UGC Undergraduate Syllabus for Comparative Literature
Comparative Literature Honours Course: 140 Credits
Semester – I ( 2 Core Courses 6 credits each + 2 Electives 4 credits each = 20 credits)
Course Core course (each course 6 Credits)
No.
1 a Literary Terms and Tools I
such as: literariness, text, metaphor, image,
symbol, fiction, author, reader, theme, plot,
kavya, rasa
b Frames of Comparison: Retelling the
Ramakatha/Mahabharata:
Ramcaritmanas/ Kamban Ramayana
Ramayana Stories ed. Paula Richman
Nabaneeta Dev Sen “Immortality Trap”, “Ur
Ramayana; Or “Shakuntalapakhyan” from
Mahabharata, Abhigyanshakuntalam –
Kalidasa Apsara Ki Shap – Yashpal, “An
Afternoon with Shakuntala” – Vaidehi,
Shakuntala – Sisir Kumar Das, (Other
Shakuntala Narratives/Stories available in local
languages)
2 Frames of Comparison: Narrative: selections
from: Odyssey, Ramayana, Silappadikaram,
Firdausi: Shahnamah, Journey to the West
Recommended reading:
Comparative Poetics: Earl Miner
Exile and Kingdom : Some Thoughts on Ramayana – Romila Thapar
Ramayana Stories in Modern South India ed Paula Richman
Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia – ed. Paula Richman
2 Electives (each course 4 Credits) Total
Credits
i) Retellings of Epic Literature 20
[different re-tellings of Ramayana,
Odyssey, Shahnamah, etc
ii) Orality and Literature:
Story-telling traditions to print
culture to illustrate the
overlapping of the oral and
written literary traditions for
example ijala tradition and Forest
of a Thousand Daemons,
adaptations of oral tales by Amos
Tutuola.
iii) Romance: Changing concept of
the ‘hero-heroine’ –Archetypes &
Stereotypes.
eg: Vis o Ramin; Tristan and
Isolde; Premakhyan;
Contemporary examples.
iv) Narratives of the Self
v) Indian language and literature
1– recommended that as per
available resources an Indian
language is taught through 6
semesters
Questioning Ramayanas: A South Asian Tradition- ed. Paula Richman
Literacy and Orality: Studies in the Technology of Communication – Ruth Finnegan
The Theory of Oral Composition – John Miles Foley
The Interface between the Written and the Oral – Jack Goody
Orality and Literacy The Technologizing of the Word – Walter Ong

Semester – II ( 2 Core Courses 6 credits each + 3 Electives 4 credits each = 24 credits)

Course Core course (each course 6 Credits)
No.
3 Comparative Literature : Definition, Scope and v) Early Indian Novels:
Method
The course will cover: 1) Comparative
Literature in the World; 2) Comparative
Literature in India – selected essays; 3)
Weltliteratur/World Literature and Visva
Sahitya
3 Electives (each course 4 Credits) Total
Credits
24
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay:
Durgeshnandini; Fakir Mohan
Senapati:Chha Mana Atha Guntha
Chandu Menon Indulekha;
Govardhanram Madhavaram
Tripathi: Saraswatichandra
Or, any 19th century novel in an
Indian language

vi) Realism in Indian Novels:

Premchand: Karmbhumi; Tagore :
Chaturanga; Gopinath Mohanty:
Dadibura; Phanishwar Nath Renu:
Maila Anchal; Rahi Masoom Reza:
Aadha Gaon; Chalam: Maidanam

4 Frames of Comparison: vii) Short story as a form:

Narrative Traditions: Indian, Asian, African Selections from the world Eg.
Selections from Jatakas/Somadeva’s Chekhov, Maupassant, Poe, etc
Kathasaritsagar/Vishnu Sharma’s
Panchatantra/Arabian Nights/ Kalila wa
Dimnah/ Chinua Achebe Things fall apart

To illustrate concepts such as: Synchrony, viii) Short story in India:

Diachrony,Reception/Hospitality/Appropriation Rabindranath, Premchand, Manto,
, Emplotment, Dominant, Emergent, Residual, Basheer, Pudumaiputtan, Volga,
Structure of feeling, Horizon of Expectation. Jayakantan, Thakkazhi,
Mahasweta Devi, Temsula Ao,

ix) Magic Realism –theory and

texts
x) Translation Studies
xi) Indian language & literature 2
Recommended reading:
The Idea of Comparative Literature in India – Amiya Dev
Comparative Literature: Theory and Practice – eds. Amiya Dev and Sisir Kumar Das
Comparative Literature: Theory and Method. Steven Totosy de Zepetnek
Realism and Reality – Meenakshi Mukherjee
Early Novels in India – Meenakshi Mukherjee
A History of Indian Literature1800 – 1910 Western Impact: Indian Response – Sisir Kumar Das
A History of Indian Literature1911 – 1956 Struggle for Freedom: Triumph and Tragedy – Sisir Kumar Das
India’s Literary History – eds. Stuart Blackburn & Vasudha Dalmiya
In Another Country: Colonialism, Culture and the English Novel in India – Priya Joshi
The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of the Self under Colonialism – Ashis Nandy
Masks of Conquest Literary Study and British Rule in India – Gauri Viswanathan

