St Aloysius College (Autonomous), Mangalore

MS Communication, III Semester

Creative Communication
Course Plan 2010

Course instructor: Anil Pinto (ajpinto42@gmail.com)

Session I
Creativity and communication: Meaning and relationship; sources of creativity; media,
literature, theatre, and other arts vis-a-vis creativity.

Issues
What is creativity? When did we begin to discuss it? Wordsworth on poetic creation. What
is Communication? Problems with Communication theories; idea of ‘novel’ in seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries in England

Reading/Texts:
Plato: Ch 2, 10
Sigmund Freud: ‘Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming’
Wordsworth: ‘Daffodils’
Ted Hughes: ‘Thought Fox’
Michael Radford: Il Postino (1994)

Session II
Understanding literature: a historical overview and contemporary scene with reference to
India and selected countries, literary genres, terms, theories and movements; language of
literature.

Issues
Genres in literature - poem, essay, short story, novel; understanding the terms literature,
criticism, and theory; literature as discipline and domain – formation and contemporary
trends; criticism and theory - liberal humanist, formalism, structuralism, post-
structuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, feminism, post-colonialism, cultural studies,
queer studies, ideology and discourse.

Reading:
Terry Eagleton: ‘What is literature?’
William Wordsworth: ‘Daffodils’
Raja Rao: ‘Introduction’ to Kanthapura
Shakespeare: ‘Tomorrow and Tomorrow’
Albert Camus: The Outsider
Mary Klages: ‘Liberal humanism’, ‘Formalism’, ‘Structuralism’, ‘Post-structuralism’,
‘Deconstruction’, ‘Psychoanalysis’, ‘Feminism’, ‘Post-colonialism’, ‘Cultural Studies’,
‘Queer Studies’, ‘Ideology and Discourse’.
Un Chein Andalou

Session III
Basics of aesthetics: An introduction to all art forms- music, dance, painting, literature and
theatre; major theories and art movements; selected writings from major authors; visual
culture and semiotics

Issues
Notions and traditions of music; harmony v melody; notions and traditions of dance; form;
iconography; hermeneutics; ideology; semiotics; art semiotics; concept of the artist;
notions of aesthetic; space and perspective; materials and techniques; colour and culture;
genres in art.

Reading/Texts:
Ferdinand de Saussure: ‘Nature of Linguistic Sign’
Roland Barthes: ‘Mythologies’, ‘The Death of the Author’, ‘Work to Text’
Walter Benjamin: ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’
Sussie Tharu and K Lalitha: Extract from ‘Introduction’ to Women Writing in India from
600 BC to the Present Vol I
G V Iyer: Hamsageethe (1975)
Levi-Strauss: Myth and Music

Session IV
Understanding theatre: meaning, historical background and contemporary scene with
reference to India; production process- structure of play, role of the director, introduction
to aesthetics of theatre-music, acting, architecture, scenic and costume design, lighting and
make up.

Issues
Theatre semiotics; Aristotelian idea of theatre; Bharatha’s propositions on theatre; Theatre
during the colonial and post colonial period; comedy; tragedy; structure of plays, role of
director; schools of acting; music; set design; costume; lighting; types of theatres

Reading:
Aristotle: On Poetics
Sophocles: Oedipus Rex
Karnad: Naga-mandala
Levi-Strauss’s “Analysis of Oedipus Myth”
Stuart Hall: “Encoding/Decoding”

Session V
Art and media: reporting and writing about art events and issues; supplements, magazines
and programmes, reviews and criticisms

Issues
Old and new media interaction; aesthetic forms and politics of the Indian nation-state;
exposure to types of reporting of art events; practical training in critiquing and reviewing
art events and issues for newspapers, periodicals and journals.

Reading:
Raymond Williams: ‘Culture’
Loius Althusser: ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses’
Peirre Bourdieu: ‘Distinction - A social Critique of the Judgement of Taste’

Pedagogy
• The prescribed films/texts must be seen/read before attending the classes.
• The classroom discussions will incorporate films, plays, poems, novel, theoretical
writings, paintings, photographs and newspaper extracts
• There will be a few sessions conducted online, either through skype or dimdim.
• Classes will end with short essay-type assignment based on the readings and
discussions of the day. They need to be submitted within the next three days.
Evaluation
Two formal tests – 50 Passed down to 25
Class participation – 3
Post class assignments – 5
Class Presentations – 5
Short Research papers – 7
Assignments -5