MA Course Curriculum

ENG 500: English for Academic Purposes

This is a learner-centered, integrated-skills based, non-credit, English remedial course designed with the aim of equipping entry level MA students (based on admission test score) with the essential reading, writing, speaking and listening skills to cope with their university courses. This course is designed to help students practice English to explore situations and contexts related to academic and daily life and thus develop their English proficiency level. The variety of topics, language skills, and perspectives presented in the class will also encourage critical thinking and writing conventions required by the program.

LITERATURE AND CULTURAL STUDIES

CORE COURSES (6 courses/18 credits + Dissertation/6 credits)

ENG 501 Research and Study Methods

This course is intended to get the students acquainted with sundry research methods that can be distinguished in very comprehensive terms as qualitative versus quantitative while also focusing on various study skills. And different disciplines tend to embrace, to a different extent, these approaches. Within these major kinds of method, however, students will come across a host of particular working research skills that are apposite to a range of projects. The students can develop these to make the most of their research ability and also can draw on methods as diverse as Project Management, Quantitative Methods, Qualitative Methods, Using Critical Theories, Using Questionnaires, Using Databases and Software, Using Archives, Planning and Managing Experiments and many more. On the other hand, some study methods that may be taken into account for discussion are: Making and Keeping a Study Schedule, Studying in an Appropriate Setting, Equipping Your Study Area, Keeping a Well-Kept Notebook, Keeping a Careful Record of Assignments, Taking Good Notes, Insurance Against Forgetting, Overlearning Material Enhances Memory, Reviewing Material Frequently and the like. However, the list is not an exhaustive one.

The students will be required to prepare annotated bibliographies, write literature reviews, undertake short research projects and submit a report. Students will be assessed both on the basis of above mentioned work and examinations.

ENG 502 Advanced Literary Theory

This course aims to provide an updated and in-depth understanding of important literary-theoretical developments after New Criticism. Here the instructor has the flexibility to focus on a single theoretical approach (such as Feminist theory, Structuralism, or Marxist criticism) or study more than one approach in an interrelated or comparative manner (such as Structuralism and Poststructuralism, or contemporary Marxist theory and Feminism).

ENG 503 The Cultural Construction of Shakespeare

The course aims at putting Shakespeare in context, examining the relevance of his work to the controversies of his day, and developing conceptions of history that connect Shakespeare’s time and our own. Students will be able to rediscover Shakespeare from an abstract “greatness” and make his works meaningful to their lives in today’s world. The course will also require studying different approaches— theoretical or practical— to hone students’ understanding of Shakespeare in a way that they can bring about innovation in reading his plays. The course will also help students take into account the historical approaches to Shakespeare and explore how the plays have been received across cultures.

ENG 504 Literature and Media

The course explores the relationship between literature, contemporary media and culture. Literature ranges over how meanings arise and are transformed through different cultural and social contexts and values. It considers how readers construct meanings from texts and how to develop critical awareness. The course also accentuates how the thriving media industry enables billions of people around the world to watch or listen to television, films and radio every day. Hence it gives an understanding of the role of media in society and will provide the students with a base to build a career in media production, and the cultural industries.

Through an interdisciplinary and historical lens, the course focuses on”media” broadly as encompassing print, performance, oral, photographic, broadcast, cinematic, and digital cultural modes and practices. In fact, the course inquiries into the nature of mediated communication, the roles of media, the history of mutations in media and the institutions that help define media’s position in society.

ENG 505 Approaches to Cultural Theory

The course is concerned with interdisciplinary approaches to the study and critique of culture and society. It provides students with an introduction to theoretical concepts and approaches to the many dimensions of culture. Theoretical approaches that have shaped critical and scholarly discourses of cultural are studied, drawing on disciplines of social sciences and the humanities. Engaging the most ground-breaking and prominent theorists of the present—as diverse as Badiou, Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault, Lacan, Nancy, Žižek and recent Feminist, and Digital theorists—the course explores approaches to a range of issues and problems concerning power, economics, media, identity and discourse in contemporary and historical contexts.

