डॉ. बी. आर. अम्बेडकर विश्‍वविद्यालय दिल्ली
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi
Established by The Government of NCT of Delhi

Semester and Year Offered: 4th Semester (Winter Semester 2019)

Course Coordinator and Team: SCCE Faculty

Email of course coordinator: 

1. How does the course link with the vision of AUD?

This course aligns with Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi’s commitment to critical, interdisciplinary, and socially engaged learning by foregrounding writing as both a creative and reflective practice. It encourages students to situate their writing within broader historical, cultural, and political contexts, while developing an awareness of writing as a form of knowledge production. By combining creative experimentation with critical reading and self-reflexive practice, the course supports AUD’s emphasis on engaged scholarship and the development of culturally aware practitioners. Students are encouraged to interrogate literary forms, examine their own positionalities, and respond to contemporary concerns through writing.

2. How does the course link with the specific program (s) where it is being offered?

M.A. Creative Writing is a practice-led postgraduate program. This elective course provides student-writers with a deep immersion into India's multilingual dramatic traditions. By extracting narrative models, dialogue structures, and scenographic methodologies from landmark primary readings, students formulate a critical vocabulary to write original dramatic texts, thus strengthening their overall creative skills and portfolio readying.

3. Does the course connect to, build on, or overlap with any other courses offered in AUD?

Yes. This course builds on foundational courses in literary studies and creative writing workshops by expanding students' writing toolkit into drama and performance. To ensure curriculum integrity, all primary plays and secondary theoretical texts are selected to ensure absolutely zero overlap with the core creative writing workshop lists or the companion translation modules.

4. Specific requirements on the part of students who can be admitted to this course:
(Pre-requisites; prior knowledge level; any others – please specify): None.

None. According to the structure of the postgraduate program, this course is designed for students enrolled in the Creative Writing programme or other master's cohorts in the School of Culture and Creative Expressions.

5. No. of students to be admitted
(with justification if lower than the usual cohort size is proposed):

usual cohort size

6. Course scheduling
(semester; semester-long/half-semester course; workshop mode; seminar mode; any other – please specify):

semester-long; elective option; hybrid lecture-workshop and seminar mode.

7. Course Details:

a. Summary:

This practice-informed elective course provides postgraduate students with a deep immersion into India's multilingual dramatic traditions, tracing their formal evolution, political interventions, and performative idioms from classical times to the contemporary moment. The course emphasizes writing as an iterative process and is specifically designed for student-writers to extract narrative models, dialogue structures, and scenographic methodologies from landmark primary readings. By examining classical dramaturgy, post-independence nationalist performance, street theater, and subaltern interventions, students formulate a critical vocabulary to write original dramatic texts. The classroom merges critical lectures with creative workshop sessions, pushing students to interrogate their own positionality and agency as cultural practitioners.

Objectives:

The course aims to introduce postgraduate students to the major trajectories of Indian theater and drama; evaluate how performance spaces and political agendas influence scripts; teach structural playwriting methodologies (from classical acts to street theater structures); foster peer workshops for drafting and self-reflection; and develop a production-ready dramatic portfolio.

Expected Learning Outcomes

On completion of the course, it is expected that the student will:

· CO1: Demonstrate a critical understanding of the historical trajectories and stylistic shifts in Indian drama, from classical Sanskrit structures to post-independence folk movements and contemporary political theater.

· CO2: Analyze dramatic texts to evaluate how socio-political pressures, linguistic tensions, and performance dynamics shape theatrical form and meaning.

· CO3: Apply specialized dramaturgical models (such as Sanskrit epic architecture, folk episodic structures, and minimalist street theater formats) to draft original dramatic scenes.

· CO4: Critically revise and polish dramatic writing through a structured loop of self-reflection, peer critique, and collaborative workshop trials.

· CO5: Engage ethically and constructively with peers' creative manuscripts while contextualizing writing within the pluralistic, multi-vocal landscapes of contemporary India.

