MARXIST LITERARY THEORY

Marxism is an important  philosophy of the world. Marxism is not a theory; it is a school of social, economic and political aspects. It is the important ideology of the 20^th century. Two German, writers, philosophers and critics – Karl Marx (1818-1883_) and Friedrich Engel (1820-1895) – co-authored a text in 1848 that proclaimed, Marxism‘s basic doctrines, ‘the Communist Manifesto’ Unlike other schools of literary criticism, Marxism did not begin as an alternative theoretical approach to literary analysis. Before the 20^th century, writers and critics embraced the principles of Marxism and formulated these ideas in the working classes of society as an opportunity to change their world and their lifestyles. Marxism provides the working class to improve their socioeconomic condition by giving them a philosophical system and plan of action, to bring out a change in society. Marxism offers /gives a humanitarian attitude for the social, political, economic and cultural understanding to the writers, philosophers, thinkers and downtrodden people of the society. These and similar ideas become the basis of socialism and communism.

Marxist aesthetics is a theory of aesthetics based on or derived from the theories of Karl Marx. It involves a dialectical approach to the application of Marxism to the cultural sphere, specifically areas related to taste such as art, beauty etc. Marxists believe that economic and social conditions affect every aspect of an individual’s life, from religious beliefs to legal systems to cultural frameworks. The role of art is not only to present such conditions truthfully but also to seek to improve them.

Marx and Engels produced no systematic theory of literature and art. They explained the nature of art and its paths of development, its tasks in society and social aims. Marxist aesthetics, like the whole teaching of Marx and Engels, are subordinated to the struggle for the communist reorganization of society

Georg-Lukacs, Antonio Gramsci, Raymond Williams and Terry Eagleton immensely

contributed to the development of Marxist critical standards and Marxist aesthetics.

Ideology manifests itself in various ways in all stages of life. Lukacs showed that there was a correspondence between the economic forms of the society, the cultural forms, the forms of expression and its literary forms.

Gramsci states that literature participates in the struggle for hegemony in society. It may help counter oppressive hegemony by suggesting and popularizing new ones. Organic intellectuals play an important part here.

In Marxism and Literature, Williams states that ideology is incorporated through educational institutes

All contemporary literary theory is a theory of consumption, especially symbolized in terms like taste and sensibility. Art is a practice. We have to discover the nature of practice and then its conditions. We have to look for the processes of transformation or mediation that the components have gone through. Art and society should be compared with the whole complex of human actions and feelings. Culture, for instance, must be analyzed in terms of class, industry, democracy and art. Culture/ art must be treated as social uses of the material means of production. The focus is on the social organization of culture, as a realized signifying system, embedded in a whole range of activities, relations and institutions of which only some are manifestly cultural.

In the philosophy of Karl Marx and Fredrich Engel says, ‘Capitalists and bourgeoisie (middle class/ upper class) had successfully enslaved the working class or the proletariat (inferior class) through literary writings, economic policies, arts etc. This philosophy emphasises and provokes to working or proletariat class and they should understand all the means of enslavement.

In addition to this work, Marx himself authored ‘Das Capital’. The text of Das Capital becomes the foundation for Marxism, Socialism and communism. According to Karl Marx, history is a record of the past, which is dominated by bourgeoisie (upper and middle class) people through, literature, and economic policies.  Marx maintains that an intricate web of social relationships emerges when any group of people are in the current scenario. A few, for example, will be the writers, but many more will be readers and learners. It is the writer (bourgeoisie) who has the words power and who will readily gain social and political control of their society. Eventually, this writer of established culture will articulate their beliefs, their values, and even their art. Consciously and unconsciously they will force these ideas or what Marx calls their ideology, upon their working class. In such a system, the bourgeois becomes more powerful and the proletariat becomes feeble and marginal.  

Taken together,’ The Communist Manifesto and ‘Das Capital’, provide us with a theory of history, economics, politics, Sociology, and even metaphysics. In these writings Marx did not give a direct connection to access the literary genres (literary kind) but indirectly based on the production of goods and the social relationships that develop from this situation, he necessarily assumed that the totality of a people’s experience –social interaction, employment, and other day-to-day activities was directly responsible for the shaping and development of an individual’s personal consciousness. That our place in society and our social interactions determine our consciousness or existence.

 

Really Marx highlights various social aspects throughout his writings and his literary approach to evaluating text it was common during Marx’s time. Sociological assumptions were one of the factors of it but Marxism emphasizes the historical setting, the author’s life, the time period in which the work was written, and the cultural milieu of the text and author, all of these being related to sociological issues. Marxism emphasises critics should understand the literary text not only the inner side but also the outer side of the text. He must understand the social relationship between the text and the author then the critic could evaluate it successfully. Marxism expands the traditional historical approach to literary analysis by dealing with sociological issues that concentrate only on the characters in a work of fiction but also on the authors and the readers. Marx believed in links between literature and society and how it reveals truths, concerning our social interaction.

