What Is Metaphysical Poetry? Metaphysical Poetry , a Term Coined by Samuel Johnson, Has Its Roots in 17Th-Century England

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What is metaphysical poetry? Metaphysical poetry , a term coined by Samuel Johnson, has its roots in 17th-century England. This type of poetry is witty, ingenious, and highly philosophical. It topics included love, life and existence. It used literary elements of similes, metaphors, imagery, paradoxes, conceit, and far-fetched views of reality. John Donne is regarded as the “leading poet” of this highly intellectual form of poetry. Donne was influenced by the belief that the precision of beauty in the adored (loved one) behaved as a commemoration of ideal beauty in the everlasting kingdom (heaven). He also used unconventional and colloquial rhythm and tone, which was highly contrary to the Elizabethan poetry style. AGAIN First we should pay our attention the word 'Metaphysical'. It is made of 2 words 'meta' - beyond and 'physical' - our sorroundings means such artificial world. Thus the combine sense in association with poetry is - The Poetry that is having a particular sense that is beyond this artificial world. It means Heavenly / Spritual / Intllectual thought. Posted by Santanu Halder at 9:59 AM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Sunday, February 19, 2012

LITERARY TERMS LITERARY TERMS Definition of Elegy An elegy is a poetic lament for the dead. Its tone is mournful and formal. The form began in ancient Greece where it followed rules of content: the first section expressed grief, the second praised the dead, and the last offered consolation. The form continues to be used in modern times. Whitman wrote "O Captain! My Captain!" as an elegy for Abraham Lincoln, and Celan memorialized Holocaust victims in "Fugue of Death." Modern elegies are more likely to expand meaning beyond the death of a particular individual to a more universal cause for grieving. Definition of Lyric Poem In ancient Greece, lyric poetry was sung to the accompaniment of a musical instrument called a lyre, and its subject matter embraced thoughts and sentiment, rather than heroic deeds or other classical subjects. Housman's "Loveliest of Trees" provides an example of the personal insight associated with lyric poetry: "Loveliest of trees, the cherry now/Is hung with bloom along the bough/And stands about the woodland ride/Wearing white for Eastertide./ Now, of my threescore years and ten,/Twenty will not come again,/And take from seventy springs a score,/It only leaves me fifty more./And since to look at things in bloom/Fifty springs are little room,/About the woodlands I will go/To see the cherry hung with snow." Definition of Conceit A conceit is an intricate extended metaphor, which compares two extremely incongruous ideas and arrives at a surprisingly apt parallel. Most often found in 17th century literature, one of the most famous conceits is seen in Donne's "The Flea," in which he argues that because a flea has bitten both the lady and her lover, their blood is already mixed and intimacy has been achieved. He prevents her from killing the flea, saying: "Oh stay! three lives in one flea spare/Where we almost, yea more than married are./This flea is you and I, and this/Our marriage-bed and marriage-temple is." Conceits often employ hyperbole and paradox. Definition of Ode An ode is a long lyric poem, usually written in stanzas and formal in tone. Originally intended to be chanted to musical accompaniment, the ode is often written in an intricate meter. Most odes are meditations on various themes, such as Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind," Gray's "The Bard," and Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn." While often studied, the ode has not been a popular form since the early 19th century. Definition of Couplet A couplet is two lines of poetry that generally rhyme, have the same rhythm, and are usually about the same length. Rhymed couplets written in iambic pentameter are called heroic couplets. Entire poems can be made up of a series of couplets ("A Visit from St. Nicholas"), couplets may help comprise part of a poetic form (for example, Shakespearean sonnets always end with a couplet), or a couplet might stand by itself as a complete poem. Poetic epigrams are also considered to be couplets. Although couplets are most often associated with English and French verse, they are also popular in Chinese and Tamil poetry. Definition of Sonnet Deriving from the Italian word for "little song," the sonnet arose as a form in the 13th century and gained in popularity throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance. A sonnet has fourteen lines, a strict rhyme scheme, and, in English, is written in iambic pentameter. The English or Shakespearean Sonnet has a rhyme scheme of a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g- g, where the first 12 lines comprise 3 quatrains and the last 2 lines form a couplet. Although Italian in origin, the Petrarchan Sonnet is also popular in English. The rhyme scheme is most often a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-c-d-c-d, forming an octave and sestet. The topic of the sonnet is traditionally contrasting ideas, emotions, beliefs, actions, Posted by Santanu Halder at 10:04 AM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Thursday, February 16, 2012

Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy. From the Poetics Aristotle’s Ideas About Tragedy Aristotle was one of the greatest philosophers of Ancient Greece. A philosopher loo ks for ideal form s, and tries toexplain the nature of reality. The search for ideal forms led Aristotle to explore many subjects. His analysis of the ideal form of tragic plays became a guideline for later playwrights in Western civilization. For centuries, European playwrights like William Shakespeare tried to write plays that would match the ideals of Aristotle’s model.Drama was not invented by Aristotle. In fact, he used examples from the works of famous Greek playwrights such as Sophocles to illustrate his main ideas. The Greeks believed that tragedy was the highest form of drama, and Aristotle’s ideas about tragedy we re based on this belief. Aristotle’s Definition of Tragedy. “A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious an d also, a s having magnitude, complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language;...in a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear,wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.” 1. “the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself;” This means that a good tragedy deals with one issue that is very “serious.” You can’t have a tragedy about something trivial like breaking a fingernail. “Magnitude” here means great importance. The issue has to be serious and very, very important. That’s why a lot of tragedies deal with someone’s death. “Complete in itself” means that the play must stick to the one issue; otherwise, the audience will get lost in the p lot. 2. “in appropriate and pleasurable language:” Ancient Greek tragedy had a chorus whose role was to comment on the action of the play. The chorus sometimes sang their part. Aristotle said that the language should be easy to listen to. It should have rhythm and also good harmony for th e lines th at were sung. 3. “in a dramatic rather than narrative form;” To narrate a story is simply to tell the story, like telling a friend wh at happened over the w eekend. In a play, the story must be dra matized or a cted out. 4. “with incidents arousing pity and fear,” In a tragedy, the events or episodes in the play should lead the audience to feel very sorry for the main character--the tragic hero. The audience should also feel afraid for the he ro as he moves toward a destructive end. 5. “wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.” As the play moves along, the events should build up the emotions of pity and fear. A catharsis is a purging, or cleansing of th e emotions --a release o f tension. In a trage dy, this is often a moment o f revelation w hen the tragic hero “falls flat on his face,” and the audience can finally “explode.” Aristotle’s Elements of Tragedy Aristotle said that tragedy has six main eleme nts: 1. Plot; 2. Character; 3. Thought; 4. Diction; 5. Melody; 6. Spectacle. These will be described from least important to most important. The last four elements (Thought, Diction, Melody, and Spectacle) are the least important, but Aristotle felt they must be done well for the play to succeed. Thought is the power of saying w hatever can be sa id and should be said at each moment of the plot. Do the lines spoken by the actors make sense? Are they saying what should be s aid at each particular moment in the play? Diction is the actual composition of the lines that are recited. Thought deals with what is said, and d iction deals w ith how it is said. There are many ways to say something. A good playwright composes lines that say something extremely well. In a good play, some lines are so well constructed that the audience can leave the play quoting the lines exactly. Melody and Spectacle are accesso ries. The G reeks sometime s used mus ical accomp animent. Aris totle said the m usic (melody) h as to blend in with the p lay approp riately. Spectac le refers to the staging of the play . Again, as with melody, the spectacle should be appropriate to the theme of the play. Character Characte r is the secon d most impo rtant elemen t of tragedy. Ea ch charac ter has an es sential quality or nature tha t is revealed in the plo t. The moral purpose of each character must be clear to the audience. The chara cters sh ould have four main qualities. A. No matter who they are (hero or slave), the characters must be good in some way. B. The characters should act appropriately for their gender and station in life. C. The characters have to have believable personalities. D. Each character must act consistently throughout the play. In other words, nothing should be done or said that could be seen as “acting out of cha racter.” Plot Aristotle felt that the action of the play (its plot) was the most important of the six elements. He said, “All human hap piness or mis ery takes the fo rm of action... .Characte r gives us qualities, but it is in our actions--what we do--that we are happy or miserable.” 1. There must be Unity of Plot. This has a lready bee n described in the definitio n which talks about “one complete action.” Any events or episodes must be necessary to the main issue and must also be probable or believable. 2. A good plot has Peripety or Discovery--sometimes both. Peripety is the change from one state of things at the beginning of the play to the exact opposite state by the end of the play. This could be something like the change from being rich to being poor, or from being powerful to being powerless, or from being a ruler to being a beggar. The change that takes place in a tragedy should take the main ch aracter (and possibly othe r characters) from a state of happ iness to a state of misery. Discovery is a change fro m ignorance to knowled ge. This often happens to the tragic hero who starts out “clueless” and slowly learns how he himself created the mess he ends up in at the end of the play. 3. Change by itself is not enough. The character involved in the change must have specific characteristics to arouse the tragic emotions of pity and fear. Therefore, Aristotle said that there are three forms of plot that should be avoided. A. A totally good man must not pass from happiness to misery. This will make the audience angry that bad things happened to him. They won’t pity him so much as be angry for him. B. A bad man must not pass from misery to hap piness. This won’t appeal to the audience at all because they won’t want to see evil rewarded. C. A bad man can not pass from happin ess to misery. The audience won’t feel sorry for him because they will believe he got what he deserved. The true tragic hero cannot be too good or too bad, but he must end up in misery. Aristotle concluded that the be st tragedy centers on a basically good man who cha nges from happiness to misery because of some great error. For example, he might have a good quality, like pride, that gets out of hand. 4. The plo t of a tragedy als o involves som e horrible o r evil deed. Th e tragic hero eith er does it consciou sly, does it out of ignorance, or mediates it (makes it easy for the deed to happen). For the audience to be horrified by the evil deed, the evil has to be done to someone important to the tragic hero. If the hero kills his enemy, the deed won’t seem so bad. On the other hand, if the hero kills someone he doesn’t care about, the audience won’t care much either. To make it really horrible for the audience, Aristotle suggested that the evil deed should be done to a family member. Posted by Santanu Halder at 8:39 PM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

