About the Department

English Literature courses in the Department of English expose students to a wide range of writing from British, American and Anglophone traditions. It helps students explore how writers use the creative resources of language-in fiction, poetry, nonfiction prose, and drama-to explore the entire range of human experience. Students are expected to strive, to be imaginative, rhetorically dexterous, and technically proficient and as a result, to gain a deeper insight into life.

Specific learning outcomes for English courses include the following:

  1. Reading: Students will gain awareness about the best literary traditions of the world. By learning how others live and handle their lives, one becomes connected with the world in a way we might not otherwise experience. They will discover that they are part of a huge conglomerate of human thought and emotion. All the great texts that a student of English honours will get chance to study will expand their range of experience. They can gain courage and strength by living vicariously through well-developed characters. Through reading students will have an awareness for varies perspectives. This will also expand their range of experience and in the process they will learn to be more empathetic toward the plights ofothers.
  2. Literature, Nation and Tradition: The current syllabus in the UG level will provide students an opportunity to know India’s age old literary and cultural tradition through their exposure to Sanskrit texts and modern Indian vernacular literature in translation. How reading literature in English can be an effective means to address the complex issues of identity, nationalism , historical tradition in Indian context, is a new focus area of the presentcourse.
  3. Awareness about Culture and History: Students gain an understanding of the relations between culture, history and texts. They learn to use texts as a gateway to various cultural traditions and interpret them in their historical contexts. How a literary text can appear as an ideal platform to locate dominant and marginalized voices of a society, is an important focus of the under-graduate literatureprogramme.
  4. Gaining of Critical Insight: An exposure to various social and cultural traditions  and  through the reading of representative texts from different periods help a student gain a critical insight about the reality as a whole.
  5. Issue of Sexuality and Gender: Literature course teaches a student to believe that one's own sense of identity is not enough to persuade the rest of the world to agree. Human beings are no longer bound by such binary concepts as male-female or masculine-feminine. They will learn that sex is a biological concept based on biological characteristics, whereas gender deals with personal, societal and cultural perceptions of sexuality. Appropriation of literary texts as tools of cultural study will help students to challenge centuries of social tradition and scientific belief which promote such and other types ofdifferentiations.

    Cross Fertilization with allied Arts:Students of English Honours should also be able to articulate the relations among culture, history, and texts—for example, ideological and political aspects of representation, economic processes of textual production, dissemination and reception, and cross-fertilization with other arts: architecture, sculpture, music, film, painting, dance, and theatre.

  6. Acquisition of Values: Acquisition of values is needed for individual development and social transformation. English literature course at UG level, like any other literary course, helps a student to gain subjective experience of the text’s aesthetic value. This helps in developing quality of thinking and imagination and is a step forward to emerge as a better human being. Through their judgment of the aesthetic value of a literary text students will learn to appreciate whatever is good and beautiful in life. Their healthy mind will thus be storehouse of healthy thoughts.
  7. Writing skills and Process: Students will be able to recognize and comprehend different varieties of English language and develop a writing style of their own. English honours students should be aware also that textual analysis can be extended with profit to political, journalistic, commercial, technical, and web-based writing. It is expected that their exposure to the ideas of variety of writers and their cultural backgrounds, will have a bearing in their own literary styles. With the development of their writing skills and finesse of style there will be a possibility of them emerging as perspective writers, editors, content developers, teachersetc.

COURSE OUTCOME

The Department of English of DRBRASM seeks to foster the intellectual development of its students by encouraging study of literature and writing. The Department strives to make its pass and honours programme students familiar with a wide range of works of British writers in particular and World literature in general with a special focus on Indian writings in English

Course Outcome:

  1. History of Language, English Communication, Creative Writing etc.
    After Completion of this Course Students will be able to …
    1. Know the process of beginning and growth of Englishlanguage
    2. Know about various innovative ways of using English language in verbaland non-verbalcommunications.
    3. Write clearly, effectively, and creatively, and adjust writing style appropriatelyto the content, the context, and nature of thesubject.
    4. Think about the relation between language and literature
  2. Classical Literatures
    After Completion of this Course Students will be able to …
    1. Read and understand about the rich classical texts from Greco-Romanliteratures as well as Indian literatures written in Sanskrit, in translatedversions.
    2. Trace the nature of influence that all the classical texts have on modernEnglish literatures both in British and Indian writings inEnglish.
    3. Appreciate these texts as a source of greatwisdom.
    4. Interpret these texts from contemporary points ofview.
  3. British Literature
    After Completion of this Course Students will be able to …
    1. Trace the developmental history of English Literature from Old English Periodto 19th century.
    2. Show familiarity with major literary works by British writers in the field of Drama andPoetry.
  4. Women’s Writing
    After Completion of this Course Students will be able to …
    1. Learn how and on what grounds women’s writings can be considered asa separate genre.
    2. Read and understand canonical texts written by Women writers across different ages.
    3. Differentiate between sex and gender and how the later is a socialconstruction.
    4. Be aware about the issues and concerns of the women writers of the developed, developing and under-developedcountries.
  5. Modernism and beyond
    After Completion of this Course Students will be able to…
    1. Know about the meaning and scope of the concepts of the Modern/Modernity/Modernism.
    2. Study and interpret representative writings from the 20th and 21stcentury.
    3. Acquaint themselves with the great tradition of modern Europeandrama
    4. Examine various literary techniques that writers of 20th century use in writing their texts, and demonstrate an understanding of thesetechniques.
    5. Reflect upon the great upheaval that the world has undergone during 20th century and the constructive role of literary activism/movements in restoring humane values.
  6. Literary Theory & Criticism
    After Completion of this Course Students will be able to …
    1. Learn the history of literary criticism and various literarytheories.
    2. Apply critical and technical theory and vocabulary to describe and analyze, and formulate an argument about literary and othertexts.
  7. Post-colonial Experience
    After Completion of this Course Students will be able to …
    1. Know how a literary text, explicitly or allegorically; represents various aspects of colonialoppression.
    2. Question how does a text reveal about the problematics of post-colonialidentity.
    3. Learn how a text reveals about the politics and/or psychology of anti-colonialist resistance.
    4. Trace the history of post-colonial movements in India and its textual representations.
  8. Indian Literature
    After Completion of this Course Students will be able to
    1. Understand how and why Indian literature emerged as a distinct field ofstudy.
    2. Trace the development of history of English literature from its beginning tothe presentday.
    3. Interpret the works of great writes of Indian writers inEnglish.
  9. Popular Literature
    After Completion of this Course Students will be able to …
    1. Know the meaning of Popular Literature and its distinctcharacters.
    2. Read and understand some of the representative popular literarypieces.
    3. Understand how formulaic elements create the ideal world without limitations or uncertainties in readers'imagination.

B.A. PROGRAMME OUTCOME

Following are the expected Programme outcome of UG courses in the social science subjects Critical CloseReading

An ability to read critically the prescribed texts and understand its broader implications.

This includes:

  1. Read closely in a variety of forms, styles, structures, andmodes.
  2. Use of various interpretativetechniques.

Critical Thinking

An ability to think critically on various issues and subject matters and relate the same with real life situations.

This includes the ability to:

    1. Synthesize and integrateknowledge.
    2. Practice and develop argumentativeskills.
    3. In-depth study of the subjectmatter.

Communication Skill

Demonstrate the ability to extract and convey information accurately in a variety of formats.

This includes:

  1. An ability to adjust writing style appropriately to the content, the context, and natureof thesubject.
  2. Ability to communicate ideaslogically.
  3. Write clearly and effectively in a variety of forms, adapting writing and analyticalskills to allsituations