Department of English

Osmania University

CBCS—BA Optional English Syllabus (ML)

Semester I (Core-1)
Course Title: Introduction to English Language and Literature
5 Credits 5 hours of teaching per week
Unit I History of the English Language
a) Origin and descent of the English Language
b) Features of Old English
c) Features of Middle English
d) Features of Modern English

Unit II The Structure of English Language
a) Word Formation
b) Change of Meaning
c) Sentence Structure I: Simple sentence and its constituents
d) Sentence Structure II: Complex sentence and its constituents

Unit III Figures of Speech
a) Euphemism
b) Hyperbole
c) Irony
d) Metaphor
e) Metonymy
f) Oxymoron
g) Paradox
h) Personification
i) Simile
j) Synecdoche

Unit IV Literary movements
a) Renaissance
b) Reformation
c) Neo Classicism
d) Romanticism
e) Modernism

Unit V Elements of literature
a) Atmosphere
b) Character
c) Imagery
d) Narrative technique
e) Plot
f) Point of view
g) Setting
h) Story
i) Symbolism
j) Tone

Reference Sources
Abrams, MH. A Glossary of Literary Terms. London: Wadsworth, 1957.
Baugh, A.C., and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language. London:
Routledge, 2002.
Boulton, Marjorie. The Anatomy of Poetry. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1953.
---. The Anatomy of Drama. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960.
Bryson, Bill. The Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way. New York: Avon
Books, 1991.
Cuddon, J.A. A Dictionary of Literary Terms. New Delhi: Viva Books, 1998.
Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature. 2 Vols. London: Secker &
Warburg, 1968.
Gray, Martin. A Dictionary of Literary Terms. Delhi: Pearson, 2008.
Hudson, WH. An Introduction to the Study of Literature.
Jespersen, O. Growth and Structure of the English Language. Oxford: Blackwell, 1991.
Kreutzer, James. Elements of Poetry. New York: Macmillan, 1971.
Lemon, Lee T. A Glossary for the Study of English. Delhi: OUP, 1974.
Seturaman, VS, et al. Ed. Practical Criticism. Madras: Macmillan, 2000.
Wood, F. T. An Outline History of the English Language. Chennai: Macmillan, 2000.

Semester II (Core-2)
Title: English Poetry
Unit I Forms of Poetry
a) Ballad
b) Elegy
c) Epic
d) Lyric
e) Ode
f) Sonnet

Unit II 16th - 17th Century Poetry
Edmund Spenser “One day I wrote her name upon the strand”
(Sonnet 75)
John Milton Lycidas
John Donne “The Anniversary”

Unit III 17th - 18th Century Poetry
Alexander Pope “Ode on Solitude”
Thomas Gray “Hymn to Adversity”
William Blake “London”

Unit IV 18th - 19th Century Poetry
William Wordsworth “Three Years She Grew”
John Keats “Ode to a Nightingale”
Robert Browning “My Last Duchess”

Unit V 19th - 20th Century Poetry
WB Yeats “The Second Coming”
TS Eliot “Love song of Alfred J Prufrock”
Philip Larkin “Toads”

Reference Sources
Boulton, Marjorie. The Anatomy of Poetry. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1953.
Childs, Peter. Modernism. New Critical Idiom Series. London: Routledge, 2003.
Day, Aidan. Romanticism. New Critical Idiom Series. London: Routledge, 2003.
Cox, CB and AE Dyson. Practical Criticism of Poetry. London: Hodder, 1965.
Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature. New Delhi: Allied Books, 1980.
Eagleton, Terry. How to Read a Poem. Oxford: Blackwell, 2007.
Ferguson, Margaret et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. London: WW Norton, 2005.
Gardner, Helen. Ed. Metaphysical Poets. New York: Penguin, 1957.
Kreutzer, James. Elements of Poetry. New York: Macmillan, 1971.
O Neill, Michael. Ed. The Cambridge History of English Poetry. Cambridge: CUP, 2010.
Seturaman, VS, et al. Ed. Practical Criticism. Madras: Macmillan, 2000.

Semester III
Title: English Drama 5 Credits 5 hours of teaching per week
Unit I Types of Drama
a) Tragedy
b) Comedy
c) Tragicomedy
d) Melodrama
e) Farce
f) History plays

Unit II William Shakespeare
Macbeth

Unit III Oliver Goldsmith
She Stoops to Conquer

Unit IV George Bernard Shaw
Pygmalion

Unit V One-Act Plays
AA Milne “The Boy Comes Home”
Harold Pinter “The Room”

Suggested Reading
Boulton, Marjorie. The Anatomy of Drama. London: Routledge, 1960.
Bradley, AC. Shakespearean Tragedy. 1904. London: Penguin, 1991.
Evans, Benjamin Ifor. 1921. A Short History of English Drama. New York: Harcourt,
1965.
Neuss, Paula. Ed. Aspects of Early English Drama. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1983.
Nicoll, Allardyce. British Drama. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963.
Pickering, Kenneth. How to Study Modern Drama. London: Macmillan, 1988.
Styan, JL. The Elements of Drama. Cambridge: CUP, 1969.
Watson, G.J. Drama: an Introduction. London: Macmillan, 1983.

