 Welcome to NPTEL, the National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning, being brought to you by the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science. The course that we are offering to you is entitled English Language and Literature and I heartily welcome you to these 40 lectures that are being shared by me with my colleague at IIT Guwahati, Professor Krishna Barwa. We are at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. This lecture is introductory in nature and it is really more like a preview of things that are going to come, things that are going to be discussed in the following lectures. When we say English language and literature particularly today, it is not without its attendant problems. The study of English as a discipline has had a very long history and as we shall see in one of our lectures entitled English in India, you would be surprised that is if you do not know it already that the study of English literature as a discipline in colleges and universities did not begin in the mother country England, but in India. So, the study of English language and literature as a discipline is not one of merely learning. For instance, the history of English literature or the history of English language or the usage of English language or the learning English for special purposes. It is fraught with many political concerns much of which has been already the subject of debate. So, really how do we go about designing a course? How do we go about designing its contents? It was rather difficult, but we have more or less tried to accommodate many or at least some of the concerns that I had talked about just a while ago when doing English language and literature as a discipline is concerned. So, what I will do now is unpack the contents of our course so as to enable you to have a glimpse of what is included here. Now, let me also say at the outset that this course is aimed at students at you know at the beginning level. The course was designed under the national program on technology enhanced learning whose main target comprises the students in engineering colleges in IITs in the country. So, with that in view many of you know we want wish to tell you that many of you may find this a little too elementary. Nevertheless, let me tell you what we wish to bring to you and in our course content we had mentioned this as our course preamble so to speak that this course seeks to impart in both a compact and comprehensive manner the necessary, the necessary knowledge in English language and literature that an undergraduate student should possess or at least parts of which a student such a student is expected to possess. Further, the course aims to help students understand English language and literature using a multifaceted methodology that includes the historical, the linguistic, the literary and the critical dimensions. So, what we find here in our course justification or preamble is this a that it is aimed to be both compact and comprehensive. It is aimed at the undergraduate student who is expected to know a bit about some of the aspects of English language and literature and also that the methodology used here is one that touches upon the historical, the linguistic, the literary including which we will find in our last module including the critical dimensions. So, now let us quickly run through the topics that we have in our course. We begin with the introduction which is today's lecture. Introduction as I have said will introduce you to the various modules and give you glimpses of you know not all it is not possible to do all of you know glimpse of all of the lectures, but at least we will give you an idea of what to expect. So, the first lecture is introductory nature. The second lecture is the scope of English studies. The English language is our next lecture followed by the alchemy of English, international English, the globalization of English, world Englishes and the rise of cultural studies. Now, this entire module one would be taken up by me. The lectures here would be delivered by me and the next also which is the module which is entitled the history of the English language. So, this introductory module and the lectures therein would be delivered by me followed by the next module which is on exclusively on the history of the English language. A module the lectures here will also be delivered by me. We all have an introductory lecture introduction to the English language followed by various periods of or ages in the history of the English language. Beginning with old English followed by middle English, early modern English, modern English and you also have included a lecture entitled English in India from more or less a historical perspective. So, the first as you know the first module will discuss certain aspects of English language and literature taking you know where we would like to you know draw attention to some of the problematics of you know the scope of English language and literature. Trying to show you how the study and teaching of English language and literature has changed over time what are the different nuances that have come in for instance the word English studies is one that is preferred by many today instead of the more traditional English language and literature. The second module as you know is devoted exclusively to the study of the English language in a historical sense. Module 3 is a module that is taken care of by my colleague as I said professor Krishna Borra. This module is devoted to the different ages or different periods in English literary history. Just a while ago we saw that module 2 is on English the history of the English language. This third module will talk about literature from the point of view of the different ages that are demarcated and how literature changes over the ages. So, we have the age of Chaucer as our first lecture here followed by the age of Shakespeare these are really well known well demarcated you could say established almost canonical ways of looking at the you know different periods in English literary history. So, the age of Chaucer the age of Shakespeare then we