 

Marxism challenged the bourgeoisie's approach towards literature. The renowned and famous critics Terry Eagleton  and ‘Frank Lentricchia’, supported this by saying that, the Marxist approach is base of all sociological theories. Even the pioneers and supporters of structuralism, deconstruction, feminism and New Historicism agreed that Marxist philosophy is the basic foundation for the evaluation of the literary text.

Marxism is not a literary theory that can be used to interpret a text. Unlike other schools of criticism, it is first a set of social, economic  and political ideas that its followers believe will enable them to interpret and more importantly change their world.

 

Marxism discovers two terms in the literary arena ‘Base’ and ‘Superstructure’. Base relates economic production to the social relationship and economic structure of society. Other hands ‘Superstructure’ relates with and called it a multitude of social and legal institutions, political and educational systems religious beliefs, values and a body of art and literature. ‘Base’ and ‘superstructure’ of the society is under the control of the upper class(bourgeoisie )  then common people or poor people are suppressed due to its effect on the system.

The exact relationship between ‘base’ and ‘superstructure’ however is not easily defined. Some Marxist critics argue that ‘base’ directly affects the ‘superstructure’, and some critics say these two terms are interrelated and interdependent. Whatever position held by Marxists today, most would agree that the relationship between the base and the superstructure is complex and will continue to remain a contentious point in Marxist theories.

The relationship between the ‘base’ and ‘superstructure’ becomes clearer when we consider capitalistic America. Marxism declares capitalists hold economic power in society in this way centre of power society in this way they control the base (base means economic production and economic and social relationships). If they called a controlled ‘base’ then they would formulate a ‘superstructure’ relates to ideology, system, values, laws etc. as per their interest. In this way, these people capitalistic/bourgeoisie people exploit the working class people by providing a false reflection of society through literature. Therefore  Marxism says the ‘base’ and ‘superstructure’ of the country are in the hands of the upper class/ ruling class then it is very - very difficult to get justice for the common/economic class of the people of the society. Therefore critics must understand the social and common values for the evaluation of the text. When the bourgeoisie establishes a superstructure, it is called false consciousness.

The metaphor of "base" and "superstructure," is used by Marx in his argument that the economic relations of production in a society determine the forms of the state and social consciousness, or, more broadly, all social and ideological structures, such as law, politics, religion, education, art, etc. This is one of the most important parts of Marxist theory for literary and cultural studies, especially as it relates to the theory of ideology and the role of art in the production of ideology. Following 2nd International theorists Georgi Plekhanov and Karl Kautsky, traditional Marxists interpreted "base" to mean "material reality" and "superstructure" to mean something like "social and intellectual phenomena" and interpreted Marx's argument to mean that there is a relationship between straightforward mechanical causality between the base and superstructure. According to this argument, a feudal economic order will inevitably produce the particular forms of government, law, art, religion, etc., characteristic of the middle ages, while a capitalist economic order will produce those of modernity. But this straightforwardly mechanistic understanding of the relationship between base and superstructure is seen as too simplistic by most contemporary Marxist critics, and Marx himself provides various more complex statements on the problem

Consciously and unconsciously this social elite inevitably forces its ideas upon the working classes. Almost without their knowing it, the working classes have become trapped in an economic system. Therefore their leisure time habits and entertainment are to be decided by the bourgeoisie people. Those things are in favour of their interest and it exploits the poor people.

Bourgeoisie  (middle and upper class) people dominate literature and they reflect elite ideology through it which is responsible for the exploitation. Therefore critics need to understand these things while evaluating any literary things. Marxism emphasises thinkers and authors should understand the reality of life because the economic base directly determines the literature. The literature will mirror the economic base.

Marxism’s methodology is a dynamic process declaring a proper critique. Marxists argue the study of literature and the study of society are intricately bound together. Such relationship demands that the Marxist approach to a text must deal with more than the conventional literary themes, matters, of style, plot, characteristics, and the usual emphasis on figures of speech and other literary devices utilized by other approaches to literary analysis. Marxism must move beyond these literary elements and must uncover the author’s world and his or her worldview. It is the ideology expressed by the author as evidenced through his or her fictional world and how this ideology interacts with the reader’s personal ideology.

Karl Marx dealt with Socialism, economic and social doctrine, a political movement inspired by this doctrine, and the system or order established when this doctrine was organized in a society. The socialist doctrine demanded state ownership and control of the fundamental means of production and distribution of wealth, to be achieved by reconstruction of the existing capitalist or other political systems of a country through peaceful, democratic, and parliamentary means.

Some extremist socialists, however, insist on the complete abolition of the capitalist system and of private profit. The ultimate goal of all socialists, however, is a classless cooperative commonwealth in every nation of the world.

Marxists believe in the abolition of property, and therefore of class mistreatment, would make it possible for individuals to contribute according to their abilities and take according to their needs. Karl Marx believes that there has always been a struggle between the working class and the ruling class and it is this conflict brings people to ruin. According to his theories, society will overcome this status-driven way through revolutions. Society will eventually become classless.

 Really, Marxism is outstanding philosophy which compels us to think about literature in different ways. Marxism is an evergreen branch of criticism and will remain the same up to the doom’s day of the world.  

 

 

TERMINOLOGY

• Base vs. Superstructure: Base in Marxism refers to the economic base. Superstructure, according to Marx and Engels, emerges from this base and consists of law, politics, philosophy, religion, art.
• Ideology: the shared beliefs and values held in an unquestioning manner by a culture. It governs what that culture deems to be normative and valuable. For Marxists, ideology is determined by economics. A rough approximation: "tell me how much money you have and I'll tell you how you think."
• Hegemony: coined by the Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci, this "refers to the pervasive system of assumptions, meanings, and values -- the web of ideologies, in other words, that shapes the way things look, what they mean, and therefore what reality is for the majority of people within a given culture" (See the glossary in case studies in contemporary criticism book).
• Reification: often used to describe the way in which people are turned into commodities useful in market exchange. For example, some would argue that the media's obsession with tragedy (e.g.the deaths of Jon Benet Ramsay, Diana, JFK Jr., and the murders at Columbine High School in Colorado) make commodities out of grieving people. The media expresses sympathy but economically thrives on these events through rating boosts.

·        Proletariat: "The proletariat is that class in society which lives entirely from the sale of its labour power and does not draw profit from any kind of capital; whose weal and woe, whose life and death, whose sole existence depends on the demand for labour...

·        Bourgeoisie: The class of people in bourgeois society who own the social means of production as their Private Property, i.e., as capital.

 

Objective Correlative

Objective Correlative’

T S Eliot (1888-1965) is important literary figure of 20 the century criticism, he was great poet, dramatist, essayist and critic; he was man of action always in search of some concrete truth. He was intellectual and academic personality of the modern criticism. He has contributed valuable things that are still in consideration in literary domain 21^st literary criticism.

The theory of the ‘objective correlative’ is undoubtedly one of the most important critical concepts of T.S. Eliot. It exerted a tremendous influence of the critical temper of twentieth century. In the concept of the ‘objective correlative’, Eliot’s doctrine of poetic impersonality finds its most classic formulation. Eliot formulated his doctrine of the ‘objective correlative’ in his essay on “Hamlet and his Problems”.

According to Eliot, the poet cannot communicate his emotions directly to the readers, he has to find some object suggestive of it and only then he can evoke the same emotion in his readers. So this ‘objective correlative’ is “a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.” It is through the objective correlative that the transaction between author and reader necessarily takes place. For this object is the primary source of, and warrant for, the reader’s response whatever that may be; and it is also the primary basis for whatever inferences we may draw about what it is that the “author wanted to say.” Briefly speaking, what Eliot means by his doctrine of the objective correlative is that a great work of art is nothing but a set of conceptual symbols or correlatives which endeavour to express the emotions of the poet, and these symbols constitute the total vision of the creative artist.

Eliot himself defines ‘objective correlative’ as “a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events, which shall be the formula” for the poet’s emotion so that “when the external facts are given the emotion is at once evoked.” For example, in Macbeth the dramatist has to convey the mental agony of Lady Macbeth and he does so in “the sleep-walking scene”, not through description, but through an unconscious repetition of her past actions. Her mental agony has been made objective, so that it can as well be seen by the eyes as felt by the heart. The external situation is adequate to convey the emotions, the agony of Lady Macbeth. Instead of communicating the emotions directly to the reader, the dramatist has embodied them in a situation or a chain of events, which suitably communicate the emotion to the reader. Similarly, the dramatist could devise in Othello a situation which is a suitable objective correlative, for the emotion of the hero. Hamlet is an artistic failure for here the external situation does not suitably embody the effect of a mother’s guilt on her son. The disgust of Hamlet is in excess of the facts as presented in the drama.