Semester IV
Title: English Drama 5 Credits 5 hours of teaching per week
Unit I Types of Fiction
a) Allegorical
b) Epistolary
c) Gothic
d) Historical
e) Picaresque
f) Psychological

Unit II Daniel Defoe
            Robinson Crusoe

Unit III Jane Austen
             Pride and Prejudice

Unit IV George Orwell
              Animal Farm

Unit V Short Stories
            Rudyard Kipling         "The Man Who Would Be King"
            Arthur Conan Doyle   "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"

Allegory

Allegory

The word allegory is a literary device that comes from Latin allegoria. It is a metaphor in which a character, place or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences. Allegory occurred widely throughout history in all forms of art, largely. Writers or speakers typically use allegories as literary devices  that convey (semi-)hidden or complex meanings through symbolic figures, actions, imagery, or events, which together create the moral, spiritual, or political meaning the author wishes to convey.  

Types of Allegory

Classical Allegory

The origins of Allegory can be traced back to Homer in his "quasi-allegorical" use of personifications of, e.g., Terror (Deimos) and Fear (Phobos). The title of "first allegorist," however, is usually awarded to whoever was the earliest to put forth allegorical interpretations of Homer. This approach leads to two possible answers: Theagenes of Rhegium  or Pherecydes of Syros, though Pherecydes is earlier and as he is often presumed to be the first writer of prose. In the case of "interpreting allegorically," Theagenes appears to be our earliest example.

In classical literature two of the best-known allegories are the Cave in Plato's Republic (Book VII)

In this allegory, Plato describes a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. This allegory is, on a basic level, about a philosopher who upon finding greater knowledge outside the cave of human understanding, seeks to share it as is his duty, and the foolishness of those who would ignore him because they think themselves educated enough.

Biblical Allegory

Other early allegories are found in the Hebrew Bible, such as the extended metaphor in Psalm 80 of the Vine and its impressive spread and growth, representing Israel's conquest and peopling of the Promised Land. 

Ezekiel 16 and 17, wherein the capture of that same vine by the mighty Eagle represents Israel's exile to Babylon.

Allegorical interpretation of the Bible was a common early Christian practice and continues

Medieval Allegory

Allegory has an ability to freeze the story temporally, while infusing it with a spiritual context. Mediaeval thinking accepted allegory as having a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as the facts of the surface appears. Example Papal Bull Unam Sanctam (1302) presenting the theme of the unity Christendom

The denial of medieval allegory in the 12th-century works of Hugh of St Victor and Edward Topsell's Historie of Foure-footed Beastes and its replacement in the study of nature with methods of categorisation and mathematics by such figures as naturalist John Ray and the astronomer Galileo is thought to mark the beginnings of early modern science

Modern Allegory

Since meaningful stories are nearly always applicable to larger issues, allegories may be read into many stories which the author may not have recognised. This is called allegoresis, or the act of reading a story as an allegory. Examples of allegory in popular culture that may or may not have been intended (planned) include the works of Bertolt Brecht, and even some works of science fiction and fantasy, such as The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and A Kingdom Far and Clear: The Complete Swan Lake Trilogy by Mark Helprin.

Allegory in Poetry

Like allegorical stories, allegorical poetry has two meanings – a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning

 

 Examples of Allegory in Literature

Example #1: Animal Farm (By George Orwell)

Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, is an allegory that uses animals on a farm to describe the overthrow of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, and the Communist Revolution of Russia before WW I. The actions of the animals on the farm are used to expose the greed and corruption of the revolution. It also describes how powerful people can change the ideology of a society. One of the cardinal rules on the farm is this: “All animals are equal but few are more equal than the others”.

The animals on the farm represent different sections of Russian society after the revolution.

For instance, the pigs represent those who came to power following the revolution; “Mr. Jones,” the owner of the farm, represents the overthrown Tsar Nicholas II; while “Boxer” the horse, represents the laborer class. The use of allegory in the novel allows Orwell to make his position clear about the Russian Revolution and expose its evils.

Example #2: Faerie Queen (By Edmund Spenser)

Faerie Queen, a masterpiece of Edmund Spenser, is a moral and religious allegory.

