AIM OF THE COURSE: The course is a comprehensive spectrum of literary criticism of the west and the east, a survey of key movements, writers and concepts. It seeks to introduce the students to the history and principles of literary criticism since Plato and to cultivate in them the philosophical and critical skills with which literature can be appreciated.
OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE:
a. To have an understanding of important texts and movements in the history of literary criticism.
b. To examine how literary criticism shapes literature and culture across centuries.
c. To recognize and critique the major arguments underlying critical writings.
d. To relate critical perspectives to the history of eastern and western ideas.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: A. COURSE SUMMARY: Module 1: 12 hrs Module 2: 24 hrs Module 3: 18 hrs Module 4: 6 hrs Evaluation 12 hrs Total 72 hrs B.
COURSE DETAILS: Literary criticism is the core course for fourth semester students who pursue BA English Language and Literature.
Module 1: Classical Literary Criticism
1. Plato: Concept of Art - Mimesis, His attack on poetry, Moral Concerns of
literature, Views on Drama.
2. Aristotle: Poetics - Mimesis, Catharsis, Hamartia - Defence of Poetry -
Definition of Tragedy-Parts of Tragedy, Plot, Tragic Hero, Three
Unities, Comedy, Epic, Poetic style.
3. Horace: Ars Poetica - Definition of art, Views on Poetry and Drama.
4. Longinus: Romanticism, Sublimity in literature – Its sources.
Module 2:
A. English Literary Criticism – The Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century
1. Philip Sidney: Apology for Poetry – Reply to Stephen Gosson, The Argumentative Method
2.John Dryden: Neoclassicism – The function of Poetry, Dramatic Poesy, Observations on tragedy,
comedy, satire, epic.
3.Dr. Samuel Johnson: Neoclassicism, Biographical Criticism, Historical approach, Observations on
Poetry, Drama, Shakespeare, Tragicomedy, Three unities.
B. English Literary Criticism – The Nineteenth Century
1.William Wordsworth: “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” – The Romantic Creed - Difference between
Neoclassicism and Romanticism - definition of poetry – poetic diction and language.
2.S. T. Coleridge: Theory of Imagination, Fancy and Imagination, Primary Imagination and Secondary
imagination, Poetic Genius.
3.P. B. Shelley: The Defence of Poetry – Concept of Poetry.
4.Mathew Arnold: Classicism - Concept of Culture – the use and function of poetry - Touchstone method
– Moralistic criticism – Function of criticism – High seriousness and Grand Style.
Module 3: Literary Criticism – The Twentieth Century
1.T.S. Eliot: “Tradition and Individual Talent” – Historical Sense – Impersonality – Poetic Emotion –
Objective Correlative – Dissociation of Sensibility.
2.I. A. Richards: Poetry and Communication, Practical Criticism - The Four Kinds of Meaning –
Scientific and Emotive uses of Language.
3.F.R. Leavis: Concept of Literature and Criticism
4.Formalism: Key Features of Formalism - Its Origin, Focus on language, Form, Literariness,
Defamiliarization, Fabula/Syuzet, Motivation.
5.New Criticism: The origin - Close reading and explication - Ambiguity, Paradox, Irony, Tension,
Intentional Fallacy and Affective fallacy.
6.Archetypal Criticism: Myth, Archetype, Collective Unconscious, Northrop Frye.
Module 4: Glossary
1. Indian Aesthetics: Rasa, Dhwani, Vyanjana, Alamkara, Thinai.
2. Literary Movements: Classicism, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Humanism, Realism, Naturalism,
symbolism.
3. Literary Concepts: Catharsis, Mimesis, Objective Correlative, Ambiguity, Negative Capability
- Teacher: SAJEERA CHOLAKKAL FACULTY