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Master of Arts in English Literature & Cultural Studies

  • Outline
  • Admission Criteria
  • General Guideline
  • Course List

Faculty: Faculty of Arts & Social Science (FASS)

Department: Department of English

Program: Master of Arts in English Literature & Cultural Studies

Objective

• To prepare graduates to be critical readers, capable of analyzing, evaluating and formulating opinions on text by applying linguistic and literary theories in their research and teaching. • To provide graduates with requisite reading and writing skills for applying in a variety of professions and for accomplishing academic and professional writing. • To help graduates to become facilitators who will develop and maintain networks with alumni, scholars and professionals worldwide by acquiring effective communication skills gained in various speaking and listening courses. • To equip graduates to serve society by incorporating literature and writing, through lifelong learning as sources of wisdom and insight into life as well as aesthetic pleasure.

Mission

The Master of Arts (MA) in English Literature and Cultural Studies Programme intends to broaden students’ exposure to the discursive and applied aspects of the study of literature in English and Cultural Studies. This programme is specifically designed to create active workforce, equipped with skills and sensibility to approach, appreciate, evaluate and produce literary and cultural discourses and, thus, to contribute significantly to the art and politics of signification.

Vision

To achieve excellence in academic and professional practices and to become citizens of a larger community; the Masters of Arts (MA) in English Literature and Cultural Studies programme fosters knowledge and a love of literature among students with up-to-date, well-structured curricula through teaching a variety of literary, theoretical and analytical skills.

1st Semester

Objectives

  • The aim of this course is to introduce students to the concept of cultural studies. Cultural Studies is an interdisciplinary field where theories from different disciplines are analyzed to understand culture in its various manifestations: the complex and multifaceted relations of culture and society, culture and class, and culture and power. Students will focus on how cultural processes and products are conceptualized, distributed, consumed and responded to in diverse ways. This course addresses the complex relation of culture and literature with a view to explore how the contents and forms of culture construct and influence the production of literature and criticism. Abreast with contemporary trends in cultural studies, it also studies the production, conditioning, distribution and consumption of discourses, such as television, advertising, minority literatures, and popular literature. The choice of texts intends to cover two cultural studies methods: institutional analysis, and ideology critique.

Outcomes

  • Upon completion of the course, students will be able to: • form a comprehensive idea about culture and different forms of culture, and the relationship between society and power • learn about the major factors determining identity, ethnicity, race and gender relations • demonstrate understanding of concepts of ideology, power, hierarchy and other factors influencing culture • understand what cultural turns are taking place with the advent of postmodernism, visual culture, the internet, and artificial intelligence • engage in interdisciplinary analysis when they connect literary theories to cultural studies

References

  • Intro to Cultural Studies - Lecture
  • What is Cultural Studies
  • Ways of Seeing Part 1
  • Ways of Seeing Part 2
  • Ways of Seeing Part 3
  • Ways of Seeing Part 4

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  • This course samples trend-setting contemporary novels and stories some of which were bestsellers and have achieved the ‘cult’ status. Spanning three continents, this course offers an exciting entry into postmodernism and cyber-punk while, at the same time, attends to the questions of racism, multiculturalism, gender, and the politics of the media. The course also intends to question the distinctions made between ‘high’ art and ‘popular’ art.

Outcomes

  • Define literary postmodernism.
  • Analyzing the language, structure and themes of postmodern texts
  • Discuss and analyze the historical and cultural contexts of postmodern literature
  • Understand and interpret the complex questions of racism, multiculturalism, gender, and the politics of the media
  • Develop critical thinking abilities to formulate substantive arguments and explore those arguments with evidence.

References

  • Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. 1981. Trans. Sheila Faria Glaser. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
  • Eagleton, Terry. The Illusions of Postmodernism. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.
  • Geyh, Paula, Fred G. Leebron and Andrew Levy (Eds.). Postmodern American Fiction: A Norton Anthology. Ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.
  • Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. 1988. London and NY: Routledge, 2004.
  • Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: DUP, 1991.
  • Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. 1979. Trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi. Manchester: MUP, 1984.
  • Nicol, Bran. The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction. Cambridge: CUP, 2009.
  • Taylor, Victor E and Charles E Winquist. Encyclopedia of Postmodernism.2001. London: Routledge, 2003.
  • Waugh, Patricia. Metafiction: the theory and practice of self-conscious fiction. London: Routledge, 1984.

