History of the Department of English

The Department of English of Bijoy Krishna Girls’ College, Howrah, was established in 1948, one year after the college was founded in 1947 as a women’s college. It gained permission to offer an Honours course in 1959. This prestigious department was served by eminent litterateurs like the Bengali poet Jibanananda Das and the Bengali novelist Bani Basu. Presently, the department emphasizes empowering students through literature to foster intelligence and social awareness in order to boost employability skills.

Value Education

Many theories in literature assert art’s autonomy from moral, political or utilitarian purposes. So literature should be taught from an amoral point of view. Judging literature as good or bad, right or wrong and such like value judgements are detrimental approaches to understand or teach literature because the parameters of good, bad, right or wrong cannot be universal in space or in time. However, literature does engage with conscience. What is wrong or right, good or bad  are learnt through human experiences and there are parameters where a literary character may perceive himself as having done wrong, whereas the society may  not deem so. Furthermore, Aestheticism’s chief figures like Oscar Wilde and James Whistler championed pure artistic expression, valuing the work’s intrinsic qualities alone. This doctrine influenced Symbolism and modern abstract art. Even Clutton Brock, in his essay ,‘What is art” talked about the concept of art for art’s sake. Hence the concept of value is complex, and is dealt with accordingly in the lectures delivered by the teachers of the Department of English.         

Teaching–Learning Methodologies

1. Students’ Seminar
   • Conducted by advanced, moderate, and slow learners
2. Micro–Teaching
   • Conducted by advanced learners
3. Reading Activities
   • Aimed at developing language skills among all students
4. Extension Lectures
5. Participative Learning

Infrastructure Details

1. Classroom

• Total Classrooms: 2
• One ICT-enabled classroom
• Departmental staffroom

2. Assets

• Projector: 1
• Black Board: 1
• Laptop: 1
• Desktop: 1 (No printer)

3. Seminar Library

• Total Titles: 50
• Type: Text books