English Department

About Department

The Department of English is a pioneer in establishing English Literature as a prestigious subject for study in south Tamil Nadu. It offered BA English programme as early as 1957, MA English in 1961 preceding Madurai Kamaraj University, M.Phil English in 1983 and was upgraded as a Research Centre offering Ph.D. programme in 2005. The department has a strong and proud lineage of stalwart teachers. A.K. Ramanujan, one of the greatest Indian English poets and a translator of Sangam Poetry served in the department for a stint of time. Professor Subba Rao, a direct student of F.R. Leavis, a renowned critic of Cambridge University sculpted the department into a cynosure for literary studies. The department boasts of innumerable illustrious Alumni who serve as torch bearers of the Thiagarajar tradition in Politics, Film Industry, Journalism, Literary writing etc. The department has a library housing five thousand and more books on an exhaustive list of branches of literature. The English Literary Association provides a vibrant platform for the students to explore and fine tune their creative and artistic skills. The Theatre club of the department, The Stage Sculptors has staged six full length plays of Shakespeare, Goldsmith and Shaw that drew a huge audience from in and around Madurai bearing witness to multifaceted skillsets of the students. “All’s well that ends well” says the Bard of Avon. The educational journey of the students at the Department of English, Thiagarajar College is consummated with handsome job opportunities in Teaching, IT companies, Entrpreneurship, etc. A well-equipped digital lab is yet another distinctive feature of the department to experience literature through various AI tools and video games to improve their language skills and literary sensibilities. The department marches ahead with a vision, “to sensitise the learners, to language, literature and life.”