DEPARTEMENT OF ENGLISH
Establishment: 1966-01-01
Intake Capacity: 60 (per sem)

Courses Offered

When the Department was opened, it taught English in the pre- university classes under G.U syllabus. After the collage introduced degree course, only pass course was taken up. Honours course was started in the year 1974 and the first batch of Honours students appeared in the final examination in 1976. Through Alternative English as a subject was introduced in 1986, in the degree course, it was opened in 2002. Earlier students appeared in the subject of Alternative English as private students.
At present we are teaching the subjects in the same two levels as stated above, i.e Higher Secondary and T.D.C. under A.H.S.E.C. and G.U. respectively. Details are shown below:
A. Course: Higher Secondary
Stream: Arts, Science and Commerce

Coursed offered
CLASS SUBJECTS
H.S. 1st Year English, Alternative English
H.S. 2nd Year English, Alternative English

NOTE: Classes are taken separately for all the three streams stated above.
B. Three Year Degree Courses (Semester System)
i. Stream Arts
CLASS SUBJECT
T.D.C 1st Sem Honours, English Communication
T.D.C 2nd Sem Honours
T.D.C 3rd Sem Honours, SEC
T.D.C 4th Sem Honours, SEC
T.D.C 5th Sem Honours
T.D.C 6th Sem Honours

ii. Stream Commerce
CLASS SUBJECT
T.D.C 1st Sem Business Communication, Alternative English
T.D.C 3rd Sem Alternative English

iii. Stream Science
CLASS SUBJECT
T.D.C 1st Sem English Communication

Total No. of Teaching Faculty: 6
Total No. of Classrooms with size in sq. meter:
Total No. of Laboratories with size in sq. meter:
No. of ICT Equipments Available: 0
No. of Books in College Library: 0
No. of Books in Departmental Library: 0
Teaching Plan for All Courses

INTRODUCTION

Birth of the Department
As teaching of English was and has still been compulsory under the syllabi of Gauhati University and Assam Higher Secondary Education Council, the Department of English was opened in B.H. College along with its establishment in the year 1966. Joy Praksh Sharma was the founder teacher of the department but he did not continue for long. Then Munindra Narayan Goswami took charge as the Head of the Department and continued to serve till his retirement in the year 1997.
Details of the Present Teachers
SL NO. NAME DATE OF JOINING NATURE OF THE POST REMARKS
1 Dr. Subhas Chandra Das 01.02.1993 Sanctioned On lien leave
2 Dr. Dipmani Das 01.11.1997 do H.O.D
3 Dr. Sultan Ali Ahmed 19.08.2002 do
4 Rajlakshmi Dutta 10.05.2013 do
5 Hunjili Katharpi 20.01.2016 do
6 Bidisha Dowarah 01.12.2021 do
7

VISION

The college being situated in a rural area, the department is fully imbued with the vision of creating a generation of competent, efficient, confident, cultured and wise citizens with advanced, modern and humane outlook so that by standing on a solid, social and academic foundation, they can, in future, positively contribute to the all round ground of humanity- both nationally and globally. We not only want to make them well educated but to create total human beings out of them. Stress is laid on the following aspects:
i. To elevate the faculty of students by opening P.G courses when possible.
ii. To bring the world closer to the students through English language.
iii. To help them attempt to write books in English, to express their ideas, thoughts and philosophy on different faculties viz. Arts, Commerce, Science etc. for the readers of nationals and internationals levels.
iv. To encourage the students to raise their level of understanding and intellect through English language so that they can bring glory to the society.
v. To create such an atmosphere in which our students acquires a positive frame of mind and rise themselves to the status of world citizen.
vi. To inculcate in them good communicative skills, so as to enable them to fulfill the contemporary professional demands, and feel competent and confident.

MISSION

In today’s world a certain amount of knowledge in English is a must. Further, as stated earlier, English is a compulsory subject under the syllabi of Assam Higher Secondary Education Council and Guahati University. In view of this, the department of English undertakes the mission of imparting knowledge of English, both in form of language and literature, to the students of the college with special emphasis on the aspects given below:
i) To prepare the students for Higher Secondary Examinations held under A.H.S.E.C and Three Years Degree Course Examinations held under Guahati University in the subject of English.
ii) To impart to the students basic and working knowledge of English Language and Literature.
iii) To enable the students to broaden their knowledge base on various subjects through the medium of English language.
iv) To prepare the students to complete in various examinations for upliftment of their career.
v) To help the students to read great books written by nationally and internationally reputed authors.
vi) To inculcate in them, the spirit of global fraternity, through interactions with people from different parts of the globe, with the help of English language.
vii) To enable the students to work abroad and know the world.
viii) To remove the fear psychosis of higher learning from the mind of the students.

PROGRAMME OUTCOME

• To acquire literary acumen where the students/learners will be able to have a comprehensive idea of English Literature as a whole.
• To be able to explore and judge literary quality of any literary text situating it in tradition of contemporary literary trend
• To enable the students to identify the deviation/distortion or experimentation cum innovation in the literary text.
• To enhance the skills of interpretation, appreciation of literature, writing skills and presentation skills that would eventually help in careers like journalism, media, publishing, research and teaching.
• To make the learns aware of the importance of co-existence of different culture and perspectives of those culture and be tolerant to views different from their own.