It becomes apparent that it is neither the intensity of the emotion nor the greatness of its components that determines the poetic quality of a poem but what matters is the intensity of the fusion, nor one of the ways in which the poet achieves this intensity is through the embodiment of an emotion in a concrete object. That is why Matthiessen interprets the term ‘objective correlative’ to mean a situation or image which represents the poet’s emotion. Furthermore, the theory of the ‘objective correlative’s is thus based on the assumption that every poem cannot only be broken into its correlatives but the correlatives can be pieced together to form a larger whole.

What Eliot may have had in mind was that the emotions of poetry should be provided with motives, or that the responses of the poets should be responses to a defined situation. The actions, gestures and words of Lady Macbeth walking in her sleep arouse the same sense of anguish in the readers as they do in Macbeth himself, and hence his words on hearing of his wife’s death seem quite inevitable and natural under the circumstances. This is also the case with the anguish of Othello. This is so because the external action and situation are quite adequate for the internal emotion. But this is not so in Hamlet. There is no object, character, situation or incident which adequately expresses the inner anguish of the Prince of Denmark. His suffering is terrible, but the full intensity of  at his mother’s guilt is not conveyed by any character or action in the play. He suffers terribly, but his suffering is far in excess to the character and situation as presented in the play. A similar situation in real life would not arouse equally intense emotion in normally constituted people. Shakespeare wanted to convey something unexpressibly horrible but the character of Gertrude and the whole plot of the play is inadequate for the purpose. In other words, Shakespeare has failed to find a suitable ‘Objective Co-relative’ for the emotion he wanted to convey. Here in lies the real source of the artistic failure of Hamlet.

Different critics have explained the phrase ‘objective correlative’ in different ways. For Cleanth Brooks, ‘objective correlative’ means “organic metaphor”, for Sister Mary Cleophas Costello “the intensity of meaning-structure”. Eliseo Vivas takes it as a vehicle of expression for the poet’s emotion; Allan Austin treats it as the poetic content to be conveyed by verbal expression. Such diversity of opinion does not necessarily reflect confusion on the part of Eliot. Instead, it testifies most eloquently to the varied interests and concerns of his commentators and the variety of principles which they had introduced for the purposes of interpretation, refutation, or approval.

Eliot’s theory of the objective correlative reminds us of Aristotle as well as the French symbolists. Like Aristotle, Eliot is of the opinion that it is not the business of the poet to ‘say’ but to ‘show’, not to present but to represent. In other words, Eliot’s concept of the objective correlative is based on the notion that it is not the business of the poet to present his emotions directly but rather to represent them indirectly through the ‘objective correlative’ which become the formula for the poet’s original emotions. One of the reasons why Eliot admires Dante’s poetry is that Dante’s was ‘a visual imagination,’ because he attempted ‘to make us see what he saw,’ because he did not lose his grasp over ‘the objective correlative.’

Eliot had learnt from the French symbolists that emotion can only be evoked; it cannot be expressed directly. Mallarme contended that poetry is not made of ideas but of words, and explored the potentialities of words as modes of evocative suggestion. Eliot’s theory was also anticipated by Ezra Pound in “The Spirit of Romance.” Pound admitted that in the ideographic process of using material images to suggest immaterial relations, the poet has to be as impersonal, as the scientist: “Poetry is a sort of inspired mathematics, which gives us equations, not for abstract figures, triangles, spheres and the like, but equations for the human emotion.” In Pound’s phrase “equations for the human emotion,” we find Eliot’s objective or relative foreshadowed.

The theory of the ‘objective correlative’ is also a continuation of the views of the Imagists. As Eliot himself explains in his Introduction to the Selected Poems by Marianne Moore, ‘the aim of imagism….was to induce i peculiar concentration upon something visual, and to set in motion an expanding succession of concentric feelings.’ Thus the ideas of the Imagists are similar to those of Eliot contained in his theory of the ‘objective correlative'; it is not the poet’s aim to set in motion his original emotion but ‘to induce a peculiar concentration upon something visual’.

The basic idea in Eliot’s theory of the ‘objective correlative’, that the emotions in poetry are embodied in an object, owes much to the romantics. For example, Coleridge points out ‘that images however beautiful, though faithfully copied from nature…do not of themselves characterize the poet. They become proofs of original genius only as far as they are modified by predominant passion, or by associated thoughts or images awakened by that passion.” Wordsworth also says much the same thing when he says ‘that poetry proceeds from the soul of man, communicating its creative energies to the images of the external world’. In the Victorian Age, Ruskin elaborated the idea further when he pointed out that great poets represent the object as it is, the same time conveying their emotion. In the twentieth century both Hulme and Pound expounded the theory that the poet should choose something external to represent his emotions, and they stressed the need for accuracy and concreteness of the object that would be symbolic expression of the emotions of the poet.

It is generally agreed that the term ‘objective correlative’ was probably borrowed from Washington Allston’s Lectures on Art. It is also probable that in using the term ‘objective correlative’, Eliot had in mind the following passage of  Whitman : The prudence of the greatest poet….. matches every thought or act by its correlative.

Although the idea contained in the doctrine of the objective correlative is traceable to a number of critics, there is no doubt that Eliot gave to the phrase its unique currency and elaborate interpretation. The phrase ‘objective correlative’ has become the recognised term to signify the way emotion is expressed through a work of art.

Eliot’s theory of the objective correlative has been criticized by Eliseo Vivas on two grounds. First, Eliot’s view implies that the artist knows in advance the particular emotion for which he makes object, a situation or an event, the correlative. Eliseo Vivas advances the hypothesis that it is only through the act of composition, through his efforts to formulate it in words that the poet discovers his emotion. As such he cannot have an advance knowledge of the particular emotion for which an object is made the co-relative. Secondly, the emotion expressed in a poem can neither be of exclusive interest to the reader, nor can he feel exactly the same emotion as the poet did. Furthermore, Eliot’s criticism of Hamlet as ‘an artistic failure’ has been refuted by a great majority of scholars. However, his theory of objective correlative applies well to his own poetry.

COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS

COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS

Collective unconscious is a term of analytical psychology, coined by Carl Jung. It is proposed to be a part of the unconscious mind, expressed in humanity and all life forms with nervous systems, and describes how the structure of the psyche autonomously organizes experience. Jung distinguished the collective unconscious from the personal unconscious, in that the personal unconscious is a personal reservoir of experience unique to each individual, while the collective unconscious collects and organizes those personal experiences in a similar way with each member of a particular species

Carl G. Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychologist whose principles have been found to be applicable to nearly all academic disciplines from mythology to religion to quantum physics, and to nearly all aspects of modern life. In the following selection, Jung discusses his most well-known (and controversial) concept, the collective unconscious, that aspect of the unconscious mind which manifests inherited, universal themes which run through all human life. The contents of the collective unconscious are archetypes, primordial images that reflect basic patterns or common to us all, and which have existed universally since the dawn of time. The collective unconscious is a part of the psyche which can be negatively distinguished from a personal unconscious by the fact that it does not, like the latter, owe its existence to personal experience and consequently is not a personal acquisition. While the personal unconscious is made up essentially of contents which have at one time been conscious but which have disappeared from consciousness through having been forgotten or repressed, the contents of the collective unconscious have never been in consciousness, and therefore have never been individually acquired, but owe their existence exclusively to heredity. Whereas the personal unconscious consists for the most part of complexes, the content of the collective unconscious is made up essentially of archetypes. The concept of the archetype, which is an indispensable correlate of the idea of the collective unconscious, indicates the existence of definite forms in the psyche which seem to be present always and everywhere. Mythological research calls them “motifs”; in the psychology of primitives they correspond to Levy-Bruhl’s concept of “representations collectives,” and in the field of comparative religion they have been defined by Hubert and Mauss as “categories of the imagination.” Adolf Bastian long ago called them “elementary” or “primordial thoughts.” From these references it should be clear enough that idea of the archetype—literally a pre-existent form— does not stand alone but is something that is recognized and named in other fields of knowledge.

Business Communication Exam pattern 2014-2015

Revised Syllabus for F Y B Com            Program: B.Com.

Course: Business Communication

(Credit Based Semester and Grading System with effect from the academic year

2012-13)

1. Syllabus as per Credit Based Semester and Grading System:

i) Name of the Programme : F.Y. B.Com

ii) Course Code :

iii) Course Title : Business Communication  Papers I & II

iv) Semester wise Course Contents : Enclosed the copy of syllabus

v) References and Additional References: Enclosed in the Syllabus

2. Scheme of Examination : 5 Questions of 15 marks each

Course Objectives:

1. To develop awareness of the complexity of the communication process

2. To develop effective listening skills in students so as to enable them to  comprehend instructions and become a critical listener

3. To develop effective oral skills so as to enable students to speak confidently interpersonally as well as in large groups

4. To develop effective writing skills so as enable students to write in a clear, concise, persuasive and audience centered manner

5. To develop ability to communicate effectively with the help of electronic media

Semester I – Business Communication Paper I

Unit 1: Theory of Communication

1. Concept of Communication –

Meaning, Definition, Process, Need, Feedback

Emergence of Communication as a key concept in the Corporate and Global world

Impact of technological advancements on Communication

2. Channels and Objectives of Communication – 

Channels-- Formal and Informal—Vertical, Horizontal, Diagonal, Grapevine

Objectives of Communication --Information, Advice, Order and Instruction, Persuasion, Motivation, Education,

