MA English Latest Updates
27 Feb, 2026 NTA has released the CUET PG 2026 City Intimation Slip.
16 Feb, 2026 Subject-Wise Schedule of CUET PG 2026 has been released. Click to Download
MA English is a 2 year post graduate program that deals with cultural, historical, societal concepts in literature written by authors of different ages. Students with graduation degree and 45-50% marks can get admission in MA English course.
MA English syllabus is divided into 4 semesters over a 2 year period. The universities decide which type of literature is to be included in the MA English syllabus. Top Universities are sought after due to their better MA english syllabus.
Delhi University is one of the best Universities for MA English. MA english Syllabus in Delhi University is renowned for its advanced nature. The MA English syllabus from JNU contains works of both Indian and British English works. Calcutta University syllabus for MA english is also of high standard.
Table of Content
2.1 First Semester
2.2 Second Semester
2.3 Third Semester
2.4 Fourth Semester
3.3 MA English Syllabus in JNU
3.4 MA English Syllabus in Calcutta University
MA English Syllabus
| MA English Syllabus: First Year | |
|---|---|
| English Poetry from Chaucer to Milton | Eighteenth Century English Literature |
| Literary Criticism I | European Comedy |
| Seventeenth Century Drama | Eighteenth Century Drama |
| Language and Linguistics | Shakespeare |
| Literature and Gender | Romantic Paper |
| New Literatures in English | - |
| MA English Syllabus: Second Year | |
| Indian Literature I | 20th Century Poetry and Drama |
| 19th Century Novel | Literature and the Visual Arts in Europe |
| 20th Century Novel | Literature and the Visual Arts in American Literature |
| Literary Criticism 2 | Indian Literature II |
| The Novel in India | Ancient Greek and Latin Literature |
MA English Semester Wise Syllabus
MA English Syllabus is divided into 4 semesters. MA English is a 2 year duration course. Students get to choose which prose, poem or novel they will be studying at different stages of the course.
MA English First Semester Subjects
| MA English Syllabus Topics | Subjects |
|---|---|
| Structure of Modern English | Communication |
| Phonology | |
| Morphology | |
| Syntax | |
| Semantics | |
| English Fiction | Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels |
| Henry Fielding: Joseph Andrews | |
| Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice | |
| Charles Dickens: David Copperfield | |
| George Eliot: Middlemarch | |
| Traditional English Drama | Ben Jonson: Volpone |
| Christopher Marlowe: Dr Faustus | |
| William Congreve: The Way of the World | |
| Sheridan: The School for Scandal | |
| William Goldsmith: She Stoops To Conquer | |
| Indian Verses (Elective) | Background to Indian English Poetry |
| Nissim Ezekiel | |
| Arun Kolatkar – Jejuri | |
| The Old Playhouse and Other Poems – Kamala Das | |
| English Language and Literature Teaching (Elective) | Methods and Approaches to Language Teaching |
| Teaching of Grammar | |
| Teaching of Language Skills | |
| Dimensions of Research in English Language and English Literature | |
| Teaching of Poetry, Drama, Fiction | |
| Approaches to Teaching of Literature | |
| Research Methodology (Elective) | What is Research? |
| Constructing Research Design | |
| Research Process | |
| Dimensions of Research in English Language and English Literature | |
| Development, Hypothesis and Preparation of Research Proposal | |
| Research Process |
MA English Second Semester Subjects
| MA English Syllabus Topics | Subjects |
|---|---|
| The Structure of Modern English | Language and Society |
| Distinctive Features of British, American and Indian English | |
| Pragmatics | |
| English in India | |
| Introduction to Stylistics | |
| English Fiction | Thomas Hardy: Jude the Obscure |
| Joseph Conrad: Lord Jim | |
| D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers | |
| Graham Greene: The Power and the Glory | |
