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GENRES OF FICTION

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Course Type Course Code No. Of Credits
Discipline Core NSUS1EN308 4

Course Coordinator and Team:                   SES Faculty

Email of course coordinator:                       pcbabed@aud.ac.in 

Pre-requisites:                                               No

Course Description:

The early moorings of the novel form definitely lie in the romance tradition which flourished first in the Asian story-telling traditions and later in their European counterparts. This course begins by perusing this event through an analysis of the milieu of the early novel in Europe. It aims at analyzing the nexus between the rise of intermediate classes after Protestant Reformation, popularization of printing methods, dialects and reading cultures and the rise of the novel. Further, the course traces briefly the trajectory of growth of fiction from the eighteenth to the late nineteenth century by discussing the rise of the Short story in Europe and America and the nineteenth century response to Realism through a reading of George Eliot and Charles Dickens. The course branches into the colonial period with a brief study of the Short story form in the Indian Subcontinent.

Course Objectives:

  • Students will learn about the origins of the Novel form and the Short Story.
  • Students will gain an understanding of the link between politico-religious and social changes which in turn cause shifts in the cultural productions of any period.

Course Outcomes:

  • The student will acquire a foundational knowledge of the genres of fiction
  • The student will be able to form connections between various genres of fiction and the rise of the novel form
  • The student will learn about the forms the genres of fiction took over three centuries in Europe and America.
  • The student will become aware of the influence of colonisation on the genre of fiction

Brief description of the modules:

Module 1: The Rise of the Novel

An introduction with detailed references to Renaissance, Protestant Reformation, popularization of printing methods, dialects and reading cultures.

Module 2: Early Novel: An introduction to debates surrounding the early novel.

Module 3: The Novel in the Nineteenth Century: Understanding Realism and its Limitations

Module 4:  Origins and Growth of Short Fiction: Understanding the growth of short fiction (short story and novella) and its close connection with the proliferation of journals, dailies and magazines.

Module 5: Short Fiction in the Indian Subcontinent

Assessment Plan:

S.No

Assessment

Weightage

1

Individual project

50%

2

End-Semester Examination

50%

Recommended readings:

  • Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko (1688). Ed. Maureen Duffy. London: Methuen, 1986.
  • Eliot, George. Silas Marner (1861). New Delhi: Penguin, 2003.
  • Dickens, Charles. Hard Times (1854).New Delhi: Penguin, 2003.
  • Washington, Irving. 'The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow'. 1820.
  • Chopin, Kate. 'The Story of an Hour'. 1894.
  • Dostoevsky, Fyodor. "White Knights". 1848.
  • Saki, "The Open Window". 1914. Beasts and Super-beasts.
  • Ramanujan, A.K. "Introduction". Folktales from India. New Delhi: Penguin, 2009.
  • Detha, Vijaydan. The Garden of Tales: The Best of VijaydanDetha. New Delhi: Harper Perennial India, 2023. (Selections).
  • Guleri, Chandradhar Sharma. "UsneKahaTha" (1915) in UsneKahaThaAur Anya Kahaniyaan. New Delhi: Rajpal and Sons, 2014.
  • Manto, Sadat Hasan. Black Margins.New Delhi: Katha, 2009.
  • Clarke, Arthur C. "The Star". 1955. The Nine Billion Names of God: The Best Short Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.1967: rpt. NY: Signet/NAL, 1974: 235-240
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