HSS405A Literature and Profession
First Course Handout
Day and Time: M, W (10: 00 - 11: 00) & F (12: 00 – 13: 00) Venue: DJAB 206H
Instructor Muthukumar M Address FB 659
Intercom: 05122592291
Email: mkmuthu@[Link]
Number of Lectures 39
Attendance: Has no weightage in grading
Examination: Number of Quizzes- 2 (10 marks each). Midsemester (30 marks). End-Semester (50
marks)
Grading Policy: Relative grading (A* to I)
Grade Grade Points
A* 10
A 10
B+ 9
B 8
C+ 7
C 6
D+ 5
D 4
E 0
F 0
I 0
Course Description
A) Objectives
Among other living beings, humans are unique with respect to their social engagements.
Some of the dispositions that distinguish humans from other living beings are language,
sense of history, shared culture, socio-economic and political systems. The human
activity of work which bears historical, cultural, socio-economic and political dimensions
distinguishes humans from the other living beings. While the primary activities of other
animals include search for food and procreation, human beings can have access to these
basic ingredients of life by indulging into the complex economic system through labour
and work. But in due course of time, the idea of work has evolved from being a mere tool
of sustainability to a semantic object having its own teleology. Thus, the idea of work has
transformed from instrumental purpose to acquire new meaning such as general utility,
intrinsic value and higher purpose. Moreover, work has also evolved into profession
which is undertaken by members of groups having specialised education. The dream of
any student who leaves the higher education institution after graduation is to take up a
profession that can give a fulfilling career. Thus, every outgoing student aspires to be a
professional in different fields. This course attempts to transmit to the students the idea of
profession, as represented in literature.
The course will also help students get a glimpse on how the idea of work is contemplated
in philosophy too. The students will be exposed to how professional institutions and
individual professionals interacted in different points of time. Thus, the course will enable
the students to compare the professional world, as represented in literature, and the world
they are about to enter to think about how they would navigate the space in future. The
following will be its main objectives:
1. To illuminate the students about how the idea of profession is represented in literary
texts.
2. To enable the students to offer their evaluation and critique on these literary
representations, and thereby, develop appropriate attitudes towards work that will
enhance their professional ethics.
Course Contents
S. No Broad Title Topics No of Lectures
1 Introduction: Idea Work versus profession. 3
of work I Adam Smith: (work as real price).
Karl Marx: (alienation). J. S. Mill:
(work as self-fulfilment). Max
Weber: (intrinsic importance of
individual). Fredrick Winslow
Taylor: (management of work).
2 Introduction: Idea Hannah Arendt: (vita activa). 1
of Work II Michael Foucault (Discipline and
Punish)
3 Industrialism Context: The Victorian England 1
(discussion through and industrial revolution
Charles Dickens’s
Hard Times)
Evils of industrialism 1
Utilitarianism 1
Mechanisation of the human 1
Exploitative labour 1
4 Professional ethics Context: The American Dream 1
(discussion through
Arthur Miller’s All
My Sons)
Capitalism 1
Competition: “rat race” 1
Corruption 1
My sons versus all my sons 1
5 The scientist’s Context: Conflict between science 1
predicament and religion in Victorian England
(discussion through
Mary Shelly’s
Frankenstein)
Scientist as creator 1
The creator and the created 1
Intellectual conquest 1
The return of the abandoned 1
6 Women and Context: Women’s movement in 1
profession 20th century
(discussion through
Virginia Woolf’s
“Professions for
Women”)
“Angel in the house” 1
7 Profession and Against the romantic notion of 1
absurdity work: monotony of work and
(discussion through fatigue
Herman Melville
“Bartleby the
Scrivener: A Story
of Wall Street”)
The mystery of withdrawal 1
8 The vicious circle of The instrumental critique of work 1
work (discussion
through Philip
Larkin’s “Toads”)
9 The banality of Creativity versus sterility 1
work (discussed
through Charles
Bukowsky’s Post
Office)
The state and its bureaucracy 1
The dullness of delivery 1
Hierarchy power and norm 1
Repetition and nothingness 1
10 Personal/ Subroto Bagchi’s Professional 1
professional
(discussion through
Kazuo Ishiguro’s
The Remains of the
Day)
The idea of dignity 1
Professionals of different 1
generations
Perverted professional 1
Memory and reminiscence 1
11 An intellectual and The dialectics 1
an ordinary
(discussion through
Nikos Kazantzakis
Zorba the Greek)
Thinker versus worker 1
Nihilism 1
The Greek predicament 1
Nietzsche, Bergson, and Zorba 1
1. Recommended books:
Arendt, Hannah. The human Condition. University of Chicago press, 2013.
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Pantheon
Books, 1977.
Marx, Karl. The Marx-Engels Reader, edited by Robert C. Tucker. New York: 1978.
Mill, John Stuart. Autobiography. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969.
---. The Principles of Political Economy, edited by Donald Winch. England: Penguin, 1985.
Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. New York:
Modem Library, 1937.
Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. 1904-5. Scribner’s Sons,
1958.
2. Textbooks:
Bukowsky, Charles. The Post Office. New York: Ecco, 2014.
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. London: Chapman & Hall, 1905.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day. London: Faber, 2010.
Kazantzakis, Nikos. Zorba the Greek. London: Faber, 2010
Larkin, Philip. “Toads.” The Less Deceived. London: Faber, 2012.
Melville, Herman. “Bartleby The Scrivener A Story of Wall Street.” Piazza Tales. New
York: Dix & Edwards, 1856.
Miller, Arthur. All My Sons. Oxford: Oxford, 1997.
Shelly, Mary. Frankenstein. New York, Simon & Schuster, 2014.
Woolf, Virginia. “Professions for Women.” The Death of the Moth and other Essays. Boston:
Mariner, 1974. pp. 235-42.
References:
Bhatt, Ela and Renana Jhabvala. “The Idea of Work.” Economic and Political Weekly. Vol
39, no 48. (2004): pp. 5133-5140.
Dejours, Christophe and et al. The Return of Work in Critical Theory: Self, Society, Politics.
New York: Columbia, 2018.
Durpe, John and Regenia Gagnier. “A Brief History of Work.” Journal of Economic Issues.
Vol 30, no 2 (1996): pp. 553-559.
Graeber, David. Bullshit Jobs: The Rise of Pointless Works and What We Can Do About It.
London: Penguin, 2019.
Russell, Bertrand. In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays. London: Routledge, 2004.
Schalf, Kory. Philosophy and the Problem of Work: A Reader. London: Rowman and
Littlefiled, 2001.
