MA ENGLISH ENTRANCE SYLLABUS 2021
How to take prepare for Entrance Exam English
Literature
Centre for English Studies, Tripura University:
The Centre for English Studies has the well-earned
reputation of being one of the foremost foundations in the field of English
literary, critical and cultural studies in India. The Centre has gained
national and international prestige for being a vibrant place of intellectual
activity with lectures, seminars, colloquiums and visits by creative writers
and academics from all over the world. The Centre is also well known for its
progressive and innovative outlook towards teaching and research in the fields
of language and literature studies in English and for comparative literary and
cultural studies.
This Centre was one of the first in Asia to question
the centrality of the British canon and introduced courses on “New World
Literatures” like American, African, Canadian, Australian, Indian English and
others. The programmes seek to develop in the students an ability to relate
literature(s) to the Indian context, to compare literary theories and texts,
and to explore the ways in which history, ideology and material forces
condition literary texts. Also the Centre has long been offering courses on
Paņini’s Ashtādhyāyi, Bhartŗhari’s Vākyapadīya, Bharata’s Nātyaśāstra and the
Indian grammatical traditions. The aim was to familiarize students with their
own cultural and intellectual heritage in order to provide them with a balanced
viewpoint when approaching predominantly Western literary and theoretical and
critical texts.
The Centre offers an M.A. programme in English, and
integrated, interdisciplinary programmes of research (M.Phil/Ph.D.). The yearly
entrance examination for the M.A. English at TU is one of the most sought after
literature courses in India. Its popularity is evident from, for example, it
attracting more than 1,000 candidates from all over India, and even from
foreign countries, every year. Of these, only 20, or less that 1%, are
admitted. The MA programme in English lays emphasis on non-British literatures
in African, 1 American, Australian, Canadian, English, Indian and Irish — even
while it introduces students to new ways of looking at colonial British
literature.
Courses on literary criticism and literary theories
help the students to develop the ability to relate the literatures to their
context, to compare theories and texts, and to explore the way history,
ideology, and material forces condition literary and other cultural texts.
Candidates are selected on the basis of a written examination that tests them
on English literature, English language, Literatures in India as well as in
third world countries and related cultural issues.
The primary focus of the examiners is to test the
analytical acumen, critical skills, independence, logical thinking and literary
merit of the candidates. Focus is also there on Indian English and
Indian-English writers, apart from Literatures of Canada, Ireland, Australia
and the commonwealth. Unlike most other Indian universities, candidates’
ability to senselessly memorize data is useless in this examination and only
those get through who can think out of the box and can defend their
perspectives with solid arguments in face of immense pressure, thought at the
same time being pliable to logical voices of others. The MA English entrance
exam paper usually consists of ten questions with a candidate required to do
any three or four.
All prospective candidates need to do is to revise
their BA English courses thoroughly, be aware of literary periods and their
characteristics, and place the texts they read within the socio-material
conditions of production and consumption, thereby forming a macro-vision of and
on literature. For those who do not hold a bachelors degree in English Literature,
there is no need to worry.
All they need to do is to see and try to read as much
of the syllabus prescribed for BA (H) English in their nearest university, for TU
does not test people on specific books but on specific reactions to them –
reactions that are or may be inter-disciplinary, independent, critical and
coloured by literary and political theory. The emphasis has to be on connecting
literature with culture and The same holds true for the research programme
(M.Phil/Ph.D.).
