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Introduction to the syllabus of UGC NET English paper 2

Unit 1: Literary Theory and Criticism

- Major literary theories and movements (e.g., Formalism, Structuralism, Postcolonialism, Feminism)

- Key concepts in literary criticism (e.g., authorship, textuality, intertextuality)

- Understanding different approaches to analyzing literary texts

Unit 2: British Literature

- Old English and Middle English Literature

- Renaissance and Elizabethan Literature

- Restoration and 18th-Century Literature

- Romantic and Victorian Literature

- Modernist and Postmodernist Literature

Unit 3: American Literature

- Colonial and Early American Literature

- Transcendentalism and Romanticism

- Realism and Naturalism

- Modernist and Postmodernist Literature

- Contemporary American Literature

Unit 4: Literary Movements and Genres

- Symbolism and Imagism

- Modernism and Postmodernism

- Harlem Renaissance and African American Literature

- Existentialism and Absurdism

- Postcolonial Literature and Diaspora Writing

Unit 5: Indian Writing in English

- Early Indian English Literature

- Post-Independence Indian Literature

- Contemporary Indian Literature

- Dalit Literature and Feminist Writing

- Regional Literature in English Translation

Unit 6: Literary Forms and Techniques

- Poetry: Major poets, forms, and poetic devices

- Drama: Major playwrights and dramatic techniques

- Fiction: Novel and short story analysis, narrative techniques

- Non-Fiction: Essays, memoirs, and literary non-fiction

Unit 7: Literary Criticism and Theoretical Approaches

- Reader-response theory

- Poststructuralism and Deconstruction

- Postcolonial theory and subaltern studies

- Gender and feminist theory

- Ecocriticism and environmental literary studies

Unit 8: Literary History and Movements

- Literary movements and their characteristics (e.g., Romanticism, Modernism, Postcolonialism)

- Historical and cultural contexts of different literary periods

- Notable authors, works, and themes associated with specific literary movements

Unit 9: Comparative Literature

- Comparative approaches to literature

- Comparative studies of different cultures and literary traditions

- Literary themes and motifs across different literatures

- Influences and intertextuality between different literary traditions

Unit 10: Research Methodology

- Approaches to literary research

- Formulating research questions and objectives

- Research design and methodology

- Analyzing and interpreting literary texts

- Writing research papers and academic essays

What Is An Adjective?

Simply put adjectives are descriptive words. Adjectives are used to describe or give information about things, ideas and people: nouns or pronouns.

For Example:

• The black dog barked. (The adjective black describes the noun "dog".)
• The most common question an adjective might answer is "What kind of ...?"

The good news is that in English the form of an adjective does not change, once you have learnt it that's it and it does not matter if the noun being described is male or female, singular or plural, subject or object. 

Some adjectives give us factual information about the noun - age, size colour etc (fact adjectives - can't be argued with).

Some adjectives show what somebody thinks about something or somebody: nice, horrid, beautiful etc (opinion adjectives: not everyone may agree).

If you are asked questions with which, whose, what kind, or how many, you need an adjective to be able to answer.

There are different types of adjectives in the English language:

• Numeric: six, one hundred and one etc.

• Quantitative: more, all, some, half, more than enough etc.

• Qualitative: colour, size, smell etc.

• Possessive: my, his, their, your etc.

• Interrogative: which, whose, what etc.

• Demonstrative: this, that, those, these etc.

Note - The articles a, an, and the are a special kind of adjective called articles, and the possessives my, our, your, and their are sometimes known as possessive adjectives.

Adverbials modify or tell us something about the sentence or the verb. It may be a single adverb, a phrase, or a prepositional phrase, or clause element.

When an adverbial modifies a verb, it changes the meaning of that verb.

For example:

• The students looked at me.
• The students looked at me fearfully (The verb looked suddenly has a very different meaning).

When an adverbial modifies a sentence, the meaning of the sentence changes.

For example:

• I attained all my goals.
• Surprisingly, I attained all my goals.

Word groups that are also considered to be adverbials can also modify verbs: a prepositional phrase, a noun phrase, a finite clause or a non-finite clause.

Multi-word adverbials are sometimes called adverbial phrases.

For example:

• I drove as quickly as I could, but I missed the flight.
• If a whole clause acts as an adverbial, it's called an adverbial clause.

For example:

• I'll go to bed when the show ends.

Adverbs

There are several different classes of adverbs :

• Degree  
• Duration
• Frequency 
• Manner
• Place
• Probability
• Time
• Adverbial
• Comparative
• Superlative

1. Adverbs can tell you where, when, how, why and to what extent something happens:

• They are often formed from adjectives or nouns by adding the suffix -ly.
• For example: quick becomes quickly, sudden becomes suddenly, intelligent becomes intelligently.
• To form an adverb from adjectives ending in -y change the y to i before adding the -ly.
• For example: angry becomes angrily, busy becomes busily.
• To form an adverb from adjectives ending in -e drop the -e before adding the -ly.
• For example: Feeble becomes feebly, true becomes truly.
• Some adjectives ending in -ly need no changes.
• For example: Heavenly.
• However there are exceptions.
• For example: sly becomes slyly, shy becomes shyly.
• Some adverbs do not end in -ly.
• For example: fast, hard, straight.

1. Gerund And Infinitive:

What is a Gerund?

A gerund (often known as an -ing word) is a noun formed from a verb by adding -ing. Not all words formed with -ing are gerunds.

What Is The Infinitive?

• An infinitive is to + the verb.
• The most famous infinitive quote has to be, "To be or not to be. That is the question."
• Gerunds and infinitives are forms of verbs that act like nouns. They can follow adjectives and other verbs. Gerunds can also follow prepositions.
• When a verb follows a verb it either takes the gerund or infinitive form.
• Some verbs can take either the gerund or the infinitive with no loss of meaning.
• For example:

• With the verb start - "It started to rain." or "It started raining." Both sentences have the same meaning.

• Sometimes the use of the gerund or infinitive changes the meaning of the sentence.
• For example:

• With the verb remember - "I remembered to do my homework" or "I remembered doing my homework."

In the first sentence (I remembered to do my homework), the person speaking remembered they had some homework first and then carried out the action and did it. In the second sentence (I remembered doing my homework.), the person speaking carried out the action (their homework) first and then remembered doing it.

Other verbs only take one or the other, unfortunately there is no rule as to which form the verb takes. The same is true when the verb follows an adjective.

2. Gerunds after Prepositions:

When a verb is used after a preposition the verb takes the -ing form.

For example:-

• You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.

There are several different types of noun:

• There are common nouns such as dog, car, chair etc.
• Nouns that refer to things which can be counted (can be singular or plural) are countable nouns.
• Nouns that refer to some groups of countable nouns, substances, feelings and types of activity (can only be singular) are uncountable nouns.
• Nouns that refer to a group of people or things are collective nouns.
• Nouns that refer to people, organisations or places areproper nouns, only proper nouns are capitalised.
• Nouns that are made up of two or more words are called compund nouns.
• Nouns that are formed from a verb by adding -ing are called gerunds.