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

Course coordinator and team: SCCE Faculty

 

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

This course aligns closely with the vision of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD), which emphasizes critical inquiry, interdisciplinarity, and engagement with diverse and inclusive knowledge systems. By focusing on contemporary multilingual literary cultures of India, the course fosters an understanding of cultural plurality and linguistic diversity. It encourages students to critically engage with literary texts across Indian languages and English, while examining canon formation, contestations, and transformations within evolving literary landscapes. The course integrates creative practice with theoretical reflection, enabling students to develop critical self-reflexivity as writers and cultural practitioners. This emphasis on creativity, critical thinking, and socially grounded knowledge production resonates strongly with AUD’s pedagogical commitments.

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

As a practice-based core course with a strong theoretical component, this course aligns with programs in Creative Writing and related disciplines that emphasize both creative production and critical engagement. It enables students to draw from contemporary Indian literary traditions to inform their own writing practices. By engaging with multilingual texts in translation and diverse literary movements, the course strengthens students’ ability to experiment with form, voice, and narrative strategies. It also cultivates an awareness of the socio-cultural, historical, and ideological contexts shaping literary production, thereby supporting the program’s goal of nurturing reflective, skilled, and contextually aware writers.

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

Yes, this course directly builds on the first-semester core course on ancient and classical literary cultures of India by extending the inquiry into contemporary literary contexts. It complements other courses in literature, cultural studies, and creative writing that engage with literary theory, translation, and Indian literatures. While there may be conceptual intersections with courses on Indian writing or cultural studies, this course maintains a distinct focus on practice-based creative engagement with multilingual literary traditions and on critically examining canon formation, literary movements, and the evolving role of the writer.

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 two-year postgraduate program, this course is designed for first-year students enrolled in the Creative Writing programme. It is a compulsory course and must be taken as a core requirement.

5. No. of students to be admitted

(with justification if lower than the usual cohort size is proposed): 25

6. Course scheduling

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

7. Course Details:

a. Summary: This course is an extension of the first semester core course ‘Foundations of Literary Cultures of India: Ancient and Classical’ and hence driven by the same rationale as stated in that course. In gist, the course has been conceived as a pedagogical engagement in the complex terrain of literary culture(s) of India within its linguistic plurality and cultural diversity. By initiating them to various multilingual traditions and texts (in translation) from Indian languages along with English writings of India, the course will attempt to give an insight to the historical dynamics of literary canon formations (and deformations) to develop a deeper understanding of the contemporary literary scape to which they are located as practitioners of the art of creative writing. On the basis of these discussions, critical/creative writings exercise will be done to challenge their creative imagination.

The main thrust of the course is to engage in creative writing through various models available in the literary cultures of India. It attempts to critically probe into the complex dynamics of the Indian literary landscape to map the rich and diverse manifestations of Indian literary culture. The course will attempt to understand the multiple schemata of creative ‘writing’ through the evident transitions/ transmutations and ruptures to the manifested essence of inter- disciplinarity of Indian literary culture. The main objective of the course is to enable certain critical self- reflexivity among the students as emerging writers and cultural practitioners to understand their agency and role within this complex literary landscape of India by tapping into the contemporary literary - cultural traditions in its variations and continuity.

The course seeks to practice creative writing through various contemporary literary models available in the multi-lingual literary cultures of India. It also seeks to critically understand the role and agency of a writer by reading various literary movements, forms, figures and aesthetical/formalistic/ ideational positions in the Indian lingua-scape. The students on the process also gain insight about the multi-lingual literary cultures of India.

Objectives: The course aims to develop creative writing skills by engaging students with diverse models from contemporary literary cultures of India. It seeks to foster an understanding of the historical evolution of literary traditions across multiple Indian languages alongside English, with attention to shifts, continuities, and transformations in form, style, and thematic concerns. By examining canon formation and its contestations, the course encourages students to critically situate themselves within the broader literary landscape. It also aims to cultivate self-reflexivity regarding the role and agency of the writer as a cultural practitioner. Through exposure to multilingual texts in translation and varied literary movements, students will explore different facets that shape Indian writing. Combining critical inquiry with practice-based exercises, the course enables students to experiment with narrative techniques and expressive forms, while developing a nuanced appreciation of India’s complex, interconnected, and evolving literary cultures.