· CO6: Synthesize theoretical insights with original dramatic compositions to compile a polished portfolio of creative work showing readiness for professional or doctoral exploration.

 

Module I:
Classical Reorientations: Subverting Statecraft and Tragedy (16 Hours)

Description

This module introduces students to the architecture of classical Sanskrit drama, departing from mythological romance to examine political intrigue, espionage, and the tragic subversion of heroic archetypes. Students explore characterization as a product of cold political calculation and deep existential distress rather than divine fate. The module emphasizes close reading of structural forms to guide students in drafting tight, character-driven political subplots.

Readings :-

Core Readings (Primary Texts):

1. Visakhadatta. Mudrarakshasa (The Signet Ring of Rakshasa). Translated by R. S. Pandit. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1944. (Acts I-V focus on cold political chess, strategic counter-moves, and the psychological burdens of statecraft).

2. Bhavabhuti. Uttararamacarita (The Later Story of Rama). Translated by Sheldon Pollock. New York: Clay Sanskrit Library, 2007. (Acts I-IV explore the devastating emotional toll of public duty over private desire, challenging classical resolutions of bliss).

Suggested Critical Essays:

1. Kapila Vatsyayan. 'The Theory of Metaphor in Classical Indian Aesthetics.' In Traditional Indian Theatre: Multiple Streams. New Delhi: National Book Trust, 2005, pp. 12-42.

Module II:
Folk Syncretism and Ritual Movement (12 Hours)

Description

This module investigates how playwrights integrated localized, oral, and festive performance modes to dismantle the rigid boundaries of colonial proscenium theater. Students analyze the mechanics of non-linear narratives, episodic plotting, and syncretic religious or cultural environments to construct modern parables of subversion and social transformation. Creative exercises push students to write scripts incorporating musical choruses and narrators.

Readings:-

Core Readings (Primary Texts):

1. Habib Tanvir. Agra Bazar. Translated by Anjum Katyal. Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2006. (A full play celebrating Urdu poet Nazir Akbarabadi, integrating street hawkers, local artisans, and musical ensembles in an open bazaar environment).

2. Chandrashekhara Kambara. Jokumaraswamy. Translated by Rajiv Taranath. Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1989. (A classic utilizing the North Karnataka Bayalata/Jatra performance matrix to tackle peasant uprisings, patriarchy, and fertility).

Suggested Critical Essays:

1. Richmond, Farley P., Darius L. Swann, and Phillip B. Zarrilli, eds. 'Folk and Traditional Drama.' In Indian Theatre: Traditions of Performance. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990, pp. 185-224.

2. Rustom Bharucha. 'Habib Tanvir's Agra Bazar and the Politics of Folk Culture.' In Theatre and the World: Performance and the Politics of Culture. London: Routledge, 1993, pp. 68-87.

 

Module III:
Colonial Modernity, Hegemony, and Social Realism (16 Hours)

Description

This module tracks how Indian dramatists deployed social realism and political satire as critical instruments to contest colonial administration and internal social degeneration. By reading anti-colonial texts that triggered repressive legislation like the Dramatic Performances Act of 1876, students examine the intersection of performance, censorship, and political agitation. Writers study the craft of building dramatic suspense within high-stakes historical and social situations.

Readings :-

Core Readings (Primary Texts):

1. Dinabandhu Mitra. Nil Darpan (The Indigo Mirror). Translated by Michael Madhusudan Dutt. Edited by Sudhi Pradhan. Calcutta: Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi, Reprint 1999. (The historic 1860 text exposing the brutal colonial exploitation of Bengal's indigo peasants).

2. Bharatendu Harishchandra. Andher Nagari (City of Darkness) and Bharat Durdasha (The Tragedy of India). Translated by Vasudha Dalmia. In The Oxford India Bharatendu Harishchandra. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009. (Satires written in 1881 exploring administrative dysfunction, colonial ruin, and moral decay).

