10 MM VENKATESHWARA OPEN UNIVERSITY ENGLISH ELECTIVE www.vou.ac.in ENGLISH ELECTIVE ENGLISH ELECTIVE ENGLISH BA [ENGLISH] [BEG-102] VENKATESHWARA OPEN UNIVERSITYwww.vou.ac.in ENGLISH ELECTIVE BA [English] [BEG-102] BOARD OF STUDIES Prof Lalit Kumar Sagar Vice Chancellor Dr. S. Raman Iyer Director Directorate of Distance Education SUBJECT EXPERT Dr. Anil Kr. Jaiswal Professor Dr. Shantanu Siuli Assistant Professor Dr.Mohammad Danish Siddiqui Assistant Professor CO-ORDINATOR Mr. Tauha Khan Registrar Authors Sanjiv Nandan Prasad (Units: 1.2, 1.3, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4) © Sanjiv Nandan Prasad, 2019 Jyotsna Pathak (Unit: 1.5) © Jyotsna Pathak, 2019 Khusi Pattanayak (Units: 3.2-3.10) © Khusi Pattanayak, 2019 Vikas Publishing House (Units: 1.0-1.1, 1.4, 1.6-1.10, 2.0-2.1, 2.5-2.10, 3.0-3.1, 3.11-3.15, 4) © Reserved, 2019 All rights reserved. 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VIKAS® PUBLISHING HOUSE PVT LTD E-28, Sector-8, Noida - 201301 (UP) Phone: 0120-4078900 Fax: 0120-4078999 Regd. Office: A-27, 2nd Floor, Mohan Co-operative Industrial Estate, New Delhi 1100 44 Website: www.vikaspublishing.com Email: [email protected] SYLLABI-BOOK MAPPING TABLE English Elective Syllabi Mapping in Book UNIT I: Short Fiction (Short Story) Unit 1: Short Fiction Mansfield: The Fly, (Pages 3-49) D.H. Lawrence: The Rocking Horse Winner, O. Henry: The Gift of Magi, Maupassant: The Diamond Necklace. UNIT II: Short Non-Fictional Prose (Essays) Unit 2: Short Non-Fictional Prose Robert Lynd: Seaside, (Pages 51-92) Virginia Woolf: Shakespeare’s Sister, E.M. Foster: India Again, E.V. Lucas: Bores UNIT III: Novel Unit 3: Novel Thomas Hardy: The Mayor of Casterbridge. (Pages 93-136) UNIT IV: Comprehension Unit 4: Comprehension Unseen Prose Piece (Pages 137-189) CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1-2 UNIT 1 SHORT FICTION 3-49 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Unit Objectives 1.2 Mansfield: The Fly 1.2.1 Summary 1.2.2 Social Criticism in The Fly 1.2.3 Symbolism in the Story 1.2.4 A Freudian Reading 1.2.5 End of the Story 1.3 D. H. Lawrence: The Rocking Horse Winner 1.3.1 Critical Summary of The Rocking Horse Winner 1.3.2 Critical Reception 1.3.3 Victimized Child 1.3.4 Some Psychological Insights 1.4 O. Henry: The Gift of Magi 1.4.1 The Story 1.4.2 Important Characters 1.5 Maupassant: The Diamond Necklace 1.5.1 The Diamond Necklace 1.5.2 Critical Appreciation 1.5.3 Themes and Motifs 1.6 Summary 1.7 Key Terms 1.8 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 1.9 Questions and Exercises 1.10 Further Reading UNIT 2 SHORT NON-FICTIONAL PROSE 51-92 2.0 Introduction 2.1 Unit Objectives 2.2 Robert Lynd: Seaside 2.2.1 Introduction to ‘Seaside’ 2.2.2 Summary 2.2.3 Lynd as an Essayist 2.2.4 Work and Leisure 2.2.5 Sea 2.3 Virginia Woolf: Shakespeare’s Sister 2.3.1 Introduction to Shakespeare's Sister 2.3.2 Critical Summary 2.3.3 Biographical Context 2.3.4 Shakespeare’s Sister in the Feminist Context 2.4 E. M. Forster: India Again 2.4.1 Critical Summary of India Again 2.4.2 Art vs. Politics 2.4.3 Cultural Imperialism 2.4.4 Forster and Orientalism 2.4.5 Reassessing Forster’s Liberalism 2.5 E. V. Lucas: Bores 2.5.1 The Essay-Bores 2.6 Summary 2.7 Key Terms 2.8 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 2.9 Questions and Exercises 2.10 Further Reading UNIT 3 NOVEL 93-136 3.0 Introduction 3.1 Unit Objectives 3.2 Thomas Hardy: Life and Works 3.2.1 Works of Thomas Hardy 3.3 The Mayor of Casterbridge: An Introduction 3.4 List of Characters in The Mayor of Casterbridge 3.5 Narrative Technique in The Mayor of Casterbridge 3.6 Thomas Hardy’s Michael Henchard as an Aristotelian Tragic Hero 3.6.1 A Story of a Man of Character 3.7 Some Important Themes in The Mayor of Casterbridge 3.8 Symbol of Bird in The Mayor of Casterbridge 3.8.1 Other Symbols Used in the Mayor of Casterbridge 3.9 The Role of Women in The Mayor of Casterbridge 3.9.1 Wife Auction in the Mayor of Casterbridge 3.10 The Significance of Coincidence 3.11 Summary 3.12 Key Terms 3.13 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 3.14 Questions and Exercises 3.15 Further Reading UNIT 4 COMPREHENSION 137-189 4.0 Introduction 4.1 Unit Objectives 4.2 Comprehension Passages 4.3 Effective Reading 