Warning, and Boosting the Morale of Employees (A brief introduction to these objectives to be given)

3. Methods and Modes of Communication –

Methods: Verbal and Nonverbal .   Characteristics of Verbal Communication;

Characteristics of Non-verbal Communication.   Business Etiquette

Modes: Telephone and SMS Communication  (General introduction to Telegram to be given)

Facsimile Communication [Fax]

Computers and E- communication

Video and Satellite Conferencing

4. Problems in Communication /Barriers to Communication --

Physical/ Semantic/Language / Socio-Cultural / Psychological / Barriers

Ways to Overcome these Barriers

5. Listening – 

Importance of Listening Skills , Cultivating good Listening Skills - 

6. Introduction to Business Ethics 

·          Concept and Interpretation

·          Importance of Business Ethics

·          Personal Integrity at the workplace

·         Business Ethics and media

·         Computer Ethics

·         Corporate Social Responsibility

Teachers can adopt a case study approach and address issues such as the following so as to orient and

sensitize the student community to actual business practices:

·         Surrogate Advertising

·         Patents and Intellectual Property Rights

·         Dumping of Medical/E-waste

·         Human Rights Violations and Discrimination on the basis of gender, race, caste, religion, appearance and sexual orientation at the workplace

·         Piracy

·         Insurance

·         Child Labour

Unit 2: Business Correspondence

1. Theory of Business Letter Writing --

Parts, Structure, Layouts—Full Block, Modified Block, Semi - Block

Principles of Effective Letter Writing

Principles of effective Email Writing

2. Personnel Correspondence – 

Statement of Purpose

Job Application Letter and Resume

Letter of Acceptance of Job Offer, Letter of Resignation

[Letter of Appointment, Promotion and Termination, Letter of Recommendation (to

be taught but not to be tested in the examination)]

Unit 3: Language and Writing Skills

1. Commercial Terms used in Business Communication

2. Paragraph Writing -Developing an idea, using appropriate linking devices, etc

Cohesion and Coherence, self-editing, etc [Interpretation of technical data,

Composition on a given situation, a short informal report etc.]

Activities

1. Listening Comprehension

2. Remedial Teaching

3. Speaking Skills: Presenting a News Item, Dialogue and Speeches

4. Paragraph Writing: Preparation of the first draft, Revision and Self – Editing,

Rules of spelling.

5. Reading Comprehension: Analysis of texts from the fields of Commerce

and Management 

SEMESTER II

Unit 1: Presentation Skills

1. Presentations – (to be tested in tutorials only) 

Principles of Effective Presentation ,Effective use of OHP ,Effective use of Transparencies

How to make a Power-Point Presentation

Unit 2: Group Communication

1. Interviews – 

Group Discussion

Preparing for an Interview

Types of Interviews – Selection, Appraisal, Grievance, Exit

2. Meetings -4

 and Importance of Meetings, Conduct of Meeting and Group Dynamics

Role of the Chairperson, Role of the Participants

Drafting of Notice, Agenda and Resolutions

3. Conference 

Meaning and Importance of Conference

Organizing a Conference

Modern Methods: Video and Tele – Conferencing

4. Public Relations –

Meaning

Functions of PR Department

External and Internal Measures of PR

Unit 3: Business Correspondence

1. Trade Letters 

Order, Credit and Status Enquiry, Collection (just a brief introduction to be given)

Only following to be taught in detail:-

Letters of Inquiry ,Letters of Complaints, Claims, Adjustments ,Sales Letters, promotional leaflets and fliers ,Consumer Grievance Letters ,Letters under Right to Information (RTI) Act

[Teachers must provide the students with theoretical constructs wherever necessary in order to

create awareness. However students should not be tested on the theory.]

Unit 4: Language and Writing Skills

1. Reports –Parts, Types

Feasibility Reports, Investigative Reports

 Summarisation – Identification of main and supporting/sub points  AND Presenting these in a cohesive manner

Tutorial Activities:

1. Presentations

2. Group Discussion

3. Mock Interviews

4. Mock Meetings / Conferences

5. Book Reviews/Summarization

6. Reading Comprehension: Analysis of texts from the field of Literature

[Suggested Books for Book Reviews: Books from the fields of Management, Finance, and Literature

Like – Sun Tzu :The Art of War, Eliyahu M. Goldratt : The Goal , Eliyahu M. Goldratt: It’s Not Luck ,

Spencer Johnson: Who Moved My Cheese, Stephen Lundin, Ph.D, Harry Paul, John Christen: Fish,

Chetan Bhagat One Night At A Call Center, Chetan Bhagat My Three Mistakes , Arindam Choudhary:

Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch ,Stephen Covey :Seven Habits of Successful People, George

Orwell: Animal Farm, Dr. Abdul Kalam: Wings of Fire ]

[N.B.: The above list is only indicative and not prescriptive.]

