UGC NET Folk Literature Syllabus 2026
Paper I : Teaching/ research aptitude
Unit-I Teaching Aptitude
1. Teaching: Concept, Objectives, Levels of teaching (Memory, Understanding and Reflective), Characteristics and basic requirements.
2. Learner’s characteristics: Characteristics of adolescent and adult learners (Academic, Social, Emotional and Cognitive), Individual differences.
3. Factors affecting teaching related to: Teacher, Learner, Support material, Instructional facilities, Learning environment and Institution.
4. Methods of teaching in Institutions of higher learning: Teacher centred vs. Learner centred methods; Off-line vs. On-line methods (Swayam, Swayamprabha, MOOCs etc.).
5. Teaching Support System: Traditional, Modern and ICT based.
6. Evaluation Systems: Elements and Types of evaluation, Evaluation in Choice Based Credit System in Higher education, Computer based testing, Innovations in evaluation systems.
Unit-II Research Aptitude
1. Research: Meaning, Types, and Characteristics, Positivism and Postpositivistic approach to research.
2. Methods of Research: Experimental, Descriptive, Historical, Qualitative and Quantitative methods.
3. Steps of Research.
4. Thesis and Article writing: Format and styles of referencing.
5. Application of ICT in research.
6. Research ethics.
Unit-III Comprehension
A passage of text be given. Questions be asked from the passage to be answered.
Unit-IV Communication
1. Communication: Meaning, types and characteristics of communication.
2. Effective communication: Verbal and Non-verbal, Inter-Cultural and group communications, Classroom communication.
3. Barriers to effective communication.
4. Mass-Media and Society.
Unit-V Mathematical Reasoning and Aptitude
1. Types of reasoning.
2. Number series, Letter series, Codes and Relationships.
3. Mathematical Aptitude (Fraction, Time & Distance, Ratio, Proportion and Percentage, Profit and Loss, Interest and Discounting, Averages etc.).
Unit-VI Logical Reasoning
1. Understanding the structure of arguments: argument forms, structure of categorical propositions, Mood and Figure, Formal and Informal fallacies, Uses of language, Connotations and denotations of terms, Classical square of opposition.
2. Evaluating and distinguishing deductive and inductive reasoning.
3. Analogies.
4. Venn diagram: Simple and multiple use for establishing validity of arguments.
5. Indian Logic: Means of knowledge.
6. Pramanas: Pratyaksha (Perception), Anumana (Inference), Upamana (Comparison), Shabda (Verbal testimony), Arthapatti (Implication) and Anupalabddhi (Non-apprehension).
7. Structure and kinds of Anumana (inference), Vyapti (invariable relation), Hetvabhasas (fallacies of inference).
Unit-VII Data Interpretation
1. Sources, acquisition and classification of Data.
2. Quantitative and Qualitative Data.
3. Graphical representation (Bar-chart, Histograms, Pie-chart, Table-chart and Line-chart) and mapping of Data.
4. Data Interpretation.
5. Data and Governance.
Unit-VIII Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
1. ICT: General abbreviations and terminology.
2. Basics of Internet, Intranet, E-mail, Audio and Video-conferencing.
3. Digital initiatives in higher education.
4. ICT and Governance.
Unit-IX People, Development and Environment
1. Development and environment: Millennium development and Sustainable development goals.
2. Human and environment interaction: Anthropogenic activities and their impacts on environment.
3. Environmental issues: Local, Regional and Global; Air pollution, Water pollution, Soil pollution, Noise pollution, Waste (solid, liquid, biomedical, hazardous, electronic), Climate change and its Socio-Economic and Political dimensions.
4. Impacts of pollutants on human health.
5. Natural and energy resources: Solar, Wind, Soil, Hydro, Geothermal, Biomass, Nuclear and Forests.
6. Natural hazards and disasters: Mitigation strategies.
7. Environmental Protection Act (1986), National Action Plan on Climate Change, International agreements/efforts -Montreal Protocol, Rio Summit, Convention on Biodiversity, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement, International Solar Alliance.
Unit-X Higher Education System
1. Institutions of higher learning and education in ancient India.
2. Evolution of higher learning and research in Post Independence India.
3. Oriental, Conventional and Non-conventional learning programmes in India.
4. Professional, Technical and Skill Based education.
5. Value education and environmental education.
6. Policies, Governance, and Administration.
Paper II : Domain knowledge (Folk Literature)
Unit–1 Folklore: Definition, Concept and Classification
Who are the Folk? - Concepts of Folklife and Folkloristics - Ethnicity - Family types - Natal, Conjugal, Nuclear, Extended (Generational and Polyandrous) - Types of relationships in Family – direct, shared, sexual and descent - Functions of Family - Kinship Terminology: Types of Kinship, Role of Kinship - Social Categories and Social Organization in the creation, transmission and sustenance of Folklore / Folklife.