ENG 506 Reading Contemporary Transnational Literature

In today’s world, the so-called linguistically “dominant” countries, such as the UK and the USA, can no longer maintain the elite proprietorship of their language. American or British English is not the only distinct variety of English. Each area of the English-speaking world has developed its own distinct features. This is usually mainly a matter of vocabulary and pronunciation of the areas or cultures in which they are produced and reproduced. Hence the students will be oriented to those aspects of varied

Englishes, which have evolved and developed historically in keeping with their local, global, and cultural strains and strands. This course does not merely give students a flavor of some of the different varieties of English, it also draws on literatures written in those area-specific Englishes in varied cultures which, at once, have shaped and have been shaped, by those literatures produced in them.

ENG 599 Dissertation

Each student is required to complete a 12,000-15,000-word dissertation that must be an original piece of research. Students choose topics of interest to them in consultation with their supervisor.

ELECTIVES (4 COURSES/12 CREDITS)

ENG 515 Colonial and Postcolonial Discourses

Using postcolonial theory, students will examine key colonial and postcolonial texts both literary and otherwise, with a view to understanding issues such as identity, otherness, nationalism, and language. Texts will range from former colonies including India, Africa and the Caribbean.

ENG 516 Translation Studies

This course is provides an overview of the history of translation studies, different translation theories and various approaches to translating. The course will have a strong focus on practical translation and specific situations in which people communicate with another across cultures. Students will also examine some major debates surrounding the opportunities and problems that arise when people from different cultures communicate and translate. The course will also require a reflection on the translation process.

Students will be examined on the basis of their understanding of translation theory and will also have to produce translations of literary texts.

ENG 517 Reading Cultures

The course will reflect on the many voices that culture represents through a diverse body of literature. The emphasis will be placed on approaching literature through global, historical and contemporary cultural context and motivate students not only to understand and restate the content of the texts they read but also to relate that content to literary, historical, socio-cultural contexts including Bangladesh. Ideas of major critical thinkers will be applied to study different forms of cultural expressions and discourses.

ENG 518 Writing for the Media

The course will give students an insight into the process of becoming a writer for cinema, television, radio. Some basic concepts about creative nonfiction, syntax and grammar to write effective prose. The ethical implications of becoming a writer of true stories, dilemmas in contemporary communications policy and practice: such as protection of privacy and personal information, information ownership, and free speech will also be focused on. The students will also learn how to read published nonfiction writers as models for work, with authority, compassion, and insight. The course requires a basic knowledge of the interrelationships between literature and cinema. Critical, theoretical, ideological, and historical approaches to film studies will also be considered. Attention will be given to the adaptation of literary works as well as to the influence of film on literature.

ENG 519 Studies in Popular Culture

The course will explore definitions of popular culture and survey a variety of critical approaches used in the study of popular culture from a scholarly perspective. The overall objective is to explore the social and cultural context of popular culture products and practices. The course will also examine a wide

range of subjects (such as film, television, music, advertising, the internet) using a wide range of critical approaches (such as genre theory, gender studies).

ENG 520 Introduction to Creative Writing

The course will assimilate the elements of fiction or creative nonfiction works at an advanced level. The students will acquire an advanced knowledge of the generic distinctiveness of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The desired outcome of the course is a mastery of rhetorical, imaginative, interpretive skills that will allow students to achieve intellectual maturity as humanistic thinker and writer. Students will develop their own voices through additional writing assignments, focused readings, and workshop participation, and prepare a public presentation of their work by preparing stories for submission and publication.

ENG 523 Modern Poetry and Theory

The course is a critical reading of selected modern poems, both artistic and rhetorical, to explore differences between modern and postmodern styles, methods, and attitudes in the 20th century. It will also analyse the often fractious but nourishing dynamics of formation and counter-formation in literature which govern the development of distinct schools and trends in poetry. In the process, it will look at poetics and different literary movements such as imagism, vorticism, open, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, performance poetry.