have the third lecture entitled Milton and his times followed by the Augustans the Romantics the Victorians modern literature and as in the second module we have also devoted one lecture to Indian literature in English. So, this module will be taken care of by professor Krishna Borra. So, also the next module now the next module is devoted to the different genres of English literature not that these are exclusive to English literature, but these you know the genres in the text in the various genres that we find here are taken up the nature of you know each genre for instance the novel and examples therein then poetry, drama, essay, short story, biography and autobiography. So, this would be taken up taught by professor Krishna Borra. Finally, we come that said earlier that we are going to devote and I think this is a module where we have the most number of lectures this module is devoted entirely to literary criticism and we hope this will be useful not to simply our target audience, but also to you know as a refresher so to speak of what we had learnt earlier to students in the MA level and the PhD level as well. So, there are a number of critical theories, critical schools that we have to offer here and this module which is the last module is being shared by professor Krishna Borra and me. So, the first school that we look at is classical criticism followed by liberal humanism, Marxism, feminism, reader response criticism, new historicism, ecocriticism, structuralism, post-structuralism, post-colonialism and finally, cognitivism which is supposed to be the new paradigm so to speak of literary criticism. So, you have by now a brief idea of you know what is at offer here. So, what I am going to do now is I am going to tell you how we are going to go about teaching this course, this online course. This is a matter of pedagogy really and what is pedagogy? Pedagogy is defined as the art and the science of teaching. So, in pedagogy when we declare a pedagogy we are also trying to tell you how we are going to go about. So, as I can only speak for myself here what I have done here is like we do in our classroom for instance. So, if I am talking about say feminist literary criticism or I am say talking about the scope of English studies, we I am going to bring to you several articulations made by well known scholars and critics. This is here this is not a research paper that I am presenting to you or a seminar paper. What I am doing here is I am getting to you as far as possible some of the best articulations and formulations in every lecture and the topic on the topic in every lecture that is that has been there in the literature. Do you follow? So, by from time to time I shall be you know giving you quotations that you may use, I shall be gleaning points from extracts. So, as to you know try and enrich the discussion that we are you know that we have when we are talking about these. So, from time to time I shall also may be declare the key text the source text and whenever I shall be quoting from somebody I shall mention that that this is a quotation from a particular scholar fine. So, let us let us look at what we are going to discuss in the next few lectures. Now, as I said English language and literature is sought by many you know to be supplanted with this phrase English studies. So, so as to you know maybe in a bid to remove the idea that English language and literature is something that is only written in the mother country or written by you know written in what we call the Anglo American scenario. So, the scope of English studies is one way of looking at English language and literature which is also one way of really another way of defining what we are going to do in this course. So, what does the scope of English studies tell us and for this we have a whole lecture which I think is the next lecture in this module. So, the scope of English studies includes literatures that are written in English not this literature that comes from England. So, literatures that are written in English and also study of English linguistics language matters and English social linguistics. So, these are the three broad areas that are considered under English language and literature some of which we are bringing to you. Then it is not that only these are you know these are the key areas, but there are other things that have today or that today find place in the study of English. And these are you know for instance journalism or journalese the study of journalist journalistic language for instance is another thing another aspect of the study of English language and literature particularly from popular culture that has in you know come to be incorporated. So, this is just to show you the scope how far one can go we are not going to talk about journalese or journalistic writing here, but in a bit to just throw open the contours of this we are mentioning these here. So, journalism the philosophy of language literary theory and criticism which you of course, taking up creative writing is also another very important aspect of English language and literature departments. And electronic text and publishing hypertext the digital humanities these are these are the newer areas that are being incorporated in the larger rubric of English language and literature or English studies as I have mentioned. Then film and media and communication so communication could mean better communication I think in NPTEL under the ages of NPTEL you have lectures on I think communication skills and better English or better communication. So, you can get an idea of how broad this is and also at the same time you may excuse us for not being able to within you know the framework of 40 lectures why we are not able to bring you everything. Also this is important very important aspect very you know do functional or pragmatic yet very important aspect of the question of proficiency in English language which is also not being taken up here because there are other courses in NPTEL that do that. And this is also to do with the use of English in you know is for special purposes for business purposes for instance for