Objectives

  • TITLE: ENG 611 Modern Latin American Literature. OBJECTIVE: The course attempts to introduce students to America, with special focus on Latin America; its life, living, beliefs, struggles and history. Learners will gain an understanding of how the legacy of colonialism is reflected in the region in the works of authors and be able to connect the texts with postcolonial literatures of others. The course is designed to familiarize students with some of the problems and debates about Latin American history, society, and culture.

Outcomes

  • Upon completion of the course, students will be able to: • perceive the importance of literatures outside the British canon • understand colonialism in its different manifestations and the postcolonial experience • make connections between the Latin American situation and our own situation as a former colony • recognize the narrative style and perspectives as distinct from Euro-centric and western perspectives • make connections between the texts of this course and the ideas of literary theories

References

  • Darío, Rubén. Selected Poems of Rubén Darío. Trans. Lysander Kemp. Texas: UTP, 1965. de Valdés, María Elena. The Shattered Mirror: Representations of Women in Literature. Texas: UTP, 1998. Fitz, Earl E. Sexuality and Being in the Poststructuralist Universe of Clarice Lispector: The Différence of Desire. Texas: UTP, 2001. Gonzalez-Garth, Miguel and George D Schade. Rubén Darío Centennial Studies. Texas: UTP, 1970. Latin American Literary Review. Ortega, Julio. (Ed.) Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the Powers of Fiction. Texas: UTP, 1998. Rossman, Charles and Alan Warren Freidman (Eds.). Mario Vargas Llosa: A Collection of Critical Essays. Texas: UTP, 1978. Tapscott, Stephen (Ed.). Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology. Texas: UTP, 1996. Williams, Raymond Leslie. The Columbian Novel, 1844-1987. Texas: UTP, 1991. ---. The Twentieth-Century Spanish American Novel. Texas: UTP, 2003.

Objectives

  • This course aims to provide students with an in-depth understanding of Shakespeare and to develop a nuanced interpretation of the texts. Students will be introduced to critical approaches to the study of Shakespeare’s works where they will learn to apply theoretical concepts to the analysis of individual plays. The course also draws attention to the importance of historical context in the reading of the texts. Additionally, students will examine Shakespeare in the Elizabeth context as well as from a global perspective to connect Shakespeare’s texts to local culture and the contemporary world.

Outcomes

  • Upon completion of the course, students will be able to: • demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of Shakespeare • interpret Shakespeare from different theoretical and ideological perspectives • connect Shakespeare to their own cultural landscape • view Shakespeare from a global perspective

References

  • Textbook
  • Drakakis, John. editor. Alternative Shakespeares. Methuen, 1985.
  • Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. Norton, 2004.
  • Bloom, Harold, editor. Bloom`s Modern Critical Interpretations: William Shakespeare. Infobase Publishing, 2010.
  • Kott, Jan. Shakespeare, Our Contemporary. Norton, 1974.etc

Objectives

  • The aim of this course is to help students explore different schools of modern literary theory. The focus is on familiarizing students with various ways in which scholars have interpreted texts using methods developed that they have developed. It will enable students to acquire an epistemological understanding of the world through the study of literary theory

Outcomes

  • Upon completion of the course, the students will be able to: • distinguish between different literary theories and criticism • understand the application of different modern theories in literary analysis • Individually analyze literary texts using different theories • demonstrate an awareness of interconnectedness among the different schools of literary theory

References

  • Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory. Manchester UP, 2002. 37 Booker, Keith M. A Practical Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism. Longman, 1996. Castle, Gregory. The Blackwell Guide to Literary Theory. Blackwell, 2007 Eagleton, Terry, Literary Theory: An Introduction. Minnesota UP, 1996. Nayar, Pramod K. Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory. Pearson, 2009. Raman Selden et al. A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. Kentucky UP,1993. Brooker, Peter, editor. Modernism/Postmodernism. Pearson, 1992. Butler, Christopher. Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford UP, 2002. Docherty, Thomas, editor. Postmodernism: A Reader. Routledge, 1993 Natoli Joseph P., and Linda Hutcheon. A Postmodern Reader. State University of New York Press, 1993.

2nd Semester

Objectives

  • This inter-disciplinary course provides access to contemporary critical and literary works that address the issues of identity informed by culture and ontological features including race, caste, and gender. The texts offered can be put into three categories: transnational studies, postcolonial studies, and critical race theory. The objectives include making students well-equipped to analyze texts and to make extensive research on the areas related to this course.

