CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

[Established under the Central Universities Act 2009]

PO Box: 21, Dharamshala, District Kangra - 176215 (HP)
www.cuhimachal.ac.in

MA English First Semester

Course Code: EEL 402 Course Instructor: KBS Krishna
Course Name: History of English Literature
Credits Equivalent: 04 credits (One credit is equivalent to 10 hours of lectures / organized
classroom activity / contact hours; 5 hours of laboratory work / practical / field work / Tutorial /
teacher-led activity and 15 hours of other workload such as independent individual/ group work;
obligatory/ optional work placement; literature survey/ library work; data collection/ field work;
writing of papers/ projects/dissertation/thesis; seminars, etc.)

Course Objective: The course is designed to teach beginner students of English Literature basic
concepts and key terms of literature, and provide them with an overview of the history of English
Literature. While students would be acquainted with major authors and movements in English
literature, it is a survey course, and hence, would neither attempt to dwell upon any text, author, or
movement, nor provide an exhaustive analysis or background for any one literary period.
:

 the origins of Anglo-Saxon Literature, the Roman Conquest.
 the evolution of English literary writings from the times of Bedes onwards (in a chronological
sequence).
 development of genres.
 representation of historical movements.
 language variation and style.

Attendance Requirement:
Students are expected to attend all lectures in order to be able to fully benefit from the course. A
minimum of 75% attendance is a must failing which a student may not be permitted to appear in
examination.

Evaluation Criteria:
1. Mid Term Examination: 25%
2. End Term Examination: 50%
3. Continuous Internal Assessment: 25%
i. Assignment: 5%
ii. Class participation: 10%
iii. Presentations: 5%
iv. Attendance: 5%

Course Contents:

UNIT-1 English Literature in the Making (10 Hours)

  The Roman Conquest
 Anglo-Saxon Literature
 The Norman Conquest
 The Age of Chaucer
 The English Renaissance
 Elizabethan Literature: Shakespeare, University Wits
 Shakespearean Tragedy, Comedy
 English & Italian Sonnet Writers

UNIT-2 Jacobean to Restoration (8 Hours)

 The Metaphysical Poets
 The Puritan Interregnum
 The Restoration
 Dryden and His Works

UNIT-3 The Augustan Age- 18th century literature (7 Hours)

 The Augustan Age , Pope
 Age of Prose and Reason
 Periodical Literature/Essays
 Rise of the Novel/Four Wheels of the Novel

UNIT-4 Romantic & Victorian Period (8 Hours)

 The French Revolution
 The Romantics
 Victorian Compromise
 Women Novelists of Victorian Era: George Eliot & The Bronte Sisters

UNIT-5 Modern & Postmodern Period (7 Hours)

 Poetry of First World War
 Modernism
 Theatre of the Absurd

Prescribed Text Books:

1. Compton–Rickett, Arthur (2009). History of English Literature. UBS Publishers, New Delhi.
2. Alexander, Michael (2000). A History of English Literature. Macmillan, London.
3. William J. Long. English Literature: Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English
Speaking World .England: Kessinger Publishing, 2010.

Suggested Extra Readings:

1. Daiches, David (2003). A Critical History of English Literature, (vol. I & II). Supernova
Publication, New Delhi.
2. Sanders, Andrew (2004).The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford University
Press, London.
 CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH
[Established under the Central Universities Act 2009]
PO Box: 21, Dharamshala, District Kangra - 176215 (HP)
www.cuhimachal.ac.in

Course Code: EEL 404

Course Name: Renaissance
Course Instructor: Dr. Khem Raj Sharma
Credits Equivalent: 04 Credits (One credit is equivalent to 10 hours of lectures / organised
classroom activity / contact hours; 5 hours of laboratory work / practical / field work / Tutorial /
teacher-led activity and 15 hours of other workload such as independent individual/ group work;
obligatory/ optional work placement; literature survey/ library work; data collection/ field work;
writing of papers/ projects/dissertation/thesis; seminars, etc.)
Course Objective: The course is designed to:
 understanding the spirit of renaissance with reference to the cross fertilization of ideas;
 understanding the birth of the new world reflected especially in the humanistic tradition of
thought and literary expression.

