Literature
Great writers, works and literary genres
Get to know the kinds and genres of literature and its main literary devices, then follow the path of Azerbaijani literature from folklore to Nizami, Nasimi, Fuzuli and Vagif, and on to Akhundzade, Sabir and Javid. Finally, meet the great world classics and learn to analyse any literary text by its theme, idea, characters, composition and conflict.
27 lessons9 modules≈ 8.2 hGrades 5–11BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedUniversity
Course content
14 lessons
Introduction to literature and folklore
BeginnerLiterary kinds and genres, literary devices, rhyme and metre, and the bayatis, proverbs, tales and epics of folk literature.
- 1What is literature? Kinds and genresFind out why literature is called the art of words, meet its three kinds — epic, lyric and drama — and learn genres such as the tale, novel, ghazal, qoshma and bayati.Grades 5–612 min
- 2Literary devices, rhyme and metreLearn to recognise epithets, similes, metaphors, personification and hyperbole, to find rhyme and radif, and to tell the syllabic heja metre from the classical aruz.Grades 6–814 min
- 3Oral folk literature: from bayatis to epicsMeet bayatis, proverbs, riddles and folk tales, as well as the great folk epics *Koroghlu* and *The Book of Dede Korkut*.Grades 5–715 min
- 4The Koroglu epic: four branchesThe theme, idea and artistic features of the *Koroglu* epic, and the four branches in the programme — *Düratın itməyi*, *Durna teli*, *Həmzənin Qıratı qaçırması* and *Koroğlu ilə Bolu bəy* — scene by scene, with character tables and DİM tasks.Grade 1025 min
25 lessons
Classical Azerbaijani literature
IntermediateNizami Ganjavi and the Khamsa, the ghazals of Nasimi and Fuzuli, and the poetry of Vagif and Vidadi.
- 5Nizami Ganjavi and the KhamsaLearn about the great poet Nizami of Ganja, his Khamsa of five narrative poems, and the ideas of justice, knowledge and love that run through them.Grades 8–914 min
- 6Nizami Ganjavi: the IskandarnameNizami's last poem: its two parts and events, Iskandar as the ideal ruler, the characters Niqumash, Arastu, Dara and Nushaba, the ideas of humanism and social justice — with DİM matching and written tasks.Grade 1025 min
- 7Imadaddin NasimiNasimi's age, life and tragic death, the teaching of Hurufism and the idea of man as the crown of the universe, the groups and genres of his poems, and a couplet-by-couplet reading of *Sığmazam*.Grades 9–1018 min
- 8Muhammad FuzuliFuzuli's life and works in three languages, a couplet-by-couplet reading of *Söz* and *Məni candan usandırdı...*, and the events and characters of *Leyli and Majnun*, practised in the style of DİM tasks.Grade 1025 min
- 9Molla Panah Vagif and Molla Vali VidadiLearn about Vagif, who brought the forms of ashiq poetry into written literature, and his friend Vidadi, and find out how the qoshma and the gerayli are built.Grades 8–913 min
33 lessons
Classical heritage in depth
IntermediateThe twelve stories of *The Book of Dede Korkut*, the qasida and rubai masters of the 11th–12th centuries, Shah Ismail Khatai and ashiq poetry.
- 10The Book of Dede Korkut: the world of its twelve storiesLearn about the manuscripts of the Oghuz epic, its twelve stories, its main heroes and values, and compare the Tepegoz story with Homer's Polyphemus episode.Grades 7–916 min
- 11Before and beside Nizami: Qatran, Khagani and MahsatiMeet three great poets of the 11th–12th centuries — the qasida masters Qatran Tabrizi and Khagani Shirvani and the rubai master Mahsati Ganjavi — and learn to tell their genres and works apart.Grades 8–916 min
- 12Shah Ismail Khatai and ashiq poetryLearn about the ruler-poet Khatai, the rules of the ashiq art and the mastery of Ashiq Alasgar, and tell the qoshma, gerayli, tajnis, divani and dodaqdeymez apart.Grades 8–916 min
42 lessons
Enlightenment and satire
AdvancedAkhundzade and the birth of Azerbaijani drama, the magazine Molla Nasraddin, Jalil Mammadguluzadeh and Mirza Alakbar Sabir.
- 13Mirza Fatali Akhundzade and the birth of Azerbaijani dramaLearn about Akhundzade's six comedies, his story *The Deceived Stars* and his Enlightenment ideas, and see how a play is structured.Grades 9–1014 min
- 14Molla Nasraddin, Jalil Mammadguluzadeh and SabirDiscover the satirical magazine *Molla Nasraddin*, first published in 1906, the stories and plays of its editor Jalil Mammadguluzadeh, and Sabir's *Hophopnama*.Grades 10–1115 min
52 lessons
The 20th century and world classics
AdvancedHuseyn Javid and 20th-century poetry, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Pushkin and Tolstoy, and how to analyse a literary text.
- 15Huseyn Javid and 20th-century Azerbaijani literatureLearn about the life and works of the Romantic playwright Huseyn Javid, and key facts about Jafar Jabbarly, Samad Vurgun, Rasul Rza and Bakhtiyar Vahabzade.Grades 10–1114 min
- 16World classics and how to analyse a literary textTake a short tour of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Pushkin and Tolstoy, and learn to analyse any literary work by its theme, idea, characters, composition and conflict.Grades 9–1116 min
63 lessons
The 19th–20th centuries: from literary circles to free verse
AdvancedZakir, Natavan and Seyid Azim, Jabbarly and Samad Vurgun, Rasul Rza, the Sixties generation and the novels of the late 20th century.
- 17The 19th century: Zakir, Natavan, Seyid Azim and the literary circlesLearn about the key figures of 19th-century Azerbaijani literature — Zakir, Bakikhanov, Mirza Shafi Vazeh, Natavan and Seyid Azim Shirvani — and the literary circles of Shusha and Shamakhi.Grades 9–1016 min
- 18Jafar Jabbarly and Samad Vurgun: stage and verseStudy two great figures of the 20th century — the plays of Jafar Jabbarly and the poetry and verse dramas of Samad Vurgun — and analyse the conflict in *Sevil*.Grades 10–1116 min
- 19Rasul Rza, the Sixties generation and late 20th-century proseLearn the rules of free verse, Rasul Rza's innovation, the poetry of the 1960s generation and the key novels of the late 20th century, from *Deli Kur* to *Mahmud and Maryam*.Grade 1116 min
72 lessons
Theory in practice and world classics
AdvancedThe full system of literary devices, quick recognition of verse forms, and Shakespeare, Goethe and Pushkin with their links to Azerbaijani literature.
- 20Literary devices in depth: from tropes to classical figuresLearn to recognise metonymy, synecdoche, litotes, allegory, irony, antithesis, gradation, allusion, poetic aetiology and semantic harmony, to tell the three degrees of hyperbole apart and to identify a verse form at a glance.Grades 9–1118 min
- 21Shakespeare, Goethe, Pushkin and Azerbaijani literatureStudy Shakespeare's tragedies and sonnets, Goethe's *Faust* and *West-Eastern Divan*, and the work of Pushkin and Lermontov, and trace their documented links with Azerbaijani literature.Grades 10–1118 min
84 lessons
Literary studies: theory and research
UniversityLiterary theory and methods of analysis, Azerbaijani literature in comparative context, aruz and syllabic metre in depth, and writing an academic literary essay.
- 22Literary theory and methods of analysisLearn to read the same text through the eyes of different schools: the biographical and historical method, formalism, structural analysis, Bakhtin's dialogism, reception theory and Propp's morphology of the folktale.22 min
- 23Azerbaijani literature in world context: comparative literatureLearn how to prove links between literatures: genetic contact versus typological similarity, the Khamsa tradition, the nazira, “wandering plots”, and the path of the Turandot story from Nizami to Puccini.22 min
- 24Aruz and syllabic (heja) metre in depthStudy the caesura in heja metre, and syllable weight, feet and bahrs in aruz; scan a line step by step and recognise the metre of *Leyli and Majnun*.24 min
- 25How to write an academic literary essayLearn to build an arguable thesis, write paragraphs with the PEEL model, analyse quotations, cite sources correctly and handle counterarguments.22 min
92 lessons
Literary studies: methods of analysis and Eastern poetics
UniversityThe tools of formalism, structuralism and reception theory in practice; the ghazal, qasida, rubai and the system of classical forms.
- 26Formalism, structuralism, reception: analytical tools in practiceFabula and syuzhet, the dominant, Jakobson's six functions, Greimas's actantial model, Genette's narratology, Jauss's horizon of expectations and Iser's “gaps” — each tool applied step by step to Azerbaijani texts.25 min
- 27Eastern poetics: ghazal, qasida, rubai and the system of classical formsStudy in depth the system of classical Eastern verse forms — couplet-based (ghazal, qasida, qit'a, rubai, tuyug, masnavi) and stanzaic — the parts of the qasida, the rubai metre, the structure of a divan and Western parallels.25 min