The good characters of book stand for the various virtues, while the bad characters represent vices. “The Red-Cross Knight” represents holiness, and “Lady Una” represents truth, wisdom, and goodness. Her parents symbolize the human race. The “Dragon,” which has imprisoned them, stands for evil.

The mission of holiness is to help the truth fight evil, and thus regain its rightful place in the hearts of human beings. “The Red-Cross Knight” in this poem also represents the reformed church of England, fighting against the “Dragon,” which stands for the Papacy or the Catholic Church.

Gothic Novel

Gothic Fiction

Gothic fiction, was largely known by the subgenre of Gothic horror, it is a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto "A Gothic Story". The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel. It originated in England in the second half of the 18th century where, following Walpole, it was further developed by Clara Reeve, Ann Radcliffe, William Thomas Beckford and Matthew Lewis. The genre had much success in the 19th century, as witnessed in prose by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens  ‘A Christmas Carol’, and in poetry in the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron. The name Gothic, originally referred to the Goths, and then came to mean "German", refers to the medieval Gothic architecture, in which many of these stories take place.

The first Gothic novel is The Castle of Otranto by English author Horace Walpole, which was first published in 1764 which includes threatening mysteries and ancestral curses, as well as countless trappings such as hidden passages and oft-fainting heroines.

Clara Reeve

Clara Reeve, was best known for her work The Old English Baron (1778) it was designed to unite the most attractive and interesting circumstances of the ancient Romance and modern Novel.

Reeve's contribution in the development of the Gothic fiction, therefore, can be demonstrated on at least two fronts. In the first, there is the reinforcement of the Gothic narrative framework, one that focuses on expanding the imaginative domain so as to include the supernatural without losing the realism that marks the novel that Walpole pioneered. Secondly, Reeve also sought to contribute to finding the appropriate formula to ensure that the fiction is believable and coherent.

Ann Radcliffe

Ann Radcliffe developed the technique of the explained supernatural which eventually tracks back to natural causes. Radcliffe has been called both “the Great Enchantress” and “Mother Radcliffe” due to her influence on both Gothic literature and the female Gothic.

She introduced the brooding figure of the Gothic villain (A Sicilian Romance in 1790), a literary device that would come to be defined as the Byronic hero. One of her best-sellers novel is The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794

Combining experiences of terror and wonder with visual description was a technique that pleased readers had set Radcliffe apart from other Gothic writers.

Developments of Gothic Novels

Continental Europe

Romantic literary movements developed in continental Europe concurrent with the development of the Gothic novel. The roman noir ("black novel") appeared in France, by such writers as François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil, Baculard d'Arnaud and Madame de Genlis. These works were often more horrific and violent than the English Gothic novel.

Matthew Lewis' lurid tale of monastic debauchery, black magic and diabolism entitled The Monk (1796) offered the first continental novel to follow the conventions of the Gothic novel. Lewis's portrayal of depraved monks, sadistic inquisitors and spectral nuns—and his scurrilous view of the Catholic Church—appalled some readers, but The Monk was important in the genre's development.

Germany

German gothic fiction is usually described by the term Schauerroman ("shudder novel"). Examples The Robbers (1781) by Friedrich von Schiller, Heinrich Zschokke's ‘Abällino, der grosse Bandit’ (1793)

Romantics

to the Gothic genre were seen in the work of the Romantic poets. Prominent examples include Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel as well as John Keats' La Belle Dame sans Merci (1819) and Isabella, or the Pot of Basil (1820) which feature mysteriously fey ladies.

Percy Bysshe Shelley's first published work was the Gothic novel Zastrozzi (1810), about an outlaw obsessed with revenge against his father and half-brother. Shelley published a second Gothic novel in 1811, St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian, about an alchemist who seeks to impart the secret of immortality.

Victorian Gothic

By the Victorian era, Gothic had ceased to be the dominant genre, and was dismissed by most critics. Penny Blood or "penny dreadful" serial fictions by such authors as George W. M. Reynolds who wrote a trilogy of Gothic horror novels: Faust (1846), Wagner the Wehr-wolf (1847) and The Necromancer (1857)

An important and innovative reinterpreter of the Gothic in this period was Edgar Allan Poe. Poe focused less on the traditional elements of gothic stories and more on the psychology of his characters as they often descended into madness. His story "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839) explores these 'terrors of the soul' while revisiting classic Gothic tropes of aristocratic decay, death, and madness

Elements of Gothic Fiction

·         Virginal maiden – young, beautiful, pure, innocent, kind, virtuous and sensitive. Usually starts out with a mysterious past and it is later revealed that she is the daughter of an aristocratic or noble family.

·         Matilda in The Castle of Otranto – She is determined to give up Theodore, the love of her life, for her cousin's sake. Matilda always puts others first before herself, and always believes the best in others.