Attendance Requirements:
Students are expected to attend all lectures in order to be able to fully benefit from the course.
A minimum of 75% attendance is a must failing which a student may not be permitted to appear in
examination.
Evaluation Criteria:
1. Mid Term Examination: 25%
2. End Term Examination: 50%
3. Continuous Internal Assessment: 25%
 Quiz exams – based on texts: 5%
 Two 1000 word assignments – the first to be submitted before September 1st, and the
second to be submitted before November 1st: 5%
 3000 word Term Paper to be submitted before December 1st : 10%
 Presentations: 5%

Course Contents:

UNIT – I:
A. An Introduction to Renaissance (2 hours)
B. John Donne (Metaphysical Poetry) (6 Hours)
 Introduction: Author, Genre (Poetry)
 The Cannonisation
 The Sun Rising
 The Ecstasy
 The Flea
 A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
 Critical Analysis/Interpretation
UNIT – II: John Milton (Paradise Lost- Book 1) (8 Hours)
 Introduction: Author, Genre (Epic)
 The Text
 Critical Analysis/Interpretation

UNIT – III: Christopher Marlowe (The Tragic History of Dr. Faustus) (8 Hours)
 Introduction: Author, Genre (Play)
 The Text
 Critical Analysis/Interpretation

Unit – IV: Essays by Francis Bacon (8 Hours)

 Introduction: Author, Genre (Essays)
 Of Truth
 Of Wisdom for a Man’s Self
 Of Discourse
 Of Studies
 Of Honour and Reputation
 Of Ambition
 Critical Analysis/Interpretation

Unit – V: Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (8 Hours)

 Introduction: Author, Genre (Fiction)
 The Text
 Critical Analysis/Interpretation

Prescribed Text Books:

1. Bacon, Francis (2009). Essays. J. M. Dent, University of Virginia.
2. Brotton, Jerry (2006). The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford UP, New York.
3. Chambers, E.K. (1989). Poems of John Donne. Lawrence & Bullen, London.
4. Marlowe, Christopher (2009). The Tragic History of Dr. Faustus. Dover Publications, New York.
5. Milton, John (2004). Paradise Lost-Book I. UBS publishers, New Delhi.
6. More, Thomas (1996). Utopia. The Harvard Classics, New York.

Suggested Reading:
1. Bowen, Catherine Drinker, D. Balestra and Dominic J. Balestra (1993). Francis Bacon: The
Temper of a Man. Fordham University Press, New York.
2. Grendler, Paul F. The Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students. Thomson Gale, New York.
3. Guibbory, Achsah ed. (2006). The Cambridge Companion to John Donne. Cambridge
University Press, UK.
4. Hopkins, Lisa (2008). Christopher Marlowe, Renaissance Dramatist. Edinburg University
Press, Edinburg.
5. Keenan, Siobhan (2008). Renaissance Literature. Edinburg University Press, Edinburg.
6. Milton, John, Fay Weldon, and Christopher Ricks (2010). Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained.
Signet Classics, USA.
7. Roper, William (2012). The Life of Sir Thomas More. Hardpress Publishing, New York.
 CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH
[Established under the Central Universities Act 2009]
PO Box: 21, Dharamshala, District Kangra - 176215 (HP)
www.cuhimachal.ac.in
Course Code: EEL 406
Course Name: Neo-Classicism
Credit Equivalents: 04 Credits (One credit is equivalent to 10 hours of lectures / organised
classroom activity / contact hours; 5 hours of laboratory work / practical / field work /
Tutorial / teacher-led activity and 15 hours of other workload such as independent individual/
group work; obligatory/ optional work placement; literature survey/ library work; data
collection/ field work; writing of papers/ projects/dissertation/thesis; seminars, etc.)
Course Objective: The course is designed to:
understand the major traits of Neo-classicism with emphasis on rationalistic thought,
moralistic tone and tenor of life, and refinement of expression.
Attendance Requirements:
Students are expected to attend all lectures in order to be able to fully benefit from the course.
A minimum of 75% attendance is a must failing which a student may not be permitted to
appear in examination.
Evaluation Criteria:
4. Mid -Term Examination: 25%
5. End -Term Examination: 50%
6. Continuous Internal Assessment: 25%
 Library Work Assignment: 5%
 Subjective Assignment: 10%
 Group Discussion: 5%
 Presentations: 5%

Course Content:
UNIT – I: Introduction ( 6 Hours)
 Pre Neo-Classical Period
 Restoration Period
 Characteristics of Restoration Period
 Restoration Drama
 Glorious Revolution and the move towards Neo-Classicism
 Introduction to the Neoclassical Age
 Social, political, intellectual and literary background of the Age
 Important authors, genres and literary themes and issues

