1

CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF ANDHRA PRADESH

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

M.A. programme: Duration:

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE Course Instructor:
Semester: II Prof. VVN Rajendra Prasad
Course Number:
Core/ Optional: Core Title of the Course:
No. of Credits:4 Shakespeare and 17th Century English
Lectures: 4hours /week Literature and Thought

This course aims at providing a basic introduction to the work of William Shakespeare and the literature
of 17th Century England. Select literary texts will be read alongside the socio-cultural and political
backgrounds of the age. The main thematic foci of the course, cutting across the late sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, will include authority and state politics; questions of gender and patriarchy; and
exploration, race and proto-colonialism.

Shakespeare
King Lear/Othello
Much Ado about Nothing/Twelfth Night
(The final choice of texts will be determined on the first day of class, after discussions with the students.
Once the choices have been finalized students will be told which edition will be used in class.)

Seventeenth Century Literature

Selections from the poetry of John Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell and John Milton will be
taught as also the genre of the country house poem.
Prose:
Elizabeth I: Speech to the Troops at Tilbury
Richard Hakluyt: Discourse of Western Planting (Excerpts as found on
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/exploration/text5/hakluyt.pdf)
Francis Bacon: “Of Travel” (A print copy will be provided); “Of Plantations”
Sir Thomas Roe: Excerpts from The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Court of the Great Mogul” (A print
copy will be provided)
John Milton: From The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates

Unless otherwise specified all the prose and poetry texts can be found in The Norton Anthology of
English Literature: The Sixteenth Century and the Early Seventeenth Century, Volume B.
For the internal assessment of 40% there will be at least two items in each segment of the course,
namely two in Shakespeare and two in literature of the seventeenth century. The better mark from each
segment will be taken and the total will comprise the internal assessment grade. The tests and take
home assignments will include thematic and close reading questions, to be answered in the form of
essays, short notes and MCQs. Plagiarised work will not be awarded a grade. The end-semester
examination will be for 60%.
 2

Recommended Reading

Some of the recommended books are available in the IGML but they may also be found online.
For the Shakespeare section:
 de Grazia, Margaret and Stanley Wells, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
 Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Stage. 3rd Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.
 McDonald, Russ. The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001.
For the Literature of the 17th C:
 Corns, Thomas N., ed. The Cambridge Companion to English Poetry, Donne to Marvell.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
 Corns, Thomas N., A History of Seventeenth-Century English Literature. Oxford, UK: Wiley-
Blackwell, 2013
 Danielson, Dennis, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Milton. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1999.
Additional reading lists, for websites, books and journals, will be provided in the beginning of the term.

Assessment:
40% is allotted for continuous internal assessment
60% for the semester end examination.