The Epic: Definition The Epic Definition:-- A long narrative poem on a great and serious subject, related in an elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race. The traditional epics were shaped by a literary artist from historical and legendary materials which had developed in the oral traditions of his nation during a period of expansion and warfare (Beowulf, The Odyssey, The Iliad). Epic Conventions, or characteristics common to both types include: 1. The hero is a figure of great national or even cosmic importance, usually the ideal man of his culture. He often has superhuman or divine traits. He has an imposing physical stature and is greater in all ways than the common man. 2. The setting is vast in scope. It covers great geographical distances, perhaps even visiting the underworld, other wortlds, other times. 3. The action consists of deeds of valor or superhuman courage (especially in battle). 4. Supernatural forces interest themselves in the action and intervene at times. The intervention of the gods is called "machinery." 5. The style of writing is elevated, even ceremonial. 6. Additional conventions: certainly all are not always present) 1. Opens by stating the theme of the epic. 2. Writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus. The poet prays to the muses to provide him with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero. 3. Narrative opens in media res. This means "in the middle of things," usually with the hero at his lowest point. Earlier portions of the story appear later as flashbacks. 4. Catalogs and geneaologies are given. These long lists of objects, places, and people place the finite action of the epic within a broader, universal context. Oftentimes, the poet is also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members. 5. Main characters give extended formal speeches. 6. Use of the epic simile. A standard simile is a comparison using "like" or "as." An epic or Homeric simile is a more involved, ornate comparison, extended in great detail. 7. Heavy use of repetition and stock phrases. The poet repeats passages that consist of several lines in various sections of the epic and uses homeric epithets, short, recurrent phrases used to describe people, places, or things. Both made the poem easier to memorize.

Aristotle described six characteristics: "fable, action, characters, sentiments, diction, and meter." Since then, critics have used these criteria to describe two kinds of epics:

Serious Epic Comic Epic  fable and action are grave and  fable and action are light and solemn ridiculous  characterrs are the highest  characters are inferior  sentiments and diction preserve the  sentiments and diction preserve the sublime ludicrous

 verse  verse

When the first novelists began writing what were later called novels, they thought they were writing "prose epics." Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, and Samuel Ruichardson attempted the comic form. Yet what they wrote were true novels, not epics, and there are differences.

The Epic Comic Epic  oral and poetic language  written and referential language  public and remarkable deeds  private, daily experiencer  historical or legendary hero  humanized "ordinary" characters  collective enterprise  individual enterprise  generalized setting in time and place  particularized setting in time and place  rigid traditional structure according to previous patterns  structure determined by actions of character within a moral pattern

“An extended narrative poem, usually simple in construction, but grand in scope, exalted in style, and heroic in theme, often giving expression to the ideals of a nation or race. ” Sidelight: Homer, the author of The Iliad and The Odyssey, is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Epic Poetry." Based on the conventions he established, classical epics began with an argument and an invocation to a guiding spirit, then started the narrative in medias res. In modern use, the term, "epic," is generally applied to all lengthy works on matters of great importance. The Rhapsodoi, professional reciters, memorized his work and passed it on by word of mouth as part of an oral tradition. Posted by Santanu Halder at 1:49 AM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Monday, February 13, 2012

ENGLISH CIVIL WAR AND RESTORATION

English Civil War: A few words

The war was an violent struggle for power between Parliament and the king that at first seemed to have been settled in favor of Parliament, but in the end created a constitutional monarchy.

In 1642 when both Parliament and King declared they had control of the army. When some members of the army chose to obey the king while others chose to obey Parliament, the civil war began. It ended in 1649 with the execution of Charles I by Parliament&emdash;the seeming victory of Parliament. Yet, within a few years, Oliver Cromwell was dictator (he called himself the Lord Protector), and he ruled England for most of the 1650s. By the time he died, the English ruling class was ready to do almost anything to restore the monarchy, and Charles II returned to England in 1660. His return was nearly bloodless.

The conflict between king and Parliament has a very long history, going back almost to the beginnings of Parliament itself. For this essay, however, I choose to begin with a few words about James I. English Civil War Background to the Conflict

James VI of Scotland became James I of England. James was an autocratic king, a believer in divine right, and was innately suspicious of Parliament. He came from Scotland where he'd been overshadowed and, he felt, bullied. He came to England determined to be a true king.

He was well-educated and was at first well-recieved. Soon enough, however, he offended Parliament with his autocratic behavior. Parliament protested, but James usually mollifed and temporized, and managed to avoid serious crises.

James' maneuvering merely delayed a confrontation. After he died in 1625, the members of Parliament were determined to assert their claims. But they met with a new king who was every bit as autocratic as the old one. Charles I (1625-1649)

Charles managed to do just about everything wrong, even when it wasn't his fault. For example, his father arranged a marriage with a Spanish princess. Because she was both Spanish and Catholic, she was instantly despised by the Parliamentary party. Moreover, Charles began to rely increasingly on French advisors at court, worsening the situation.

Charles was a failure in war with Spain, his ministers were widely hated, and he was even more arrogant with Parliament than his father had been, scolding them in letters and ignoring their pleas. The Parliament he called in 1628 turned out to make so many claims that he ordered it adjourned. When the speaker of the House rose to announce the king's command, two members of Parliament forcibly held him down while others gave impassioned speeches and passed resolutions. When they were quite done, they adjourned themselves. Charles was so outraged by this behavior, he went eleven years before calling another Parliament.

All of these problems could have been resolved except for one final and crucial failure, the one sort of failure never allowed a king: he lost in war. In his battles with England's mortal enemy, Spain, Charles failed where good Queen Bess had so spectacularly succeeded. In 1639, the Scots rose in rebellion, too, and Charles finally had to turn to Parliament to raise money. Religion and the Scottish Question

Much of the conflict between king and Parliament centered around religion. Charles was widely believed to favor Catholics, if not himself secretly one. Certainly his behavior toward Protestants in England lent credence to the rumors.

One of the chief issues concerned the Book of Common Prayer, a book of prayers recognized by the Anglican Church as the only one legal. The Puritans led the criticism of this level of state control over religious practice. Another sore point was access to public office, for only Anglicans were allowed to hold government office.

When Charles determined to force the Anglican prayer book on the fiercely Calvinist Scots, it sparked open rebellion. In 1639, rather than submit, the Scots formed an army and invaded England. Charles suddenly found that he could save his kingdom only by turning to Parliament. After eleven years, the new members of Parliament had a long list of grievances. The Long Parliament

The parliament that was summoned in 1640 sat for thirteen years, becoming a power within the government in its own right. With the Scots occupying most of northern England, and with Ireland in full revolt as well, Charles had no choice but to agree to Parliament's demands. The political reforms went down smoothly enough, but when Parliament turned to religious reform, splits began to show clearly.

On one side was the king and those who supported him--the Royalist party, also called the Cavaliers. On another side were the Independents, who wanted to do away with the Anglican Church altogether. Another group was the Presbyterians, who wanted to reform the Anglican Church along the lines of the Scottish national church. Both these were what we would call Puritans.

Also among the Puritans was an even more extreme group called the Levellers. They called for annual sessions of Parliaments, payment for members, and the right to vote for all householders; in short, an end to privilege based on birth.

Religion and politics were thus completely tangled together in England in the 1640s. By late 1641, many of the most pressing political reforms had been enacted by Parliament, and Charles may have had an opportunity to calm the situation. But Charles I was not the man for moderation. Civil War

In March 1642 Charles, believing that Parliament had gone too far when it issued the Grand Remonstrance, moved to arrest John Pym and four other leaders. Charles himself entered Parliament with solders and a warrant, but Pym and the others were gone, having been tipped off in advance.

They fled to London where they were hidden by Puritan loyalists, who dominated the city government. The King demanded the return of Pym, but the citizens refused. London, at least, was in rebellion.

That summer Parliament, fearing military action, tried to seize control of the army by issuing orders for soldiers to report to Parliamentary, rather than royal, representatives. The King countered by ordering the bill ignored and raised his own army in August. Some turned out for the King, some for Parliament, and the war was on. War with the King

Those loyal to Parliament were called Roundheads; those loyal to the king were Cavaliers. The Independents dominated the Parliamentary army. Royalist strength lay in the north and west; Roundhead strength was in the south and especially in London.

Parliament was now free of the king and it passed numerous reforms, though Pym and the radicals want to go even further. The Presbyterians and royalist sympathizers still acted as a check against the extremists.

Battle of Edgehill: The first real battle between king and Parliament came in October 1642 at Edgehill. It was an inconclusive battle, but it showed both that Parliament was not strong enough to defeat the king, and that Charles was unable to take London.

January 1643, Parliament sent out a delegation to negotiate peace, but Charles was feeling stronger and refused to talk. But there was a peace party within Parliament that was willing to compromise with the king in order to bring the civil war to an end.

Both sides were seizing the estates of their enemies to finance the war effort, creating even more political chaos. The King gained several victories in 1643, which all the more inclined him not to negotiate or compromise with the rebels. Marston Moor In December 1643, John Pym died, but before he did he had struck a deal with the Scots. This was always Charles' great worry, that the rebels would ally with the Scots. So, just when he was feeling stronger, Charles found himself visited with a new calamity.

January 1644 the Scots invaded England again, 20,000 strong. A royalist army, led by Prince Rupert, went north to meet them and on 2 July 1644, the Battle of Marston Moor occurred. It was a day-long confrontation with only skirmishing for most of it.

Toward the end of the day, Oliver Cromwell led a cavalry charge that swept through the Cavaliers, around back, and then charged again into their flanks. Cromwell's charge brought a complete victory for the Roundheads.

York fell soon after, giving the Roundheads the two largest cities in the realm. Charles found himself very much on the run. The New Model Army Increasingly, the issue that faced Parliament was what to do with the king. The moderates did not want to bring the King to a final battle, fearing what it might mean. They wanted a negotiated settlement, not the death of their king.

The radicals wanted it all -- these were the Independents and Oliver Cromwell was emerging as their leader.

In 1644, Parliament passed Self-Denying Ordinance, intended to get soldiers out of Parliament, for the Roundhead army was largely officered by MPs. Cromwell was specifically exempted because everyone recognized he was the rebels' most effective general. All other MPs were to lay down their military commands and a new army was formed.

Parliament's army was now a national army, levied from all those areas under Roundhead control. It was a Puritan army, too, with Puritan preachers in every unit. Parliament had managed to get politics out of the army, but not religion. Final Victory The first test for the New Model Army came soon enough. At Naseby, 14 June 1645, Roundhead and Cavaliers again met. Again, Cromwell was victorious with his cavalry charge. The Roundheads had demonstrated superior discipline.

Naseby marks the real victory of Parliament. Charles ducked and ran for another year, but surrendered finally in May 1646, not to Parliament but to the Scots. The Scots, however, turned the king over to Parliament in February 1647.

Parliament had won its victory. The English king was now a captive. The question now was: what next? The Army Takes Over Parliament had won, but really it was the army that had won, and that army was deeply tied to radical religious movements all over England. The radical ministers within the army were agitating for even more change and stronger measures, and the soldiers had proved there really wasn't anyone in England with the strength to oppose them. Worse, Parliament was broke and couldn't pay the soldiers, giving them cause for grievances.

Parliament was still being led by men of more moderate persuasion, or at least by men who sought some sort of settlement with the king. After long negotiation, in May 1647, Charles agreed in principle to accept both presbyterianism and parliamentary control of the army for a limited number of years. In exchange, Parliament ordered the current army to disband.

The army refused. Oliver Cromwell took charge of the army and set a guard over Charles to prevent the King from further negotiating with Parliament behind the army's back. The captain guard on his own removed Charles in the night to Hampton Court, giving the radical army direct possession of the king. Radical High Tide

Because of their attempts to negotiate secretly with the king, the Army in June demanded the arrest of 11 MPs (Members of Parliament). Parliament refused, and the Army marched on London.

The Independents in Parliament went over to the Army, which was now camped outside the city. At this juncture there occurred a vigorous discussion of what should be done. The Army was in the position of acting against both King and Parliament, and the real issue was whether the cause of reform justified such radical action.

Putney Debates: The debates that now occurred, in the fields of Putney, developed in no formal order, but we have a number of accounts that let us know the the tenor of the discussion. The debates show us one of the first true popular debates over the nature of sovereignty, and the issues laid out here will be debated again in the American Revolution and the French Revolution.

The Levellers, the strongest of the radical groups, demanded an end to King, Lords and Commons, and rule by Parliament. The new Parliament would be elected annually, so that the voice of the people should not be silenced for too long, and election would be by manhood suffrage, poor and servants excepted. That is, the right to vote was to be extended to the working class of England. They demanded also reduction of tithes, abolition of restraint on trade, and liberty of conscience.

But other, smaller groups, went even further. Most notorious were the Diggers, who advocated the abolition of private property and an end to government. The rumblings from the Army were attacking the very bases of society.

Cromwell decided the whole business was becoming dangerous and ordered the Levellers back to their regiments. Some resisted and Cromwell himself attacked them, arresting three and executing one. With Cromwell's attack, the Putney Debates came to an end. There would be no apocalyptic reform in England.

But, having decided against the more radical elements in the Army, the question of what to do next, and especially what to do with the king became even more pressing. With his actions since Naseby, Cromwell had emerged as the real leader of Parliament. The Adventures of Charles I

In November 1647, Charles escaped from Hampton Court. He fled to Isle of Wight where he opened negotiations with Parliament and with the Scots. The Stuarts came from Scotland, and Charles always believed he would receive better treatment at the hands of the Scots than of Parliament.

In January 1648, Cromwell, fed up with the king's behavior, denounced Charles to Parliament. More of the moderates left at this time, as it became clear that the sentiment was to depose the king in some manner. Parliament was increasingly dominated by the radicals, led by Oliver Cromwell and cronies.