·         Adeline in The Romance of the Forest – "Her wicked Marquis, having secretly immured Number One (his first wife), has now a new and beautiful wife, whose character, alas! Does not bear inspection." As this review states, the virginal maiden character is above inspection because her personality is flawless. Hers is a virtuous character whose piety and unflinching optimism cause all to fall in love with her.

·         Older, foolish woman

·         Hippolita in The Castle of Otranto – Hippolita is depicted as the obedient wife of her tyrant husband who "would not only acquiesce with patience to divorce, but would obey, if it was his pleasure, in endeavouring to persuade Isabelle to give him her hand". This shows how weak women are portrayed as they are completely submissive, and in Hippolita's case, even support polygamy at the expense of her own marriage.

·         Madame LaMotte in The Romance of the Forest – naively assumes that her husband is having an affair with Adeline. Instead of addressing the situation directly, she foolishly lets her ignorance turn into pettiness and mistreatment of Adeline.

·         Hero

·         Theodore in The Castle of Otranto – he is witty, and successfully challenges the tyrant, saves the virginal maid without expectations

·         Theodore in The Romance of the Forest – saves Adeline multiple times, is virtuous, courageous and brave, self-sacrificial

·         Tyrant/villain

·         Manfred in The Castle of Otranto – unjustly accuses Theodore of murdering Conrad. Tries to put his blame onto others. Lies about his motives for attempting to divorce his wife and marry his late son's fiancé.

·         The Marquis in The Romance of the Forest – attempts to get with Adeline even though he is already married, attempts to rape Adeline, blackmails Monsieur LaMotte.

·         Vathek – Ninth Caliph of the Abassides, who ascended to the throne at an early age. His figure was pleasing and majestic, but when angry, his eyes became so terrible that "the wretch on whom it was fixed instantly fell backwards and sometimes expired". He was addicted to women and pleasures of the flesh, so he ordered five palaces to be built: the five palaces of the senses. Although he was an eccentric man, learned in the ways of science, physics, and astrology, he loved his people. His main greed, however, was thirst for knowledge. He wanted to know everything. This is what led him on the road to damnation."

·         Bandits/ruffians

They appear in several Gothic novels including The Romance of the Forest in which they kidnap Adeline from her father.

·        Clergy – always weak, usually evil

·         Father Jerome in The Castle of Otranto – Jerome, though not evil, is certainly weak as he gives up his son when he is born and leaves his lover.

·         Ambrosio in The Monk – Evil and weak, this character stoops to the lowest levels of corruption including rape and incest.

·         Mother Superior in The Romance of the Forest – Adeline fled from this convent because the sisters weren't allowed to see sunlight. Highly oppressive environment.

·        The setting

The plot is usually set in a castle, an abbey, a monastery, or some other, usually religious edifice, and it is acknowledged that this building has secrets of its own. This gloomy and frightening scenery sets the scene for what the audience has already come to expect. The importance of setting is noted in a London review of the Castle of Otranto. Thus, without the decrepit backdrop to initiate the events, the Gothic novel would not exist.

Elements found especially in American Gothic fiction include:

·         Night journeys are a common element seen throughout Gothic literature. They can occur in almost any setting, but in American literature are more commonly seen in the wilderness, forest or any other area that is devoid of people.

·         Evil characters are also seen in Gothic literature and especially American Gothic. Depending on either the setting or the period from which the work came, the evil characters could be Native Americans, trappers, gold miners etc.

·         American Gothic novels also tend to deal with a "madness" in one or more of the characters and carry that theme throughout the novel. In his novel Edgar Huntly or Memoirs of a Sleepwalker, Charles Brockden Brown writes about two characters who slowly become more and more deranged as the novel progresses.

·         Miraculous survivals are elements within American Gothic literature in which a character or characters will somehow manage to survive some feat that should have led to their demise.

·         In American Gothic novels it is also typical that one or more of the characters will have some sort of supernatural powers. In Brown's Edgar Huntly or Memoirs of a Sleepwalker, the main character, Huntly, is able to face and kill not one, but two panthers.

·         An element of fear is another characteristic of American Gothic literature. This is typically connected to the unknown and is generally seen throughout the course of the entire novel. This can also be connected to the feeling of despair that characters within the novel are overcome by. This element can lead characters to commit heinous crimes. In the case of Brown's character Edgar Huntly, he experiences this element when he contemplates eating himself, eats an uncooked panther, and drinks his own sweat. The element of fear in female gothic is commonly portrayed through terror and supernatural fears, while the male gothic uses horror and physical fear and gore to create feelings of fear in the reader.

·         Psychological overlay is an element that is connected to how characters within an American Gothic novel are affected by things like the night and their surroundings. An example of this would be if a character was in a maze-like area and a connection was made to the maze that their minds represented.