Expected Learning Outcomes

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

• Developed and understanding of the to the literary landscapes prevailing in the subcontinent in the contemporary periods.
• Have developed multicultural awareness and sensitivity to issues and histories of diversity and difference.
• Have developed sensitivity to the different literary forms existing today.
• Will have the writing and conceptual skills to engage in self directed, research oriented projects.
• Will have developed familiarity the digital resources available for the study of Indian literatures.

 

Module I:
Conceptual frame & historical backdrop.  (Week 1- 2)

Description
Introduction and recapitulation of the ancient and classical literary cultures of India learnt in the previous semester. Questions about continuity, discontinuity, intersections, interconnections, dissemination, within the vast complex terrain called the ‘Indian Literature’.

Readings :-
U.R. Ananthamurthy. Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man. Trans. A. K. Ramanujam. Delhi: Oxford India Perennials, 1965, 2012 ed..

Daya Pawar. Baluta. Trans. Jerry Pinto. Mumbai: Speaking Tiger, 2015.

Module-II
The Historical Rupture (Week-3-5)

Description
Discussions on the transformative rupture marked by imperial intervention and the emergence of English as a dominant power language, alongside the proliferation of diverse Indian language writings during the early nineteenth century. Initiation to the debates emerging out of this departure to the critically probe into the issue drawing upon the British language / Educational policy, Macaulay’s Minutes and Nationalist pro -vernacular debates. Discussions about Power language versus the vernaculars and various points of contestations and interconnectedness, assimilations and dissemination.

Readings :-
Vivek Shanbag. Ghachar Ghochar. Trans. Srinath Perur. Delhi: Harper Perennial, 2015.

Rahi Masoom Raza. A Village Divided. Trans. Gillian Wright. Delhi: Penguin Modern Classics, 2008

Module-III
The New Nation, New Imagination (6-7 Weeks)

Description
Focus on the Cultural Imagination of an emerging Nation. Theoretical formulations of the “Indian Literature” through region specific vernacular writings of Indian languages. Discussions about attempts to theorize the category of “Indian Literature” by likes of P.P Raveendran, Sisir Kumar Das, and others and the subsequent counter position/ counter discourse.

Readings :-
Laxmi Holmstrom ed. The Inner Courtyard, Stories by Indian women. Ed. Rupa & Co. 1991.

Mangalam, B. On Wings Unbroken: An Encounter with Ambai. Many Indias Many Literatures, Ed. Shormishtha Panja: Worldview, 2011.

Module-IV
Literary Models for critical consciousness and creative exercises. (8-10 Weeks)

Description
Introductions to the complex terrain of modern Indian language writings with focus on certain common strands / issues/ ideas across various region/culture in the pan Indian linguascapes . Discussion would revolve around the idea of vernacular spheres as vanguards of Indian literary modernity and prima sites for reflections of socio-political realities and their analysis.
Description:
Focus about the Construction of a Subjectivity/ Selfhood in the socio-political and cultural climate of India across the frames of the regional/ national/ international. The aim is to engage with the new existentialist predicaments, complexities, conflicts and dilemmas centred around the polarities of modern/ traditional, rural/urban.

Readings :-
• Prakash, Uday. Paul Gomra Ka Scooter. Vani Prakashan, 2017.

Ananthamurthy, U. R. "Stallion of the Sun." Stallion of the Sun and Other Stories, translated by Narayan Hegde, Penguin Books India, 1999.

Chaliha, Saurav Kumar. Ashanta Electron. 1st ed., Lawyer's Book Stall, 2018.

Assessment

First Mid Sem	Analytical Essay	30%
Second Mid Sem	Presentation/ Field Work	20%
End Sem 50%	Creative Project	50%

 

Pedagogy:

Instructional strategies:

• Theoretical grounding in narratology
• Historical progression across modules
• Critical analysis-based discussions
• Practice-led workshops