INTERVIEW FOR CSE 2019 All ForumIAS members selected for CSE 2019 Personality Test must submit their details and DAF and register below to receive further instructions and guidance from ForumIAS. Click here to register now
INTERVIEW 2020 CHANNEL ForumIAS Channel for Interview Preparation is now Active! Please join the channel by clicking here
Detail study of literary age (19 th century): the paper will cover the study of English Literature from 1798 to 1900 with special reference to the works of Willian Word worth, Coleridge, Shelly, Keats, Lamb, Hazlitt, Thackeray. Dickens. Tennyson, Robert Browning, A.C. Swinehurne, D.G. Rossetti, Carlyl and Ruskin.
The candidates will be required to evince first hand reading. The paper will be designed to test candidates through understanding of the main literary trends during the period with reference to the authors prescribed. Questions on the social and cultural background to the period will be also set.
ENGLISH LITERATURE Paper – II
The paper will be designed to test candidates first hand reading of the text alomgwith their ability to examine literacy problems critically. 1. William Shakespeare : Twelth Night Henry IV Pt. J. Hamlet, The Tempest. 2. John Milton : Paradise Lost Book-1 & II 3. Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice. 4. W. Wordsworth : “Immortality Ode” “Tintern Abbey” 5. Dickens : Great Expectations. 6. Graham Green : The power and theGlory. 7. William Golding : Lord of the Flies. 8. W.B. Yeats :“TheSecond Coming”“Bizanlium”, “Sailing to Bizanlium”, “A Prayer for my Daughter”. “Leda and the Swan”. 9. T.S. Eliot : The Wasteland. 10. D.H. Lawrence. Sons and Lovers.
Sir ,I have english literature as an optional for my state exam (Pcs ) .can you help me with my doubts.the syllabus is different from that of UPSC.
Hello, yes sure. Would love to. Let me know what do you want help with specifically. And which state exam is it?
Thankyou so much sir.Actually it's the UP state exam. I just was not able to gather enough courage to go ahead with English,in the absence of an expert guidance.
Now that you are ready to help me out,I will go with it.
Wil be taking your advise after posting the syllabus here .
In case if you are somehow not available here, are there any alternative sources to get in touch with you.
Regards.
Hello, I saw the syllabus. It's pretty easy and very less demanding, time-wise. As you can see, they have reiterated what I earlier mentioned in my previous posts:
understanding of the main literary trends during the period with reference to the authors prescribed
Questions on the social and cultural background to the period
first hand reading of the text along with their ability to examine literacy problems critically
These three are most crucial points while taking English Literature as an optional. Are you already preparing? Or, do you want me to go one by one and cover the entire syllabus to help you? Honestly, I am very tempted to cover the entire syllabus myself and produce everything here for your benefit and ease! But, I know it will just be a pleasure trip for me and less beneficial for a candidate who IS supposed to be prepared, not me. If you want to prepare WITH me, I guess that's a judicial arrangement, preparation for you and pleasure for me. Let me know your thoughts on this? And just to save your time till I check the post next, could you please read/revise 15th-century-16th-century SOCIAL, POLITICAL background of England (focus on the syllabus, which I can see is clearly Shakespeare, leave Sidney, Spenser, remarkable women poets like the queen herself or Mary Scots etc, although this shows the syllabus setter is old-school and questionable! ) and post your observations here. Please stick to any one book, either Albert which I suggested in my previous post or whatever you're already referring to. Use bullet points to divide different points but don't use sub-headings/bullet points otherwise. Literature answers are supposed to be paragraphic. Your syllabus doesn't mention the word limits for this exam, so just keep it within 300-500 for each important socio-political point. Thanks. I think sticking to Forum is a rather good idea as my office computer shows a pop up every time anything happens on anything I visit regularly. Thanks to my university's IT services. And, it will also help to build a repository for, who knows, future candidates, Good luck.
hello sir, I have a few questions, some related with phd, and some upsc.
my upsc question. can you give some examples, how to Marxist, feminist or modernist reading of any a drama, novel, poem ? say , feminist reading of pride and prejudice .
i will be glad if you will be willing to answer some of the question pertaining to phd !
Sir ,I have english literature as an optional for my state exam (Pcs ) .can you help me with my doubts.the syllabus is different from that of UPSC.
Hello, yes sure. Would love to. Let me know what do you want help with specifically. And which state exam is it?
Thankyou so much sir.Actually it's the UP state exam. I just was not able to gather enough courage to go ahead with English,in the absence of an expert guidance.
Now that you are ready to help me out,I will go with it.
Wil be taking your advise after posting the syllabus here .
In case if you are somehow not available here, are there any alternative sources to get in touch with you.
Regards.
Hello, I saw the syllabus. It's pretty easy and very less demanding, time-wise. As you can see, they have reiterated what I earlier mentioned in my previous posts:
understanding of the main literary trends during the period with reference to the authors prescribed
Questions on the social and cultural background to the period
first hand reading of the text along with their ability to examine literacy problems critically
These three are most crucial points while taking English Literature as an optional. Are you already preparing? Or, do you want me to go one by one and cover the entire syllabus to help you? Honestly, I am very tempted to cover the entire syllabus myself and produce everything here for your benefit and ease! But, I know it will just be a pleasure trip for me and less beneficial for a candidate who IS supposed to be prepared, not me. If you want to prepare WITH me, I guess that's a judicial arrangement, preparation for you and pleasure for me. Let me know your thoughts on this? And just to save your time till I check the post next, could you please read/revise 15th-century-16th-century SOCIAL, POLITICAL background of England (focus on the syllabus, which I can see is clearly Shakespeare, leave Sidney, Spenser, remarkable women poets like the queen herself or Mary Scots etc, although this shows the syllabus setter is old-school and questionable! ) and post your observations here. Please stick to any one book, either Albert which I suggested in my previous post or whatever you're already referring to. Use bullet points to divide different points but don't use sub-headings/bullet points otherwise. Literature answers are supposed to be paragraphic. Your syllabus doesn't mention the word limits for this exam, so just keep it within 300-500 for each important socio-political point. Thanks. I think sticking to Forum is a rather good idea as my office computer shows a pop up every time anything happens on anything I visit regularly. Thanks to my university's IT services. And, it will also help to build a repository for, who knows, future candidates, Good luck.
Ok sir,thank you for your willingness to guide me through.
I am a rookie for english literature.Haven't read it after school.
Wil prepare what you suggested above and discuss. Regards
Oh this is excellent - precisely the sort of thing one is looking for and all that!
@VSH_DU2015 Would it be possible for you to give a list of questions for each text? The questions one needs to keep in mind while reading them - so one doesn't go astray. Or perhaps direct us to a source where such possible questions might be there? I've only just started reading the texts - finished 6 of them and plan to bulldoze over the next few weeks - hence would absolutely appreciate the themes to keep in mind while bulldozing through them! Thanks a ton!!
Oh this is excellent - precisely the sort of thing one is looking for and all that!
@VSH_DU2015 Would it be possible for you to give a list of questions for each text? The questions one needs to keep in mind while reading them - so one doesn't go astray. Or perhaps direct us to a source where such possible questions might be there? I've only just started reading the texts - finished 6 of them and plan to bulldoze over the next few weeks - hence would absolutely appreciate the themes to keep in mind while bulldozing through them! Thanks a ton!!
Hey, thanks a lot. That's a very interesting question and I am tempted to answer that. In fact, I feel, that's a detail, I should have included in my previous post. That will help anyone new trying/willing to try English literature without going astray as there is literally flooding of information on the internet otherwise.
So, here,
When reading 14th-15th- 16th Century [William Shakespeare’s King Lear and The Tempest ] the following questions are very important and would be useful across both texts. [this is not an exhaustive list, but it will help with any other questions as well, in my hope]
1) The Renaissance most important movement, although Shakespeare doesn't necessarily show renaissance traits in his plays [which are better represented by Christopher Marlowe] but the context will help appreciate how, contrary to authors writing morality plays and miracle plays etc in the 14th century, Shakespeare's heroes are human figures, not gods or sons of gods, or gifted by gods. Their only superpower is their will power, ambition, jealousies etc. Just a hint, explore it further.
2) Look at Reformation - for understanding the growing positive sense of the human intellect and of human capibility
3) language/failure of language/pressure on language to contain vast emotions about society, [although sonnets not mentioned here, neither by Shakespeare not by others but it's a good idea to look at them and know why suddenly, contrary to epic-length studies of the previous centuries, authors suddenly turned towards a mere 14-line poem.
4) Elizabeth's reign - its problems, wars, rivalry with Scotland, absence of an heir, a growing, old, ageing queen with no heir, a sense of fear, apprehensions looming large on nation's fate, the drifting apart of Catholics and Protestants, Parliament beginning to display its independence which was very new to the English court [exspecially if you Know Spenser's court poetry where knights subsumes all their devotion to the kings and queens, kings and queens were supposed to be chosen by God to rule over people, Shakespeare shows how human agency resigned to accept that willingly, or at least uncomfortable with this passivity.], and population growing to an unprecedented level.
5) human love creating discord in society, an attempt to maintain, keep stable the social order, but in comedies like The Tempest, this social order gets restored. And that is why they are comedies. In Shakespeare's tragedies, on the contrary, even when the plays end, one is left with the idea that there is a gap by author's forceful ending of the play by closing the action by positive/negative ends, amd the complex human feelings and hideous desires of ambition, jealousy, hatred etc that motivate people in the first place. One is alarmed at the human capacity to be a "bad" person. But if you look at Hamlet kind of plays, they make you realise that this pressure to decide, to act, to take revenge etc is something human beings cannot escape. One is meddled with this constant pressure to decide - something which was not there in the previous century plays where people knew that God will bring peace to everything. In Shakespeare's tragedies, there is no respite from Gods. So, it's like human beings are left to themselves, with no assurance, no help, no recourse to god's comforts etc. Just imagine, how helpless one would feel in that sort of world. Shakespeare, that is why, is called one of the earliest modernists.
6) questions about leadership, frailty of order to control a vast population/kingdom, challenges to leadership,
7) The role of women - look at different types of women in Shakespeare's comedies as well as Tragedies - they are hardly puppets. They are capable of having ambitions much like their men counterparts, or sometimes even more. Call it sexist, call it feminists, women of Shakespeare's plays can play men like anything: with their beauties, with their disguised games, with their "overflowing" femininity, or, for that matter. Although these women show conventional hierarchies of white women/black women, courtly lady women/commoner women, "good women like Ophelia in Hamlet who are just too good/ bad women like lady Macbeth, but the very diverse range of women we encounter in Shakespeare's plays is amazing. Something we don't see in previous plays. Also remember in Shakespeare's time, boys were playing women's role, so look at that angle as well how women were not supposed to do certain things in public. So the entire public/private, political/domestic debate, Shakespeare complicates them. He brings the interiority of domestic issues interlaced with political issues such brilliantly. Personal is indeed political. Wow.
8) Apart from that psychological development of characters. I guess is a very important angle to look at. Characters are hard to know from their inside. They are hardly flat or two-dimensional. So, Shakespeare's character making is a good point to explore.
Now, let us come to 17th -18th Century.When reading Metaphysical Poetry by John Donne (The following poems mentioned in syllabus: Canonization, Death be not proud, The Good Morrow, On his Mistress going to bed, The Relic), keep in mind the following things most importantly.
1) John Donne's life - look at that - he was a poet and a court person [several duties], so an imaginative writer taking an interest, in fact, active interest in the public life of the Nation, explore that.
2) twists and turns of the syntax, look at their language, heavy adjectives etc. Why suddenly after the 16th century of simple sonnets [not simple, actually!], suddenly a different language? explore that. Look at the change in the form of the poems.
3) a different kind of love - mysterious, untidy - very erotic as well [although often disguised], physical desires and spiritual dimension. It's like wanting to have sex with the God - see, how blasphemous! Imagine what kind of torpor it must have led to!
4) Metaphysical conceits: why would the poet employ them, why at all? the politics and meanings of conceit - explore it.
5) Role of women and sexual desires - look at how poets/period responds to this.
Neo-classicism • The Epic a) John Milton : Paradise Lost, I, II, IV, IX [Originally published in 1667, in ten books]
1) When looking at this book, just explore how Milton was a radical poet for his times. He engages in a fundamental political and religious re-thinking. I think if you do that, you're done. Use textual evidence when answering your questions. Look at Milton in line with renaissance - an absolute epitome of individuality - imagine conceptualising a book in 12 fat, volumes - an act of human ambition and will power ready to devour even God, anything that comes in way of ambition.
2) And look at the way Milton devours classic repertoire of references for his benefit. He is extremely knowledgeable, not a passive person or mediocre person demanding an identity, he is super-prepared to demand a human identity and is willing to fight for it. Appreciate Milton using this perspective.
3) Role of imagination - Milton became blind eventually, so sometimes people ask you how could a blind person imagine all this - which is a bullshit question, as he talks of heaven and hell and even a man with eyes won't have access to that! But anyway, they are the examiners [Oh god, now I too do this!] and we are students [ thank god, I am no longer that! ], so better be prepared. Satire [an aspect studied within neo-classicism, I divided because Paradise Lost isn’t a satire per se] and the Mock-epic a) Alexander Pope. The Rape of the Lock. [Originally published in May 1712]
1) when looking at this, explore the French court angle, its difference to the English court, its whims and fancies, and ladies and knights etc.
2) their stress on moderation, decorum, urbanity - why, suddenly after the grandness of Milton etc? explore this.
3) again, look at the women characters, love as play, a duel to win at, no Shakespearean true "love" but a game of wit where partners need to excel at each other all the time. This constant business class idea is a good point to explore.
The Romantic Movement • William Wordsworth. The following poems: a) Ode on Intimations of Immortality. b) Tintern Abbey. c) Three years she grew. d) She dwelt among untrodden ways. e) Michael. f) Resolution and Independence. g) The World is too much with us. h) Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour. i) Upon Westminster Bridge.
When looking at this, keep in mind the following points:
1) A sense of individuality, development of personal metaphors, personal religion, personal creed. Not a universal god, for e.g. how the poet imagines the god becomes important.
2) look at what kind of political social world, the poet imagines and wants. The stress on vision and imagination.
3) Most obviously, role of children
4) the French Revolution, the sense of human agency, the Napoleonic war where England supplied things and remained involved for like twenty years.
5) Development of Metaphysics in England - an influence from Germany - Kant, Schilling etc.
Oh god, I cannot write more. I am exhaust. Rest, next. Thanks for an interesting question. Please ask me more such, if you need any further help or assistance. Best.
hello sir, I have a few questions, some related with phd, and some upsc.
my upsc question. can you give some examples, how to Marxist, feminist or modernist reading of any a drama, novel, poem ? say , feminist reading of pride and prejudice .
i will be glad if you will be willing to answer some of the question pertaining to phd !
Hey to give an entire reading, will be too much of a task for me, because my own work hogs most of my time. But, if you do it, I can check it and guide you further on points you missed and need to improve. Hope that sounds okay?
C'mon, shoot me questions about PhD, without second thoughts. As long as it's from English Literature, bring on! Happy to help. I hope, although, they are not unserious questions like help me find a topic to do my PhD, in that case, I am sorry, I will have to say seriously!
@VSH_DU2015 , sir sorry for butting in uninvited but it would help all of us immensely if you could share your valuable ideas on essay writing, either here or maybe in another thread, when you are free.
We are a secret self-moderated community for Civil Services preparation. Feel free to join, start a discussion, answer a question or just to say Thank you.Just dont spread the word ;)Sign in or join with Facebook or Google
ForumIAS is India’s leading Online website for UPSC IAS Exam Online Preparation and guidance. At ForumIAS, we have a dream. Our dream is to make its members achieve their IAS dream. Today thousands of aspirants have joined the elite services such as IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS and other central and state services with the right inputs provided by ForumIAS. Take a look at our IAS Toppers
Free IAS Online Preparation Initiatives by ForumIAS
Current affairs is the most important part of UPSC IAS exam. ForumIAS provides a detailed analysis of important news articles through its 9PM brief. In current affairs reading Editorials Online needs an in-depth focus and hence we provide a separate analysis of daily editorials which is not found in any other website. Click the following link to access these free preparation initiatives in Portal . ForumIAS also provides compilations and Free downloads for UPSC IAS preparation
Knowing is never enough for IAS exam. An IAS aspirant must be engaged in answer writing practice to do well in UPSC IAS Mains Exam. ForumIAS has launched a Mains Marathon initiative for IAS mains Online answer writing. Click here to access UPSC Mains Marathon initiative . For Daily Must Read Newspaper articles, Visit Must Read Newspaper page here. Must Read Newspaper is an Initiative by Team ForumIAS to provide Current Affairs links to the Must Read Articles of The Day from Newspaper.
UPSC Syllabus
The most important part of UPSC IAS exam is its syllabus and there is a need to take an in-depth look at it. Click here to view the UPSC IAS Prelims syllabus. Visit UPSC IAS syllabus page here
UPSC IAS Study Material
ForumIAS is the repository of many toppers’ Online study materials for GS Mains and Optional subjects. The most unique thing about it is that they are handwritten by toppers themselves. Click here for UPSC sample notes
Interview Preparation for IAS
Interview is the last and crucial stage for becoming an IAS officer. How to prepare for it? We provide a solution. ForumIAS is the only online website where quality IAS interview preparations happen. Online Current affairs from an interview perspective are extensively discussed and specific preparation based on candidate’s profile and hobbies can be done. Please visit this link for UPSC Interview Preparation
At ForumIAS we have an exclusive Online page to read the UPSC Interview Transcripts
Indian Forest Service (IFoS)
IFoS is one of the most sought after All India Service. ForumIAS provides the right approach to excel in this exam through their toppers who have shared their success mantras and their study materials in an elaborate manner.
About Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
IAS is considered as one of the best jobs on earth. IAS officers hold the most important positions in Central and State Governments and in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). They also represent India in international organizations. They take the most important decisions in the administration of Government policies and development programs.
About Indian Police Service (IPS)
IPS officers occupy higher positions in the State Police Departments, Central Armed Police Forces and Intelligence Agencies. Their most important responsibilities are maintenance of Law and Order and internal security.
About Indian Foreign Service (IFS)
IFS officers serve as diplomats in international missions and embassies of India around the world and in prominent international organizations like United Nations (UN), World Bank, and IMF. They work to promote India’s interests from a bilateral and a global perspective.
The Study portal is a single point of online IAS preparation through its several initiatives like the Must Read News Articles, the 9 PM Brief, the Mains Marathon. If you are preparing for IAS exam online, ForumIAS is the place to go. ForumIAS is proud of ForumIAS Alumni in UPSC Service who have secured top Ranks in past 5 years.
Visit Us At
ForumIAS - Offline Guidance Centre
ForumIAS Academy, 1st Floor, IAPL House, 19, Pusa Road, Opposite Metro Pillar 95-96, Karol Bagh, New Delhi-110005,
View Google Map Location
Comments
English Literature : Paper –1
Detail study of literary age (19
th century): the paper will cover the study of English Literature from 1798 to
1900 with special reference to the works of Willian Word worth, Coleridge, Shelly, Keats, Lamb, Hazlitt,
Thackeray. Dickens. Tennyson, Robert Browning, A.C. Swinehurne, D.G. Rossetti, Carlyl and Ruskin.
The candidates will be required to evince first hand reading. The paper will be designed to test candidates
through understanding of the main literary trends during the period with reference to the authors prescribed.
Questions on the social and cultural background to the period will be also set.
ENGLISH LITERATURE Paper – II
The paper will be designed to test candidates first hand reading of the text alomgwith their ability to examine
literacy problems critically. 1. William Shakespeare : Twelth Night Henry IV Pt. J. Hamlet, The Tempest.
2. John Milton : Paradise Lost Book-1 & II 3. Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice. 4. W. Wordsworth :
“Immortality Ode” “Tintern Abbey” 5. Dickens : Great Expectations. 6. Graham Green : The power and
theGlory. 7. William Golding : Lord of the Flies. 8. W.B. Yeats :“TheSecond Coming”“Bizanlium”, “Sailing
to Bizanlium”, “A Prayer for my Daughter”. “Leda and the Swan”. 9. T.S. Eliot : The Wasteland. 10. D.H.
Lawrence. Sons and Lovers.
understanding of the main literary trends during the period with reference to the authors prescribed
Questions on the social and cultural background to the period
first hand reading of the text along with their ability to examine
literacy problems critically
These three are most crucial points while taking English Literature as an optional. Are you already preparing? Or, do you want me to go one by one and cover the entire syllabus to help you? Honestly, I am very tempted to cover the entire syllabus myself and produce everything here for your benefit and ease! But, I know it will just be a pleasure trip for me and less beneficial for a candidate who IS supposed to be prepared, not me.
I have a few questions,
some related with phd, and some upsc.
my upsc question.
can you give some examples,
how to Marxist, feminist or modernist reading of any a drama, novel, poem ?
say , feminist reading of pride and prejudice .
i will be glad if you will be willing to answer some of the question pertaining to phd !
Ok sir,thank you for your willingness to guide me through.
I am a rookie for english literature.Haven't read it after school.
Wil prepare what you suggested above and discuss.
Regards
@VSH_DU2015 Would it be possible for you to give a list of questions for each text? The questions one needs to keep in mind while reading them - so one doesn't go astray. Or perhaps direct us to a source where such possible questions might be there? I've only just started reading the texts - finished 6 of them and plan to bulldoze over the next few weeks - hence would absolutely appreciate the themes to keep in mind while bulldozing through them! Thanks a ton!!
So, here,
When reading
14th-15th- 16th Century [William Shakespeare’s King Lear and The Tempest ] the following questions are very important and would be useful across both texts. [this is not an exhaustive list, but it will help with any other questions as well, in my hope]
1) The Renaissance most important movement, although Shakespeare doesn't necessarily show renaissance traits in his plays [which are better represented by Christopher Marlowe] but the context will help appreciate how, contrary to authors writing morality plays and miracle plays etc in the 14th century, Shakespeare's heroes are human figures, not gods or sons of gods, or gifted by gods. Their only superpower is their will power, ambition, jealousies etc. Just a hint, explore it further.
2) Look at Reformation - for understanding the growing positive sense of the human intellect and of human capibility
3) language/failure of language/pressure on language to contain vast emotions about society, [although sonnets not mentioned here, neither by Shakespeare not by others but it's a good idea to look at them and know why suddenly, contrary to epic-length studies of the previous centuries, authors suddenly turned towards a mere 14-line poem.
4) Elizabeth's reign - its problems, wars, rivalry with Scotland, absence of an heir, a growing, old, ageing queen with no heir, a sense of fear, apprehensions looming large on nation's fate, the drifting apart of Catholics and Protestants, Parliament beginning to display its independence which was very new to the English court [exspecially if you Know Spenser's court poetry where knights subsumes all their devotion to the kings and queens, kings and queens were supposed to be chosen by God to rule over people, Shakespeare shows how human agency resigned to accept that willingly, or at least uncomfortable with this passivity.], and population growing to an unprecedented level.
5) human love creating discord in society, an attempt to maintain, keep stable the social order, but in comedies like The Tempest, this social order gets restored. And that is why they are comedies. In Shakespeare's tragedies, on the contrary, even when the plays end, one is left with the idea that there is a gap by author's forceful ending of the play by closing the action by positive/negative ends, amd the complex human feelings and hideous desires of ambition, jealousy, hatred etc that motivate people in the first place. One is alarmed at the human capacity to be a "bad" person. But if you look at Hamlet kind of plays, they make you realise that this pressure to decide, to act, to take revenge etc is something human beings cannot escape. One is meddled with this constant pressure to decide - something which was not there in the previous century plays where people knew that God will bring peace to everything. In Shakespeare's tragedies, there is no respite from Gods. So, it's like human beings are left to themselves, with no assurance, no help, no recourse to god's comforts etc. Just imagine, how helpless one would feel in that sort of world. Shakespeare, that is why, is called one of the earliest modernists.
6) questions about leadership, frailty of order to control a vast population/kingdom, challenges to leadership,
7) The role of women - look at different types of women in Shakespeare's comedies as well as Tragedies - they are hardly puppets. They are capable of having ambitions much like their men counterparts, or sometimes even more. Call it sexist, call it feminists, women of Shakespeare's plays can play men like anything: with their beauties, with their disguised games, with their "overflowing" femininity, or, for that matter. Although these women show conventional hierarchies of white women/black women, courtly lady women/commoner women, "good women like Ophelia in Hamlet who are just too good/ bad women like lady Macbeth, but the very diverse range of women we encounter in Shakespeare's plays is amazing. Something we don't see in previous plays. Also remember in Shakespeare's time, boys were playing women's role, so look at that angle as well how women were not supposed to do certain things in public. So the entire public/private, political/domestic debate, Shakespeare complicates them. He brings the interiority of domestic issues interlaced with political issues such brilliantly. Personal is indeed political. Wow.
8) Apart from that psychological development of characters. I guess is a very important angle to look at. Characters are hard to know from their inside. They are hardly flat or two-dimensional. So, Shakespeare's character making is a good point to explore.
Now, let us come to 17th -18th Century.When reading Metaphysical Poetry by John Donne (The following poems mentioned in syllabus: Canonization, Death be not proud, The Good Morrow, On his Mistress going to bed, The Relic), keep in mind the following things most importantly.
1) John Donne's life - look at that - he was a poet and a court person [several duties], so an imaginative writer taking an interest, in fact, active interest in the public life of the Nation, explore that.
2) twists and turns of the syntax, look at their language, heavy adjectives etc. Why suddenly after the 16th century of simple sonnets [not simple, actually!], suddenly a different language? explore that. Look at the change in the form of the poems.
3) a different kind of love - mysterious, untidy - very erotic as well [although often disguised], physical desires and spiritual dimension. It's like wanting to have sex with the God - see, how blasphemous! Imagine what kind of torpor it must have led to!
4) Metaphysical conceits: why would the poet employ them, why at all? the politics and meanings of conceit - explore it.
5) Role of women and sexual desires - look at how poets/period responds to this.
• The Epic
a) John Milton : Paradise Lost, I, II, IV, IX [Originally published in 1667, in ten books]
1) When looking at this book, just explore how Milton was a radical poet for his times. He engages in a fundamental political and religious re-thinking. I think if you do that, you're done. Use textual evidence when answering your questions. Look at Milton in line with renaissance - an absolute epitome of individuality - imagine conceptualising a book in 12 fat, volumes - an act of human ambition and will power ready to devour even God, anything that comes in way of ambition.
2) And look at the way Milton devours classic repertoire of references for his benefit. He is extremely knowledgeable, not a passive person or mediocre person demanding an identity, he is super-prepared to demand a human identity and is willing to fight for it. Appreciate Milton using this perspective.
3) Role of imagination - Milton became blind eventually, so sometimes people ask you how could a blind person imagine all this - which is a bullshit question, as he talks of heaven and hell and even a man with eyes won't have access to that! But anyway, they are the examiners [Oh god, now I too do this!] and we are students [ thank god, I am no longer that! ], so better be prepared.
Satire [an aspect studied within neo-classicism, I divided because Paradise Lost isn’t a satire per se] and the Mock-epic
a) Alexander Pope. The Rape of the Lock. [Originally published in May 1712]
1) when looking at this, explore the French court angle, its difference to the English court, its whims and fancies, and ladies and knights etc.
2) their stress on moderation, decorum, urbanity - why, suddenly after the grandness of Milton etc? explore this.
3) again, look at the women characters, love as play, a duel to win at, no Shakespearean true "love" but a game of wit where partners need to excel at each other all the time. This constant business class idea is a good point to explore.
The Romantic Movement
• William Wordsworth. The following poems:
a) Ode on Intimations of Immortality.
b) Tintern Abbey.
c) Three years she grew.
d) She dwelt among untrodden ways.
e) Michael.
f) Resolution and Independence.
g) The World is too much with us.
h) Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour.
i) Upon Westminster Bridge.
When looking at this, keep in mind the following points:
1) A sense of individuality, development of personal metaphors, personal religion, personal creed. Not a universal god, for e.g. how the poet imagines the god becomes important.
2) look at what kind of political social world, the poet imagines and wants. The stress on vision and imagination.
3) Most obviously, role of children
4) the French Revolution, the sense of human agency, the Napoleonic war where England supplied things and remained involved for like twenty years.
5) Development of Metaphysics in England - an influence from Germany - Kant, Schilling etc.
Oh god, I cannot write more. I am exhaust. Rest, next. Thanks for an interesting question. Please ask me more such, if you need any further help or assistance. Best.
C'mon, shoot me questions about PhD, without second thoughts. As long as it's from English Literature, bring on!