Language of Paradox by Cleanth Brooks Video Lesson

"Half a Day" by Naguib Mahfouz - Litmosphere - Calicut University First Semester UG Common Course Poem

Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed Us –
The Dews drew quivering and Chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – ’tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity –

Kerala PSC HSA English Examination Syllabus 2021

 PART A

Module     I : Renaissance and freedom movement Module 

                 II: General Knowledge and current affairs Module 

                III: Methodology of teaching the subject 

♦ History/conceptual development. Need and Significance, Meaning Nature and Scope of the Subject. 

♦ Correlation with other subjects and life situations. 

♦ Aims, Objectives, and Values of Teaching - Taxonomy of Educational Objectives - Old and revised 

♦ Pedagogic analysis- Need, Significance and Principles. 

♦ Planning of instruction at Secondary level- Need and importance. Psychological bases of Teaching the subject - Implications of Piaget, Bruner, Gagne, Vygotsky, Ausubel and Gardener - Individual difference, Motivation, Maxims of teaching. 

♦ Methods and Strategies of teaching the subject- Models of Teaching, Techniques of individualising instruction. 

♦ Curriculum - Definition, Principles, Modern trends and organizational approaches, Curriculum reforms - NCF/KCF. 

♦ Instructional resources- Laboratory, Library, Club, Museum- Visual and Audio-Visual aids - Community based resources - e-resources - Text book, Work book and Hand book. 

♦ Assessment; Evaluation- Concepts, Purpose, Types, Principles, Modern techniques - CCE and Grading- Tools and techniques - Qualities of a good test - Types of test items- Evaluation of projects, Seminars and Assignments - Achievement test, Diagnostic test – Construction, Characteristics, interpretation and remediation. 

♦ Teacher - Qualities and Competencies - different roles - Personal Qualities - Essential teaching skills - Microteaching - Action research. 

PART B

Module 1. Poetry 

Shakespeare              Sonnet 121 

Donne                       A Valediction Forbidding Mourning 

Milton                       On His Blindness 

Gray                          Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard 

Wordsworth              Tintern Abbey 

Shelley                     To A Skylark 

Keats                        Ode On A Grecian Urn 

Tennyson                  Ulysses 

Browning                 My Last Duchess 

Arnold                      Dover Beach 

W.B.Yeats                A Prayer For My Daughter 

Sylvia Plath             Daddy 

Tagore                     Where The Mind Is Without Fear 

Nissim Ezekiel        Night Of The Scorpion 

Kamala Das             An Introduction 

A.K.Ramanujan       Obituary 

Robert Frost             Home Burial 

Emily Dickinson      Because I Could Not Stop For Death 

Wole Soyinka           A Telephone Conversation 

Meena Alexander     House Of A Thousand Doors 

Margaret Atwood     This Is A Photograph Of Me 

David Diop               Africa 

Jack Davis                Aboriginal Australia 

Module 2. Drama

Shakespeare             Macbeth 

Sheridan                   School For Scandal 

Oscar Wilde              The Importance Of Being Ernest 

Ibsen                         A Doll's House 

Shaw                         Pygmalion 

J.M.Synge                 Riders To The Sea 

Samuel Beckett         Waiting For Godot 

Arthur Miller             Death Of A Salesman 

Tennessee Williams   The Glass Menagerie 

Girish Karnad            Nagamandala 

 

Module 3: Prose and Fiction

Francis Bacon               Of Studies 

Steele                            The Trumpet Club 

A.G. Gardiner               On The Rule Of The Road 

E.M. Forster                 On Tolerance 

Bertrand Russel            Functions Of A Teacher 

Dr.Radhakrishnan         Humanities vs Science 

Emily Bronte                Wuthering Heights 

George Orwell              Animal Farm 

Hemingway                  The Old Man And The Sea 

Shashi Deshpande        Roots and Shadows 

Arundati Roy               The God Of Small Things 

Toni Morrison              The Bluest Eye 

Module 4: .Literary Criticism/ Terms

1.Rasa 

2.Dhwani 

3.Aristotle: Poetics 

4.Wordsworth: Preface To Lyrical Ballads 

5.Coleridege: Biographia Litereria Chapter 14 

6.Arnold: Study of Poetry 

7.Eliot:Tradition And The Individual Talent 

8.Saussure: Nature Of The Linguistic Sign 

                    Terms and Movements ( Based on the latest edition of M.H.Abrams-A Glossary Of Literary Terms Classicism, Neo-Classicism, Romanticism, Humanism, Realism, Magical Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism, Russian Formalism, Marxism, Structuralism, Post Structuralism, Deconstruction, Psychoanalytical Criticism, Feminism, Post Colonialism, Modernism and Post Modernism 