Not all England supported the Puritans, of whatever stripe; many were still loyal to the king, believing the nation ought not be ruled by a Parliament. Royalist uprisings in Kent and Wales in April 1648, although put down quickly, show that Charles still had his supporters.

That summer, the Scots invaded again, but now it's Cromwell and Parliament, rather than the king, who fight and defeat them (in August 1648). Charles made the mistake of joining the Scottish army and was again captured. Execution of the King By December 1648 the Levellers dominated London, keeping the more moderate members away by force and threat of force. Parliament now consisted of only about 70 members, all Independents under Cromwell's leadership, trying to steer a course between King and presbyterians and Levellers.

This is the Parliament that finally brought the King to trial for treason. The trial began 20 January 1649 and took only a few days. Charles conducted himself with a calm dignity that impressed even his enemies. He was convicted of treason by a vote of 26 to 20, for 24 members refused to vote. He was beheaded before a large but silent crowd on 30 January 1649. His stoicism and dignity, at his trial and at his execution, went far to repair public opinion of him.

So did England kill its king. It was the first time the public authority executed a king, either in England or anywhere else in Europe. It marks how far political thinking had advanced, and it marks how strong the non-noble classes had grown. It also showed yet again, as if anyone needed the demonstration, of how powerful a political force religion could be. Oliver Cromwell

The undisputed leader of Parliament was Oliver Cromwell. He had been born in Huntingdon, East Anglia in 1599, while Elizabeth was still queen. His family had done well out of the Dissolution of monasteries, under Henry VIII, but Cromwell was not wealthy.

He first appeared in Parliament in 1627, but his early political career was unremarkable. He grew in influence when he sided with Henry Pym and became identified with those who opposed the king.

He was a plain-looking, plain-living man with an obstinate will and a genuine talent for command and battle. He came into his own through the army. He believed utterly that he was called by God to save England and protestantism. Rumblings The Levellers were not appeased by the execution of Charles. Their program was aimed at levelling the edifice of authority, and they saw only that the titles had changed.

"We were before ruled by King, Lords and Commons, now by a General, a Court Martial and House of Commons. And we pray you what is the difference?"

The radical wing of the movement was getting even more radical -- Fifth Monarchists and Diggers. These fomented more revolts and Cromwell ordered more executions. He acted so decisively that he pretty well broke the Levellers. Foreign Affairs

August 1649-February 1650 Cromwell was in Ireland, battling the rebels there. He returned in 1650 to fight off yet another Scottish invasion, this one was led by Charles' son. Cromwell defeated this invasion decisively at Dunbar and took Edinburgh in December.

In August 1651 the Scots tried it again. Charles II led them again and Cromwell defeated them again, this time near Worcester on September 3. Charles fled to France. In 1652 war broke out with Holland. Cromwell won this one the following year. In the course of this war, the British navy was further expanded and developed. Parliament and Cromwel

During these years, Cromwell found Parliament to be a contrary and difficult body, and he was as unhappy as Charles had been with it. But he also found himself every bit as dependent on it as Charles had been, for he too needed money for the wars.

He had already asked Parliament to disband and it had refused. In April 1653, Parliament proposed to expand its membership and to sit permanently.

Cromwell entered the House during the debate. He listened for a while, then rose to his feet and shouted:

"Come, come! I will put an end to your prating. You are no Parliament. I say you are no Parliament. I will put an end to your sitting."

Before the stunned MPs could recover, Cromwell had called his troops into the House and cleared it. Oliver Cromwell had seized power. Parliament of the Saints Cromwell tried once more, calling a new Parliament, known as the Parliament of Saints, or the Bare-bones Parliament. It was the most radical yet, though, and he dissolved it after six months of squabbling.

Cromwell had adopted the title of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. By April 1653 had moved into Whitehall, the former royal residence, with his family. He was effectively the dictator of England. The Protectorate

Three parliaments were convened during the Protectorate and Cromwell had trouble with all three. In March 1657, moderates offered Cromwell the crown, but he refused it. He did, however, accept the right to name his successor. He named his son.

Cromwell's rule as Lord Protector was plagued with war. There were Royalist revolts, an especially serious one occurring in 1655. There was war with Spain in 1656, in addition to the earlier conflicts with Ireland, Scotland and Holland. The many wars left the treasury empty, making it difficult to accomplish much else.

Still, Cromwell did manage to hold at bay England's many enemies. he acquired Dunkirk and Jamaica as a result of his wars. The British Navy under Cromwell became a regular military service. And, of course, Puritans at last found a place in English government.

Cromwell died 3 September 1658. His son succeeded him, but Richard Cromwell was not a strong ruler, and almost immediately the royalists began to work for a restoration of the Stuarts. English Civil War :The Restoration Richard Cromwell was unfit for rule. All his generals defected, and his support was gone within a year of his accession as Lord Protector. On the other hand, Charles II was tactful, clever, manipulative, patient, but completely determined to exercise royal rights.

In 1660, backed by French money and Scottish cooperation, Charles landed in England with only a few hundred men. Every town went over to him; even Parliamentary armies went over to him. His march on London was more like a victory parade. Richard quickly abdicated and Charles was crowned king.

Cromwell's Protectorate had never been popular. England suffered it because there had been no one left to oppose the Army and the Army belonged to him. Once the general died, the traditional political forces quickly re-asserted themselves: king and Parliament. Settlement

Very soon, Parliament was back in its former position. Charles was smart enough not to oppose Parliament openly. Instead, he manipulated individual members behind the scenes, buying them off with favors. He coddled and stroked and never allowed any disagreement to go too far.

In exchange, Charles was able to ensure that English kings were firmly in power again, though a king could never again rule without Parliament. In 1688 James II tried to and he was run out of the country.

Even as England tolerated the Lord Protector, though the underlying question of the role of Parliament was unresolved, so it tolerated Charles. When James succeeded Charles, the old questions arose again. Once again a Stuart tried to rule without Parliament and once again there was rebellion. The Glorious Revolution

The English call the rebellion of 1688 the Glorious Revolution because there was a major change of government effected without bloodshed. James fled England without a fight. Parliament called in William, the ruler of Holland, and made him king.

Parliament was now firmly in command of English politics. William agreed to religious toleration and to Parliament's claims to authority. In exchange, he got the title of king and the resources of England.

The Glorious Revolution marks the real end of the English Civil War because only in 1688, and not in 1660, were the issues raised by the war -- religious toleration and the role of Parliament -- finally settled. Writers like John Locke lived and worked in this political environment, and it shaped their ideas. Their writings in turn profoundly affected the political thought of the American Revolutionaries of the 1770s. Posted by Santanu Halder at 8:28 AM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Saturday, February 11, 2012

Periods Of English Literature

Periods Of English Literature - Historians normally divide English literature into periods for convenience of discussion. Sometimes the numbers, dates or the names of the periods seem to vary. The following list follows the widespread practice of listing: 450-1066 Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period 1066-1500 Middle English Period 1500-1600 The Renaissance (Early Modern) Period 1558-1603 Elizabethan Age 1603-1625 Jacobean Age 1625-1649 Caroline Age 1649-1660 Commonwealth Period 1600-1785 The Neo-classical Period 1660-1700 Restoration Period 1700-1745 The Augustan Age 1745-1783 The Age Of Sensibility 1785-1830 The Romantic Period 1832-1901 The Victorian Period 1848-1860 The Pre-Raphaelites 1880-1901 Aestheticism and Decadence 1901-1910 The Edwardian Period 1910-1914 The Georgian Period 1914- The Modern Period 1945- Post Modernism Posted by Santanu Halder at 7:43 PM 2 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