Outcomes

  • Students will develop a clear understanding of transnational studies, postcolonial studies, and critical race theory and will be able to interpret culture, cultural identity and diaspora. Learners are expected to have competence of explaining transnational exchanges and transgenerational movements through historical analysis. Development of students’ understanding of the political landscapes in the world of globalization from transnational, postcolonial and race study perspectives will be the ultimate outcome of the course.

References

  • CRITICAL WORKS Homi K. Bhabha Introduction to Location of Culture Henry Louis Gates Jr. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism (selection) Stuart Hall “Cultural Identity and Diaspora” Salman Rushdie Imaginary Homelands (selection) Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak “Can the subaltern speak?” LITERARY WORKS Mulk Raj Anand The Untouchable Aime Césaire A Tempest Kobita Chakma Jole Uthini Kittu (Why mustn’t I flare up?) (selection) Premchand Godan J M Coetzee The Life and Times of Michael K. David Dabydeen Coolie Odyssey (selection) Selim Al Deen Chaka (The Wheel) Mahashweta Devi “The Breast-Giver” 51 Sa’adat Hossain Manto “Toba Tek Singh,” “The Dog of Tetwal”

Objectives

  • This course introduces students to the theory and methodology of comparative literature. Comparative literature opens up avenues to approach the study of literature in three major ways: first, identifying and analyzing the complex relationships between texts across time, space, genres, identities, and cultures; second, understanding the methods and politics involved in any act of translation and/or adaptation; and third, understanding the application of other disciplines in the study of literature. A major focus of this course is on the relationship between Bangla and European literatures.

Outcomes

  • Upon completion of the course, students will be able to: 3.1. Form a comprehensive idea about the theories and methodology of comparative literature, 3.2. Identify and analyze the complex relationships between texts across time, 3.3. Explore the connections of literature with history, philosophy, politics, and literary theory, 3.4. Know the cross cultural literary relations and understand cultural difference and diversity, & 3.5. Understand the methods and politics involved in any act of translation and/or adaptation

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  • This course intends to familiarize students with select non-English European poems and plays in English translation. The approach is inter-disciplinary as it links literature to society and intellectual history. Spanning eight hundred years, the course requires knowledge of the history of European literature and theatre as well as important literary trends and movements ranging from symbolism and realism to the theater of the absurd.

Outcomes

  • Upon the successful completion of this course, students will be able to: • Understand and appreciate the literary value of classic European plays and poetry. • Critically respond to non-English European poems and plays in English translation. • Learn to study the linguistic and socio-politico-cultural intricacies of rendering a text into another language through the parallel reading of various translations of texts. • Distinguish Non-English European literary trends from those of other regions. • Contextualize non-English European poetry and drama in their socio-political reality

References

  • Sparknotes
  • Shmoop

Objectives

  • This course introduces students to the rich variety of non-English European prose in English translation. Sampling eight seminal works by eight major writers from France, Germany, and Russia, the course traces the development of European prose narratives in the last two centuries. The approach is inter-disciplinary as it links literature to society and intellectual history.

Outcomes

  • Understand and appreciate the literary value of classic European fictions.
  • Critically respond to non-English European prose in English translation.
  • Learn to study the linguistic and socio-politico-cultural intricacies of rendering a text into another language through the parallel reading of various translations of texts.
  • Distinguish Non-English European literary trends from those of other regions.
  • Contextualize non-English European prose in their socio-political reality.

References

  • Baker, G. (2009). Realism’s empire: Empiricism and enchantment in the nineteenth-century novel. Ohio: Ohio State University Press.
  • Boa, E. and Reid,J. H. (Eds.). (1972).Critical strategies: German fiction in the twentieth century. London: Hodder & Stoughton Educational.
  • Calder, A. (1976). Russia discovered: Nineteenth-century fiction from Pushkin to Chekhov. London: Heinemann.
  • Kaufmann, W. (1975). Existentialism: From Dostoevsky to Sartre. 1956. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
  • Mander, J. (2007). Remapping the rise of the European novel. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation.
  • Moretti, F. (1998).Atlas of the European novel: 1800-1900. London and NY: Verso.
  • O’Nan, M. (Ed.). (1982). Late nineteenth-century European novel. NY: State University of NY.

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