4.3.1 Purpose of Reading 4.3.2 Approaches to Reading 4.4 Reading Process 4.4.1 Essentials of Effective Reading 4.5 Vocabulary 4.5.1 Importance of Vocabulary 4.6 Enriching Your Vocabulary 4.6.1 Techniques to Improve Vocabulary 4.6.2 Vocabulary Extension 4.7 Prescribed Text: Summary 4.8 Sample Passages for Effective Comprehension 4.9 Unseen Passages for Comprehension 4.10 Summary 4.11 Key Terms 4.12 Answers to ‘Check Your Progress’ 4.13 Questions and Exercises 4.14 Further Reading Introduction INTRODUCTION Literature symbolizes people, culture and tradition. It guides us towards a world NOTES full of experience and helps us evolve ourselves through its literary journey. It speaks to us in its various forms such as short story, poetry, drama, prose, fiction, non-fiction and so forth. The rise of fiction is attributed to the emergence of novel as a literary genre in the beginning of the eighteenth century. The Industrial Revolution paved the way for the rise of the middle class and it also created a demand for aspirations of people for reading topics related to their daily experiences. Therefore, the novel, developed as a piece of prose fiction that presented characters in realistic events and situations. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones are some of early English novels. The novel is realistic prose fiction which can demonstrate its relation to real life. The eighteenth century novels are semi anti- romantic, or it was the first time that the novel developed and was widely circulated among the reading public. Short stories owe their popularity to their brevity. These stories can be read without breaks, in a single sitting. A short story can be read even on a short journey because it does not require too much time. No matter how busy you are, you would always have the time to read a short story. In fact, a short story, even with its limited length, is able to achieve what a novel does. This is the very reason why it is more challenging to write a short story than a novel. The author cannot afford to devote pages and pages introducing the main theme or the main characters. He has to make the story interesting, without sounding abrupt and achieve a lot more using fewer words. In addition, short stories are easier to understand and assimilate. An essay can be defined as a short piece of writing on a particular subject espousing the point of view of the author. The topics covered in an essay are varied; they include arguments, literary criticism, political observations, comments on daily life and reflections and recollections of the author. Essays can be formal or informal depending upon the topic chosen by the writer and the style of writing. A formal essay is about some serious topic where some issue is talked about or discussed and conclusions are arrived at based on facts. Comprehension, in the context of language learning means a thorough understanding of a passage or text. The purpose of comprehension passages is to measure the understanding of students. Through the given passages, students are tested on their understanding, their vocabulary and their language skills. This book, English Elective, deals with many aspects of the English language and literature such as short stories, essays, novel and comprehension. Self-Instructional Material 1 Introduction This book, English Elective, is written in a self-instructional format and is divided into four units. Each unit begins with anIntroduction to the topic followed by an outline of the Unit Objectives. The content is then presented in a simple and easy-to-understand manner, and is interspersed with Check Your Progress NOTES questions to test the reader’s understanding of the topic. A list of Questions and Exercises is also provided at the end of each unit, and includes short-answer as well as long-answer questions. The Summary and Key Terms section are useful tools for students and are meant for effective recapitulation of the text. 2 Self-Instructional Material Short Fiction UNIT 1 SHORT FICTION Structure NOTES 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Unit Objectives 1.2 Mansfield: The Fly 1.2.1 Summary 1.2.2 Social Criticism in The Fly 1.2.3 Symbolism in the Story 1.2.4 A Freudian Reading 1.2.5 End of the Story 1.3 D.