PROGRAMME SPECIFIC OUTCOMES

PROGRAMME OUTCOMES OF ENGLISH (HONOURS)
1. Critical Thinking: Students will be able to critically involve themselves with literary text by processing information and identifying patterns.
2. Effective Communication: The capacity of expressing critical ideas in speech and writing would be one of the key outcomes of this programme.
3. Social Interaction: The student will interact effectively with peers, faculty and management and effectively develop themselves in holistic cognizance of their surroundings and appreciate aesthetics in everyday/ day today life.
4. The students will be able to discern the world conundrums that are present in everyday life and be able to identify the right path based on the value system uncalculated in them by institution.
5. The course will inspire and encourage students to constantly upgrade their skills.

COURSE SPECIFIC OUTCOMES

COURSE OUTCOME
Semester I
Paper 1: ENG-HC-1016 Indian Classical Literature
Paper 2: ENG-HC-1026 European Classical Literature

Semester II
Paper 3: ENG-HC- 2016 Indian Writing in English
• Develop familiarity with the issues of politics of language and gender, nationalism and modernity pertaining to pre and post Independence India that have been responsible for the emergence of Indian English Literature.
• Understand the place of English Writing in India in the larger field of English Literature
• Learn to discuss critically the use of literary forms of the novel, poetry and drama by Indian English writers in distinctive ways against Indian Historical and cultural contexts
• Learn about Modernism in Indian English Literature
• Learn about the Aesthetics of Indian English Poetry and Drama
Paper 4: ENG-HC-2026 British Poetry and Drama: 14th to 17th Centuries
• The students will learn about the two major forms in British literature from 14th to 17th Centuries
• Develop familiarity about Renaissance Humanism
• Religious and political thought during that time
• Ideas of love and marriage during that time

