| Course Type | Course Code | No. Of Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Discipline Core | SOL2EN323 | 4 |
Semester and Year Offered: MA I & II Year
Course Coordinator: Dr. Amit Singh
Email of course coordinator: amit@aud.ac.in
Pre-requisites: None
Course Objectives/Description:
This course analyses the genre of poetry from the perspectives of critical thought, form and expression. The course begins with a section that peruses the discourse around the genre of poetry. From poets’ formulations on the art of poetry and its aesthetic and social relevance to the critics’ responses to poets, poems and poetry itself, this section strives to cover some of the most representative writings on the genre coming from different systems of thought. In the next section, various forms of poetry will be studied through some representative examples. Stanza forms and their histories will be traced. Literary techniques and devices used by poets to embellish their poetry and convey their message more effectively will also be examined in this section. In the final section of the course, some representative issues and subjects of poetry will be studied with specific attention to the poet’s universal quest for perfection. Ultimately, the course aims to sensitize students towards the possibility of transforming personal experience into poetic expression. The course will include poetry workshop(s) on literary devices as well as the elements of poetry. Various liminal spaces of interdependence between poetry and other modes of expression shall also be explored.
Course Outcomes: On successful completion of this course students will be able to:
Brief description of modules/ Main modules:
Module 1:
Plato, Selections from The Republic
Aristotle, Selections from Poetics
Wislawa Szymborska, “Noble Prize Acceptance Speech, 1996”
Bhamah, Kavyalankar, Chapter 2 and 4
Rajashekhara, Kavyamimaṃsa, Chapter 12 and 17
Paul Valery, “Poetry and Abstract Thought”
Edgar Allen Poe, “The Philosophy of Composition”
Sean O’ Brien, “The Poet in Theatre: Verse Drama”
Pat Pattison, “Song Lyrics and Poetry”
Module 2:
1.Types of Poetry
Dirge: William Shakespeare, Ariel’s Song, “Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies” in The Tempest (1610)
Eclogue: Virgil, “Eclogue I”
Elegy: Giacomo Leopardi, “To Silvia”
Ghazal: Mir Taqi Mir, “Faqir-like I Came”
Lyric: Stephane Mallarme, “The Flower”
Ode: Sappho, “Ode to Aphrodite”
Sestina: Algernon Charles Swinburne, “Complaint of Lisa”
Villanelle: Wystan Hugh Auden, “If I could Tell You”
2.Forms of Poetry
Blank Verse: Coleridge, “Frost at Midnight”
Free Verse: Goethe, “Prometheus”
Ottava Rima: William Butler Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium”
Quatrain: Charles Causley, “The Prisoners of Love”
Module 3:
This module focuses on an in-depth reading of select poems by the following poets: Guiseppe Ungaretti, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Baba Nagarjun, Wislawa Szymborska, Joseph Brodsky, Dennis Brutus and Christopher Okigbo.
Assessment Details with weights:
Reading List:
