning of a literary text in terms of a given historical period/dominant idea.
Develop their ability for understanding the major ideas that played a key role in shaping the works of different groups of writers.
Provide them with a workable tool for interpreting and analyzing a literary text.

Course Contents

Suggested Readings

Berman, Art. Preface to Modernism. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994.
Dirks, B Nichols. Colonialism and Culture. Michigan: Michigan Univ Press. 1992.
Fowler, Alastair. Kinds of Literature : An Introduction to the Theory of Genres and Modes. Oxford: Clarendon, 2002.
Galea, Ileana. Victorianism and Literature. California. Dacia, 2008.
Gura, Philip. American Transcendentalism. NP: Farrar, 2008.
Hooks, Bell. Feminist Theory. London: Pluto Press, 2000.
Hudson, William Henry. An Introduction to the Study of Literature. New Delhi : Rupa, 2015.
Marcuse, J Michael. Arefence Guide for English Studies. Los Angeles: Univ of California Press, 1990.
Osborne, Susan. Feminism. NP: Product Essentials, 2001.
Philips, Jerry , Andrew Ladd, and K H Meyers. Romanticism and Transcendentalism. New York: DWJ Books: 2010.
Tandon, Neeru. Feminism: A Paradigm Shift. New Delhi: Atlantic, 2008.