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SREENARAYANAGURU OPEN UNIVERSITY

B.A. ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

DISCIPLINE SPECIFIC ELECTIVE COURSE

B21EG02DE

EUROPEAN FICTION
CREDITS: 6

Course Objectives

1. To introduce learners to the contexts of European Fiction.
2. To kindle interest in the reading of fiction from different European cultures.
3. To familiarise learners with the most significant writers and their texts from this milieu.

Course Outcomes

On completion of the course, the learners should be able to:

1. identify distinctly, what is European fiction.
2. read and appreciate European literature with insight.
3. understand European culture and its varying modes of literary expression.
4. read and analyse novels and short stories critically using different critical tools.

COURSE DETAILS

BLOCK 1: LITERARY CONTEXTS I

The Beginnings of Fiction in Europe – Italian Renaissance – Contributions of
Boccaccio, Rabelais and Cervantes – The Romantic Movement – The
Picaresque Novel – Gothic Novel – Historical Romance – Enlightenment –
Rationalism, Individualism, Rise of the Novel – Realism – Naturalism –
Biological Determinism, Emile Zola

BLOCK 2: LITERARY CONTEXTS II

Modernism in European Fiction – 20th Century German Novel – 20th Century
French Novel – Modern Italian Fiction – Neo Romanticism – Absurd
Literature – Existential Philosophy – Drama and Prose – Albert Camus,
Samuel Beckett – Postmodernism – Contemporary Greek Fiction

BLOCK 3: SHORT STORY

UNIT 1 Anton Chekhov: “The Lottery Ticket”
UNIT 2 Franz Kafka: “A Report to an Academy

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