Module 5: Linguistics, Phonetics and History of Language

                    1.Phonology 

                    2. Morphology 

                    3.Syntax                                                                                                             

                    4.Semantics 

                    5.Langue and Parole; Competence and Performance 

                    6.Organs of Speech 

                    7.Classification Of Speech Sounds 

                    8.Stress, Rhythm, Intonation 

                    9.Transcription 

                    10.Indo-European Family of languages 

                    11.Loan Words-Latin, Scandinavian, French, Indian 

                    12.Englishes-American, Australian, Indian, and African 

                    

 Module 6: Modern English Usage

                    1.Sentence Correction 

                    2.Vocabulary 

                    3.Synonyms and Antonyms 

                    4.Give one word 

                    5.Commonly confused words 

                    6.Language Functions such as agreeing, complaining etc. 

                    7.Appropriate word order 

                    8.Appropriate sentence order 

                    9.Idioms 

                    10.Passage for comprehension 

Module 7: Basic Grammar

                    1.Article 

                    2.Prepositions 

                    3.Clauses 

                    4.Tenses 

                    5.Phrasal Verbs 

                    6.Conjunctions 

                    7.Reported Speech 

                    8.Voice 

                    9.Question Tag 

                    10.Transformation of sentences 

            

 Module 8: Teaching of English

                    1.Schools-Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism 

                    2.Skills and subskills of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing 

                    3.Language Acquisition and Learning, Krashen 

                    4.Methods and Approaches: Grammar Translation; Audio-lingual; Direct Method;                                     Structural-OralSituational Approach; Communicative Approach; Bilingual Method;                                 Humanistic Approaches 

                    5.Use of AV aids and ICT 

                    6.Teaching of Prose, Poetry and Grammar 

                    7.Testing and Evaluation 

                    8.Learner Types 

                    9.Teaching learners with disability 

                    10.NCF, KCF on teaching of English 

Listen to the Poem "To Posterity" by Louise Mac Neice (Calicut University UG First Semester Common Course English Litmosphere Poem)

 Hello all

Here is the audio of the poem To Posterity by Louise MacNeice. 

To read a short summary of the poem, please click here

Summary and Analysis of the Poem 'In The Country Cottage' by Nissim Ezekiel

 Introduction to the Author

Nissin Ezekiel (1924-2004) is a pioneer in modern Indian English poetry. His role as translator, editor, playwright and reviewer has contributed significantly in shaping modernist poetry in India. The modernist movement of the 1950s and 60s was known for its precise use of language, well crafted images, ironic stance, treatment of sexuality and male-female relationship. Ezekiel is often described as the father of the modernist movement and he writes introspective, ironic and humorous poems of self exploration and self formation. He has brought out seven collections of poetry; they are A Time to Change and Other Poems (1952), Sixty Poems (1953), The Unfinished Man (1960), The Exact Name (1965), Hymns in Darkness (1976), and the Sahitya Akademy award-winning Latter-day Psalms (1982).

Text of the Poem

The night the lizard came

our indolence was great; 

we went to bed before

our eyes were heavy, limbs

prepared to stretch or love.

Immobile, tense and grey,

he taught us patience as 

he waited for the dark.

From time to time we could

not help but glance at him

and learn again that he 

was more alive than us

in silent energy,

though his aim was only 

the death of cockroaches.

When we awoke the next

morning we found as we

expected that the job

was done, clean and complete,

and the stout lizard gone.

Outline of the Poem

The speaker of the poem comments that their idleness was great on the day the lizard came out. They went to bed early even though they were not physically exhausted. A sense of purposelessness keeps them inert and passive. In the second stanza, the speaker offers a detailed description of the lizard. It is described as ’immobile’, ‘tense’ and ‘grey’ and its patient waiting for the dark is highlighted. It seems that it explicitly resembles the humans in the poem as they are also immobile. Later on, the humans in the cottage realise that the lizard is far more alive than them. It possesses silent energy which humans lack, though its aim is only the death of cockroaches. The next day, they wake up to realise that the lizard has eaten up all the cockroaches neatly and disappeared. 

