English

The English Honours course at Haldia Government College has always been a most sought after programme in our college. In this academic year, approximately 100 students have been admitted to the Major course. Apart from this, each year around 30 students opt for English as one of their General subjects.

The department aims to impart a thorough knowledge of the undergraduate syllabus of Vidyasagar University. The course enables them to have first hand acquaintance with the rich corpus of  English texts and those of world literature. Our purpose is to train students in engaging critically with literary texts. It works towards developing their analytical and interpretative abilities along with a careful honing of their expressive skills. They are encouraged to build up alertness to a wide range of contextual frames – philosophical, political, sociological and linguistic. In the process care is also taken to help them grow sensitive towards the power of language and its role in the creation of meaning through exposure to the structure and discursive functions of English language – both regional and global. Learning to detect different cultural assumptions manifested in diverse texts, they become aware of their own cultural assumptions. A solid grounding in English literature not only elevates the student’s linguistic and literary skills, it is also an extremely desirable qualification in the job market today.

The English department has a well stocked seminar library that the students may access.

Our students are active in all cultural and extracurricular activities of the college and run a wall magazine at the department.

Mode of Teaching

The teachers use diverse modes of teaching in classrooms and also during personal discussions. These include:

•  Lecture method
• Group discussions and debates
• Student seminars
• Audio-visual aids. Regular screenings of literary texts adapted into films help the students appreciate the texts better.

Career Opportunities

A degree in English Honours enables students to pursue a variety of rewarding careers both within the country and overseas.  Apart from academics, successful graduates can find employment in diverse fields such as media, journalism and advertisement, creative writing, content writing and translation, the civil services, in management, law and in the corporate sector. English literature graduates are in high demand in Government and non-Government schools, colleges and Universities, as teachers and administrators.

Recent Events/Achievements of the Department:

• A Departmental Seminar entitled Decolonising English Studies was held on January 29, 2023. The speaker was Dr Paromita Chakravarti, Professor, Department of English, Jadavpur University. The students of all semesters of the department enthusiastically participated in this programme, and raised pertinent questions about the relevance of the discipline in our times.

Upcoming Event/Programme: A Students’Workshop for Semester VI students followed by a Screening is scheduled on Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Title of the Workshop: Sherlock Holmes and the Dark Beginnings of Crime Fiction

Screening: Murder Rooms: the Real Sherlock Holmes, Part I

English (Hons) Revised Syllabus

English (General) Revised Syllabus

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