Semester III
Paper 5: ENG-HC-3016 History of English Literature and Forms
• Acquire a sense of the historical development of each literary form.
• Gain understanding of the contexts in which literary forms and individual texts emerge.
• Learn to analyze texts as representative of broad generic explorations.
• Learn about literary criticism and theory
• Learn about travel writing
Paper 6: ENG-HC-3026 American Literature
• This paper seeks to acquaint the students with the main currents of American literature in its social and cultural contexts.
• This paper will help the students to know about the American society in its evolutionary stages from the beginnings of modernism to the present
• It will also help the students to know about the exciting generic innovations and developments that have tried to keep pace with social changes.
Paper 7: ENG-HC-3036 British Poetry and Drama: 17th and 18th Centuries
• This paper aims to familiarize the students with British literature in the 17th and 18th centuries.
• The students will know about the emergence and establishment of greatly diverse kinds of writings during that era.
• The selected texts may encourage the students to look at the economic, political and social changes in (primarily) Britain during this period.
• The paper also seeks to familiarize the students with the larger contexts that generated such literatures as well as the possible impacts of the literature on society.
• The significance of the scientific revolution during this period may also be studied in relation to the literary productions.
Semester IV
Paper 8: ENG-HC-4016 British Literature: The 18th Century
• This paper aims to familiarize the students with British literature in the 18th century.
• The texts in the course are representative of the age and to some extent representative of the forms as well.
• The selected texts hope to give the students an overview of the age and the writings that the age produced.
Paper 9: ENG-HC-4026 British Romantic Literature
• This paper will help the students to know about the Romantic imagination, expressing itself most memorably in the poetry of Blake, Burns, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats.
• This paper includes selections from works of major Romantic poets which address these issues, enabling students to appreciate the essence of the Romantic vision.
• The students will be able to know remarkable oddity, Frankenstein, a novel that also illuminates Romanticism from another angle.
Paper 10: ENG-HC-4036 British Literature: The 19th Century
• The texts chosen will expose the students to the ground-breaking efforts of the poets as well to the works of fiction writers who manage to consolidate and refine upon the achievements of the novelists of the previous era.
• Austen to Rossetti represents a remarkable literary development and range of works, addressing a very diverse array of social preoccupations.
Semester V
Paper 11: ENG-HC-5016 British Literature: The 20th Century
• The students will be able to trace the roots to the works of some European writers of the 19th century, in England it is in the 20th century that the era of Modernism finds its voice in arts and literature.
• The works of the writers chosen for this paper are good introductions to the spirit of modernism, with its urgent desire to break with the codes and conventions of the past, experiment with new forms and idioms, and its cosmopolitan willingness to open itself up to influences coming from other shores.
• The paper goes beyond the High Modern period of the early century and the students will also get acquainted with the ethos of postmodernism through a reading of recent poetic and fictional works.
Paper 12: ENG-HC-5026 Women’s Writing
• This paper seeks to direct the students’ attention to nineteenth and twentieth century writings by women living in different geographical and socio cultural settings.
• Students will get acquainted with the situational distinct experiences of women articulated in a variety of genres-poetry, novels, short stories, and autobiography, while the selections from Mary Wollstonecraft-the only 18th century text prescribed, will acquaint students with the ideas contained in one of the earliest feminist treatises of the western world.
• Apart from an examination of the themes and styles in the prescribed texts, students will be required to engage themselves with the specificities of the contexts from which the texts emerged and also analyze the women writers’ handling of the different genres to articulate their women-centric experiences.
Discipline Centric Elective
Paper 1: ENG-HE-5016 Popular Literature
• This paper seeks to highlight the nature of ‘popular’ literature as a genre and the critical ideas underpinning the theorization of popular literature.
Paper 2: ENG-HE-5026 Modern Indian Writing in English Translation
• Literature in the various Indian languages presents a huge body of work testifying to the diverse cultural and regional preoccupations in the respective regions these languages belong to.
• This paper attempts to give students an introductory glimpse into this richness and diversity of Indian literature written in the regional languages.
Paper 3: ENG-HE-5036 Literature of the Indian Diaspora
• In the light of global literature today focusing extensively on ideas of transnationalism, exile, migration, displacement, and so on, literature of the diaspora has come to exert a strong presence in the global scene.
• This paper will look at the diasporic experience with particular reference to Indian diasporic writers.
Paper 4: ENG-HE-5046 Nineteenth Century European Realism
• This paper is designed to provide an interesting sampling of the traditions that contributed to the growth and consolidation of European Realism in the nineteenth century.
• Study of these texts will also facilitate the understanding of the gradual movement towards modernism in the twentieth century which was, in many ways, both a response and a reaction to the major tendencies of European Realism.
Paper 5: ENG-HE-5056 Literary Criticism and Literary Theory
• This paper will familiarize students with some important texts on literary criticism and literary theory.
• Beginning from William Wordsworth’s Preface to the Lyrical Ballads the purpose will be to inform the students on the shifts in literary interpretations and critical approaches so as to equip them while reading texts across genres.
Paper 6: ENG-HE-5066 Science Fiction and Detective Literature
• Science Fiction and Detective Literature have a fairly venerable ancestry, going back at least two centuries.
• Some fine literary minds have engaged with these genres, and their creations can be fruitfully studied to explore ways in which new narrative possibilities have emerged due to the human fascination for crime, mystery and improbable occurrences.
Semester VI
Paper 13: ENG-HC-6016 Modern European Drama
• The paper aims at introducing students to the innovative dramatic works of playwrights from different locations in Europe, which taken together represents the wide range of modern drama and its fortunes on the written page and the stage.
• The selected plays would allow an understanding of the emergence of avant garde movements and trends and dramatic devices and techniques during the period of modernism which eventually influenced theatrical practices in other nations of the world.
Paper 14: ENG-HC-6026 Postcolonial Literatures
• This paper gives the students an opportunity to acquaint themselves with some of the novels, short stories and poems from postcolonial literatures across the world.
• The students will be able to know about the different texts showcasing the many regional, cultural differences and peculiarities, as well as common and shared experiences of the postcolonial condition.
Discipline Centric Elective
Paper 7: ENG-HE-6016 Literature and Cinema
• The students will know about Theories of Adaptation.
• The students will know about Transformation and Transposition
• The students will know about Hollywood and ‘Bollywood’ movies
• The students will know about Adaptation as Interpretation
Paper 8: ENG-HE-6026 World Literatures
• The students will know about The Idea of World Literature
• The students will know about the concepts Memory, Displacement and Diaspora
• The students will know about Hybridity, Race and Culture
• The students will know about Adult Reception of Children’s Literature
• The students will know about Literary Translation and the Circulation of Literary Texts
• The students will know about Aesthetics and Politics in Poetry
Paper 9: ENG-HE-6036 Partition Literature
• The students will know about Colonialism, Nationalism, and the Partition
• The students will know about Communalism and Violence
• The students will know about Homelessness and Exile
• The students will know about Women in the Partition
Paper 10: ENG-HE-6046 Travel Writing
• The students will know about Travel Writing and Ethnography
• The students will know about Gender and Travel
• The students will know about Globalization and Travel
• The students will know about Travel and Religion
• The students will know about Orientalism and Travel
Paper 11: ENG-HE-6056 Life Writing
• The students will know about Self and society
• The students will know about Role of memory in writing autobiography
• The students will know about Autobiography as resistance
• The students will know about Autobiography as rewriting history
Paper 12: ENG-HE-6066 Writings from North East India
• The students will know about The Folk in Narratives of North East India
• The students will know about Myths and Legends
• The students will know about Memory and Telling
• The students will know about Writings of Northeast India

MECHANISM FOR CONTINUOUS INTERNAL EVALUATION(CIE)

Internal assessment is a fixed components as per university guidelines. However, as reformative measure in order to strengthen the quality and overall development of the student, the department strives to assess and continuously evaluate the students according to the GU Academic Calender, towards the end of the session in each semester by following the parameters mentioned below. They are:
 Discussion on previous year questions of final examinations.
 Class test/ on the spot test.
 Viva voice for project works
 Group Discussion on various topics.
 Motivational talks cum mentoring.
 Departmental seminar in the mid-session of the semester.