Semester – III ( 2 Core Courses 6 credits each + 3 Electives 4 credits each = 24 credits)

Course Core course (each course 6 Credits)
No.
5 Comparative Literature : New Directions
This course will cover in relation with
Comparative Literature: Comparative Cultural
Studies; Translation Studies; Current
Approaches to Comparative Literature
Electives (each course 4 Credits) Total
Credits
x) World Theatre: texts by Ibsen, 24
Chekov, Shaw, Beckett, Walcott,
Soyinka, Buchi Emecheta
xi) Reception of Shakespeare in
India/ Multimedial Shakespeare/
Shakespeare and world theatre

6 Frames of Comparison: xii) Theories of Drama: Western,

Drama I: Kalidasa: Abhijnan Shakuntalam, Indian, Others
Sudraka: Mrichhakatika, Sophocles: Oedipus
Rex, Moliere: Tartuffe; Shakespeare: Tempest
xiii) Theatre and Gender/Race/
Ethnicity: theory and texts
xiv) Regional Theatre/s in India
xv) Mythical Theatres:
Africa/Caribbean
xvi) Indian language& literature 3
Recommended reading:
Counterpoints – Nabanita Dev Sen
Comparative Literature in the Multiculturalism ed. Charles Bernheimer
Companion to Comparative Literature, World Literatures and Comparative Cultural Studies – eds. Steven
Totosy de Zepetnek and Tutun Mukherjee
Ganesh Devy Reader
Semester – IV ( 2 Core courses 6 credits each + 3 Electives 4credits each = 24 credits)

Course Core course (each course 6 Credits) 2 Electives (each course 4 Credits) Total
No. Credits
7 Comparative Literary Practice: Structural xvii) Theatre of Protest 24
Formal and Thematic Migrations and Mutations
emphasizing Influence and Reception of texts
in different societies and cultures.
Eg. Kathasaritsagara texts; Shahnama;
Macbeth, Hamlet etc.
xviii) Performing Gender
8 Frames of Comparison: xix) Narratives of the Nation
Modern Indian Drama: Tagore: Red Oleanders,
Tendulkar: Silence! Court is in Session, Karnad:
Nagamandala, Dina Mehta: Brides are not for
Burning; Mahesh Dattani: Tara/ Final Solutions
xx) Women’s writing
xxi) Literature from the Margins

xxii) Disabilities: Theory and texts

xxiii) Indian language& literature 4
Recommended reading:

Semester – V ( 2 Core courses 6 credits each + 3 Electives 4 credits each = 24 credits)

Course Core course (each course 6 Credits) 2 Electives (each course 4 Credits) Total
No. Credits
9 Frames of Comparison: xxiv) Reception of Romanticism in 24
Poetry: Lyric as a form; Khandakavya; Sangam Indian Literature
poetry; Sonnet from Europe to India; Ghazal
from West Asia to the World; Bhakti poetry;
Sufi-Baul poetry
xxv) Modern and Post-modern
Trends in poetry
10 a Rise of Prose in India xvi) Literary Transactions: Colonial
& Postcolonial
b What is Literature. xvii) Popular lyric as literature
Critical concepts and tools 2 : Structuralism,
 Post-structuralism, Marxism, New Historicism,
Postcolonialism, Multiculturalism
xviii) Emergent Literatures
xix) Literatures of the Diaspora
xx) Indian language& literature 5
Recommended reading:
Mad Lover – Sisir Kumar Das
Renewal of a Song- eds. Earl Miner & Amiya Dev
‘Mirabai and the Spiritual Economy on Bhakti’ – Kumkum Sangari in EPW (July 1990)
Bhakti and the Bhakti Movement: a new perspective: a study in the history of Ideas – Krishna Sharma
‘Dense Desolate Pathway: Routes of Bhakti in Medieval Indian Literature’ – Swapan Majumdar in Jadavpur
Journal of Comparative Literature vol. 30 (1991-1992) ed. Amiya Dev
Sufisim An Account of the Mystics of Islam – A.J. Arberry
Sufism: A brief History – Sufyan bin Uzayr
Mystical Islam: An Introduction to Sufism – Julian Baldick

Semester – VI ( 2 Core courses + 3 Electives= 24 credits)

Course Core course (each course 6 Credits) Electives (each course 4 Credits) Total
No. Credits
11 Frames of Comparison: xxi) Literature and Film 24
Literature and Other Arts and Media
xxii) Creative Writing
12 Academic Writing: Report writing, Book review, xxiii) Media and Reception
Media Review, Copy editing
xxiv) Graphic Novels
xxv) Literature and Environment
xxvi) Project
xxvii) Indian language& literature6

Recommended reading: