Introduction

The English Department is one of the oldest and most reputed departments in Hindu College. Its reputation has been steadily enhanced over the years through the hard work of its faculty, which has traditionally combined excellence in research with a dedication to pedagogy. The faculty includes specialists in several areas of literary studies; for instance, European Renaissance Literature, Literature of the English Romantics, the Victorian Literature, Classic and Modern American Literature, Modern European Literature, Theatre and Film Studies, Popular Culture and Postcolonial Studies, Twentieth Century Indian Writing, Classic European and Indian Literature, and African and Canadian Studies.

Students admitted to the First Year of the B.A. (Hons.) Course in English are given a week-long series of orientation lectures initiating them to the various approaches and methodologies of literary studies. The overall performance of students of this Department has been consistently of a high standard.

The Department runs the English Seminar, which organizes lectures and conferences through theacademic year and places an emphasis on written work and discussion as crucial components of the learning process. The Seminar Library of the Department provides useful additional study material for its students.

The students of the Department also take an active interest in curricular and extra curricular activities. FLARE, the annual short- story sampler, publishes stories submitted for the inter-college short-story competition, which has been held now for five years. A selection of some of the best stories has also been anthologised and published in the form of a book in 2008.