The Novel and Change

By Prof. Avishek Parui | IIT Madras

Learners enrolled: 1097 | Exam registration: 170

ABOUT THE COURSE:

This course will offer a theoretical and historical study of the novel and how that genre of literature corresponds to social and cultural changes. Through a close reading of its selected texts and a study of its secondary references, the course will underline and illustrate the relevance of the novel as reflective of sociocultural moods, movements, tensions, and affirmations, highlighting how literature may be examined as a complex representation of collective and psychological situations.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: PG/PhD students, early career faculty

Summary

Course Status :	Ongoing
Course Type :	Core
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	English Humanities and Social Sciences English Studies
Credit Points :	3
Level :	Postgraduate
Start Date :	20 Jan 2025
End Date :	11 Apr 2025
Enrollment Ends :	03 Feb 2025
Exam Registration Ends :	28 Feb 2025
Exam Date :	03 May 2025 IST

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Robinson Crusoe: Rise of White Supremacy and Territorialization

Week 2: The Rise of the Novel in 18th Century

Week 3: Frankenstein: Feminist Revisions

Week 4: The 19^th Century Society and its Changes

Week 5: Heart of Darkness and Great Expectations: Imperialism and Moral Panic

Week 6: 20^th Century Cultural Anxieties

Week 7: The Guide: Gender Roles in a Changing India

Week 8: Indian Social Changes and the novel in early 20th Century

Week 9: Things Fall Apart and Nervous Conditions: Imperialism, Racism, and Violence

Week 10: The Postcolonial Novel as a Reflection of Human Rights Abuse

Week 11: One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Lowlands: The Novel as a representation of Political Desire and Destruction

Week 12: Role and relevance of critical theory in examining the novel

Books and references

Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
The Guide, R. K. Narayan
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Marquez
Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga
The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri

References

Anjaria, Ulka. A History of the Indian Novel in English. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Claybaugh, Amanda.The Novel of Purpose. Cornell University Press, 2007.
Franklin, Caroline. The Female Romantics Nineteenth-century Women Novelists and Byronism. Routledge. 2015.
Kucich, John, and Jenny B. Taylor. editors. The Oxford History of the Novel in English: The Nineteenth-Century Novel 1820-1880. Oxford University Press, 2011.
Lee, Josephine, et al. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature and Culture. Oxford University Press, 2021.
Quayson, Ato. editor. The Cambridge Companion to the Postcolonial Novel. Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Richetti, John. editor. The Cambridge Companion to the Eighteenth-Century Novel. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Warren W, Kenneth. What Was African American Literature?. Harvard UP, 2011.
Watt, Ian. The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding. Chatto & Windus, 1957.

Instructor bio

Prof. Avishek Parui

IIT Madras

Prof. Avishek Parui is Assistant Professor in English at IIT Madras and Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. He researches and supervises PhDs on medical humanities, masculinity studies, memory studies and postmodernism. His recent book Postmodern Literatures, has been published by Orient Blackswan.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.

The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).

Date and Time of Exams: May 3, 2025 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.

Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.

The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.

Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Madras .It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team

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