The Augustan Age The Augustan Age

The eighteenth century in English literature has been called the Augustan Age, the Neoclassical Age, and the Age of Reason. The term 'the Augustan Age' comes from the self-conscious imitation of the original Augustan writers, Virgil and Horace, by many of the writers of the period. Specifically, the Augustan Age was the period after the Restoration era to the death of Alexander Pope (~1690 - 1744). The major writers of the age were Pope and John Dryden in poetry, and Jonathan Swift and Joseph Addison in prose. Dryden forms the link between Restoration and Augustan literature; although he wrote ribald comedies in the Restoration vein, his verse satires were highly admired by the generation of poets who followed him, and his writings on literature were very much in a neoclassical spirit. But more than any other it is the name of Alexander Pope which is associated with the epoch known as the Augustan Age, despite the fact that other writers such as Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe had a more lasting influence. This is partly a result of the politics of naming inherent in literary history: many of the early forms of prose narrative common at this time did not fit into a literary era which defined itself as neoclassic. The literature of this period which conformed to Pope's aesthetic principles (and could thus qualify as being 'Augustan') is distinguished by its striving for harmony and precision, its urbanity, and its imitation of classical models such as Homer, Cicero, Virgil, and Horace, for example in the work of the minor poet Matthew Prior. In verse, the tight heroic couplet was common, and in prose essay and satire were the predominant forms. Any facile definition of this period would be misleading, however; as important as it was, the neoclassicist impulse was only one strain in the literature of the first half of the eighteenth century. But its representatives were the defining voices in literary circles, and as a result it is often some aspect of 'neoclassicism' which is used to describe the era. 'Neoclassicism' The works of Dryden, Pope, Swift, Addison and John Gay, as well as many of their contemporaries, exhibit qualities of order, clarity, and stylistic decorum that were formulated in the major critical documents of the age: Dryden's An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668), and Pope's Essay on Criticism (1711). These works, forming the basis for modern English literary criticism, insist that 'nature' is the true model and standard of writing. This 'nature' of the Augustans, however, was not the wild, spiritual nature the romantic poets would later idealize, but nature as derived from classical theory: a rational and comprehensible moral order in the universe, demonstrating God's providential design. The literary circle around Pope considered Homer preeminent among ancient poets in his descriptions of nature, and concluded in a circuitous feat of logic that the writer who 'imitates' Homer is also describing nature. From this follows the rules inductively based on the classics that Pope articulated in his Essay on Criticism: Those rules of old discovered, not devised, Are nature still, but nature methodized. Particularly influential in the literary scene of the early eighteenth century were the two periodical publications by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, The Tatler (1709- 11), and The Spectator (1711-12). Both writers are ranked among the minor masters of English prose style and credited with raising the general cultural level of the English middle classes. A typical representative of the post-Restoration mood, Steele was a zealous crusader for morality, and his stated purpose in The Tatler was "to enliven Morality with Wit, and to temper Wit with Morality." With The Spectator, Addison added a further purpose: to introduce the middle-class public to recent developments in philosophy and literature and thus to educate their tastes. The essays are discussions of current events, literature, and gossip often written in a highly ironic and refined style. Addison and Steele helped to popularize the philosophy of John Locke and promote the literary reputation of John Milton, among others. Although these publications each only ran two years, the influence that Addison and Steele had on their contemporaries was enormous, and their essays often amounted to a popularization of the ideas circulating among the intellectuals of the age. With these wide-spread and influential publications, the literary circle revolving around Addison, Steele, Swift and Pope was practically able to dictate the accepted taste in literature during the Augustan Age. In one of his essays for The Spectator, for example, Addison criticized the metaphysical poets for their ambiguity and lack of clear ideas, a critical stance which remained influential until the twentieth century. The literary criticism of these writers often sought its justification in classical precedents. In the same vein, many of the important genres of this period were adaptations of classical forms: mock epic, translation, and imitation. A large part of Pope's work belongs to this last category, which exemplifies the artificiality of neoclassicism more thoroughly than does any other literary form of the period. In his satires and verse epistles Pope takes on the role of an English Horace, adopting the Roman poet's informal candor and conversational tone, and applying the standards of the original Augustan Age to his own time, even addressing George II satirically as "Augustus." Pope also translated the Iliad and the Odyssey, and, after concluding this demanding task, he embarked on The Dunciad (1728), a biting literary satire. The Dunciad is a mock epic, a form of satiric writing in which commonplace subjects are described in the elevated, heroic style of classical epic. By parody and deliberate misuse of heroic language and literary convention, the satirist emphasizes the triviality of the subject, which is implicitly being measured against the highest standards of human potential. Among the best-known mock epic poems of this period in addition to The Dunciad are John Dryden's MacFlecknoe (1682), and Pope's The Rape of the Lock (1714). In The Rape of the Lock, often considered one of the highest achievements of mock epic poetry, the heroic action of epic is maintained, but the scale is sharply reduced. The hero's preparation for combat is transposed to a fashionable boat ride up the Thames, and the ensuing battle is a card game. The hero steals the titular lock of hair while the heroine is pouring coffee. Although the mock epic mode is most commonly found in poetry, its influence was also felt in drama, most notably in John Gay's most famous work, The Beggar's Opera (1728). The Beggar's Opera ludicrously mingles elements of ballad and Italian opera in a satire on Sir Robert Walpole, England's prime minister at the time. The vehicle is opera, but the characters are criminals and prostitutes. Gay's burlesque of opera was an unprecedented stage success and centuries later inspired the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht to write one of his best-known works, Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera, 1928). One of the most well-known mock epic works in prose from this period is Jonathan Swift's The Battle of the Books (1704), in which the old battle between the ancient and the modern writers is fought out in a library between The Bee and The Spider. Although not a mock epic, the satiric impulse is also the driving force behind Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), one of the masterpieces of the period. The four parts describe different journeys of Lemuel Gulliver; to Lilliput, where the pompous activities of the diminutive inhabitants is satirized; to Brobdingnag, a land of giants who laugh at Gulliver's tales of the greatness of England; to Laputa and Lagoda, inhabited by quack scientists and philosophers; and to the land of the Houhynhnms, where horses are civilized and men (Yahoos) behave like beasts. As a satirist Swift's technique was to create fictional speakers such as Gulliver, who utter sentiments that the intelligent reader should recognize as complacent, egotistical, stupid, or mad. Swift is recognized as a master of understated irony, and his name has become practically synonymous with the type of satire in which outrageous statements are offered in a straight-faced manner. The Nature and Graveyard Poets Neoclassicism was not the only literary movement at this time, however. Two schools in poetry rejected many of the precepts of decorum advocated by the neoclassical writers and anticipated several of the themes of Romanticism. The so-called nature poets, for example, treated nature not as an ordered pastoral backdrop, but rather as a grand and sometimes even forbidding entity. They tended to individualize the experience of nature and shun a methodized approach. Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, was a rural poet in an urban era, and the poems of Miscellany Poems by a Lady (1713) were often observations of nature, largely free of neoclassical conventions. Her contemporaries regarded her as little more than a female wit, but she was highly praised by the Romantic poets, particularly William Wordsworth. A further influential poet of this school was James Thomas, whose poetical work The Seasons, which appeared in separate volumes from 1726 to 1730 and beginning with Winter, was the most popular verse of the century. In his treatment of nature, he diverged from the neoclassical writers in many important ways: through sweeping vistas and specific details in contrast to circumscribed, generalized landscapes; exuberance instead of balance; and a fascination with the supernatural and the mysterious, no name just a few. This last was also the major concern of the poets of the Graveyard School. Foremost among them was Edward Young, whose early verses were in the Augustan tradition. In his most famous work, however, The Complaint: or, Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality (1742-45), the melancholy meditations against a backdrop of tombs and death indicate a major departure from the conventions and convictions of the preceding generation. While the neoclassicists regarded melancholia as a weakness, the pervasive mood of The Complaint is a sentimental and pensive contemplation of loss. It was nearly as successful as Thomas's The Seasons, and was translated into a number of major European languages. The Rise of the Novel The most important figure in terms of lasting literary influence during this period, however, was undoubtedly Daniel Defoe. An outsider from the literary establishment ruled by Pope and his cohorts, Defoe was in some ways an anomaly during a period defined as 'Augustan,' despite the fact that he was a writer of social criticism and satire before he turned to novels. He did not belong to the respected literary world, which at best ignored him and his works and at worst derided him. (In 1709, Swift for example referred to him as "the Fellow that was Pilloryed, I have forgot his name.") The works of fiction for which Defoe is remembered, particularly Moll Flanders (1722) and Robinson Crusoe (1719), owe less to the satirical and refined impulse of the Augustan tradition, and more to a contrary tradition of early prose narrative by women, particularly Aphra Behn, Mary Delariviere Manley and Jane Barker. Since Ian Watt's influential study, The Rise of the Novel (1957), literary historians have generally considered Robinson Crusoe the first successful English novel and Defoe as one of the originators of realistic fiction in the eighteenth century, but he was deeply indebted to his female precursors and probably would never have attempted prose narrative if they had not created an audience for it in the first place. The English novel was a product of several differing literary traditions, among them the French romance, the Spanish picaresque tale and novella, and such earlier prose models in English as John Lyly's Euphues (1579), Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia (1590) and John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1684). The authors of these works collectively helped pave the way for the form of the novel as it is known today. The true pioneers of the novel form, however, were the women writers pursuing their craft in opposition to the classically refined precepts of the writers defining the Augustan Age. Particularly influential were Aphra Behn's travel narrative Oroonoko (1688) and her erotic epistolary novel Love Letters Between a Nobleman and his Sister (1683). In Oroonoko, Behn provides numerous details of day to day life and a conversational narrative voice, while with Love Letters she pioneered the epistolary form for a longer work of fiction, over fifty years before Richardson. The political prose satires of Mary Delariviere Manley were racy exposés of high-society scandals written in the tradition of Love Letters, Behn's erotic roman à clef. Manley's novels The Secret History of Queen Zarah and the Zaraians (1705) and The New Atalantis (1709) were widely popular in their day and helped create an audience for prose narratives that was large enough to support the new breed of the professional novelist. Eliza Haywood also began her career writing erotic tales with an ostensibly political or high society background. Her first novel, Love in Excess (1719) went through four editions in as many years. In the thirties, her writing underwent a transformation suitable to the growing moral concerns of the era, and her later novels show the influence of her male contemporaries Richardson and Fielding (this despite the fact that she may have been the author of Anti-Pamela (1741), an early attack on Richardson's first novel). Haywood's The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751) in particular belongs in a more realistic tradition of writing, bringing the action from high society into the realm of the middle class, and abandoning the description of erotic encounters. Particularly interesting among the work of early women novelists is that of Jane Barker. Her novel Loves Intrigues: Or, The History of the Amours of Bosvil and Galesia (1713) tells in first-person narrative the psychologically realistic tale of a heroine who doesn't get her man. The portrayal of Galesia's emotional dilemma, caught in a web of modesty, social circumstances and the hero's uncertainty and indecisiveness, captures intriguing facets of psychological puzzles without providing easy answers for the readers. Galesia retreats from marriage, hardly knowing why she does so or how the situation came about, and the reader is no smarter. Many of the elements of the modern novel attributed to Defoe -- e.g. the beginnings of psychological realism and a consistent narrative voice -- were anticipated by women writers. Defoe's contribution was in putting them all together and creating out of these elements sustained prose narratives blending physical and psychological realism. His most impressive works, such as Moll Flanders and Roxana (1724), treated characters faced with the difficulties of surviving in a world of recognizably modern economic forces. Given his capitalist philosophy, it is not surprising that Defoe's protagonists are self-reliant, resourceful individualists who express his middle-class values. In his attempt to balance individualism and economic realism with a belief in God's providence, Defoe created multi-faceted characters who combine repentance for past misdeeds with a celebration of the individual's power to survive in a hostile environment. Although Defoe and his female contemporaries were looked down upon by the intellectual establishment represented by Pope and Swift, later developments in literary history have shown that it was they who would define the literature of a new age, and not the so-called Augustans. While the novel remains the dominant literary form of the twentieth century, mock epic is at best an element used occasionally in comedy. Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders are still widely read; The Rape of the Lock is mentioned in history books. Jonathan Swift produced an enduring classic as well with Gulliver's Travels, but despite his brilliance it is the merchant Daniel Defoe, a journalist who saw writing as "a considerable branch of the English commerce" (Essay upon Literature, 1726), who is considered the father of the English novel. Posted by Santanu Halder at 8:44 AM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

SYLLABUS B.A. Honours in English WBSU

West Bengal State University Berunanpukuria, Malikapur Barasat, North 24 Parganas West Bengal – 700126

Part-I Papers

15 marks – within 500-550 words; 10 marks – 400 words; 8 marks 300 words; 5 marks 200 words; 2 marks—within 50-60 words.

Paper I : Old English, Middle English, Elizabethan and Jacobean Literature and Philology Full Marks: 100 Examination Time: 4 hours. Number of Questions to be answered during the examination

Detailed Course: SECTION 1. Old English Poetry- Background of the age, culture, structure of the epic, style, theme. A passage from Beowulf (see appendix I). The idea is to use an extract and from there work into the context and analyse how that shapes the writing. Non-epic, secular, elegiac poetry, theme, style, social picture, language,style : Deor’s Lament (see appendix I) Christian poetry- Caedmon’s hymn; Cynewulf, The Fates of the Apostles; Dream of the Rood (see appendix I) Old English Prose with extracts from Aelfric, Wulfstan, Alfred and the Old English Chronicle. (Extracts not provided for the current session) SECTION 2. Middle English Literature – The Norman conquest and transition, the romance tradition, the alliterative revival (See Appendix I), the Black Death, Langland, Gower, Lydgate; Chaucer, General background, literary career, an extract from the Prologue (see appendix I )Metrical Romances, Malory, Caxton. Prose, Wyclif and Mandeville. SECTION 3. Elizabethan/ Jacobean Age. The historical, political, socio-cultural background, literary/intellectual details. The generic/social history of poetry and poetic forms (to be tied up with the poems of the period that are being taught).

SECTION 4. The following poems are for detailed study: Sidney, Loving in truth Spenser, One day I wrote her name upon the strand Shakespeare, Sonnet 18, 73, 116 Donne, The Good Morrow Marvell, To His Coy Mistress Vaughan, The Retreat SECTION 5. Elizabethan/Jacobean Prose, The phenomenal growth of English prose from late medieval religious prose, through the translations from Latin that culminated in the issue of King James’s Bible. Other categories of prose, secular romances, narratives, travelogues to be tied up with a close reading of Bacon's essays Of Travail / Of Studies and short extracts from Burton and Browne. (See appendix I; online versions are available; the extracts to be used have been selected) SECTION 6. Scansion: 1 passage out of 1 to be scanned from the prescribed poems of Paper I and II SECTION 7. Philology Jespersen: Latin, Greek, Scandinavian, French influences, Native Resources C.L.Wren: Chapter VI Sec 1& 2 Chapter VII: Section 3 Paper II : Civil War, Restoration, and Eighteenth Century Literature Full Marks: 100 Examination Time: 4 hours. Number of Questions to be answered during the examination

Detailed course: SECTION 1 History, Politics and socio-cultural background, and its impact on literature. Poetry with special reference to the change and the emergence of new forms and styles, verse satire, neoclassical norms. The impact of science and empirical thinking, democratic social and political trends, secular interests and dominant intellectual discourses that were reflected on writing during the period. SECTION 2 Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1

SECTION 3 Alexander Pope, Rape of the Lock, Cantos 1 to 3

SECTION 4 Precursors of the Romantics: Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard; Cowper, the Solitude of Alexander Selkirk; Blake, the Tyger, The Lamb.

SECTION 5 Rhetoric : 1 passage (from the poems prescribed in Paper I and II) Recommended reading: BOOKS on HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE (to be used for other papers as well) Andrew Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, OUP, New Delhi, Third Edition, 2004, First Indian edition 2005. Bibhash Choudhury, English Social And Cultural History: An Introductory Guide And Glossary, Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi, 2005. David Daiches, A Critical History of English Literature, 1970 Boris Ford ed. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature Albert Baugh, A Literary History of England Reference books for sections 1and 2: Malcolm Godden and Michael Lapidge, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature, CUP, 1991. Kevin Crossley-Holland, The Anglo-Saxon World, An Anthology, Oxford World’s Classics Series Michael Swanton, English Literature Before Chaucer, Longman Literature in English Series Reference book for section 7: A.C. Baugh, A History of the English Language

Part-II Papers

Detailed Course: SECTION 1. Beginnings of drama , the development in the Elizabethan and Jacobean age; changes in theatre and drama after the Restoration and the opening of the theatres; mid and late eighteenth century drama, nineteenth century overview of drama. SECTION 2 Extracts from Everyman, Tamburlaine, Everyman in his Humour, The Shoemaker's Holiday, The Duchess of Malfi, The Man of Mode, Prometheus Unbound. (SeeAppendix II) Drama for detailed study: SECTION 3. Marlowe-- Edward II or Shakespeare -- Macbeth SECTION 4. Shakespeare-- Twelfth Night SECTION 5. Sheridan – The School for Scandal or Goldsmith-- She Stoops to Conquer SECTION 6. Literary terms used in connection with drama.

