Indian Classical Literature


1. 1. Vyasa. Selections from The Mahabharata, from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, trans. K. M. Ganguli (Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2012). 

a) ‘The Dicing’ and ‘Sequel to Dicing’, Book 2, Sabha Parva Section XLVI-LXXII b) ‘The Temptation of Karna’, Book 5, Udyog Parva, Section CXL-CXLVI.
c) ‘Krishna’s Peace Proposal’, Book 5, Udyog Parva, Section LXXXIX-CXXXI 

 

2. Kalidasa. Abhijnanasakuntalam, trans. Chandra Rajan, in Kalidasa: The Loom of Time. Penguin Classics, 1989, reprint 2000. 


3. Ilango Atikal. ‘The Book of Vanci’, Cilappatikaram. trans. R. Parthasarathy (Columbia University Press, 1993; Penguin Books India, 2004). 

CourseType: Core

European Classical Literature: 


1. Homer, The Odyssey

2. Aristotle, Poetics

Sophocles, Antigone

3. Aristophanes, Lysistrata

CourseType: Core

Introduction to Literary Studies


Reading the Novel  

Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice 

Gerald J Prince, Narratology: Form and Function of Narrative (New York, 1982), pp 7 – 16 and 103 – 105.

A N Kaul, ‘A New Province of Writing,’ The Domain of the Novel: Reflections on Some Historical Definitions (Routledge, 2021), 20-36.


Reading Poetry.           

John Milton: ‘On His Blindness’

William Wordsworth: ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge’

Emily Dickinson: ‘341 After Great Pain’

Rabindranath Tagore: ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’ 

Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter and Jon Stallworthy, ‘Versification and Poetic Syntax’, The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 5th edition (New York and London: W W Norton & Company, 2005), pp 2021 – 65.


Reading Drama.          

Mahesh Dattani: Tara

G J Watson, ‘The Nature of Drama’, Drama: An Introduction (London: Macmillan, 1983)

Habib Tanvir, It Must Flow: A Life in Theatre                                       http://www.seagullindia.com/stq/pdf/STQ%20Issue%2010.pdf ;

Gary Day, ‘Introduction’ Class (New Critical Idiom: Routledge, 2001), pp 1 – 18.



CourseType: Core