What is English Literature according to the common people?
English literature is the most difficult subject in the group of Arts but after taking admission into B.A and M.A in English , people can learn it very well that they can communicate fluently in English. As we all know that English is the most accepted language in the world so we all want to learn it and somehow at a certain point, we judge the human intelligence by the English communication skill. Nowadays most of the parents enroll their children in English Medium schools so that they can be the master in English Language and after completing the school, those students pursue English honours for learning the English Language more precisely. So the general notion is if you pursue English Honours, you will be successful in life, only English language is the useful subject in the stream of Arts.
What to read in English Literature according to common people?
You only have to study the textual stories and poems; and the ready made notes to score a good percentage. But the most important part is you will have to communicate in English otherwise pursuing English literature will not be fruitful for you. If you cannot understand the meaning of a English word, you should never pursue this subject because this subject is all about understanding the meanings and learning good English words.
What is the actual purpose of studying English literature?
As we all know, the list of candidates for English Honours is longer than the list of candidates for other subjects and to enter the college pursuing English Honours, a student has to face more competition. Most of the students of each stream apply for taking English as their major subject in college, this is why the competition of this subject gets harder than any other subject of Arts. If someone judges this subject thinking of the school days, it would not be right. The English literature has a little bit of connection with grammar, it is all about the literary theories.
Though people think that studying English Honours would help the students to learn English speaking, it is quite wrong at a certain point. Every language has its own development history and English is also one of the languages so the institutions teach the history behind English literature and language. If any student is not habituated with reading, he or she should not opt this subject for future studies and if that student did not like the subject History in his school, he or she should never pursue English Honours.
We all have one mother tongue and the development history of that language is taught in school so we are used to it, we get to know the popular terms and the most important facts of our mother tongue but in college, the thing is different. Since you are pursuing English Honours, you should know the over-all history of Europe, America, Africa and India also because every textual element belongs to these places mostly.
The biggest difference between the school and the college English is in school, the students read stories or poems without knowing its history but in college, students have to be aware of every device used in the texts and also the background history of the texts and the authors. English Literature is called the toughest subject from UG because here students study almost every time in a day so that he or she can know more about the history. No student will be successful in this field without knowing the background so apart from the tuition notes, students must be self-confident as well as determined and he or she must know how to study and prepare the answers on own because the motive of English as a literature is to increase one's limitation of thought so that he or she can analyses the major and minor things of everyday life.
Remember this line, ? Literature is called the mirror of the society?.
What to read in English Literature(B.A.) actually ?
The syllabus of English Honours is quite long and very complicated to understand that consists of drama, novel, short story, epic, essay, and various forms of poetry like sonnet, elegy, lyric, satire, mock epic, etc.
Basically you need to study the literary works of Indian, American and British writers like William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, Herge, Derozio, Walt Whitman, William Faulkner, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Agatha Christie, Toru Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore and other eminent writers of different ages. Students will have to read not only about the writers and their writings but also the socio-cultural factors of those very ages.
Who should pursue English literature in college ?
1) Students need to have the habit of reading a lot of books and understand the relevance for each context.
2) Students have to be expressive so that they can point out and show every important facts of the texts.
3) Those students can join who love to read out of their syllabus just to know more because here you need to know every minute detail of the history.
4) Students must have the knowledge to compare among the topics so that they can relate and differentiate each and every detail.
5) This is the subject for History-lovers. Students of English literature will have to know the history and location of every place.