19th Century European Realism (Theory)

Paper Code: 
25DENG511(B)
Credits: 
6
Periods/week: 
6
Max. Marks: 
100
Objective: 

The Course will enable the students to explore European writers and their works in translation, fostering a nuanced understanding of diverse literary traditions and cultural perspective, and theorizing the nineteenth-century aesthetics of realism and political discourse.

 
Course Outcomes: 

The students will:

CO61. Develop an understanding of reading different European writers and their works in translation

CO62.Examine the novel as a genre and its readership in the 19th century

CO63.Estimate the influence of historical, political and socio- cultural movements

CO64.Formulate an analysis of representative writers and the political influence on the  writers

CO65. Theorize connections between nineteenth-century European aesthetics of realism and the political debates around historical changes

CO66.Contribute effectively in course-specific interaction.

18.00
Unit I: 

Ivan Turgenev

Fathers and Sons

 
19.00
Unit II: 

Fyodor Dostoyvesky

Crime and Punishment

 
18.00
Unit III: 

Honore de Balzac

Old Goriot

 
19.00
Unit IV: 

Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary

 
16.00
Unit V: 

Leo Tolstoy

Family Happiness

The Death of Ivan Illyich

 
Source Books: 

Suggested Reference Books:

Balzac, Honore de. “Society as Historical Organism’’. The Modern Tradition. Ed. Ellmann et. al. OUP, 1965.

Flaubert, Gustav. “Heroic honesty”, “Letter on Madame Bovary”, The Modern Tradition. Ed. Richard Ellmann et. al. OUP, 1965.

Lukacs, George. “Balzac and Stendhal”. Studies in European Realism. Merlin Press, 1972. 

Tolstoy, Leo. “Man as a Creature of History in War and Peace”. Ed. Richard Ellmann et. al., The Modern Tradition. OUP, 1965.

 

E-Resources including links: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Gustave_Flaubert https://myliteraryreview.com/what-men-live-by-by-leo-tolstoy/

Reference Journals:

JSTOR

Research Gate

 
SUGGESTED READINGS: 

Suggested Reference Books:

Balzac, Honore de. “Society as Historical Organism’’. The Modern Tradition. Ed. Ellmann et. al. OUP, 1965.

Flaubert, Gustav. “Heroic honesty”, “Letter on Madame Bovary”, The Modern Tradition. Ed. Richard Ellmann et. al. OUP, 1965.

Lukacs, George. “Balzac and Stendhal”. Studies in European Realism. Merlin Press, 1972. 

Tolstoy, Leo. “Man as a Creature of History in War and Peace”. Ed. Richard Ellmann et. al., The Modern Tradition. OUP, 1965.

 

E-Resources including links: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Gustave_Flaubert https://myliteraryreview.com/what-men-live-by-by-leo-tolstoy/

Reference Journals:

JSTOR

Research Gate

Academic Year: 
2025-2026