world policy purposes for instance for scientific writing for instance and also English the use of English as a second language not just from the question of its usage but also from the point of view of the politics inherent in the study of English as a second language fine. Rob Pope in an essay has described this discipline as some as something which has as it says a capacious subject matter it is very accommodating it is capacious there are as we have seen just a while ago there are many and I think I am sure in years to come there will be many subject matter or many topics which we cannot even think of today that would come under the bigger rubric or the larger rubric of English language and literature. So, there are also questions of pedagogy here how does how the really how does one teach a poem in class when you teach a poem written by an Indian in English and when you teach a poem written by say Shelley for instance are there differences there. So, the pedagogical aspect is also another important teaching and research aspect of English language and literature and most importantly here English language and literature English studies has become increasingly interdisciplinary being informed by political theories from political economy from psychology from sociology. So, this is really not one discipline it is many disciplines really in hearing in supposedly one discipline called English language and literature. We also have to keep in mind the point called discourse. Discourse is a very loaded term particularly in theory and cultural studies I am not going to go into that, but it is also important when we when we study English language and literature for that matter any language and literature. It is very important that you understand that these are discourses. Very plainly put are ways of speaking they are ways of speaking within a certain framework where there is a terminology and established terminology and where you are supposed to talk in a certain way. So, these then texts become objects for us they are objects of discourse that is cursive formations or objects they are also if you look at the slide structured systems that can be or could be studied systematically and they are in obviously in the in the common sensical or everyday sense of the term they are texts, but these texts are also ideological system in sense that they are saturated with the ideology of an age, the ideology of a writer and eventually the ideology of the reader. So, these are some of the things that you need to keep in mind that when we look at the text it is not that a text is just there and that we are you know the teacher has all the knowledge and is going to impart the knowledge on a text. Keep in mind that texts are discursive formations they are objects and they are saturated with ideology. This discourse that is including all the texts that we are referring to all the texts that you may study within this subject also you know has to be looked at from the point of view of power. This is something that we will discuss later on in I think in our lecture on cultural rise of cultural studies in English literature, but this course creates power the power of a text, the power of a text to form our values, the power of a text to you know to give us meaning to give us significance it is said here truth to create truth to influence our practices to create meaning and finally to create our moral sense or you know our ethics. So, remember texts are not today considered innocuous objects or you know texts are ideological systems which have enormous power and when we do English in India for instance there is something that is going to come about among other lectures fine. Then identity texts give us identity and contribute to our subjectivity right this is also going to be taken up eventually this is just to give you an idea of you know how we are to be alert when we read texts when how we are to be alert when we devise syllabi for instance. So, texts give us our identity contribute at least to identity creation and subjectivity subjectivity these are also aspects that are going to be taken up in some of our lectures. Then we also need to consider at least from a cultural studies point of view right then texts are not separate literary texts are not separate or even the study of literary history you know is not separate from issues of class, ethnicity, caste, race, gender and our sexual orientation these touch upon these texts touch upon it is not that they just touch upon they also informed by these key terms in the study of literature and culture that is class, gender, ethnicity, race and sexuality fine. Now, the one of the we will move on to another lecture which you know we will feature in this module and this is the whole concept you know just a while ago we were talking about the cultural studies aspect of doing English language and literature. Now we are talking about the whole aspect of the whole question of world Englishes. Now look at the word Englishes we no longer talk about English in the singular increasingly the use the variation in the use of English not only in its not only in its spoken manifestations but also in the literary texts is so varied right English is found in so many parts of the world and the variation is so much that for instance if you look at this slide here Brach cuts to one of the most well known figures in the study of world English calls it world Englishes in the plural approaches in his essay world Englishes approaches issues and resources he talks about the spread this is from another from a lecture in this module that have taken up here just to give you an idea spread and stratification of English the characteristics of the stratification of English its interactional context the implications of the spread of English and the descriptive and prescriptive concerns that it is not a question of you know of us looking at just or just admitting or recognizing the fact that there are different Englishes in the world. But the questions that in here in here and are going to be discuss in one of the lectures here are questions of stratification of