| EM Forster: A Passage to India | |
| Modern English Drama | GB Shaw: Candida |
| TS Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral | |
| Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot | |
| Harold Pinter: Home Coming | |
| John Osborne: Look Back in Anger | |
| Indian Prose Works (Elective) | Background to Indian Prose |
| Kanthapura | |
| Lokmanya Tilak – Essays from Bal Gangadhar Tilak | |
| RK Narayan: An Astrologer’s Day | |
| Rohinton Mistry: A Fine Balance |
MA English Third Semester Subjects
| MA English Syllabus Topics | Subjects |
|---|---|
| Literary Theory and Criticism | Aristotle: The Poetics |
| Philip Sidney: An Apology of Poetry | |
| Dr Johnson: A Preface to Shakespeare | |
| William Wordsworth: A Preface to Lyrical Ballads | |
| Matthew Arnold: The Study of Poetry | |
| English Poetry | John Milton: Paradise Lost Book |
| John Donne: The Sun Rising | |
| Andrew Marvell: To His Coy Mistress | |
| Alexander Pope: The Rape of The Lock | |
| William Blake: From Songs of Innocence | |
| English Language and Literature Teaching (Elective) | Methods and Approaches to Language Teaching |
| Teaching of Grammar | |
| Relationship between Psychology and Teaching of Language | |
| Teaching of Language Skills | |
| Approaches to the Teaching of Literature | |
| Teaching of Poetry, Drama and Fiction |
MA English Fourth Semester Subjects
| MA English Syllabus Topics | Subjects |
|---|---|
| Literary Theory and Criticism | T.S.Eliot: Tradition and the Individual Talent |
| F.R.Leavis: Literature and Society | |
| Northrope Frye: The Archetypes of Literature | |
| Ronald Barthes: The Death of the Author | |
| Elaine Showalter: Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness | |
| English Poetry | Coleridge: The Rime of Ancient Mariner |
| William Wordsworth Poetry | |
| Tennyson Poetry | |
| Robert Browning Poetry | |
| W. B. Yeats Poetry | |
| Shakespeare | King Lear |
| Macbeth | |
| Julius Caesar | |
| Measure for Measure | |
| Tempest | |
| American Literature (Elective) | Background Topics |
| Arthur Miller: The Death of a Salesman | |
| Edward Albee: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf | |
| John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men | |
| Poetry |
MA English Syllabus: Top Colleges
Top Colleges providing MA English contains the literary works that are more relevant to the modern literary enthusiast. Moren concepts in our society are covered in the syllabus of MA English.
DU MA English Syllabus
| Semester 1 | |
|---|---|
| Life, Literature and Culture: Medieval Literature | Life, Literature and Culture: Early Modern World |
| Classical To Pre Modern Literature | Poetry 1 |
| Aesthetics and Literature | Politics Literature and Philosophy |
| Semester 2 | |
| Life, Literature and Culture: 16th and 17th Century | Criticism and Theory |
| Introduction to the Study of Language | Poetry II |
| Fiction Literature of the Americas | Dalit Studies |
| Semester 3 | |
| Life, Literature and Culture in the 18th Century | Life, Literature and Culture in the 19th Century |
| Postcolonial Literature and Theory | Research Methodology |
| Criticism and Theory | Gender Studies |
| Semester 4 | |
| Life, Literature and Culture in the 20th Century | Post-Independence India Literature |
| Religion and Literature | Dissertation |
IGNOU MA English Syllabus
| First Year | |
|---|---|
| British Poetry | British Drama |
| British Novel | Aspects of Language |
| Second Year | |
| Literary Criticism and Theory | American Literature |
| Indian English Literature | New Literatures in English |
| Australian Literature | English Studies in India |
| American Novel | A Survey Course in 20th Century Canadian Literature |
| Writings from the Margins | Contemporary Indian Literature in English Translation |
| Comparative Literature: Theory and Practice | Indian Folk Literature |
MA English Syllabus in JNU
| First Year | |
|---|---|
| Modern English Usage Phonetics & Language | Grammar and usage |
| Theme Writing | |
