The reason behind this blog post is a lot of students and aspirants keep asking about the books they should read for the preparation of NET/SET exam in English Literature. This is an attempt to list ‘must have books’ for preparation, this is not a comprehensive list because for qualifying an exam one must have a versatile knowledge of their respective subject and which is nowadays available everywhere on the web as well as in the books which you can find in your college or University library.
One must have an in-depth knowledge of the subject to solve objective questions and students must not seek a shortcut or fall for the coaching and crash courses which are being offered by some of the institutes or individuals unless the teacher is really experienced. No matter who the coach is it is you who needs to perform in the exam and before that you need to have the knowledge and you should be able to convert information, which is available in the digital world free of cost into knowledge. Most important thing in the preparation for any competitive exam is you must read a lot and work hard, Don’t fall for the shortcuts, they won’t help you in qualifying any competitive exam.
Let us not discuss Do and Don’t at this point, we may do that at some other time in some other post.
First of all, you must study previous questions papers so that you won’t waste your time by focusing on the unimportant things. You can download previous question papers from UGC website (Click here) and also University of Pune website for SET (Click here)
Here is the list of the books with the link where you can purchase books. I deliberately added links because I know since you are visiting this blog and reading this post means you really want to know how to study and which are the Must Have Books. One should not just decide to work hard to achieve success but act immediately. Take that first step right now, If you don’t have the books listed here buy now because we usually keep postponing things to ‘some other time’. Click on the titles to know its cost and buy immediately.
Here is the list of ‘MUST HAVE’ Books and resources for NET/SET (English Literature)
- A Glossary of Literary Terms by M. H. Abrams, Geoffrey Galt Harpham (11th Edition)
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The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (Fifth Edition) by J. A. Cuddon
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Beginning Theory (third edition) by Peter Barry
- Literary Theory and Criticism by Patricia Waugh
- Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan Culler
- Modern Literary Criticism and Theory: A History by M.A.R. Habib
- A History of Literary Criticism and Theory: From Plato to the Present by M.A.R. Habib
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The Short Oxford History of English Literature by Andrew Sanders
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A Short History of English Literature by Lord Ifor Evans and Bernard Bergonzi
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History of English Literature by Edward Albert
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A Critical History Of English Literature by David Daiches
- The Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol. I and II. by M. H. Abrams
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Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English by A. K. Mehrotra
- Concise History of Indian Literature in English by A. K. Mehrotra
- Indian Writing in English by K.R.Srinivasa Iyengar
- The Oxford Companion to English Literature by Dinah Birch
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The Oxford Companion to African-American Literature by William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, Trudier Harris; Foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
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The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature by Eugene Benson, William Toye
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A History of the English Language by Albert C. Baugh
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A History of English Language Teaching by Anthony P. R. Howatt
I will be updating this list incorporating suggestions. If you think of any important book is missing from the list do let me know in the comment below, Will add it to the list. Besides if you want questions related to the preparation or on how to study use a comment box below to ask me. Will reply to your comments as soon as I can or create another post to address your query if required. Don’t forget to follow this blog using your email ID so that you can get all such posts right in your inbox every time I publish them.