UNIT – II: Mock Epic

Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Lock (1712)
(10Hours)
 Introduction: Author, Genre (Mock Epic) (1 lec)
 The Text: Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock ( 8 lec)
 Critical Analysis/Interpretation(2 lec)
UNIT – III: Ballad Opera (10
Hours)
John Gay: The Beggar’s Opera (1728)
 Introduction: Author, Genre (Ballad Opera) (1 lec)
 The Text: The Beggar’s Opera (1728) (8 lec)
 Critical Analysis/Interpretation (2 lec)

UNIT – IV: Poetry (6

Hours)
a ) Dr. Samuel Johnson: “The Vanity of Human Wishes: The Tenth Satire of Juvenal
Imitated ” (1749) (Satire)
 Introduction: Author, Genre (Poetry, Satire) (1 lec)
 The Text : Dr. Samuel Johnson’s “The Vanity of Human Wishes: The Tenth Satire of
Juvenal Imitated ” (1749) (4 lec)
 Critical Analysis/Interpretation (1 lec)

Unit – V: Prose Readings (8

Hours)
a) Mary Astell: Selections from “Some Reflections on Marriage” (1700) (Pamphlet)
b) John Dryden: “A Discourse Concerning Original and Progress of
Satire”(Criticism)
c) Joseph Addison and Richard Steele: “The Aims of The Spectator,” from The
Spectator (1711) (Periodical Essay)
d) Jonathan Swift- “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People
From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them
Beneficial to the Publick” (1729) (Satirical essay, Pamphlet)

 Introduction: Author, Genre, Intellectual Context

 The Text
 Critical Analysis/Interpretation

Prescribed Text Book:

a. Abrams, M. H. ed. (2000). The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. New
York, London: W. W. Norton & Company.

LECTURE PLAN:
Lecture Topic Source of Study

Lectures1- 4 Introduction to the Neoclassical Age Book 2

Lectures 5-6 Mary Astell: selections from Some Reflections on Marriage Book 1

Lectures 7-8 Dryden :A Discourse concerning original and Progress of Book 1

Satire (criticism)
Lecture 9 Introduction Book 2

Lectures 10- 17 Pope: The Rape of the Lock (Textual Discussion) Book 1

Lectures 18-19 Critical Analysis/Interpretation Reading: Book 2

and 4
Lectures 20-21 Joseph Addison and Richard Steele: The Spectator (1711) Book 1
(Periodical Essay). The aims of Spectator
Lecture 22 Introduction Book 2

Lectures 23 -30 John Gay: The Beggar’s Opera ( Textual Discussion) Book 1

Lecture 31-32 Critical Analysis/Interpretation

Lectures 33-34 Jonnathan Swift: A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Book 1
Children of Poor People From Being a Burden to Their
Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the
Publick (1729) (satirical essay, pamphlet)

Lecture 35 Introduction Book 2

Lectures 36-39 Dr. Johnson: “The Vanity of Human Wishes: The Tenth Book 1
Satire of Juvenal Imitated ” (1749) (satire)
(Textual Discussion)
Lecture 40 Critical Analysis/Interpretation Book 5