Analysis of the Poem

In the poem, the poet contrasts animal and human worlds. The humans in the poem are idle and purposeless and they seek refuge from the toils of existence. It is common in modernist literature to have characters who fail to identify the meaning of their lives and resort to inactivity. The humans in the poem do not have any noble notions on the greatness of man and also fail to connect with their animal instincts. Cut off from the roots of tradition, modern man is caught between purposelessness of modern life and absence of instincts. These render humans helpless and passive and they resemble the Lotos-Eaters.

Interestingly, the lizard is presented in similar terms in the second stanza. It is described as ‘immobile’ like the humans, ‘tense’, ‘grey’ and ‘patient’. It waits for the prey in the dark and teaches humans patience. Though the lizard resembles the humans in its immobility and patient waiting, the humans gradually realise that its movements are directed by instincts. The ‘silent energy’ refers to the animal instincts the lizard possesses and its actions emerge from the primal forces whereas humans are separated from their instincts. Though the poet acknowledges the limits of instincts to ‘the death of cockroaches’, the humans in the poem grope in the dark and fail to perform any task neatly. The poem underscores the utter lack of convictions human beings are endowed with and the resultant inactivity. This is contrasted with neat and complete actions carried out by the lizard. In short, the poem contrasts  the instinctive and energetic life of the lizard with  that of the inactive lives of the humans.

Nissim Ezekiel has effectively featured many animals and birds such as scorpion, crows, cats, squirrels, monkeys, crocodiles etc.. in his poems. The introduction of Indian flora and fauna has strengthened his articulations of Indian life with an exquisite indian idiom. The comparison of a lizard with a human is also very striking as both the animals can leave their tails and survive!. It is also interesting that lizards are associated with somany superstitious stories in India.

Calicut University BA/B.Sc/B.Com Common Course English First Semester- LITMOSPHERE: THE WORLD OF LITERATURE prescribed texts

MODULE 1: Literature- Initiation 

1.To Posterity (poem)- Louis MacNeice

To read the text, please click here 

2.The Rocking Horse Winner (Short Story) -D H Lawrence 

To read the text, please click here 

3.”Memoirs of A Mad Man (Prose excerpts from Autobiography)-Gustave

MODULE 2: Creative Thinking and Writing 

1. The Thought Fox (poem)-Ted Hughes 

To read the text, please click here 

2. Poetry (poem)-Marianne Moore 

To read the text, please click here 

3. Excerpt from An Autobiography(Prose)-Agatha Christie 

4. Half a Day (Short story)-Naguib Mahfouz 

To read the text, please click here

MODULE 3: Critical Thinking 

1. To a Reason (Poem)- Arthur Rimbaud 

To read the text, please click here

2. The Adventures of the Retired Colourman-Short Story-Conan Doyle

To read the text, please click here

3. Trifles (One-Act Play)-Susan Glaspe

To read the text, please click here

MODULE 4: Perspectives 

1.Body Without the “d” (Poem)-Justice Ameer 

To read the text, please click here

2. Sleeping Fool (Poem)-Suniti Namjoshi 

To read the text, please click here

3.The Cockroach (Short Story)-Luis Fernando Verissimo; translated by Anna Vilner

To read the text, please click here

4.About Dalit Literature” (Prose)-Sharankumar Limbale 

5. Purl (Short Film)-Kristen Lester

‘Laburnum For My Head’ as a Feminist Short Story

Temsula Ao has presented striking women characters in her works. Her female characters hail from the North-East region of India and they play a crucial role in anchoring the lives of their men amidst the violence looming large around them. These women challenge the injustice practiced by the patriarchal system and also question the cruelties perpetrated by the rebel forces and the government forces alike. They save men’s lives, pacify their fears and act as the moving force in their struggle to survive.

    Lentina, the central character of the story, is a woman of her own choices and the story is a record of her struggles to fulfill her desire to have some Laburnum bushes in her garden. It is interesting to note that she loves laburnum flowers because of their femininity and contrasts them with the brazen orange and dark pink blossoms of gulmohars. In the context of the troubled politics of the North-East, her preference for the yellow mellow beauty of laburnum over the dark pink blossoms of gulmohar is very significant. Traditionally, the colour yellow refers to happiness, optimism, enlightenment and creativity whereas the dark pink is associated with energy, passion etc… This choice of colour itself informs her politics of identifying with the victims of political aggression in Nagaland and her desire for the golden shower definitely evokes a desire for easing down the tensions. She attributes humility to the way the laburnum flowers hung their heads earthward. In short, her love for the flowers spring out of their femininity and humility.

