THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH has been a part of Birpara College since foundation in 1986. The department offers B.A. Honours in English as well as different language and literature courses to B.A. Programme, B.Com. Honours and Programme, and B.Sc. Programme students.
Courses offered
1. English Honours
2. English as Generic Elective (GE) course for other honours subjects
3. English as Discipline Specific Core (DSC) & Generic Elective (GE) courses under B.A. Programme
4. English as Language Core Course (LCC) under B.A., B.Com. & B.Sc. Programme
5. English as Ability Enhancement Core Course (AECC) under B.A. & B.Com. (Honours & Programme) & B.Sc. Programme
Departmental resources
The department gives students access to a number of academic resources:
1. Fledgling Departmental Library to supplement the stock of textbooks and reference books housed in the Central Library.
2. E-Bank of digital books
3. E-learning resources on the departmental webpage – Click here
4. Departmental YouTube channel – Click here
Student Progression
The first batch of eight English Honours students graduated from the department in 2020. Seven of them are currently pursuing Master’s degree at the University of North Bengal (NBU) and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). The batch that graduated in 2021 comprised 25 students.
Assistant Professor
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State Aided College Teacher (Category - II)
State Aided College Teacher (Category - II)
State Aided College Teacher (Category - II)
State Aided College Teacher (Category - I)
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Question Papers – 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
1. Presentation on the History of the English language by Nikhilesh Bhattacharya – Click here
Question Papers – 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
1. Performance of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Part 1 – Click here
2. Performance of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Part 2 – Click here
3. “BBC Radio 4 In Our Time” discussion on The Oresteia (Agamemnon is the first play in the Oresteia trilogy) – Click here
4. Audio book, The Oresteia (translation by E.D.A. Morshead) – Click here
5. Encyclopaedia Britannica article on Chorus – Click here
6. Presentation on introduction to Greek Tragedy by Nikhilesh Bhattacharya – Click here
*NEW 7. Performance of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex (William Shatner, 1957) — Click here
Question Papers – 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
Question Papers – 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
Question Papers – 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
*New Syllabus & Question Pattern for 2022-23 – Click here
Question Papers – 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
1. Audio Lecture on Nissim Ezekiel’s “Night of the Scorpion” by Nikhilesh Bhattacharya – Click here
Question Papers – 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
1. Presentation on Alliterative Verse by Nikhilesh Bhattacharya – Click here
2. Literature Shorts: Backbencher’s Guide to English Literature Season 3 Episode 1: “The Monster as the Outsider in Beowulf” by Sudeshna Datta Chaudhuri, Assistant Professor, KIIT – Click here
*NEW 3. Harvard University material on Chaucer’s works, including Canterbury Tales – Click here
Question Papers – 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Question Papers – 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Question Papers – 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Question Papers – 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Question Papers – 2019, 2020, 2021
1. Annotated text of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter” – Click here
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica article on “The Purloined Letter” – Click here
3. Literature Shorts: Backbencher’s Guide to English Literature Season 2 Episode 1: “Crime Fiction: An Introduction,” Part-1 by Somnath Basu, Assistant Professor, Ramananda College, Bankura – Click here
4. Text of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Crack-Up” – Click here
5. Text of Anne Bradstreet, “Prologue” – Click here
6. Text of Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” – Click here
7. Text of Walt Whitman’s “I Sit and Look Out” – Click here
8. Critical essay on Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” – Click here
9. Critical essay on Walt Whitman’s “I Sit and Look Out” – Click here
Question Papers – 2019, 2020, 2021
1. Annotated text and modern translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 – Click here
2. Annotated text and modern translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 65 – Click here
3. Annotated text and modern translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 137 – Click here
4. Presentation on introduction to Shakespeare’s Sonnets by Nikhilesh Bhattacharya – Click here
5. “BBC Radio 4 In Our Time” discussion on Shakespeare’s Sonnets – Click here
6. Critical essay titled “A Modern Perspective: Shakespeare’s Sonnets” by Lynne Magnusson – Click here
7. Videotaped version of Trevor Nunn’s Royal Shakespeare Company production of Macbeth by William Shakespeare – Click here
8. “BBC Radio 4 In Our Time” discussion on Shakespeare’s Macbeth – Click here