Paper Pattern for Examinations

F. Y. B. Com

Semester I Examination Marks 75

Question 1 Objective/Short Answer Questions (based on  Unit 1)                         15 marks

Question 2  Short Notes (3 out of 5) (based on cht. 1,2 &3 from Unit 1)              15 marks

Question 3  Essay Type / Detailed Answer Q  (based on Chapters. 4,5 and 6 from Unit 1)

[2 out of 3]                                                                                                                      15 marks

Question 4 A) Job Application Letter and Resume                                                   8 marks

B) Personnel Letters (2 out of 3)                                                                                  7 marks

(Statement of Purpose ,Letter of Acceptance of Job Offer

Letter of Resignation)

Question 4 A) Writing a paragraph (on 1 out of 2 topics)                                      5 marks

B) Editing a given paragraph (for better organization)                                           5 marks

C) Remedial Grammar                                                                                                  5 marks

Semester II Examination: Marks 75

Question 1 . Objective/Short Answer Questions based on Unit 1 &2                                15 marks

Question 2 . Short Notes (based on chapt  1, &2  from Unit 2) [3 out of 5]                      15 marks

Question 3.  Essay Type  ( based on ch 3 & 4 from Unit 2)    [2 out of 3)                            15 marks

Question 4  Letters [3 out of 5]                                                                                                   15 marks

(i) Letter of Inquiry

(ii) Complaint/Claims/Adjustment Letter

(iii) Sales Letter

(iv) Consumer Grievance Letter 7

(v) RTI Letter

Question 5 (A) Drafting of Reports [1 out of 2]                                                                      7 marks

(B) Drafting of Notice, Agenda and 2 Resolutions                                                                 4 marks

(C) Summarisation                                                                                                                       4 marks

Internal Assessment – Semesters  I & II –

}  Fill in the blanks, MCQs, True or False                       05 marks

}  Answer in one/two sentences                                    05 marks

}  Short notes (2 out of 3)                                               10 marks

Suggested Reading:

1. Agarwal, Anju D(1989) A Practical Handbook for Consumers, IBH.

2. Alien, R.K.(1970) Organisational Management through Communication.

3. Ashley,A(1992) A Handbook Of Commercial Correspondence, Oxford University Press.

4. Aswalthapa, K (1991)Organisational Behaviour, Himalayan Publication, Mumbai.

5. Atreya N and Guha (1994) Effective Credit Management, MMC School of Management, Mumbai.

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SCANSION

A metrical line ending at a grammatical boundary or break—such as a dash or closing parenthesis—or with punctuation such as a colon, a semicolon, or a period. A line is considered end-stopped, too, if it contains a complete phrase. Many of Alexander Pope’s couplets are end-stopped, as in this passage from “An Essay on Man: Epistle I”:

Enjambment (pron. injámment): incomplete syntax at the end of the line. In the following example, the string what thou and I is looking for a verb to complete it, but the line-ending interrupts the onward pressure of the syntax, creating a kind of tension that is released when the verb is encountered at the beginning of the next line:

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I »
Did, till we lovd? Were we not weand till then?
(John Donne, The Good-morrow)

The word or phrase that completes the syntax and releases the tension is called the rejet (underlined in these examples): where the rejet is brief, as in the Donne example, the release is energetic, b…

Terms related to the format of a poem

For information about different forms of poetry, click here.

cadence		heroic couplet	line	run-on line
couplet	end-stopped line	inversion	line break	stanza	triplet

Line – A row of words.

Line break - where a line of poetry ends; may be end-stopped or not; when written out in a piece of prose, a virgule is used to indicate the line break.

End-stopped line – a line of poetry in which the punctuation naturally occurs at the end of the line **

 Run-on line – a line of poetry in which the punctuation is not contained within the line, and the line breaks without being punctuated **

 ** When reading a poem aloud, one should read to the punctuation; that is, do not pause or stop at the end of a line unless there is punctuation.

Stanza – a group of lines in a poem; analogous to a paragraph in prose writing.

 Couplet – two lines of rhymed poetry with the same meter that are next to each other within a larger poem.  Also called a distitch.

 Heroic couplet – Two rhymed lines of end-stopped iambic pentameter.     

 Triplet – A three-line stanza with a single rhyme.

                Ex: I know that you think

                       That hockey may stink,

                     But how ‘bout that rink?