ENG 524 Contemporary Literatures in English

Contemporary Literature in English will be an examination of literary texts in the wider context of social, historical and political circumstances from which they emerge. Topics will include modern and contemporary fiction, drama and poetry an examination of classic and contemporary critical texts on literature. The texts will be selected in relation to ideas in larger contexts, such as history, the visual image, gender, psychoanalysis and post-colonialism. Course focus may vary from semester to semester according to the following:

American Literature
Australian Literature
Russian Literature
Caribbean Literature
African Literature
Canadian Literature
Scandinavian Literature
French Literature
German Literature
Latin American Literature

ENG 525 Representing Gender: Women Writers

The course aims to focus on English-language feminist fiction from the nineteenth and twentieth century. It will focus on women’s lives and reflect on what it means to be a woman and a feminist from various sexual, racial, class, and national perspectives. It will also give students an understanding of a variety of feminist theory, use of feminist theory in literary texts, and on how women’s writings have changed over time, circumstances, and social/cultural contexts. Authors studied may include Bradstreet, Wollstonecraft, C. Rossetti, M. Shelley, Austen, C. Bronte, E. Bronte, G. Eliot, D. Wordsworth, Dickinson, Wharton, Stowe, Freeman, Jewett, Fuller, H.D., Moore, Sitwell, Bishop, Brooks, Plath, Cather, Woolf, Stein, Lessing, Bowen, O’Connor, Welty, Porter, Oates, Olsen, Sarton, Gordimer, Atwood, Morrison, Kinkaid, McCarthy, and Churchill. The course may be designed chronologically, thematically (race and ethnicity; dominant and non-dominant cultures; lesbian writings)

ENG 526 Old and Middle English Studies

This course will study the original Beowulf and other selections from Anglo-Saxon literature as well as Chaucer and other selections from Middle English literature.

ENG 527 The American Renaissance

This interdisciplinary course will examine the literary and cultural history of “America” with particular reference to a range of texts ranging from colonial times to the emergence of the new republic. Some of the questions that this course will attempt to answer include the connections between writing and culture and the cultural-historical claims and interpretations of the prescribed texts.

ENG 528 Readings in 17th Century Literature

This course will allow students to work with major genres of seventeenth-century English literature including lyrics, elegies, epics, essays, masques, and pamphlets. Works by Ben Jonson, John Milton, the Metaphysical Poets, and others will be considered.

ENG 529 Literature and Ideas

This course will look at different literary themes and motifs explored by writers in literature. It will focus on a given idea and explore its ramifications in a range of literary texts. In particular, students will examine these ideas in terms of text and context, form and content, production and consumption, and so on. The course teacher will decide on the theme based on the ideas below.

529A Literature and Religion

This course will look at the interactions between religion and literature, and the ways in which the

former has influenced the latter. Some questions that may be examined in this course include the reasons literature has been created to promote religion, the ways in which religion has shaped literature.

ENG 529B Literature and Travel

This course will consider the issue of journey as a metaphor. It will focus on the themes of the self, culture, history, and writing as related to travel. Travel writing from the seventeenth to the twentieth century that spans the globe will be used as texts.

ENG 529C Folklore

This course will consider the role of folklore in a global as well as a local context while examining a variety of traditional and contemporary genres, including myths, legends, folktales, jokes, gestures, rituals, craft, as well as urban legends and initiation rites in fraternities and sororities.

ENG 529D Literature and the Environment

This course looks at how concepts of nature have been presented in literary texts over time with a view to understanding the contemporary issues of climate change and environmental sustainability. Students will examine major trends that have influenced how writers have been affected by their natural environments and how they have adapted these to their writings. Through close textual analysis of selected texts, students will learn about ecocriticism as a major school of criticism, its theoretical basis, and how it can be applied to the study of writings about nature.

ENG 530 Graphic Novels and Graphic Cultures

This course focuses on the graphic novel as a cultural and artistic process. Students will examine popular texts of the graphic novel genre, as well as some emerging classics. A theoretical perspective will inform the reading of the texts. Primary texts may include Watchmen, Maus, Fun Home, and V for Vendetta. A practical aspect to this course may include the creation of a graphic novel or application of the principles of graphic storytelling. Students will learn how graphic storytellers engage with historical and contemporary social issues as part of their trope.