English question of the context of how people interact and the different scenarios in different parts of the world where English is different from one another and the what are the implications social political economic of the spread of English in such a manner and what are the prescriptive concerns. What are the prescribed ways we adhere to or should we adhere to prescribed ways of speaking when we are not speaking in the mother country or when we are not from so called mother country and how does English resist so to speak how does a different variety of English resist the prescriptive concerns and ideologies of the so called English proper fine. So, this is also one of the things that is you know it is going to come about in our discussion therefore, when we talk about English in its in its many variations we also realize that there are multiple norms of style right. So, just a while ago we are talking about the prescriptive versions of English today we do not talk about that within the study of English language and literature for instance if you are reading a text like say Arun Theroy's the god of small things you see the willing breaking of rules the willing breaking of norms of so called prescriptive English. So, the question is also about how to creative writers for instance play with the language change the English language in order to make it more creative in order to almost you could even say sometimes provoke us into understanding that English may be used in different ways. So, there are as I said multiple norms of style questions of multiple norms of style inherent here there are altered context situational situations for acculturation for instance there are multiple codes in which English is written there is also formal stylistic experimentation in today in the writing and even reading of English as a result of which we have new norms. So, we have these exciting new norms that are cultural that are that are aesthetic and that are semiotic or symbolic and this to my mind is something that we need to celebrate there is something that we need to address in any course today that is floated on English language and literature. So, these are the also some of the points that I shall be discussing in the following lectures. So, then we have a lecture on international English now why do we need a lecture on international English when we for instance have a lecture or separately on world Englishes. Now, the important difference here is that while as you see in this slide while English world Englishes as a sub-discipline focuses on the varieties I said the variants of English all over the world in different countries international English does the opposite international English tries to or attempts to figure out the ways in which we can have you know we can have a standard you know it is old idea of the standardized English which seeks to have what we call here a non-localized English and international English that is so if English has become so different do we need particularly for instance for for scientific community for the research community. So, there on the one hand whereas, we have professors at Bruchkuch to talking about world Englishes on the other hand we also have attempts which may not have been very successful because there is a lot of resistance attempts at international internationalizing English or at devising an international norm with common vocabulary for instance a set pronunciation for instance terminology for instance for that. So, if there also a lecture separately devoted to international English this slide I will skip because this will be talked about in that particular lecture. Then when we come to English you know the next module that is English language and literature this will begin by an you know by introducing the language to you for instance it begin by telling you that English is a West Germanic language belonging to the inter European family of languages and it will it will tell you over several lectures how English changed how English change in terms of vocabulary in terms of its many attempts at standardization its many locales it will also talk about some of the socio economic political issues also technology for instance the printing press the coming of the printing press and how the English language has changed you know over the different periods of the you know the history of English language for instance old English write down to modern English for instance. So, this is what is going to be discussed we should know that more or less English is the official language in 51 countries and it is a substantial you know it has a substantial native English speakers in 104 it is the third most spoken language in the world and more than 600 million people are supposed to have you know English as a second or a third language. Now, I do not want to sound too celebratory, but because this is a course on English language literature we need to see where the language stands as far as its usage is concerned as far as the population that uses it is concerned. So, this you know proliferation of English if you go back to its roots we will see in the lectures that English came about with the Marauding tribes called the Angles Saxons and Jews we go back to history and in fact the word English or England can be traced back to the name given by the Angles as Angle land from which eventually we have England. So, the history can be traced back to the tribes called the name the Angles Saxons and Jews that took over England. Then we will find that in the middle English period which was a period of great change we find the very important French or the Norman French conquest and the conditions that followed and also certain you know certain tendencies of old English which also manifested themselves and the changes that affected the grammar and vocabulary of the English language. Then we look at an important you could say an important attempt at standardizing English which was the rise of standard English by the end of the 14th century right and this is to do with the particular region that we will read about we will talk about in our lectures