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SREENARAYANAGURU OPEN UNIVERSITY

B.A. ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

LANGUAGE CORE

B21EG02LC
LITERATURE AND THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

CREDITS: 6

Course Objectives

1. To expose learners to some of the burning contemporary issues.
2. To acquaint them with the way literature takes on these issues.
3. To equip them to critically appraise and shape their own individual opinions.

Course Outcomes

By the end of the course the learners will be able to,
1. make sense of the world they live in through the many language devices literature
employs in its representation of reality.
2. have an understanding of cross-cultural encounters in a globalised world.
3. debate the pros and cons of current issues in culture using the terminology related to
the concerned topics.
4. discuss how the use of language and choice of genre influence the meaning of the text
and the reader’s response.
5. develop skills of textual analysis.
6. comprehend diverse points of view on the urgent issues the world faces.

COURSE DETAILS

BLOCK 1: Climate Change

UNIT 1 Margaret Atwood: “The Moment”
UNIT 2 Thunberg: “Almost Everything is Black and White” (Speech at
Parliament Square, London, 31 October, 2018)

BLOCK 2: Technology and Human Life

UNIT 1 Gareth Southwell: “Artificial Intelligence”
UNIT 2 Ambrose Bierce: “Moxon’s Master”

BLOCK 3: Gender

UNIT 1 Sarah Joseph: “The Masculine of Virgin”

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