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 with Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi’s commitment to critical, interdisciplinary, and socially engaged learning by exploring the modern Indian short story as a dense, self-contained space of aesthetic experimentation and social witness. By foregrounding diverse regional, vernacular, and subaltern voices in translation, the course fosters an inclusive understanding of Indian literary plurality. It encourages students to critically engage with narratives of caste, gender, labor, and partition, promoting cultural diversity and intellectual rigor. By combining theoretical analysis with practice-based creative workshops, the course nurtures independent thinking, self-reflexivity, and formal innovation in writing, directly resonating with AUD's progressive pedagogical commitments.

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

As a practice-led Value Added Course in the Postgraduate Creative Writing program, this course is designed for student-writers to analyze and extract sophisticated narrative strategies from modern short-form masterpieces. It deepens their engagement with prose fiction, moving beyond simple narrative structures to examine complex focalization, temporal fragmentation, subaltern dialectics, and speculative world-building. Through continuous writing workshops, peer critiques, and rigorous revision loops, students build a publication-ready creative portfolio, equipping them with the technical skills and critical vocabulary necessary for professional literary careers.

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

Yes, this course complements foundational writing workshops and literary history courses in the Creative Writing and English programs. It offers a highly specialized, practice-informed space specifically focused on the aesthetics of short-form fiction.

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. According to the structure of the postgraduate program, this course is open to students enrolled in the M.A. Creative Writing program or related humanities disciplines.

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 II; Semester-long course; hybrid seminar and creative workshop mode.

7. Course Details:

a. Summary:

This practice-led master's course explores the formal mechanics, socio-political commitments, and linguistic hybridity of the Indian short story. Designed to nurture future prose writers, the course approaches short-form fiction not merely as a stepping stone to the novel, but as a dense, self-contained space of aesthetic experimentation and narrative subversion. Students trace the trajectory of the modern Indian short story through early vernacular modernisms, progressive realism, partition trauma, existentialist Nayi Kahani, feminist expressions, and Dalit assertion, concluding with contemporary decolonial and speculative forms.

Objectives:

The course aims to:

• Introduce students to the unique formal structures and historical developments of the short story across Indian languages.
• Develop students' understanding of narrative elements such as plot, focalization, setting, dialogue, and structural compression.
• Encourage experimentation with diverse narrative registers, temporal structures, and speculative forms.
• Strengthen students' ability to revise and refine short fiction through peer workshops and editor-style feedback.
• Cultivate ethical and constructive peer-review practices while engaging with India's pluralistic literary landscape.
• Guide students in compiling a publication-ready portfolio of original short fiction accompanied by a critical reflective essay.

Expected Learning Outcomes

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

• CO1: Analyze the unique formal structures and historical developments of the short story across Indian languages, identifying key shifts in realism, modernism, and decolonial expression.
• CO2: Evaluate how minoritized, gendered, and subaltern voices have adapted and re-shaped short-form aesthetics to articulate counter-narratives of caste, partition, and labor.
• CO3: Apply specific narrative techniques (including non-linear timelines, regional focalization, subaltern dialectics, and speculative fabulations) to write original short-form fiction.
• CO4: Revise original short fiction manuscripts through a structured workflow of critical self-assessment, editor-style evaluation, and collective peer workshops.
• CO5: Participate constructively in workshop discussions by offering rigorous, respectful, and culturally sensitive critiques of colleagues' original works.
• CO6: Produce and present a publication-ready portfolio of original short fiction accompanied by an insightful, critical reflective essay.

Postgraduate Assessment Schema

In accordance with Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi's assessment guidelines, students are evaluated on both critical comprehension and creative application. Evaluation is continuous and distributed as follows:

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

Syllabus Modules

Module I: Vernacular Foundations and Early Print Modernisms (16 Hours)

This module explores the rise of modern vernacular realism and print-capitalism in India during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By examining the transition from oral framing models to print-based short realism, students analyze how early masterworks established vernacular prose styles. Creative workshops focus on the mechanics of early realism, subverting feudal structures, and constructing localized settings.