ENG 531 History of Ideas

The course embraces a broader study of the history of the West and beyond, in general, with a more specific weight on the nature of ideas and their role in history, their bearing on the historical process, and their relationship to material and economic conditions, political power-structures, philosophy, art, religion, literature, science. To this end, the course concentrates on intellectual history of ideas as they evolved within a historical context, as opposed to on a purely theoretical level. It encourages students to explore connections between concepts and their embodiment in historical institutions, offering the opportunity to study salient aspects of both Western and Eastern thoughts in key phases of their historical development. Particular attention will be devoted to the interpretation of myth from ancient times up to the present. Thinkers such as Plato, Machiavelli, Confucius, Lalon, and Tagore may be considered.

ENG 532 Special Author Study and Literary Project

This project requires that a student will select a single author (preferably Bangladeshi or South
Asian) and 3 of his/her books and write a biography and separate chapters delineating the
special characteristics of the texts. The length of the assignment must be at least 4000 words.

ENG 538 World Englishes

This course will encourage the students to look at the expansion of English language in the world today in order to gain a deeper insight into the relationship between language as well as the contexts and development of several non-native varieties of English due to extended language contacts. Students will be introduced to the sociocultural and intercultural aspects of language and communication in the context of English language teaching (ELT). This course will also include the introduction, development and use of English in South Asia. Some key issues will be cross-cultural and localized functional range that English has developed in various domains. The course also includes concepts like investigation of topics related to nativization, Global English, English Imperialism, acculturation, English as a Lingua Franca or English as an International Language with distinctive features of English varieties in the subcontinent. The implications of the concepts of World Englishes will also be discussed.

ENG 567 Digital Humanities

Blending in information studies with humanities discourse, this course aims to examine various aspects of humanities discipline. Topics might include, but not limited to, digital text analysis and mapping tools, new digital literary genres, social media narrative, blogging, project coding, data mining and privacy, digital archives in the humanities, database research, etc.

ENG 568 Language, Power and Gender

This course will make students aware of the problems that exist between language and power, and how a speaker’s use of language further affects the gender differences. Words are used to construct and convey ideas, and the worldview of a society may empower some, while disempowering the others. The course will look at languages used by men and women in various scenarios.

ENG 597 Independent Study/Colloquium

Under supervision of a faculty member, students taking independent study will select a topic and conduct an independent research study. Faculty supervisors must agree to supervise student work before semester registration. All topics must be pre-approved by faculty supervisors before research is conducted.

In this course under the non-thesis option, the students will be given a total number of 8 essays
and short stories and they will be required to write a 500-word response on each one of them.

APPLIED LINGUISTICS AND TESOL

CORE COURSES (6 courses/18 credits + Dissertation/6 credits)

ENG 507 Research Methods

Research understanding is a necessary and effective way to keep classrooms modern and relevant to language learners everywhere. This course will require students to familiarize themselves with research literature relevant to English language teaching. The course will also discuss different methods of research directly relevant to language teachers including action research, and textual analysis through corpus linguistics.

ENG 509 Theories on First and Second Language Acquisition

There are many theories to Language Learning. This course will explore the traditional theories associated with language learning and how they have affected the evolution of language teaching. Particular attention will be paid to learner characteristics (attitude, aptitude, and motivation), cognitive and metacognitive strategies, interlanguage theory, the monitor model, acculturation, and accommodation. All theories will be learned in the context of application to teaching pedagogy.

ENG 511 English Language Learning and Teaching

This course covers the history of English teaching methods used from the grammar translation approach to present-day communicative and learner-centered language teaching. Emphasis will be placed on teaching techniques associated with each method. The subject of translation in language teaching classrooms will also be covered. At course completion, students will be able to recognize and select the modern methods most effective for their own language classrooms.

ENG 512 Linguistics for English Language Teaching

This course explores the complexity of language. Phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics will be discussed in terms of their relevance to English language teaching. At completion of this course students will be able to define and give examples of linguistic concepts, express English language sounds in IPA, and understand how a native language can affect second language acquisition.

ENG 539 Advanced Sociolinguistics

The course examines sociolinguistic factors relevant to English language teaching and education such as relationship between language and society, distinctions between language and dialect, literacy and language attitudes, second language learning in different regions and ethnography of speaking. The course also deals with regional and social dialects as well as variations according to users and by gender. It also includes language contact situations, social and linguistic nature of dialects, language change, etc. The stages of first language acquisition will be discussed in the context of these concepts. It also includes topics like national language and language planning. Students will be made aware of different branches of Psycholinguistics as well as the relationship between Psycholinguistics and Psychology of language.