    In the beginning of the story, the writer offers a stunning impression of a laburnum in blossom and describes how the flowers conceal the monuments erected by men of prominence on their graves. It is customary among the wealthy to erect marble/granite or concrete structures on their graves to keep their memories alive and to defy the forgetfulness imposed by death. The feminine flowers of the laburnum help to erase the marks of prominent members of the society and bring out a sense of equality among all humans and declare the victory of nature over everything the patriarchs have created. In another instance, Lentina’s love for the flowers is taken as a fetish and is openly spoken about in close family gatherings. This shows the intolerance practiced by the society on women’s choices and how it forces her to stop planting saplings in her gardens. Though this stops her from talking about the tree in public and planting them in her garden, her love for the golden shower does not cease.

    Lentina’s decision to join the funeral party of her husband to takepart in the last rites at the gravesite is a challenging act to the patriarchal tradition which reserves this to man. Though she is not warmly welcomed, no one stops her from carrying out her plan as the gravity of the situation requires them to keep calm. Her strength lies in her sensitivity to the cultural codes of the society. Her struggles to buy a piece of land of her own choice brings out her extraordinary powers of perseverance and make members of her family to acknowledge her strengths and seek her advice on matters running business and family.

    In her search for fulfilment, she breaks free of human relationships established by the patriarchal system and redefines them. For example, the nature of her relationship with Babu, the driver, was that of a master-slave and now she considers him as an ‘ever faithful friend’ and a confidant. Her determination to select a plot for herself and negotiations with the Town Committee show her strength as a woman and she erases marks of patriarchy in the process.

Summary and Analysis of Laburnum for My Head by Temsula Ao

About the Author
Temsula Ao was born in Assam in 1945 and was educated in Nagaland. She is a poet and short story writer. She has nine books to her credit out of which five are collections of poetry and two collections of short stories. She retired as a professor of English from North-Eastern Hill University. In 2013, she received Sahitya Akademi Award for her short story collection.

Summary of the Text
    This is the title story of the collection Laburnum For My Head (2009) which won Sahitya Akademi Award for the best literary work in English in 2013. The story begins with a magnificent description of the laburnum trees in blossom in the cemetery of a sleepy little town. The author captures the stunning beauty of the yellow flowers and narrates how they outshine the tombstones erected by the humans to keep their memories alive. Blessed by nature, the yellow blossoms of the trees conceal the concrete structures, marble and granite headstones erected in the graveyard and declare the permanency of the ever unchanging nature and the futility of human claims to immortality. After offering an impressionistic picture of the laburnum in may, the author presents the central character of the story.

    A woman named Lentina desires to have some laburnum bushes in her garden. She loves laburnum flowers because of their femininity and humility. The yellow splendour of laburnum is associated with femininity and their earthward bending is taken as a gesture of humility. She purchases a few saplings from the nursery and plants them in the corners of her garden. In the first year, the gardener pulls out the small saplings along with the weeds around them. She plants again and this time stray cows enter her garden and eat up plants they find including the laburnum. Undaunted, she plants a few more saplings and takes good care of them. As fate has it, a worker from the health department sprays a deadly DDT concoction on the edges of the garden while she is visiting a friend. Heavy rain makes a flood in the garden and all her flowers except full grown trees wither and die including the laburnum. Devastated, she thinks that her efforts to grow the plant will not be successful yet she yearns more!

    Her husband and children believe that she is developing an unhealthy fetish for laburnum and talk about it openly in close family gatherings. She fails to understand their concern and feels inwardly hurt by their insensitivity to beauty around them. This forces her to keep her desire within herself and she refuses to talk or plant any more laburnum plants.

