Dr. Benet gave the maiden guest lecture of this academic year, today at 11 am, on “Preparing for UGC-NET: A Panoramic View of Literatures in English”.
Excerpts from his lecture:
Our mind has a way of connecting and associating
information. How do we retain pieces of information, and string them together
in order to have them recollected in the long run, forms the basis of preparing
for any competitive examination.
There are two types of Principles in Memory: One is, the remembrance
principle. I ask you and you are quick to respond. The second is the Recognition principle. You look at the
answer in print and then you recognise the answer. It really helps if you can
raise your memory from recognition principle to the remembrance part.
History of English Literature and History of Literary
Criticism are both inseparable. Hence it is important to develop a historical
sense of chronological time. Look out for major schools, major writers, major
genres etc in your preparation.
For example, Hymns, [composed by Caedmon in honour of the Creator], Complaints, Singing paeans
and Laments were popular modes of
expression. During the 11th century AD, a form of writing called
ballads [which came from the oral tradition] became very popular. Today, we call it Oral literature.
Basically, it is a narrative poem telling a brief story. With the ballad
tradition, a style of writing emerges and they were composed to tunes. The literate class were the religious class and so they were
the ones who were writing and reading all forms of literature. Hence, lyrics
and carols also developed as forms of literature.
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