ENG 546 Teaching Practicum and Classroom Management

This course provides real hands-on teaching experience to pre-service teachers. Students can expect to get teaching hours at a school where they will be responsible for needs analysis, lesson planning, and assessment planning for a classroom. Academic readings, group discussion, and reflection of teaching techniques will also be an integral part of the course experience for students. In addition, it includes the contributions of leading theories and/or theorists, cognitive and social development, the study of research of teacher characteristics and behaviors affecting the learner, theories of motivation and learning, classroom management, principles of measurements and evolutions, individual and group learner differences and student assessment, introductory statistics, testing and classroom management of computer-assisted instruction.

Pre-requisites: English Language Teaching (ELT) Theory Text

Pre-requisites: Methods and Linguistics for English Language Teaching

ENG 599 Dissertation

Each student is required to complete a 12,000-15,000-word dissertation that must be an original piece of research. Students choose topics of interest to them in consultation with their supervisor.

ELECTIVES (4 COURSES/12 CREDITS)

ENG 508 English Grammar in Context

Grammar is a critical part of a language teacher’s knowledge base. This course will instruct on grammar structures in the English language. At completion of this class, students will be able to accurately identify parts of speech and usage. Emphasis will be given to structures typically problematic for English Language Learners (ELLs).

ENG 510 Critical Approaches to Syllabus Design

This course covers a variety of language learning syllabi including the structural syllabus, the task-based syllabus, and the notional-functional syllabus. Instruction on syllabus design will emphasize awareness and intentionality behind making choices for instruction in a language learning classroom.

ENG 516 Translation Studies

Students will be examined on the basis of their understanding of translation theory and will also have to produce translations of literary texts.

ENG 532 Linguistics Project

For a linguistics project, the student must submit a 4,000-word report by the end of the semester after discussing with the course teacher.

ENG 535 Testing and Assessment for English Language Teaching

This course will discuss the challenges and application of sound assessments in a language learning classroom. Various styles of assessment including summative and formative assessment will be discussed. The benefits and drawbacks of each style will also be highlighted in terms of their classroom usage.

ENG 536 Technology and Learner Autonomy

This course will present a socio-cultural perspective on the use of computers in relation to the English Language Teaching and the ever-increasing variety of technologies that can increase student motivation in learning second and foreign language. Students will explore and experience new media technologies available to them.. This will include wikis and digital stories for language learning as well as the creation, implementation and evaluation of digital video, sound, image, animation and games. Other technology-based tools such as Learning Management Systems will also be introduced. Students will also learn to use CALL Internet resources, for various teaching contexts.

ENG 537 Teaching Listening and Speaking

This course is based on principles of teaching listening and speaking language skills. It is intended to examine how listening and speaking activities can be designed to encourage language learning and teaching. Students will be equipped with theoretical knowledge and techniques concerning these two language skills. The course provides information for helping learners at all levels of proficiency development in listening and speaking fluency.

ENG 538 World Englishes

This course will encourage the students to look at the expansion of English language in the world today in order to gain a deeper insight into the relationship between language as well as the contexts and development of several non-native varieties of English due to extended language contacts. Students will be introduced to the sociocultural and intercultural aspects of language and communication in the context of English language teaching (ELT). This course will also include the introduction, development and use of English in South Asia. Some key issues will be cross-cultural and localized functional range that English has developed in various domains. The course also includes concepts like investigation of topics related to nativisation, Global English, English Imperialism, acculturation, English as a Lingua Franca or English as an International Language with distinctive features of English varieties in the subcontinent. The implications of the concepts of World Englishes will also be discussed.

ENG 540 Materials Development for English Language Teaching

The focus of this course is to highlight the interrelationship of curriculum, materials and textbooks in the ESL classroom. This course is designed to provide ESL students with theoretical background and experience in evaluating, adapting, and developing materials for teaching English to speakers of other languages. Students will have opportunities to judge the appropriateness of existing materials for a variety of language programs and target populations. In addition, working in groups and individually, students will be involved in creating materials for a variety of classroom purposes. By the end of the semester, they will be experienced in evaluating existing materials and filling gaps by adapting or designing materials.