Paper IV: The Rise and Development of the Novel and Prose from the Eighteenth century to the Victorian Age Full Marks: 100 Examination Time: 4 hours. Number of Questions to be answered during the examination

Detailed Course: SECTION 1 Rise and development of the novel from the eighteenth century to the Victorian Age SECTION 2 Eighteenth Century, Romantic and Victorian Prose a general survey with special reference to the periodical essay and the familiar essay. Lamb, 'Dream Children'; Addison, ‘Spectator Paper’ 1. SECTION 3 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice or Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

SECTION 4 Charles Dickens, Hard Times/Oliver Twist or Thomas Hardy, Return of the Native/ Far From the Madding Crowd.

APPENDIX II (extracts specifically mentioned in the syllabus for Part II) Everyman, http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/everyman.htm This is an interesting website on the medieval morality play http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/everyman.html This contains the entire Middle English text of Everyman http://www.enotes.com/everyman-text/everyman-text This contains the modern English text of Everyman

Death. I am Death that no man fear,(115) For every man I arrest and no man spare, For it is God’s commandment That all to me should be obedient. Everyman. Death, thou comest when I had thee least in mind! In thy power it lieth to save me yet ;— Thereto of my goods will I give thee, if thou wilt be kind,—(120) Yea, a thousand pounds shalt thou get!— And defer this matter till another day. Death. Everyman, it may not be in any way. I set no store by gold, silver, riches, or such gear,(125) Nor by pope, emperor, king, prince, or peer. For, if I would receive gifts great, All the world I might get, But my custom is clean the contrary way. I give thee no respite. Come hence, nor delay!(130) Everyman. Alas, shall I have no longer respite! I may say Death giveth no warning! To think on thee, it maketh my heart sick, For all unready is my book of reckoning. But if I might have twelve years of waiting,(135) My accounting-book I would make so clear That my reckoning I should not need to fear. Wherefore, Death, I pray thee, for God’s mercy, Spare me till I be provided with a remedy! Death. It availeth thee not to cry, weep, and pray,(140) But haste thee lightly, that thou mayest be on thy journey, And make proof of thy friends, if thou can, For, know thou well, time waiteth for no man, And in the world each living creature Because of Adam’s sin must die by nature.(145)

Tamburlaine the Great, Book I Scene II Enter TAMBURLAINE, TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE, ZENOCRATE, ANIPPE, two MOORS drawing BAJAZETH in a cage, and ZABINA following him. TAMBURLAINE. Bring out my footstool. [They take BAJAZETH out of the cage.] BAJAZETH. Ye holy priests of heavenly Mahomet, That, sacrificing, slice and cut your flesh, Staining his altars with your purple blood, Make heaven to frown, and every fixed star To suck up poison from the moorish fens, And pour it<193> in this glorious tyrant's throat! TAMBURLAINE. The chiefest god, first mover of that sphere Enchas'd with thousands ever-shining lamps, Will sooner burn the glorious frame of heaven Than it should<194> so conspire my overthrow. But, villain, thou that wishest this<195> to me, Fall prostrate on the low disdainful earth, And be the footstool of great Tamburlaine, That I may rise into<196> my royal throne. BAJAZETH. First shalt thou rip my bowels with thy sword, And sacrifice my heart<197> to death and hell, Before I yield to such a slavery. TAMBURLAINE. Base villain, vassal, slave to Tamburlaine, Unworthy to embrace or touch the ground That bears the honour of my royal weight; Stoop, villain, stoop! stoop;<198> for so he bids That may command thee piecemeal to be torn, Or scatter'd like the lofty cedar-trees Struck with the voice of thundering Jupiter. BAJAZETH. Then, as I look down to the damned fiends, Fiends, look on me! and thou, dread god of hell, With ebon sceptre strike this hateful earth, And make it swallow both of us at once! [TAMBURLAINE gets up on him into his chair.] TAMBURLAINE. Now clear the triple region of the air, And let the Majesty of Heaven behold Their scourge and terror tread on emperors. Smile, stars that reign'd at my nativity, And dim the brightness of your<199> neighbour lamps; Disdain to borrow light of Cynthia! For I, the chiefest lamp of all the earth, First rising in the east with mild aspect, But fixed now in the meridian line, Will send up fire to your turning spheres, And cause the sun to borrow light of you. My sword struck fire from his coat of steel, Even in Bithynia, when I took this Turk; As when a fiery exhalation, Wrapt in the bowels of a freezing cloud, Fighting for passage, make[s] the welkin crack, And casts a flash of lightning to<200> the earth: But, ere I march to wealthy Persia, Or leave Damascus and th' Egyptian fields, As was the fame of Clymene's brain-sick son That almost brent<201> the axle-tree of heaven, So shall our swords, our lances, and our shot Fill all the air with fiery meteors; Then, when the sky shall wax as red as blood, It shall be said I made it red myself, To make me think of naught but blood and war. ZABINA. Unworthy king, that by thy cruelty Unlawfully usurp'st the Persian seat, Dar'st thou, that never saw an emperor Before thou met my husband in the field, Being thy captive, thus abuse his state, Keeping his kingly body in a cage, That roofs of gold and sun-bright palaces Should have prepar'd to entertain his grace? And treading him beneath thy loathsome feet, Whose feet the kings<202> of Africa have kiss'd? TECHELLES. You must devise some torment worse, my lord, To make these captives rein their lavish tongues. TAMBURLAINE. Zenocrate, look better to your slave. ZENOCRATE. She is my handmaid's slave, and she shall look That these abuses flow not from<203> her tongue.-- Chide her, Anippe. ANIPPE. Let these be warnings, then, for you,<204> my slave, How you abuse the person of the king; Or else I swear to have you whipt stark nak'd.<205> BAJAZETH. Great Tamburlaine, great in my overthrow, Ambitious pride shall make thee fall as low, For treading on the back of Bajazeth, That should be horsed on four mighty kings. TAMBURLAINE. Thy names, and titles, and thy dignities<206> Are fled from Bajazeth, and remain with me, That will maintain it 'gainst a world of kings.-- Put him in again. [They put him into the cage.] BAJAZETH. Is this a place for mighty Bajazeth? Confusion light on him that helps thee thus! TAMBURLAINE. There, whiles<207> he lives, shall Bajazeth be kept; And, where I go, be thus in triumph drawn; And thou, his wife, shalt<208> feed him with the scraps My servitors shall bring thee from my board; For he that gives him other food than this, Shall sit by him, and starve to death himself: This is my mind, and I will have it so. Not all the kings and emperors of the earth, If they would lay their crowne before my feet, Shall ransom him, or take him from his cage: The ages that shall talk of Tamburlaine, Even from this day to Plato's wondrous year, Shall talk how I have handled Bajazeth: These Moors, that drew him from Bithynia To fair Damascus, where we now remain, Shall lead him with us wheresoe'er we go.-- Techelles, and my loving followers, Now may we see Damascus' lofty towers, Like to the shadows of Pyramides That with their beauties grace<209> the Memphian fields. The golden stature<210> of their feather'd bird,<211> That spreads her wings upon the city-walls, Shall not defend it from our battering shot: The townsmen mask in silk and cloth of gold, And every house is as a treasury; The men, the treasure, and the town are<212> ours. THERIDAMAS. Your tents of white now pitch'd before the gates, And gentle flags of amity display'd, I doubt not but the governor will yield, Offering Damascus to your majesty. TAMBURLAINE. So shall he have his life, and all the rest: But, if he stay until the bloody flag Be once advanc'd on my vermilion tent, He dies, and those that kept us out so long; And, when they see me march in black array, With mournful streamers hanging down their heads, Were in that city all the world contain'd, Not one should scape, but perish by our swords. ZENOCRATE. Yet would you have some pity for my sake, Because it is my country<213> and my father's.