and how it came about because not because of just one reason, but because of you know because of a trade for instance because of commerce for instance because of a certain local a certain dialect that came to rise up as the standard form of English after the 14th century. So, here in following that in the early modern period we will find that there are further changes for instance in the development of modern English we find in the history of the development of modern English we find how important the printing press was right and the changes that came about because of the printing press and when people began to read a particular version of English how it led to a how it was the first time perhaps when there was a prescriptive because everyone would read that a particular word in a particular spelling even though they may have been variants in the various dialects, but it so came about that because of the availability of the same copy so to speak the population began to slowly sort of adjust itself to two specific norms of spelling do you follow to specific norms of grammar. Today you know a couple of decades ago it was the BBC really which if you know which has taken that place in the modern world and we call the BBC English as many consider it to be the standard form of English. So, printing press then the spread of popular education the growth of social consciousness increase communication and means of social communication these are very important aspects and as I said we are not going to give you simply a list of you know how the language change over the different periods you also going to talk to you about the socio economic conditions and the technology the contribution from technology that lead you know that there are sort of behind the scenes in behind the scenes in the change of the English language for instance for that matter any language from time to time fine. Then in the in the next module which is devoted to genres sorry module 4 I think which is devoted to genres we have professor Krishna Borra talking to you about various genres or kinds of the forms of literature for instance she will talk to you about the novel its history and it is going in the same way about poetry drama autobiography short story essay and biography she is going to talk to you about the specific characteristics of each form and how each form developed owing to certain reasons she is also going to bring to you a certain text which is we are going to be explicated in a bit to show you their characteristic form. So, basically these are the forms the novel the essay the short story biography autobiography poetry and drama that are going to be taught in you know in one of the modules next we an important you know thing which we thought we should have we should we should add was the Sadi sorry at least one or two lectures devoted to the question of English in India ok. So, there are two lectures that are devoted to you know really a this is really a very let me tell you at a very elementary level a very introductory level of English in India one from the point of view of the language and one exclusively devoted to Indian literature or sorry Indian literature in English or what you call I we or Indian writing in English. So, for instance in my lecture in English in India for instance you will find how you know politically there was with the introduction of English language and English literature studies a behind this was you know there were several changes in policy and each change in policy told us what the ideology was that was set you know that was aimed at for instance from 1830 to 1850. We find that texts that talked about or describe Christian imagery talked about English ideals and standards were the texts that were sought to be brought to the students in India after 1850 there is a change we find that there was a secular stance. So, the aim was the aim was not Christian imagery or western ideals and standards, but a more secular stance the target or the aim for which was to encourage the Indians to contribute towards to British commercial and administrative goals. So, let us then move on to the final module and what we have to offer there one of the one of the established ways of looking at literary texts one of the you know one of the most systematic ways of theorizing has been the Marxist way of looking at English or sorry at literary texts English or otherwise and there we shall see how the literary texts is part of what Marx calls the super structure. Marx had this two tier system of the base and the super structure the base comprising the relations of production and the forces of production. If you are interested to know more about this I may guide you to two of my lectures in another online course under NPTEL which is on cultural studies where I have two lecture in two parts a lecture in two parts entitled Marxism part one and part two if you want to know more about Marxism I can I could guide you to that. But here we are going to look at the literary texts in its relation to the economic base and in its relation as a part of the super structure. For instance we have a quotation in the you know in the lecture entitled sorry by the Marxist critic Georgi Plekhanov and this will give you an idea of what we are going to discuss there. The social mentality of an age is conditioned by that age that age is social relations. So, the social consciousness of an age depends on the social relations that are there the social relations of production a production of material goods you know in a sense right and then he goes on to say this is nowhere quite as evident as in the history of art and literature. So, history the history of art and literature will in a complex remember in a complex and sophisticated way give you an idea of the mental social mentality or social consciousness of that that age. There are many critics who have given us different ways of looking at literary you know as a literary text from a Marxist point of view. So, since literary theory and criticism is an important part of this course there are many ways in which you will see a literary text can be or