Readings :-

Core Readings (Primary Texts):

1. Fakir Mohan Senapati. 'Rebati.' In Rebati: The first modern Odia short story and others. Translated by Bikram Das. New Delhi: National Book Trust, 2002. (A historic 1898 masterwork charting women's education, cholera epidemic, and superstitious feudal backlash in rural Odisha).

2. Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. 'Mahesh' (Drought). In Selected Stories of Sarat Chandra. Translated by Kalyan Nath. New Delhi: Rupa & Co., 2004. (A devastating critique of rural landownership, caste oppression, and animal-human bonding under a scorching Bengal drought).

Suggested Critical Essays:

1. Meenakshi Mukherjee. 'The Novel in the Nineteenth Century.' In Realism and Reality: The Novel and Society in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985, pp. 1-28.

2. Amiya Dev. 'The Idea of Comparative Literature in India.' In Narrative: A Seminar. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1994, pp. 45-70.

Module II: Progressive Formations, Partition Trauma, and the Politics of Realism (12 Hours)

This module focuses on the intense aesthetic and political ruptures brought by the Progressive Writers' Association (PWA) in the 1930s-1940s, culminating in the visceral literature of Partition. Students examine how the short story was repurposed as an active narrative instrument to confront state violence, domestic oppression, and physical trauma. Creative exercises push students to write high-stakes dialogue and manage extreme narrative pacing.

Readings :-

Core Readings (Primary Texts):

1. Saadat Hasan Manto. 'Toba Tek Singh' and 'Khol Do' (Open It). In Black Margins: Stories. Translated by M. Asaduddin. New Delhi: Katha, 2003. (Urdu masterpieces exploring the brutal asylum transfer of patients and the visceral, unspeakable traumas of Partition).

2. Ismat Chughtai. 'Lihaaf' (The Quilt) and 'Gainda' (Marigold). In The Quilt and Other Stories. Translated by Syeda Hameed. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1996. (Urdu feminist classics subverting middle-class domestic respectability, exploring closeted desire and caste-labor exploitation).

3. Rajinder Singh Bedi. 'Lajwanti.' In I Take This Woman and Other Stories. Translated by K. Singh. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1990. (A classic Urdu narrative tackling the complex, failed rehabilitations of abducted women post-Partition).

Suggested Critical Essays:

1. Priyamvada Gopal. 'Progressive Formations and the Aesthetics of Commitment.' In Literary Radicalism in India: Gender, Nation and the Transition to Independence. London: Routledge, 2005, pp. 15-48.

2. Alok Bhalla. 'The Trauma of Partition and the Language of Fiction.' In Partition Dialogues: Memories of a Lost Home. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 22-54.

Module III: Nayi Kahani and Mid-Century Modernism: Alienation and the Urban (16 Hours)

This module tracks the post-independence shift in modernism through the Nayi Kahani (New Story) movement and its regional counterparts in the 1950s-1970s. Students analyze how the breakdown of the joint family system, mass rural-to-urban migration, and early post-colonial disillusionment bred a literature of existential loneliness, sensory details, and urban estrangement. Writers explore the craft of slow-pacing and symbolic subtext.

Readings :-

Core Readings (Primary Texts):

1. Nirmal Verma. 'The Guests' or 'Maya Darpan'. In The World Elsewhere and Other Stories. Translated by Alok Bhalla. New Delhi: Readers International, 1991. (Seminal works of Nayi Kahani, capturing the quiet melancholies, sensory atmospheres, and existential voids of post-independence urban India).

2. Phanishwar Nath Renu. 'Teesri Kasam' (The Third Vow). In The Third Vow and Other Stories. Translated by Kathryn Hansen. New Delhi: Chanakya Publications, 1986. (Anchalik / regionalist masterpiece detailing the slow, tender, impossible romance between a bullock-cart driver and a local theater dancer).

Suggested Critical Essays:

1. Gordon C. Roadarmel. 'The Theme of Alienation in Modern Hindi Short Fiction.' In Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 30, no. 1, 1970, pp. 77-100.

2. Francesca Orsini. 'The Local and the Cosmopolitan in Post-Independence Hindi Literature.' In India in the World: Cosmopolitanism and Literary Translation. London: Anthem Press, 2012, pp. 143-168.

Module IV: Dalit Consciousness and Feminist Subversions of the Aesthetic (16 Hours)

This module investigates how Dalit and feminist interventions radically dismantled classical and upper-caste aesthetic norms, deploying raw vernacular idioms to expose systemic atrocities and private domestic labor. Students analyze the politics of testimony, subaltern focalization, and linguistic expression and agency.

Readings :-

Core Readings (Primary Texts):

1. Baburao Bagul. 'When I Hid My Caste' and 'The Awakening.' In When I Hid My Caste: Stories. Translated by Jerry Pinto. Mumbai: Speaking Tiger, 2018. (Raw, electrifying Marathi Dalit masterpieces that profoundly transformed Indian literature by depicting the structural violence and psychological mutilations of caste).

2. Lalithambika Antharjanam. 'Admission of Guilt' (Dhirendu). In Cast Me Out If You Will: Stories and Memoir. Translated by Gita Krishnankutty. Calcutta: Stree, 1998. (Groundbreaking Malayalam work detailing the internal trials and patriarchal isolations of Namboodiri brahmin women).

3. Gogu Shyamala. 'Father May Be An Elephant and Mother Only a Small Basket, But...' In Father May Be An Elephant and Mother Only a Small Basket, But... Translated by T. Vijay Kumar. New Delhi: SAGE/Yoda Press, 2012. (Rich, complex Madiga Dalit short stories celebrating subaltern labor, childhood resilience, and community defense).

 

Suggested Critical Essays:

1. Sharankumar Limbale. 'Dalit Literature and its Aesthetic Principles.' In Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature. Translated by Alok Mukherjee. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2004, pp. 22-48.

2. Sharmila Rege. 'Writing Caste/Writing Gender: Narrating Dalit Women's Testimonies.' In Feminist Studies, vol. 24, no. 1, 1998, pp. 85-112.

Module V: Contemporary Frontiers: Speculative Fiction, Ecology, and Borderland Cartographies (16 Hours)

This concluding module explores how twenty-first-century Indian short fiction morphs to represent global migration, military environments, ecological collapse, and speculative worlds. Students study how genre-bending forms—such as speculative realism, fabulism, and fragmented testimonials—allow contemporary writers to articulate the complex, unstable borders of identity and place. Creative workshops culminate in speculative drafting and narrative design.

Readings :-

Core Readings (Primary Texts):

1. Temsula Ao. 'The Last Song' and 'The Woodcutter.' In These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2006. (Stunning, quiet English short stories tracking the devastating local memories of Nagaland's militancy and everyday structural pressures).

2. Kanishk Tharoor. 'Swimmer Among the Stars' and 'Tale of the Teahouse.' In Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories. New Delhi: Aleph Book Company, 2016. (Sophisticated contemporary speculative fiction exploring historical loss, linguistic extinctions, and global empire through fabulism).

3. Arupa Patangia Kalita. 'The Invitation' and 'The Wall.' In Written in Tears: Stories. Translated by Ranjita Biswas. New Delhi: Harper Perennial, 2015. (Assamese feminist stories unpacking the political violence, local upheavals, and female survival networks in contemporary Assam).

Suggested Critical Essays:

1. Tilottoma Misra. 'Gender and Narrative in Northeast Indian English Fiction.' In Journal of Creative Communications, vol. 4, no. 2, 2009, pp. 115-131.

Pedagogy:

Instructional strategies:

• Theoretical grounding in short story structure, narratology, and regional modernisms
• Historical progression across modules from early print foundations to speculative forms
• Critical analysis-based discussions of primary readings and secondary essay materials
• Practice-led workshops focusing on dialogue, pacing, focalization, and speculative world-building