Everyman in his Humour, Prologue and Act IV Scene V The Shoemaker's Holiday, Act II Scene II The Duchess of Malfi, Act II Scene III The Man of Mode, Act IV Scene II (up to the exit of Sir Fopling) Prometheus Unbound, Act I , the first speech of Prometheus

Part-III Papers PAPER V: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Poetry Full Marks: 100 Examination Time: 4 hours. Number of Questions to be answered during the examination

Detailed Course:

SECTION 1. Backgrounds of Romantic, Victorian and Modern Poetry -- trends, traditions, techniques and a general overview of poets and their works. Social, political and intellectual developments that left an impact on poetry. 4 questions of 5 marks each. 5x4=20 SECTION 2. ROMANTIC POETRY One long question of 10 marks and 2 short explanation/comment questions of 5 marks each. 10+(2X5)=20 William Wordsworth: The Lucy Poems, Tintern Abbey Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Kubla Khan/Christabel Book I Percy B. Shelley: Ozymandias, To a Skylark/Ode to the West Wind John Keats : Ode to a Nightingale, To Autumn, When I have fears that I may cease to be. Byron: When We Two Parted In Silence and Tears SECTION 3. VICTORIAN POETRY One long question of 10 marks and 2 short explanation/comment questions of 5 marks each. 10+(2X5)=20 Alfred Tennyson: The Lady of Shalott, Ulysses Robert Browning: Fra Lippo Lippi/ Andrea del Sarto Matthew Arnold: To Marguerite/Dover Beach E.B. Browning: Aurora Leigh , Selections SECTION 4. MODERN POETRY One long question of 10 marks and 3 short explanation/comment questions of 5 marks each. 10+(3X5)=25 T.S. Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock/ Journey of the Magi W.B. Yeats: Sailing to Byzantium Wilfred Owen: Dulce et Decorum est W. H. Auden: Song IX from ‘Twelve Songs’ Dylan Thomas: And Death Shall Have no Dominion Philip Larkin: Church Going Ted Hughes : The Thought Fox Seamus Heaney: Digging SECTION 5. SHORT QUESTIONS FROM SECTIONS 2,3 and 4. Five questions to be answered of 3 marks each. 5x3=15 PAPER VI: Modern Drama Full Marks: 100 Examination Time: 4 hours.

Detailed Course:

SECTION 1. Backgrounds and development of British and Irish Drama, trends in European Drama, changes in theatre and production. 4 questions of 5 marks each. 5x4=20 SECTION 2. Any two of the following plays will be offered. From each play one 15 mark question will have to be answered and three 5 mark explanation/comment/character or scene questions. 15+ (3x5)=30 +30=60 G.B. Shaw: Candida /Major Barbara J.M.Synge: Riders to the Sea/ The Playboy of the Western World Pinter : The Caretaker SECTION 3. One Unseen poem / prose extract for substance and critical appreciation. 10+10=20

PAPER VII: Modern Fiction and the Short Story Full Marks: 100 Examination Time: 4 hours. Number of Questions to be answered during the examination Detailed Course:

SECTION 1. Background for modern British and European fiction. The development of the novel and the short story forms in the twentieth century. 4 questions of 5 marks each. 5x4=20 SECTION 2. Any one of the following novels will be offered. From each novel one 15 mark question will have to be answered and three 5 mark explanation/comment/character or technique questions. 15+ 3x5=30 D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers George Orwell: 1984 Virginia Woolf: To The Lighthouse James Joyce: The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man SECTION 3. Any four of the following short stories will be offered. One 15 mark question will have to be answered from a short story and three 5 mark explanation/comment/character or technique questions. 15+ (3x5)=30 Josef Conrad : ‘The Black Mate’ From Tales of Hearsay http://www.readbookonline.net/stories/Conrad/30/ James Joyce: ‘Counterparts’ from Dubliners http://www.readprint.com/work-878/Counterparts-James-Joyce Virginia Woolf: ‘Kew Gardens’ From: Monday or Tuesday. by Virginia Woolf. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc., 1921. http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/woolf/monday/monday-07.html D.H. Lawrence: ‘The White Stocking’ http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_White_Stocking E.M. Forster: ‘The Machine Stops’ http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html Graham Greene: ‘Across the Bridge’ SECTION 4: Literary essay – one out of 4 topics : 20 marks PAPER VIII: Indian Writing in English/ American Literature Full Marks: 100 Examination Time: 4 hours. Number of Questions to be answered during the examination

Detailed Course:

Indian Writing in English (Option 1) SECTION 1 Familiarization with modern Literary Theory: 4x5= 20 Structuralism; Postmodernism; Feminist Criticism; Marxist Criticism; Postcolonialism. Recommended Reading: Peter Barry, Beginning Theory, Indian Edition, 2008. SECTION 2 Novel: Any one novel will be taught. 10+(2x5)= 20 R.K. Narayan : The English Teacher Raja Rao: Kanthapura Sunetra Gupta: Memories of Rain Kiran Desai : The Inheritance of Loss SECTION 3 Short Stories: Any four will be taught 10+(2X5)=20 Mulk Raj Anand: ‘The Terrorist’ Bhabani Bhattacharya: ‘Glory at Twilight’ Anita Desai: ‘The Accompanist’ Sashi Deshpande: ‘My Beloved Charioteer’ Temsula Ao: ‘Journey’ from These Hills Called Home Ruskin Bond: ‘My Father’s Trees at Dehra’ SECTION 4 Poetry: 10+(2x5)= 20 Henry Louis Vivian Derozio: A passage from The Fakeer of Jungheera Aurobindo Ghosh: The Tiger and the Deer Toru Dutt: Sita Sarojini Naidu: Pardah Nashin A.K. Ramanujan: Ecology Parthasarathy: From The Exile Jayanta Mahapatra: Hunger Kamala Das: The Old Playhouse Arun Kolkatkar: An Old Woman Nissim Ezekiel: Poet, Lover, Bird Watcher SECTION 5 Drama: 10+ (2x5)=20 Mahesh Dattani: Bravely Fought The Queen/ Tara American Literature (Option 2) SECTION 1 Familiarization with modern Literary Theory: 4x5= 20 Structuralism; Postmodernism; Feminist Criticism; Marxist Criticism; Postcolonialism. Recommended Reading: Peter Barry, Beginning Theory, Indian Edition, 2008. SECTION 2 (Any one novel will be taught ) 10+ (2x5)= 20 Mark Twain : The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) F. Scott Fitzgerald : The Great Gatsby (1925) John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath (1939) Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) Alice Walker : The Colour Purple (1982) SECTION 3 Short Story: Any four will be taught 10+(2x5)=20 Nathaniel Hawthorne : ‘The Ambitious Guest’ http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ambitious_Guest Edgar Allan Poe: ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ http://www.literature.org/authors/poe-edgar-allan/amontillado.html O. Henry : ‘The Cactus’ http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/ohenry/bl-ohenry-cactus.htm W.W. Jacobs : ‘The Monkey's Paw’ http://www.americanliterature.com/Jacobs/SS/TheMonkeysPaw.html Kate Chopin: ‘Regret’ http://englishlibrary.org/story_regret.html Willa Cather : ‘On the Gull’s Road’ http://www.americanliterature.com/SS/SS15.HTML

SECTION 4 Poetry: 10+ (2x5)= 20 Walt Whitman: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Emily Dickinson: Because I Could not Stop for Death Robert Frost: Desert Places E.E. Cummings: somewhere I have never travelled Langston Hughes: The Negro Speaks of Rivers Allen Ginsberg: A Supermarket in California Sylvia Plath: Daddy Gwendolen Brooks: A Sunset of the City

SECTION 5 Drama: 10+ (2x5)= 20 Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?/ Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie