Subject: Literature in English

Aims:

1. To provide candidates with a wider course in Literature in English than offered in the compulsory English paper.
2. To expose candidates to a deeper knowledge and appreciation of literary works in English.

CLASS XI

There will be one paper of three hours duration of 100 marks with questions set from the prescribed textbooks. Candidates will be required to answer five questions on a minimum of three of the prescribed textbooks.

CLASS XII

There will be one paper of three hours duration of 100 marks with questions set from the prescribed textbooks. Candidates will be required to answer five questions on a minimum of three of the prescribed textbooks.

1. The questions in the paper will be broadly based on the following categories:
(i) Prose
(ii) Drama
(iii) Poetry
The question may be character-based, incident based, general broad based, theme based or require critical evaluation.

2. Students will need to study and have a knowledge of the following:

(a) Prose and Drama

(i) Life of the playwright and novelist and important events therein.
(ii) Evaluation of characters and the roles played by them in the text.
(iii) Description of each incident in the play or novel and its significance.
(iv) Important themes and motifs of the text.
(v) Relationships between characters and incidents.
(vi) Patterns and nuances of the text.
(vii) Fantasy and the supernatural.
(viii) Stylistic and narrative devices.
(ix) Students’ personal response to and assessment of the novel/play.
(x) Humour, pathos, tragedy, sarcasm and so on in the texts.
(xi) The novel/play in the context of contemporary society.

(b) Poetry

(i) Different types of poems with their characteristics and features:

• lyric
• sonnet – both Petrarchan (Italian) and Shakespearean
• ballad
• elegy
• blank verse
• free verse
• narrative poetry
• pastoral poetry
• dramatic monologue
• romantic poetry

(ii) All literary devices in detail and how to recognize them:

• simile
• metaphor
• personification
• apostrophe
• alliteration
• assonance
• repetition
• irony
• imagery
• enjambment
• pun
• contrast
• climax and anti-climax
• onomatopoeia
• hyperbole
• oxymoron
• litotes
• symbolism

(iii) A thorough knowledge of the poets’ lives and styles of writing.
(iv) Important themes of the poems.
(v) Patterns and nuances of the poems.
(vi) Fantasy and the supernatural if present in any poem.
(vii) Symbolism and Imagery.
(viii) How to write a proper Critical Evaluation / Appreciation, which must contain the following components:

• Life of the poet and how it has impacted his/her style of writing
• Autobiographical element in the poem
• Type of poem
• Setting
• Theme
• Mood and atmosphere
• Different levels of meaning in the poem, if any
• Rhyme scheme and its significance
• Symbolism
• Imagery
• Literary devices
• The student’s own personal response to the poem.

Note: Credit is given for textual detail and for the candidate’s own response.

If candidates answer two questions on any one book, they should not base them both on the same material.

Candidates are advised to exercise their options with great care, keeping in view their knowledge and understanding of the question(s) chosen. Candidates are also expected to be precise and to avoid unnecessary details.

Courtesy: cisce.org

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