| Word substitution, Idioms and Phrases, Synonyms and Antonyms | |
| Literary Appreciation | |
| Advanced Comprehension | |
| Aspects of Pronunciation and Word Structure | |
| English Literature : Elizabethans and Augustans | The Duchess of Malfi |
| King Lear | |
| The Tempest | |
| Paradise Lost | |
| The Battle of the Books | |
| English Literature : Pre-romantics and Romantics | Ode to Simplicity |
| Ode to Evening | |
| Ode on the Distant Prospect of Eton College | |
| Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat | |
| Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard | |
| The Rivals | |
| The Prelude, Book 1 | |
| The Rime of Ancient Mariner | |
| Kubla Khan | |
| Ode to Grecian Um | |
| Victorian Literature | Mansfield Park |
| Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus | |
| Mansfield Park | |
| Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus | |
| Spring and Fall | |
| Pied Beauty | |
| A Tale of Two Cities | |
| Wuthering Heights | |
| Jude the Obscure | |
| Second Year | |
| Literary Theory | Poetics |
| Natyashastra (Chapter I) and Rasadhyaya (Chapter VI) | |
| Essay on Dramatic Poesy | |
| Essay on Criticism | |
| Biographia Literaria | |
| Tradition Individual Talent | |
| Twentieth Century Literature : Poetry and Drama | From A Pocket Book of Modern Verse |
| The Waste Land | |
| Toad, Coming, At Grass, The Whitsun Wedding | |
| Pike, View of a Pig, Home Roosting, Thistles | |
| Saint Joan | |
| Riders to the Sea | |
| Waiting for Godot | |
| The Birthday Party | |
| Twentieth Century Literature : Prose and Fiction | Shooting an Elephant |
| A Portrait of the Artist as a Youngman | |
| The Rainbow | |
| To the Lighthouse | |
| The Toy Shop | |
| American Literature | - |
| Applied Linguistics and Contemporary English Grammar | - |
MA English Syllabus in Calcutta University
| Semester 1 | |
|---|---|
| British Literature from Geoffrey Chaucer to the Beginning of English Civil War | Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama |
| British Literature from the English Civil War to the French Revolution | British Literature from the French Revolution to the End of the Victorian Age |
| Introduction to Linguistics and Structure of Modern English | - |
| Semester 2 | |
| British Literature from the End of the Victorian Age to 1945 – Poetry and Novel | British Literature from the End of the Victorian Age to 1945 – Drama, Short Fiction and Non-Fiction |
| British Literature from 1946 to the Present – Poetry and Novel | English Language Teaching I |
| Ancient European Literature | Nineteenth Century American Literature |
| Indian Literature I | - |
| Semester 3 | |
| British Literature from 1946 to the Present – Drama, Non-Fiction and Short Fiction | Literary Criticism I |
| Modern European Literature | Sociolinguistics, Phonetics and Phonology |
| Indian Literature II | Colonialism and Postcolonialism |
| American Literature of the Twentieth Century | Film and Literature |
| Semester 4 | |
| Literary Criticism II | Literary Theory |
| New Literatures | English Language Teaching II |
| Gender and Literature | Modernism and Postmodernism |
| Popular Culture | Children’s Literature |
MA English Syllabus in BHU
| Semester 1 | Semester 2 |
|---|---|
| Introduction to Linguistics | Linguistics and English Language Teaching |
| Poetry I (Chaucer to Blake) | Poetry II (Wordsworth to Arnold) |
| Drama I (Marlowe to Wilde excluding Shakespeare) | Drama II (Shakespeare) |
| Prose | Fiction I (Defoe to Hardy) |
| Semester 3 | Semester 4 |
| Poetry III (Hopkins to Ted Hughes) | Fiction II |
| Drama III (Twentieth Century Drama) | Literary Criticism & Theory II |
| Literary Criticism & Theory 1 | Indian Literature in English II |
| Indian Literature in English I | Indian Literature in Translation or New Literatures in English |
| American Literature I | Women Writing |
MA English Syllabus PU
| Semester 1 | Semester 2 |
|---|---|
| Greek and Classical Literature | Modern Drama |
| Classical Poetry | Renaissance and Neoclassical Literature |