9. HD Restored Edition of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night– Click here
10. Performance of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the Flint Hills Shakespeare Festival (2019) – Click here
11. “BBC Radio 4 In Our Time” discussion on the Metaphysical Poets – Click here
Question Papers – 2019, 2020, 2021
1. Annotated text of Milton’s Paradise Lost, Book 1 – Click here
2. “BBC Radio 4 In Our Time” discussion on Milton – Click here
Question Papers – 2019, 2020, 2021
Question Papers – 2019, 2020, 2021
Question Papers – 2019, 2020, 2021
*New Syllabus & Question Pattern for 2022-23 – Click here
Question Papers – 2020, 2021, 2022
1. Presentation on Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Nikhilesh Bhattacharya – Click here
2. Study Guide to William Congreve’s Way of the World – Click here
Question Papers – 2020, 2021, 2022
1. Presentation on Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” by Nikhilesh Bhattacharya – Click here
2. British Library article introducing “Kubla Khan” – Click here
3. British Library article on “Kubla Khan and Coleridge’s Exotic Language” – Click here
4. Annotated text of “Kubla Khan” – Click here
5. “BBC Radio 4 In Our Time” discussion on May Shelley’s Frankenstein – Click here
Question Papers – 2020, 2021, 2022
1. Presentation on the Dramatic Monologue by Nikhilesh Bhattacharya – Click here
2. Annotated text of Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” – Click here
3. Text (with detailed annotation) of Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” – Click here
Question Papers – 2020, 2021, 2022
Question Papers – 2020, 2021, 2022
Question Papers – 2020, 2021, 2022
1. History Documentary on the life and works of G. Bernard Shaw – Click here
2. Movie, Arms and the Man – Click here
3. Literature Shorts: Backbencher’s Guide to English Literature Season 1 Episode 1: “Women and a New Urban Gaze in Virginia Woolf’s Essays and Fiction” by Sujaan Mukherjee, PhD Researcher, Jadavpur University – Click here
4. Literature Shorts: Backbencher’s Guide to English Literature Season 1 Episode 2: “Space, Time and Character in Virginia Woolf’s Essays and Fiction” by Sujaan Mukherjee, PhD Researcher, Jadavpur University – Click here
5. “BBC Radio 4 In Our Time” discussion on Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway – Click here
6. “BBC Radio 4 In Our Time” discussion on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness – Click here
7. Encyclopaedia Britannica article on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness – Click here
8. British Library article on “Marina” by T S Eliot illustrated by E McKnight Kauffer – Click here
Popular Literature
1. Encyclopaedia.com article on Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist – Click here
2. In-depth interview with Paulo Coelho – Click here
3. Review of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist published in the magazine, Kirkus Reviews – Click here
4. Review of Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Click here
5. Review of Indra Bahadur Rai’s There’s a Carnival Today translated by Manjushree Thapa – Click here
6. Review article on Indra Bahadur Rai’s There’s a Carnival Today translated by Manjushree Thapa – Click here
7. Interview of Manjushree Thapa and excerpts from There’s a Carnival Today, her translation of Indra Bahadur Rai’s novel – Click here
8. Interview of Manjushree Thapa on Indra Bahadur Rai’s There’s a Carnival Today – Click here
Question Papers – 2020, 2021
*New Syllabus & Question Pattern for 2022-23 – Click here
1. Performance of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros – Click here
2. Performance of Brecht’s Good Person of Szechwan (alternative title of The Good Woman of Setzuan) – Click here
3. Silent movie based on Ibsen’s Ghosts produced by D.W. Griffith and directed by George Nichols – Click here
1. Text of Pablo Neruda’s “Tonight I can write (the saddest lines)” – Click here
2. Audio of Pablo Neruda’s “Tonight I can write (the saddest lines)” – Click here
3. Text of Pablo Neruda’s “What Spain was like” (alternative title of “The way Spain was”) – Click here
4. Text of Mamag Dai’s “Small Towns and the River” – Click here
5. Presentation on Pablo Neruda’s poems by Nikhilesh Bhattacharya – Click here
6. Encyclopaedia Britannica article on the Spanish Civil War, which forms the backdrop of Neruda’s poem, “The way Spain was” – Click here
7. Video Lecture on Mamag Dai’s poetry by Parjanya Sen, Assistant Professor, Sonada Degree College – Click here
*NEW Routines for SEMs 2, 4 & 6 (Honours & Programme): 2022-2023
2022-2023-English-Routine-combined
Routines for SEMs 1, 4 & 6 (Honours & Programme): 2022-2023
2022-2023-English-Routine-1-4-6-combined
Routines for SEMs 1, 3 & 5 (Honours & Programme): 2022-2023
2022-2023-Odd Sems-English-Routine-combined
Routines for SEMs 2, 4 & 6 (Honours & Programme): 2021-2022
2021-2022-Even Sems-English-Routine-combined
Routines for SEMs 1, 3 & 5 (Honours & Programme): 2021-2022
2021-2022-Odd Sems-English-Routine-combined
For semester-wise & programme-wise routines, see below:
SEM-1 Honours Course
2021-2022-Routine-SEM-1-Eng-Hons
SEM-1 Programme Course
2021-2022-Routine-SEM-1-Eng-Prog
SEM-3 Honours Course
2021-2022-Routine-SEM-3-Eng-Hons
SEM-3 Programme Course
2021-2022-Routine-SEM-3-Eng-Prog
SEM-5 Honours Course
2021-2022-Routine-SEM-5-Eng-Hons
SEM-5 Programme Course