    In the meanwhile, her husband shows signs of a strange disease and passess away quitely one night in his sleep. As her husband is a prominent member of the society, elaborate funeral services are arranged. When the hearse is about to leave for the cemetery, she surprises everyone by announcing her plan to accompany her husband on his last journey. Usually, it is men who take part in the last rites at the gravesite and her decision is not challenged because of the somber atmosphere. At the graveyard, she ruminates on the human futility of erecting headstones on the graves to defy death and suddenly she gets an epiphanic sensation. She is delighted with the idea of planting a laburnum tree on her grave instead of a silly headstone and this way her desire to have a laburnum tree close to her would be fulfilled. In spite of the somber occasion, she smiles to herself, a relative notices and she leaves for home.

    Back at home, she searches for someone who would understand her deep seated longing for the laburnum to plant a tree on her grave. She considers her sons and daughters and feels that they would not carry out designs. Even servants, cooks or the gardener can not be entrusted with the task. Finally, she settles on the driver who has been serving the family for somany years and is a widower. The next day, she asks the driver to take her to the cemetery and she searches for a spot where she can be buried. She informs Babu, the driver, of her plan of reserving a spot in the graveyard for herself. She entrusts the hesitant Babu to arrange a document from the Town Committee to ensure her grave on the spot she prefers and makes him vow to keep the issue confidential. Babu discusses the issue with his son-in-law and the latter informs him of the need to submit a request to the Town Committee. Babu informs Lentina of the requirement which she dismisses as it reveals her identity to the public. She is forced to devise another strategy to fulfill her desire and this time she plans to buy the land adjacent to the cemetery which she hopes would eventually become a part of the graveyard.

    The arrival of Khalong, son of her late husband's friend, in her household to offer condolences turns out to be a golden chance for Lentina to buy the land adjacent to the cemetery as it belongs to Khalong’s property. He is in financial constraints and is willing to sell the land but there are no takers as it is close to the graveyard. Lentina is excited to hear the news and expresses her willingness to buy the land at the price fixed by him. Her sons come to know  the deal only after she owns it and she pacifies their disapproval. She is tactful to subdue her daughters-in-law. The Town Committee visits Lentina as the ground near to the cemetery is to be only in the custody of either the church or other religious organizations with due permission from the committee. She acknowledges their concerns and puts forward her demands to hand over the land to the Town Committee. The Committee agrees with her demand not to erect any marble or granite headstones to people who get buried in the land and permits her to choose a gravesite for herself.

    Lentina and Babu, the driver, make frequent visits to the gravesite and plant laburnum saplings. He cares for the plant and gradually becomes an ever faithful friend to her. Meanwhile, Lentina grows tired and sick and Babu comes to her aid. He visits the gravesite and informs her of the growth of the laburnum plants. Gradually Lentina recovers from the illness and resumes her role in the family. She befriends daughters-in-law, gifts them and offers advice to her sons on business and family matters.

    Among the two laburnum saplings planted at the gravesite, one has dried up and the other has sprouted tiny flowers. Next year, the tree has blossomed so much that anyone passing by may notice the growth. Lentina requests Babu to take her to the gravesite and they watch the laburnum in blossom. As Babu expected, she considers the blossom as a sign for her to leave earthly life and prepares for the final journey. She confines herself in her room for five days and on the fifth day, asks her maid to help her bathe and to dress in her favourite dress. She orders to bring her dinner early. Her servant enters her room the next day to know that she has passed away in her sleep.

    Every May, the laburnum trees blossom and one can not see a single stone monument. So every may, something extraordinary!

Calicut University New Common Courses in English (BA/B.Sc/ B.Com) Syllabus 2021 Admission

Dear readers,

Calicut university has yet again revised the syllabus of Common Courses in English for 2021 admission UG programmes! (for BA/B.Sc/ B.Com). I seriously doubt whether these frequent rivisions bring any positive changes to the programmes. Details of the new syllabus is given below. I hope our teachers and students will study and discuss this in detail.

First Semester

Course Code	Title of the Course	No. of hours/ Week	No. of Credit
ENG1A01	Litmosphere: The World of Literature	4	3
ENG1A02	Functional Grammar and Communication in English	5	3

Second Semester

Course Code	Title of the Course	No. of hours/Week	No. of Credit
ENG2A03	Readings from the Fringes	4	4
ENG2A04	Readings on Kerala	5	4

Third Semester

Course Code	Title of the Course	No. of hours/ Week	No. of Credit
ENG3A05	Readings on Indian Literatures	5	4

Fourth Semester

Course Code	Title of the Course	No. of hours/ Week	No. of Credit
ENG4A06	Songs and Stories of Our World	5	4