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Centre for Online Education - MEG-05: Literary Criticism & Theory 

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MEG-05: Literary Criticism & Theory
 at 
Swayam 
Overview

Prepare you to engage with a variety of literary texts with a critical and analytical lens

Duration

16 weeks

Start from

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Mode of learning

Online

Official Website

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Credential

Certificate

MEG-05: Literary Criticism & Theory
 at 
Swayam 
Highlights

  • Earn a certificate from IGNOU
  • Learn from industry experts
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MEG-05: Literary Criticism & Theory
 at 
Swayam 
Course details

Who should do this course?
  • Undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in English literature or comparative literature
  • Professors and lecturers teaching literature, literary theory, and related subjects
What are the course deliverables?
  • Develop your ability to analyze and interpret literary texts using various critical frameworks
  • Explore the major schools and movements of literary criticism and theory, understanding their historical context and key concepts
  • Learn to identify and evaluate literary devices, language, form, and themes within a text
  • Apply critical theory to engage with and deconstruct literary meaning
  • Develop strong written and communication skills through critical analysis and discussions of literature
More about this course
  • This is a very important course where the realm of Literary theory discourses will enable the learners to broaden their horizon of knowledge towards developing a broad appreciation of global literature
  • Reading a text through the lens of literary theory always provides a new perspective to better understand literature, learn more about different authors' intentions, and generally improve the quality of literature for both authors and readers
  • It is literary theory that formulates the relationship between author and work; literary theory develops the significance of race, class, and gender for literary study, both from the standpoint of the biography of the author and an analysis of their thematic presence within texts
  • The works of literary criticism will help the learners to make better sense of the work, form judgments about literature, study ideas from different points of view, and determine on an individual level whether a literary work is worth reading
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MEG-05: Literary Criticism & Theory
 at 
Swayam 
Curriculum

Week-1: Block-1 An Introduction

Unit- 1: Literature, Criticism and Theory

Unit-2: Overview of Western Critical Thought

Unit-3: Twentieth Century

Week-2: Block-1 An Introduction

Unit-4: The Function f Criticism

Unit-5: Indian Aesthetics

Unit-6: Resistance to Theory/How to Read a Reader

Week-3: Block-2 Classical Criticism

Unit-1: Features of Classical Criticism

Unit-2: Plato on Imitation and Art

Unit-3 : Aristotle’s Theory of Imitation

Week-4: Block-2 Classical Criticism

Unit-4: Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy-I

Unit-5: Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy-II

Unit-6: Criticism as Dialogue

Week-5: Block-3 Romantic Criticism

Unit-1: Romanticism

Unit-2: Wordsworth: Preface to Lyrical Ballads

Week-6: Block-3 Romantic Criticism

Unit-3: Coleridge: Biographia Literaria

Unit-4: P.B. Shelley: A Defence of Poetry

Week-7: Block-4 New Criticism

Unit-1: I.A.Richards

Unit-2: T.S.Eliot

Unit-3: F.R. Leavis

Week-8: Block-4 New Criticism

Unit-4: John Crowe Ransom and Cleanth Brooks

Unit-5: W.K. Wimsatt

Unit-6: Conclusion

Week-9: Block-5 Marxist View of Literature

Unit-1: Marxism and Literature

Unit-2: Society and History: Marxist View

Unit-3: Representing and Critiquing society: Superstructures

Week-10: Block-5 Marxist View of Literature

Unit-4: Commitment in Literature

Unit-5: Autonomy in Literature

Unit-6: Literature and Ideology

Week-11: Block-6 Feminist Theories

Unit-1: Features of Feminist Criticism

Unit-2: Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Unit-3: Virginia Woolf: A Room of One’s Own

Week-12: Block-6 Feminist Theories

Unit-4: Simone De Beauvoir: The Second Sex

Unit-5: Elain Showalter: ‘Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness’

Unit-6: Feminist Concern in India Today

Week-13: Block-7 Deconstruction

Unit-1: Roots: New Criticism and Structuralism

Unit-2: Beginning Deconstruction

Unit-3: Implications

Week-14: Block-7 Deconstruction

Unit-4: Deconstructing Poetry

Unit-5: Deconstructing Drama

Unit-6: Re-assessing Deconstruction

Week-15: Block-8 Contemporary Literacy Theory

Unit-1: Some Basic Issues

Unit-2: Postmodernism: The Basics

Unit-3: Psychoanalysis: Freud and Lacan

Week-16: Block-8 Contemporary Literacy Theory

Unit-4: Postcolonial Theory: Said, Spivak and Bhabha

Unit-5: Beginnings of Cultural Studies and New Historicism

Unit-6: Literary Criticism and Theory: A Summing Up

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MEG-05: Literary Criticism & Theory
 at 
Swayam 
Faculty details

Dr. Rajesh Kumar
Rajesh Kumar, PhD., an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, has taught for almost two decades in a college in University of Delhi, New Delhi before joining the faculty of English, SOH, IGNOU. He has a PhD in English Literature on “Dalit Writings and Aboriginal Writings: Convergences & Divergences” and an MPhil in English Literature on “The dialectics of Australian Aboriginal Identity in Aboriginal Women’s Autobiographies” from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is a recipient of UGC Research Award (2016-18) during which he worked on a project on “Santali Dance-Songs of Jharkhand: Contextualizing Art & Culture’. He has also been an Associate (2018-20) at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS), Rashtrapati Niwas, Shimla. He has authored four books: Santal Folk-Dance Songs. Contextualizing Art &Culture; Dalits Vs Aboriginal Australians: Convergences& Divergences; Of Dalit and Australian Aboriginal Writings & Culture; Australian Aboriginal Autobiographies: Reading Identity, Aboriginality and Belongingness; and edited one Volume: Literaria: An International Journal of New Literature across the World, special issue on Literatures of Margin, Bahri Publications: New Delhi.vol.2, no.1, Jan-Jun 2012. ISSN:2229-4600. He has published many scholarly articles in national and international journals on various subjects and issues relating to literatures of margin and presented several papers in national and International Conferences. His areas of interest include Digital
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MEG-05: Literary Criticism & Theory
 at 
Swayam 
Admission Process

    Important Dates

    Jul 15, 2024
    Course Commencement Date

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    MEG-05: Literary Criticism & Theory
     at 
    Swayam 

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