Suggested Critical Essays:

1. Vasudha Dalmia. 'The Drama of Literary Modernity.' In The Nationalization of Hindu Traditions: Bharatendu Harishchandra and Nineteenth-Century Banaras. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 270-312.

2. Nandi Bhatia. 'Staging Rebellion: The Dramatic Performances Act of 1876.' In Acts of Authority / Theater and Politics: Theater and Politics in Colonial and Postcolonial India. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004, pp. 19-45.

 

Module IV:
Post-Independence Modernism: Existential Trauma and Epic Myth (16 Hours)

Description

This module probes the psychological and metaphysical trauma that followed Partition and the early disillusionment with post-colonial statehood. Students explore how dramatists used mythic frames, epic structures, and domestic claustrophobia to stage universal existential dilemmas. Writers learn to manipulate high tension, symbolic stage props, and fragmented dialogue.

Readings :-

Core Readings (Primary Texts):

1. Dharamvir Bharati. Andha Yug (The Age of Blindness). Translated by Alok Bhalla. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005. (A legendary 1954 verse play that uses the final day of the epic Kurukshetra war to meditate on the spiritual ruins of Partition, dehumanization, and ethical choices).

2. Surendra Verma. From Sunset to Sunrise (Surya Ki Antim Kiran Se Surya Ki Pehli Kiran Tak). Translated by K. Chowdhury. New Delhi: National School of Drama, 2001. (A psychological and physical drama investigating identity, royal impotence, and gender power play in a single claustrophobic night).

Suggested Critical Essays:

1. Aparna Dharwadker. 'Historical Dramaturgy and the Postcolonial Nation-State.' In Theosophies of Theatre: Modern Indian Drama in the Nation's Space. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005, pp. 112-148.

2. Erin B. Mee. 'The Theatre of Roots: Regional Modernism and Indigenous Practice.' In Theatre of Roots: Redirecting the Modern Indian Stage. Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2008, pp. 15-52.

 

Module V:
Contemporary Frontiers: Street Action, Queer Realism, and Subaltern Assertion (16 Hours)

Description

This concluding module confronts contemporary domestic and political landscapes through marginalized and subaltern perspectives. Students dissect site-specific street performance, metropolitan English family drama, and anti-caste aesthetic interventions. Writers work on creating minimalist, urgent scripts designed for public confrontation and deep emotional resonance.

Readings :-

Core Readings (Primary Texts):

1. Mahesh Dattani. Final Solutions. In Collected Plays. New Delhi: Penguin India, 2000. (An intensive, multi-layered contemporary English play exploring historical communal violence, domestic bigotry, and institutional bias in a middle-class household).

2. K. A. Gunasekaran. Baliadu (The Scapegoat). Translated by V. Padma (Mangai). Chennai: Cre-A, 2009. (A groundbreaking modern Tamil play exposing systemic anti-Dalit discrimination, temple ritual sacrifice, and state collusion).

Suggested Critical Essays:

1. Eugene van Erven. 'Street Theatre and Social Change in India.' In Theatre and Liberation in Asia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992, pp. 83-118.

2. Shayoni Mitra. 'Contesting Street Theatre: Janam Natya Manch and the Politics of Performance.' In TDR: The Drama Review, vol. 56, no. 1, 2012, pp. 62-81.

 

Assessment

Assessment Type	Weightage	Substantive Knowledge Area	Specific Skills Tested
1. Response Essay	30 Marks	Critical theory integration, aesthetic structures, textual analysis	Argumentation, close reading, reflective essay writing
2. Midterm Exam Portfolio	30 Marks	Drafting, structural mechanics, genre/scene-writing exercises	Revision, workshop critique, editing, peer feedback
3. End Term Manuscript	40 Marks	Sustained narrative execution, critical reflective essay context	Synthesis, final editing, portfolio design, publication readiness