| Study Skills | 19th Century Poetry |
| 17th Century Poetry | Twentieth-Century Novel |
| 18th Century Novel | Victorian Novel |
| Elizabethan Drama | Literary Criticism |
| Semester 3 | Semester 4 |
| Critical Theory | 20th Century Poetry |
| American Fiction | Post-Colonial Fiction |
| American Drama | Twentieth-Century Drama |
| American Poetry | Linguistics |
| 20th Century Prose | Literature in English around the World Short Stories |
| Research Methodology | Essays |
MA English Entrance Exam Syllabus
Students need to give entrance exams in top colleges for MA English admission. The syllabus for MA English syllabus is mentioned below:
- 17th-Century Poetry
- Early Modern Poetry
- 19th-Century Poetry, Drama and Novel
- Medieval Poetry
- Modern and Postmodern Critical Theories
- Early 20th-Century Fiction and Drama
- Neo-classical Criticism and Theory
- 18th-Century Poetry, Drama and Fiction
- Early 20th-Century Poetry (up to WWII)
- American Literature
- Classical Theory
- Contemporary Writings
- Romantic Criticism
- Indian Literature
- Indian Writing in English
- Dalit Literature
- Language and Comprehension
- Research Methodology
MA English Books
| Books | Author |
|---|---|
| Hamlet | William Shakespeare |
| King Lear | |
| Troilus and Cressida | |
| Measure for Measure | |
| Tempest | |
| The Winter’s Tale | |
| Dr Faustus | Marlowe |
| Kyd: The Spanish Tragedy | |
| The Duchess of Malf | Webster |
| Massinger: A New Way to Pay Old Debts | |
| Samson Agonistes | John Milton |
| Congreve: The Way of the World | John Dryden |
| Gulliver’s Travels | Jonathan Swift |
| Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience | William Blake |
Top MA English Colleges in India
| College Name | Fees (INR) |
|---|---|
| Lady Shri Ram College for Women | 17,976 |
| Loyola College, Chennai | 11,400 |
| Christ University, Bangalore | 61,500 |
| Miranda House, New Delhi | 14,530 |
| Hindu College, New Delhi | 18,010 |
| Fergusson College, Pune | 9,680 |
| Presidency University, Kolkata | 2,220 |
| Gargi College, New Delhi | 12,081 |
| St Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad | 31,670 |
| Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata | 27,174 |
MA English Syllabus: FAQs
Ques. Which subject is best for MA in English?
Ans. MA English has a couple of specialisations such as MA English, Language and Literature, MA English Literature etc. MA English Literature is the most popular course in English postgraduate courses.
Ques. What is taught in MA English?
Ans. Students get to study about various prose, poems, drama and novels about various authors both Indian and foresign authors. Students understand the story and form their own opinion about it.
Ques. How can I prepare for MA English?
Ans. Students need to have sufficient information about English literature and study various books from an early age. Students should be adept at writing and understanding various literary concepts.
Ques. How many papers are there in MA English?
Ans. MA English literature has 9 papers. There are 4 papers in the first year and 5 papers in second year. MA English papers each have 3 hours duration and carry 100 marks each.
Ques. Who can study MA English?
Ans. Students with minute interest in English Literature are the best candidates to study MA English. Apart from having interest, students must complete a bachelor's degree in English with at least 45-50% from a recognised college or university.
Ques. Can a B Com student do MA in English?
Ans. Students must complete graduation from any stream with 45-50% in order to study MA english.
Ques. Can I do MA and bed together?
Ans. Students can MA and B.Ed in the same year by doing one course in distance education and another full time mode.
Ques. What is the scope for English Literature?
Ans. Students have huge scope after studying English literature with job profiles such as professor, teacher, editor, content writer etc.
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