The Department of English was formally established on the 25th of September in 1978. During the initial stages, English was taught as a part of the Higher Secondary curriculum and as a "Compulsory Subject" at the degree level. Over the years, the Department has evolved into a full-fledged humanities unit.

The Department introduced the Honours course in 2007 and since then, there has been an increasing interest on the part of the students to study this course. The Department aims to foster an interest amongst students in literatures written in English across the globe at the present time and the literatures of the past through an interdisciplinary approach. It also places a great emphasis on recognising and implementing the various ways of reading texts, the theoretical tools that should ideally accompany the variety and complexity of such readings and the importance of studying the historical contexts from which the texts arose.

Apart from the literary and discursive potentials of the English language, the communicative aspects of it are also given great importance. The status of English as an international language and its importance in the fields of communication, technology and commerce is undisputed. The curricula includes segments that are specially designed to help students improve their language skills, assist them in learning technical uses of the language and equip them well in pursuing careers in advertising, mass communication, content writing, print media, government services, private-sector jobs, etc.

Some of the primary methods of teaching adopted include ICT demonstration, interactive sessions, and performances. Sometimes lectures are followed by brainstorming sessions. This provides the students with the opportunity to think independently about the texts they have been taught. Relevant films and documentaries are screened from time to time. Each text is made accessible and attractive to students by engaging them in a participatory space where they can interact and come up with their own interpretations and adaptations (especially in the case of dramatic texts). Students are given the opportunity to showcase their creativity in the wall magazine “Ekphrasis” published by the Department of English.

English Literature courses in the Department of English offer students exposure to a diverse array of literary outputs from British, American and Anglophone traditions, and encourages students to explore the ways in which writers employ imaginative language resources to create fiction, poetry and drama and communicate lived experience through such creation. Students are expected to endeavour to use their imaginative faculty, be rhetorically deft and technically adept and consequently gain a more profound insight into human experiences.

The new CBCS syllabus was introduced in the Academic Session 2018-19, aiming to promote a fresh thematic structure where Ancient and Classical Literatures are taught in tandem with Popular Literatures. While studying these texts students are expected to develop analytical, critical and interpretive abilities. Students’ commitment to a wide range of compositional techniques including drafting, reworking and using scholarly methodologies make them successful communicators both in terms of writing and speaking. In a society which is increasingly information-driven, communication skills are integral to a successful selection of careers.

Programme Specific Outcomes comprise the following:

1. Reading Texts and Textual Analysis: Students are exposed to some of the richest traditions of world literature. Literature offers a repository of lived experiences and it has the power to instruct our lives and decisions. The Department of English emphasises greatly on understanding the myriad nature of interpretive readings and the empathetic/affective potential that such readings unleash.
2. Literature & Tradition: The curricula offer students an opportunity to get acquainted with ancient traditions and national heritage of both India and Western Europe by reading classical Sanskrit and Greek texts in translation. The courses are taught with the aim to understand the problematic of identity formation in the context of nationhood and historical tradition.
3. Culture, History & Politics: Students are given an insight into the dynamics of textual formations through interactions amongst culture, history and politics. They learn how to use texts in order to access diverse cultural traditions and understand them in their political and historical contexts. Furthermore, students are also taught how literary texts can uncover the existent power differentials in a society by locating both dominant and marginalized voices operating within that society.
4. Critical Insight: The scope of the curricula and the modes of its implementation ensure that students gain a deep understanding of not only texts but also realities surrounding them. Their knowledge of critical and literary theories is expected to help them critique the normative constructs that they confront in their lives.
5. Sexuality and Gender: the courses foster an interest in how sexuality and gender play an important role in the formation of identity: gender deals with individual, collective and cultural perception of sexuality. Literary texts serve as a useful tool to confront social, ideological and scientific paradigms which perpetuate the binaries of masculine-feminine and other similar differentiations and segregations.
6. Interdisciplinarity: The students develop an interdisciplinary approach to literary representation by taking into account the relations existing among history, culture, politics, and the economic conditions that govern literary production. Cross-disciplinarity also exists in which students approach other arts allied with literature, such as the visual arts, cinema, music and dance.
7. Ethics and Values: Inculcation of values is essential for personal growth and social change. English literature courses at the Undergraduate Level contain texts that students may find ethically invigorating and challenging at the same time, and read closely, they sharpen the students' attitudes toward ethical considerations of literary representation. Through their opinions of the ethical and the aesthetic worth of a literary text, students learn to recognize and embrace whatever is meaningful, good and beautiful in life.
8. Writing Skills and Communication: The courses prepare the students for understanding wide varieties of the English language and evolve a writing style of their own. Proficiency in the English language is increased by the constant exposure to literary and linguistic varieties of the texts taught in the course. The students can use their enhanced writing skills as prospective content writers, editors, website developers, and of course as teachers, researchers and writers. Learning the rhetorical nuances, the lexical possibilities of the English language is a prerequisite for the study of literature in the language and this learning helps the students to perform better in fields other than literary studies as well.

The Department of English of Panihati Mahavidyalaya aims to foster an interest in the intellectual pursuit of knowledge. The Honours and General students are introduced to a diverse array of literatures ranging from the canonical British authors to contemporary writers of Popular Fiction.

Issues related to class, gender, race, ethnicity and politics are constantly referred to while the course is underway. This allows the students to approach and grapple with the question of identity politics in a multiperspectival way.

All Department of English graduates are expected to display ability in the following areas:

1. Critical thinking
2. Fluency in communication
3. Specialized Knowledge and Applied Learning.

In brief, the Course Outcome can be summarised as follows:

Specialized Knowledge

1. Proficiency in fluent expression in a variety of media.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of history or cultural formations associated with the English language.
3. The ability to identify the prominent aspects of literary texts from a wide range of English and American literary eras.

Critical Thinking

1. Interpretive approach to texts.
2. Make use of research to help in problem-solving.

Communication Fluency/Applied Learning

1. Using knowledge of literary traditions to compose original creative writing.

Sri Tapan Mandal
Qualification : M. A.
Designation : Assistant Professor

 

Sri Avirup Ghosh
Qualification : M. A., M.Phil
Designation : Assistant Professor