 Inversion – reversal of the normal order of words, for emphasis or because the rhyme or meter demands it.  Examples can easily be found in Shakespeare and from Yoda.

 Cadence – The rising and falling rhythmic flow of spoken language, resulting from the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. A poem has cadence when large parts of it have a "beat" or rhythm. - See "Feet, meter, and scansion" for more information

Poetry Terms: Meter and Musicality

By Melissa Donovan  

In a previous post, I shared some basic poetry terms. Now, let’s elaborate by exploring meter.

In poetry, meter is quite complex so for now we’re going to stick with the absolute basics and look at a few core poetry terms that relate to meter and musicality.

Musicality in poetry is the sum of many different elements, all of which are also found in (you guessed it) music. The two basic musical components of a poem are rhythm and meter. These two poetry terms are inherently tied together and are often used interchangeably. However, they refer to completely different aspects of a poem’s musical tone.

Rhythm is motion, the overall flow of a piece as a whole. Meter, on the other hand, is the pattern of recurring accent that we can tap our feet to, the beat.

Rhythm = flow
Meter = pattern

Let’s take a closer look at meter

A Very Short Song

Once, when I was young and true,
Someone left me sad-
Broke my brittle heart in two;
And that is very bad.

Love is for unlucky folk,
Love is but a curse.
Once there was a heart I broke;
And that, I think, is worse.

-Dorothy Parker

Scansion

Do you remember diagramming sentences back in grammar school? Well, we can do something similar with poetry, only we are diagramming for meter. This is called scansion. Scanning a poem helps us better understand its meter, rhythm, and become a more prolific reader of poetry and writer of all things.

Feet

Meter is measured in units called feet. These are not the same feet we use here in the U.S. to measure distance. In poetry, a metrical foot consists of one accented syllable plus one or two unaccented syllables. Below are some metrical examples. The syllables in all caps are the accented syllables.

da-DUM da-DUM is an example of two iambs or iambic meters
DA de DA de is an example of two trochees or trochaic meters
ra-ta-TAH is an anapest or anapestic meter
LA-da-da is a dactyl or dactylic meter
BOMP-BOMP is a spondee or spondaic meter

To start scanning a poem, we first identify the prevailing foot. We’ll use bold to denote the accented syllables.

Once, when I was young and true,
Someone left me sad-
Broke my brittle heart in two;
And that is very bad.

Note that some accents are heavier than others, but all are equal in scansion marking. For example, in the first line, the word I is not stressed nearly as much as the words once, young, and true. If you match up the accent pattern shown in this example to the types of feet defined above, you’ll probably align most of it with trochee: DA de DA de. However, the final line in this stanza has a different meter: da-DUM da-DUM. So the last line is iambic meter.

Metrical Variation and Truncation

The next step in scansion is to determine how many feet are in each line.

Once, when I was young and true, trochee 4 feet
Someone left me sad- trochee 3 feet
Broke my brittle heart in two; trochee 4 feet
And that is very bad. iamb 3 feet

You’ll notice that the feet in the first three lines seem incomplete. When a poet deviates from any pattern, it is called metrical variation. In this particular example, we would have expected the accented words true, sad, and two to be followed by an unaccented syllable. Omitting an unaccented syllable, affecting an incomplete foot, is called truncation.

Line Lengths

Just like there are words that define the types of feet, there are also words that name different lengths of line:

monometer 1 foot
dimeter 2 feet
trimeter 3 feet
tetrameter 4 feet
pentameter 5 feet
hexameter 6 feet

Now, we can go in and replace our foot counts with proper words :

Once, when I was young and true, trochaic tetrameter (truncated)
Someone left me sad- trochaic trimeter (truncated)
Broke my brittle heart in two; trochaic tetrameter (truncated)
And that is very bad. iambic trimeter

Overall, the poem is written in truncated trochaic tetrameter with frequent metrical variations to trochaic trimeter and iambic trimeter. Wow, that sentence makes me sound pretty damn smart!

If you’re still reading at this point, can I just say I love you? Kindred spirits in poetry unite!

Lots of Poetry Terms

Meter is a tricky subject and this group of poetry terms only scratches the surface. Entire volumes have been written on this topic. I personally find it interesting to study, otherwise I would not have spent upwards of four hours researching and writing this post for you fine poetry loving folks.

There are a few more things to note about meter:

• The rules are not so hard and fast that you could not read this poem and come up with different results in a metrical scan of your own. In some cases, meters and feet are subjective.
• Meter is not always easy to scan. It took quite a search to find one simple, short poem that would lend itself well to this exercise.
• Meter is no indication of poetic skill. Many novice poets write in strict meter and plenty of advanced poets write in meter so complex, it is practically impossible to scan at all.