English syllabus - Gauhati University

20SEMESTER VIPAPER 15Literary CriticismMarks 75 (60+15) [15 Marks Internal Assessment]. Credits: 6This paper acquaints students with some of the key ideas of Western literary criticism from Graeco-Roman antiquity to the modern period and expects them to examine the implications of ideas (e.g.mimesis or imagination), and orientations (classicism, romanticism and modernism) that have markedthe history of literary criticism. The paper is designed to present students with the opportunity to studykey concepts associated with the names of significant thinkers in this history. The paper comprises twoparts, Section I dealing with concepts from Graeco-Roman antiquity and Section II with the earlymodern, neoclassical, Romantic and Victorian criticism.Section I: Graeco-Roman CriticismStudents will answer 4 questions of 5 marks each or 2 questions of 10 marks each (4x5=20) or(2x10=20) from this section.Texts: Plato (c. 428/7 – c.348/7): views on poetry, mimesis Aristotle ( 384 – 322 BC): observations on poetry as being “more philosophical than history”,nature of mimesis, Tragedy ( Plot, Catharsis, Hamartia, Peripetia,Anagnorisis, Hubris) Horace ( 65 – 8 BC): the classical ideal Longinus ( 1 st or 3 rd c BC ): the sublimeSection II: English Criticism : Early Modern to the VictorianStudents will answer 2 questions of 10 marks each (2x10=20) and 4 questions of 5 marks each(4x5=20) from this sectionTopics: Stephen Gosson (1555-1624) and Philip Sidney (1554 – 1586): Poetry - For and Against Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) : views on Shakespeare and the “Three Unities” William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) : views on poetry (“spontaneous overflow of powerfulfeelings”) and the language of poetry, “poetic diction”. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834) : imagination and fancy, organic form, poetic genius John Keats ( 1795 - 1821) : negative capability Matthew Arnold (1822 – 1888) : criticism and creation, the touchstone method, high seriousness,