Primary Text:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth
Century. Ed. M.H. Abrams et al. 7th edition. New York: Norton, 2000.
Suggested Readings:
 Alexander, Michael. “Augustan Literature to 1790.” A History of English
Literature. London : Macmillan Press, 2000. Print.
 Addison, Joseph. “On the Essay form”. 1711. Quotidiana. N.P. N.D. Web. 12
August 2015. Print.
 Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.
 Baines, Paul. The Complete Critical Guide to Alexander Pope. London:
Routledge, 2000. Print.
 Broich, Ulrich (1990). The Eighteenth Century Mock-Heroic Poem.
Cambridge: Cambridge.
 Brooks, Cleanth. “The Case of Miss Arabella Fermor.” Sewanee Review. LI.4(
1943):505-524. Print.
 Carter, Ronald and John McRae. “Restoration to Romanticism 1660-
1789.”The Routledge History of Literature English Literature: Britain and
Ireland. London: Routledge, 1997. Print.
 Clingham, Greg (1999). The Cambridge Companion to Samuel Johnson.
Cambridge: Cambridge.
 Cohen, Ralph. “Transformation in The Rape of the Lock.” Eighteenth-Century
 Studies. 2. 3 (1969):205-224. Print.
 ---. “The Reversal of Gender in The Rape of the Lock.” South Atlantic Bulletin.
37. 4. (1972): 54-60. Print.
 Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature: The Restoration to
1800.London: Martin & Warbug, 1960. Print.
 Day, Gary and Bridget Keegan. ed. The Eighteenth-Century Literature
Handbook. London: Continuum, 2009. Print.
 Dryden, John. “Macflecknoe”. 1682. Poetryfoundation. N.P. N.D. Web. 18
August 2015.
 Dustin, Griffin. “Dryden and Restoration Satire.” A Companion to Satire:
Ancient and Modern. Oxford: Blackwell, 2007. Print.
 Fowler, Alastair. “The Paradoxical Machinery of The Rape of the Lock”.
Alexander Pope: Essays for the Tercentenary. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University
Press, 1988. Print.
 Haslett, Moyra. “Introduction: Defining the Eighteenth Century.” Pope to
Burney, 1714-1779: Sriblerians to Bluestockings. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2003.
 Hill, Christopher. “Introduction” from The World Turned Upside Down:
Radical Ideas during the English Revolution. 1972. London: Penguin Books,
1991. 13-17. Print.
 Hobsbawm, E.J. “Introduction” from The Age of Capital: 1848-1875. 1975.
London: Abacus, 1995. 13-20. Print.
 Hopkins, David (1986). John Dryden. Cambridge: Cambridge.
 Hunt, John Dixon.ed. Pope the Rape of the Lock A Casebook. London:
Macmillan, 1968. Print
 Jack, Ian. “The Rape of the Lock.” Augustan Satire: Intention and Idiom in
English Poetry 1660-1750. Oxford, 1952. Print.
 Kinnaird, Joan. “Mary Astell and the Conservative Contribution to English
Feminism.” Journal of British Studies. 19.1. (1979): 53-75. Print.
 Knight, Wilson G. “Drama and Epic in the Rape of the Lock.” Pope the Rape
of the Lock A Casebook. Ed. John Dixon Hunt. London: Macmillan,
1968.Print.
 Kolbrener, William and Michal Michelson. ““Dreading to Engage Her”: The
Critical Reception of Mary Astell.” Mary Astell: Reason, Gender and Faith.
Burlington : Ashgate, 2007. Print.
 Morrissey, Lee. “The Restoration and Eighteenth Century, 1660-1780.”
English Literature in Context. Ed Paul Polawski. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2008. Print.
.
 Mack, Maynard. “Mock Heroic in the Rape of the Lock.” Pope the Rape of the
Lock A Casebook. Ed. John Dixon Hunt. London: Macmillan, 1968.Print.
 Noble, Yvonne. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The beggar’s Opera: A
Collection of Critical Essays. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1975.Print.
 Payne, Deborah C. “Pope and The War Against Coquettes: Or, Feminism and
"The Rape of The Lock Reconsidered Yet Again.” The Eighteenth Century.
32. 1. ( 1991):3-24. Print.
 Perry, Ruth. The Celebrated Mary Astell: An Early English Feminist. Chicago:
University of
 Chicago Press, 1986.Print.
  Pollock, Ellen. “The Rape of the Lock: A Reification of the Myth of Passive
Womanhood.” The Poetics of Sexual Myth: Gender and Ideology in the
Verse of Swift and Pope. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1985. Print.
 Price, Martin. “The Problem of Scale: The Game of Art.” Pope the Rape of the
Lock A Casebook. Ed. John Dixon Hunt. London: Macmillan, 1968.Print.
 Rogers, Patt. A Political Biography of Alexander Pope. London: Pickering &
Chatto, 2010.Print.

 Rogers, Pat. ed. The Cambridge Companion to Alexander Pope. Cambridge:

Cambridge Press, 2007. Print.
 Rousseau, G. S. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Rape of the Lock : A
Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1969.
Print.
 Smith, Hilda L. “Cry Up Liberty”: The Political Context for Mary Astell’s
Feminism.” Mary Astell: Reason, Gender and Faith. ed. Kolbrener, William
and Michal Michelson. Burlington : Ashgate, 2007. Print.
 Steele, Richard. “The Spectator Club.” 1711. Bartleby. N.P. 2001. Web. 12
August. Print.
 Sutherland, Christine Mason. “Some Reflections Upon Marriage.” The
Eloquence of Mary Astell. Calgary: Calgary Press, 2005. Print.
 Tillotson, Geoffrey. “The Rape of the Lock.” Pope the Rape of the Lock A
Casebook. Ed. John Dixon Hunt. London: Macmillan, 1968.Print.
 Warren, Austin. “The Rape of the Lock as Burlesque.” Critics on Pope:
Readings in Literary Criticm. Ed. Judith O’Neill. London:Allen & Unwin,
1968. Print.

CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

[Established under the Central Universities Act 2009]
PO Box: 21, Dharamshala, District Kangra - 176215 (HP)
www.cuhimachal.ac.in

Course Code: EEL 501

Course Name: Romanticism

Course Instructor: Dr Hem Raj Bansal

Credits Equivalent: 04 Credits (One credit is equivalent to 10 hours of lectures / organized

classroom activity / contact hours; 5 hours of laboratory work / practical / field work / Tutorial /
teacher-led activity and 15 hours of other workload such as independent individual/ group work;
obligatory/ optional work placement; literature survey/ library work; data collection/ field work;
writing of papers/ projects/dissertation/thesis; seminars, etc.)
Course Objective: The course is designed to understand the role and nature of Romantic imagination
– new themes and techniques and the role of the individual in a liberal space. It shows how
Romantic poets, novelists and essayists enlarged the scope of literature by drawing on the
philosophy of Rousseau. It aims to study literature with a new perspective, contrasting it with Neo
classicism and Enlightenment.

Attendance Requirements:
Students are expected to attend all lectures in order to be able to fully benefit from the course.
A minimum of 75% attendance is a must failing which a student may not be permitted to appear in
examination.

Evaluation Criteria:
7. Mid Term Examination: 25%
8. End Term Examination: 50%
9. Continuous Internal Assessment: 25%
 Attendance: 5%
 Subjective Assignment: 10%
 Reading of the Text: 5%
 Presentations: 5%

Course Contents:
UNIT – I: Introduction to the Period (8 hours)
 Romanticism : Philosophical Origins
 Philosophers: Kant’s “Transcendental Idealism”, The French Revolution
 Rousseau’s Notion of Natural Man and the Origin of Inequality
 Beginnings of Romanticism
 Romanticism: Characteristics

Texts:
Thomas Grey: “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

UNIT –II: Poetry of First Generation of Romantic Poets (9 hours)

 Criticism of Industrialization
 French Revolution in Poetry

Texts:
William Blake -- “The Tyger”, “The New Jerusalem”
William Wordsworth – ‘Lucy Grey”, ‘The French Revolution as it Appeared to Enthusiasts at its
Commencement, ‘The Solitary Reaper’
Samuel Taylor Coleridge – ‘Kubla Khan’, ‘Frost at Midnight’

UNIT – III: Second Generation Romantic Poets (9hours)

 Ode as a Poetic Form
 Wordsworth vs Shelley
 Luddites and Political concerns of the Romantics
Texts:
 John Keats – ‘Ode to a Nightingale, ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’
  P.B. Shelley – ‘England in 1819’, ‘To Wordsworth’
 Lord Byron – ‘Song for the Luddites’, ‘When We Two Parted’

UNIT – IV: The Gothic (8 hours)

 Gothic literature
 Politics of Gothic literature
 Class Discrimination in Gothic Literature
 Science Vs Superstition
 Celebration of Individualism
Texts:
 Mary Shelley – Frankenstein

UNIT – V: Essays (6 hours)

 Introduction to the Genre of Essay & the Essayists
 Relevance and Conclusion
Texts
 William Hazlitt – “Why the Distant Objects Please?”

Prescribed Text Books:

1. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Maurice Hindle. Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus.
London, Penguin Books, 2003.
2. Keynes, Geoffrey, ed. (2004). Selected Essays of William Hazlitt 1778 to 1830. Kessinger
Publishing House, Montana.
3. Lamb, Charles (2009). Essays of Elia. Hesperus Press, London.
4. Wordsworth, Jonathan, Jessica Wordsworth, eds. (2005). The Penguin Book of Romantic
Poetry. Penguin, New Delhi.

Suggested Reading:
1. Abrams, M. H. (1973). Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic
Literature. W.W. Norton & Company, New York.
2. Curran, Stuart (1993). The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge.
3. Chandler, James (1984). Wordsworth's Second Nature: A Study of the Poetry and Politics.
University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
4. Frederick, Burwick (2009). The Oxford Handbook of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. OUP, Oxford.
5. O'rourke, James (1998). Keats's Odes and Contemporary Criticism. University Press of Florida,
Florida.
6. Sanders, Andrew (2004). The Short Oxford History of English Literature. OUP, Oxford.
7. Abrams, M.H. ed. (2012). The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 9th ed. W.W. Norton &
Company, New York.
8. Johanna M. Smith. Ed. Frankenstein: Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Bedford/St.
Martin 2nd edition, 2000.
9 Huntington, Williams. Rousseau and Romantic Autobiography. OUP. 1983.