could be studied. For instance if you look at the method of Marxist criticism in that course or sorry in that lecture you find that we ask questions like for instance what ideology or worldview does a text or a literary movement seek to enforce right. In what ways does for instance a text reveal and invite us to attest or to condemn that ideology. Again another question may be raised how far is it takes ideologically straightforward or is it ideologically conflicted is it a propagandist text in the main. Then how are the socioeconomic conditions that is the base we talked about a while ago reflected in the text and do these reveal the specifics of class struggle. So, these are some of the questions that may come and then we have talked about Hamlet here which is not going to mean you know unpack here. There are each and every text of literature could be very successfully systematically analyzed from a Marxist perspective right. So, also when we talk about feminist criticism and we find how a patriarchy is one of the most important concepts in feminism and how patriarchy informs in terms of informs certain literary texts and how we can you know we can look at them when we look at the ideologies that a text upholds and we can look at a text from the gendered past structures that are there and studying the material lives not only of women, but of men and of the family and the representations particularly of women that are there in the literary text. This is also something that is going to come about in our discussion. For instance, Pramod Nayar talks about how feminist criticism looks at the representation of women in art. Now, not just only in for instance the novel it is also in depictions in pictorial depictions in images in popular culture in films in television for instance how feminist criticism looks at how women are represented are shown in this. Then the material conditions of the lives of women that are depicted in these texts these are some of the concerns of feminist criticism. Then we are going to look at the post structuralist school we are going to look at deconstruction and there is also a lecture on postcolonialism. Herein we are going to talk about the important concepts of how the text is imbued with ideology with difference, how meaning is generated, how identity is generated and how to critique a text from say a postcolonial or a deconstructive perspective. So, these the post here means there are some changes and departures for instance departures from a colonialist, departures from a modernist and departures from structuralist. So, these are just some of I cannot talk about all of these some of the things that we are bringing to you through our lectures. Structuralism as a literary tool is again an important event in the history of English literary criticism and through further in this source idea of the how the sign is split some of you may already know this how the sign is split into the signifier and signified how meaning emanates these are some of the things that are going to be discussed and how a text a literary text really is a structured system is a structured system that can be analyzed in a systematic scientific way following the different units and rules that make up the literary text. The binary opposites we find there in in matters of characterization of theme of you know of morality for instance these are some of the things that we tools we can use when we in try and decode the literary text. Then finally, we are going to look at a relatively new use of what new way of looking at the literary text which came about really in a big way it was not that it was not there before came about in a big way following what we call the decade of the brain the nineteen nineties and you know it is a decade which is termed the decade of the brain the many discoveries you know of the brain particularly following non-invasive technologies like f m r i or pet scans for instance and how we can you know enrich literary criticism by using some of the formulations and findings from the to look at the literary text as a product of a cognitive mind product of a mind that perceives a product of a you know by cognition we mean several things for instance include several things like perception attention memory etcetera. So, these are looked at not from a clinical point of view, but how the present discourse can on the literary text can be enriched for instance the literary text here are seen as if you look at the slide are seen as cognitive artifacts which are produced by cognitive beings. So, certain algorithms and deep structures for instance like metaphor, analogy, definition, categorization, combination and blending are the procedures that underlie literary text. So, these are some of the new terms that we find in the sense not new terms but new approaches from a cognitive point of view for instance conceptual blending is one that had we are looking at a text that had great you know great appeal I think in back from the 1970s right. So, or finally, the question are we creators only in limited ways right. So, these are some of the issues that are going to be discussed in the last lecture of this course. So, this is really quite a lot that I have talked about here and you by now must be wondering you know where we are going that said in the beginning this course is both compact and comprehensive we have divided these into modules we have tried to be you know tried to adhere to both the traditionalist way of doing language and literature in universities and also try to keep you up to date for instance by looking at the cognitive revolution in literary studies for instance looking at issues of world Englishes of the globalization of English. So, it is I admit a mixed course you know it is quite a medley here, but really we have tried to show you that there are various things and also pointing to some of the things that may come in the future the various things that you can accommodate in the study of English language and literature. So, I will see you in the next lecture which is more really detailed lecture on the scope of English studies. Thank you.