Literary Criticism I & II: Course Contents (ENG – 507)

UNIT 1: William Wordsworth             

Preface to Lyrical Ballads : its detailed reading  and critical discussion

UNIT 2: Wordsworth’s status as a critic

Preface to Lyrical Ballads: its genesis

Wordsworth’s theory of language, subject matter

A critical study of the text

UNIT 3: Biographia  Literaria (chapters XVII and XVIII) :its detailed reading  and critical discussion

UNIT 4: Coleridge as a critic

His rebuttal of Wordsworth’s theory of language and subject matter

UNIT 5: Arnold’s contribution as a critic

UNIT 6: Detailed reading  and critical discussion of the following essays:

The Study of Poetry

The Function of Criticism at the Present Time

Preface to poems

UNIT 7: T. S. Eliot  as a critic

T. S. Eliot the brainchild of Arnold

Eliot’s concept of tradition

His theory of impartiality in poetry

UNIT 8: Detailed reading  and critical discussion of the following essays:

Tradition and the Individual Talent

Metaphysical Poets, Hamlet