ENG 541 Teaching Skills Workshops

This course establishes a bridge between theory and practice of language learning and teaching by linking all the language skills: grammar, reading, writing, and speaking. It will examine the application of approaches, methods, and techniques commonly employed in ELT, and their theoretical rationale. Students will be oriented with teaching skills which will be improved by introducing key aspects of teaching practice, selection of appropriate teaching methods, and employing appropriate assessment.

ENG 542 Contexts and Strategies for English Language Teaching

This course is designed to introduce students with theory, research and practice in English for various contexts. Students will be equipped with basic understanding of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Academic Purposes (EAP), and English for business. A discussion of language learning in special needs contexts will also be included. Students will learn the practical applications of course design in the form of materials, methodology and syllabus for the needs of teaching and learning. In addition, this course uses contemporary research literature to guide discussion and critical thinking about challenges English Teachers face in classroom instruction. Discussion will include references to all age and proficiency levels. At course completion, students will be highly aware of the challenges to English Language instruction worldwide, and be equipped with strategies to adapt to different scenarios they may face in future classrooms.

ENG 543 Statistics for Educational Research

Basic statistical knowledge is critical for any researcher, but statistics for Education Research uses specific statistical methods to perform its data analyses. In this course, student will receive an overview of basic statistical functions. Emphasis will be given to those statistical processes critical to performing and understanding quantitative research in applied linguistics.

ENG 544 Discourse Analysis and Pragmatics

This course will acquaint students with written and spoken texts with reference to different aspects of discourse. It will include the following and consider their relevance to ELT: functional approaches to discourse; discourse types; speech act theory; cohesion and coherence, deixis; theory of politeness; cooperative principle; relevance; conversational analysis; schema theory and shared knowledge.

ENG 545 Comparative Linguistics

In this course, students will study how, and more importantly, why languages change. These changes will be examined from a historical viewpoint. Students will also learn about the inter-relatedness of languages through comparison of some major languages of the world.

ENG 567 Digital Humanities

ENG 568 Language, Power and Gender

ENG 570 Teaching English for Academic and Specific Purposes

This course will make learners aware of how language relates to higher education tasks and contexts. The students will learn how to use appropriate linguistic registers and correct English grammar; and critically evaluate sources and references with proper citation conventions. Also, through workshops, seminars and reading materials, the learners will gain an understanding of current research on relevant EAP topics.

ENG 572 Computer Assisted Language Learning/ ICT in TESOL

This course will make the students, i.e., the future language teachers, aware of the role and use of internet and technologies in teaching and learning English. The course will enable the students to be equipped with different applications of technology with reference to different contextual factors, e.g., learner profiles and needs, predominant methodological paradigms, and infrastructural and socio-cultural settings. Topics and issues covered include, Language learning and electronic literacy, computer based reading and writing development, and the role of multimodal texts and large corpora in language learning

ENG 573 Language and Education: Policies and Practices

This course introduces the current debates within the field of language education policies and practices at both global and local levels. Topics will include the economic, social and political factors behind the formation of language education policy, administrative and legislative procedures followed in the formation, and the effects of the policies and practices adopted at the various levels of educational institutions within a specific context.

ENG 574 Management and Leadership in TESOL

This course will introduce various recent developments in leadership management within the field of TESOL. The students will learn about the managerial skills and leadership knowledge required to play administrative roles in language learning and teaching environment in local and global contexts.

ENG 575 TESOL for Special Needs

This course will introduce the students to the approaches and methodologies used for teaching English to the learners with special educational needs. Topics covered include communication disorder, the effects of Down syndrome and autism, as well as specific learning related problems such as aphasia, dyslexia, and ADHD in language learning and development. The course will include a selected number of sessions and workshops with medical experts in addition to visits to special needs schools.

ENG 576 Teacher Development and Education

This course will introduce both pedagogical and practical issues relevant for developing teacher trainers. Students will learn about administrative concerns and logistic support required within the context of language teaching and learning in Bangladesh and beyond.

ENG 597 Independent Study/Colloquium

Under supervision of a faculty member, students taking independent study will select a topic and conduct an independent research study. Students will read from the materials provided by the supervisor. To ensure that the enrolled students have understood the gist of the texts chosen, the students should submit a 3,000-word essay by the end of the semester.

LITERATURE AND CREATIVE WRITING

CORE COURSES (6 courses/18 credits + Dissertation/6 credits)

ENG 513 Advanced Critical Reading I: Fiction and Creative Nonfiction

This course is designed to engage graduate students in an in-depth study of the craft of creative writing through the reading of fiction and creative non-fiction. The students will be introduced to the elements of fiction including plot, character, viewpoint, and fictional genres and to the forms of nonfictional prose such as autobiography, biography, essay, letter, memoir, oration, and travelogue in British, American, and other English-language traditions.

In addition to sharpening their critical reading abilities, students in this course will develop the skills needed to create original fiction and creative nonfiction. Also, students, through the close study of the craft of fiction and creative nonfiction, will be able to improve their skills as readers and critics. Throughout the course they will practice the writing of fiction and creative nonfiction and will also participate in the analysis and discussion of their work, with some attention to general methods of fiction writing and with reference to the general methods and scope of the genre respectively.

Students will be assessed on the basis of reading and writing assignments along with a sit in examination.

ENG 514 Advanced Critical Reading II: Poetry and Drama

This course is designed to engage graduate students in an in-depth study of the craft of creative writing through the reading of poetry and drama. The students will be introduced to the elements of drama including plot, character, dialogue, staging, and dramatic forms and elements of poetry including meter, rhyme, image, diction, and poetic forms in British, American, and other English-language traditions.

In addition to sharpening their critical reading abilities, students in this course will develop the skills needed to create original poetry and drama. Also, students, through the close study of the craft of poetry and drama, will be able to improve their skills as readers and critics. Throughout the course they will practice advanced techniques of poetry writing and playwriting and will also participate in the analysis and discussion of their work, with some attention to general methods of poetry and drama writing.

Students will be assessed on the basis of reading and writing assignments along with a sit in examination.

ENG 547 Writing Poetry

This course will give new direction to students’ poetry through practical teaching methods and regular feedback. It will build students’ awareness of the form and elements of the craft. It will also require reading the poetry of prose writers and the poetry of other poets of different centuries. The course will develop a skill of self-evaluation and constructive analysis of the work of others. Finally, students will be able to develop a work in progress. The workshop method will be adopted in class to give students a hands-on introduction to poetry writing.

The method of evaluation will be assignments in the form of short pieces of poems as well as writing extemporaneous poems at a sit in examination. The course teacher will provide guidelines for such writing.

ENG 548 Fiction Writing

This course will teach the art of the craft of writing. It will start with teaching the fundamental elements of fiction craft–character, plot, point of view, etc. It will also focus on the techniques of writing the Self to enable the students to develop it further. For this, students will illustrate the key concepts with passages from great works of fiction. Different types of exercises will let them evaluate their own writing as well as others’ writing. Finally they will be able to turn their ideas into effective short stories and novels. The workshop method will be adopted in class to give students a hands on introduction to creative writing.

Method of Evaluation will be assignment writing exercises in the form of short pieces of flash fictions, or dramatic scenes (keywords, suggestion for diction, characters).

ENG 549 Writing Creative Non-fiction

This course will introduce different forms of nonfiction – travel writing, memoirs, reviews, biography and autobiography, journalistic writing, and others. Besides letting the students explore each form, the course will offer exercises, tips, feedback from the instructor in a non-judgmental environment. Students will learn how interestingly one can write nonfiction and how through practice and praise one can bring nonfiction to life on page.

The workshop method will be adopted in class to give students a hands on introduction to creative non- fiction writing.

ENG 550 Playwriting

This course will introduce elements of a play – setting, characters, music, dialogues, climax, and so on, with a vision of other practical elements – the work of directors, designers, music composers, cast, crew etc. Here students will learn the craft of dramatic writing and also learn how to write scripts that are theatrical, using a balance of lectures, exercises, and instructor/peer feedback.

ENG 599 Dissertation

Each student is required to complete a 10,000-12,000-word dissertation that may be an original creative work or a theoretical study of some aspect of creative writing. Students are required to choose only one form for their dissertation based on the two core courses they have completed in the previous semesters.

ELECTIVES (4 COURSES/12 CREDITS)

ENG 515 Colonial and Postcolonial Discourses

ENG 516 Translation Studies

Students will be examined on the basis of their understanding of translation theory and will also have to produce translations of literary texts.

ENG 524 Contemporary Literatures in English

American Literature
Australian Literature
Russian Literature
Caribbean Literature
African Literature
Canadian Literature
Scandinavian Literature
French Literature
German Literature
Latin American Literature

ENG 525 Representing Gender: Women Writers

ENG 529D Literature and the Environment

This course looks at how concepts of nature have been presented in literary texts over time with a view to understanding the contemporary issues of climate change and environmental sustainability. Students will examine major trends that have influenced how writers have been affected by their natural environments and how they have adapted these to their writings. Through close textual analysis of selected texts, students will learn about ecocriticism, a major school of criticism; its theoretical basis, and how it can be applied to the study of writings about nature.

ENG 531 History of Ideas

ENG 532 Special Author Study and Literary Project

ENG 538 World Englishes

ENG 545 Comparative Linguistics

The workshop method will be used to give students hands on training on scriptwriting/playwriting. Finally, it will enable student to prepare for the marketing of their writing.

ENG 551 Screenwriting for Film and TV

This course will introduce different genres and types of films: comedy, drama, action/adventure, science fiction, thriller, musical, and others, by screening the film and giving lectures. Students will then learn how to write a script for cinema or television. Exercises and feedback from the instructor and the classmates will give them a firm grounding in all the basics of screenwriting. They will also be able to visit shooting locations to understand the challenge of its practical side.

The method of evaluation will be assignments in writing screenplays. The course teacher will provide guidelines for such writing.

The workshop method will be adopted in class to give students a hands on introduction to screenwriting.

ENG 552 Experiments in Fiction (Modernist and Postmodernist)

Experimental writing in literature (stream of consciousness, cut-up, innovative language, anti-narrative, metafiction) is scrutinized in this course with the purpose of examining the form, the cultural significance, the history, and the racial and gender implications as seen through modernist and postmodernist fiction.

ENG 553 Technology and the Writer

As technological tools and outlets for writing develop, writers must learn to adapt their writing styles to accommodate the different media. This course will guide students to create their own texts and edit those using word processors. They will also learn basic design strategies to prepare the texts for online and digital publication.

ENG 554 Readings in Literary Translation

This course will tackle texts in translation as well as strategies for translating literary texts. Major translation theories will be discussed during the course. The course will also cover issues of copyright and publication processes. Practical work with a focus on cultural issues that emerge during the process of translation will serve to enrich the experience.

ENG 555 Advanced Readings in South Asian Fiction & Non-fiction in English

This course seeks to closely study a range of fiction and non-fiction in English from South Asia from cultural, historical, religious, political, economic, social, and aesthetic points of view to come an understanding about their place in a global context. The question of how these texts developed and the ways in which they have changed over the years will be examined. Some postcolonial theory may also be included in the course contents.

ENG 556 Advanced Readings in South Asian Poetry & Drama in English

This course will focus on topics similar to those of the Advanced Readings in South Asian Fiction & Non-fiction in English with an emphasis on poetry and drama.

ENG 557 Gender Politics

The course is designed to introduce the key issues in the contemporary discussion of gender as manifested in various cultural and critical practices. The course will be organized around a variety of topics which may include: body politics, subjectivity and sexuality, queer theory, the theoretical approaches to sexuality, the making of sexual identities, the relationship between sexuality and social institutions, and feminist theory. It will examine gender in the politics of personal identities, everyday activities, political participation, and social structures (language, media, education, religion, violence). The objective of this course is to sensitize students to social constructions of gender and their political implications; in other words, to explore the implications of “taking gender seriously” in our examination of “politics.”

ENG 567 Digital Humanities

ENG 568 Language, Power and Gender

ENG 597 Independent Study/Colloquium

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