Conceptual shift from ‘Popular Antiquities’ to ‘Folklore’ - Genres and Functions of Folklore: Ethnic Genres and Analytical Categories - Classification of Folklore: Verbal, Nonverbal and Intermediary Genres - Genre Theory: Alan Dundes, Richard Dorson, Ben Amos, Richard Bauman, Roger Abrahams – Functions of Folklore: William Bascom, Louri Honko – Characteristics of Folklore.
Unit–2 Historiography of Folkloristics
Folk, from ‘Savage’ to ‘Imagined Group’ - Folklore as Data and Folklore as Study – Oracy Vs. Literacy – Classical Vs. Folk - Emergence of Folklore as an Academic Discipline - Folklore Studies in Abroad - Folklore Studies in India – Subaltern Studies – Tribal Studies – Diaspora Studies – Green Studies.
Unit–3 Folk Literature
Definition and Epistemology of Folk Literature – Fields of Folk Literature: Myths, Epics, Legends, Folk Tales, Folk Songs, Proverbs, Riddles, Tongue Twisters, Speech Acts – Verbal Art in Performances (Theatre, Dance Drama, Medicinal Chants, Verbose in Play Genres, etc.) – Literary Devices - Ethnic Slurs, Rumor, Personal Narratives – Oral History.
Unit–4 Theories of Folklore – I : Diachronic Approaches
Evolutionary Theories - Concept of Evolution – Unilinear and Multilinear Approaches - E.B. Tylor, George Mudrock, Lewis Morgan, James Frazer - Myth Ritual Theory - Solar Mythology or Comparative Philology.
Devolutionary Theories - Concept of Devolution - Types of Devolutionary Theories - Marxists and Elitists.
Diffusion Theories (Monogenesis) - Concept of Diffusion - Indianist Theory or Benfy’s Migration Theory – Egyptians School and Finnish School or Historical Geographic Method.
Diffusion Theories (Polygenesis) - Psychic Unity - Convergence Vs. Parallelism Theories – Romantic Nationalism and its Manifestations.
Unit–5 Theories of Folklore – II : Synchronic Approaches
Structural Approaches – Basic concepts – Syntagmatic Structuralism – Concepts of Ferdinand de Saussure and Theory of Vladimir Propp – Application of Proppian Model to Folklore – Paradigmatic Structuralism – Concepts of Roman Jacobson and Theory of Claude Levi-Strauss – Application of Straussian Model to Folklore.
Functional Approaches – Basic Concepts – Social Functionalists: Bronislaw Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, Emile Durkheim – Symbolic Functionalists: Clifford Geertz, Victor Turner.
Psychological Approaches - Psychoanalysis – Basic Concepts - Sigmund Freud – Freud’s Theoretical applications to Folklore – Analytical Psychology – Basic Concepts – Carl J. Jung – Jung’s Theoretical Applications to Folklore – Jacques Lacan’s Theory.
Contextual Approaches – Basic Concepts – Verbal Art as Performance – Linguistic and Communicative Models of Roman Jacobson – Oral Formulaic Theory or Parry Lord Theory – Lauri Honko’s concept of ‘Multiforms’.
Poststructural and Postmodern Approaches - Meaning and Tenets of Post structuralism, New Hermeneutics, Text, Textuality, Textual Analysis - Paul Ricoeur and Theories of Interpretation - Historical Milieu of the Theories - Concept and Theory of Deconstruction - Derrida, Lacan, Foucault - Gender Theories and Approaches - Gender and Genre - Feminism and Gender Perspectives – Queer Theory.
Semiotic Approaches - Semiotic Approach to Folk Culture Studies - Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles S. Pierce on Sign System and Culture - Perspectives on Discourse Analysis.
Unit–6 Folklife and Cultural Performances
Culture as Performance – Erving Goffman, Clifford Geertz, Milton Singer - Rites of Passage and Territorial Rites – Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner - Performance Centered Approach - Roger D. Abrahams, Richard Bauman, Richard Schechner - Dell Hymes’s Ethnography of Speaking Approach - Analysis of Folk Narratives.
Unit–7 Public Folklore and Mass Media
Basic Concepts - Folklore, Folklorism, Folklorismus, Folklorization, Applied Folklore, Public Folklore and Second Life of Folklore - Folklore in Public Sphere – Folklore and Communication – Folklore and New Media.
Unit–8 Folklore and Globalisation
Theories of Global Culture - Discourse on Modernity, Post-Modernity and Globalisation - Ideologues of Globalisation – Emergence of Populism.
Influence of Globalisation in Socio-cultural Life - Issues and Concepts of Identity - Glocal vs. Global, Homogeneity Vs. Heterogeneity and Hybridization - Changing Dimensions and domains of Folklore Genres and Folk Performances - Cultural Tourism – Neo-Folk Formations and Protest Movements – Challenges to Native Cultures – Bio-politics.
Unit–9 Indian Folk Cultural Practices
Genres of Folk Theatre – Narrative Enactments – Puppet Theatre – Dance Dramas - Musical Traditions and Life Style Patterns – Naming System and Onomastics – Occupational Folklore - Family Folklore - Folk Religious Practices – Pilgrimage and Ritual Practices – Fairs and Festivals – Folk Medicinal Practices – Folk Art and Craft – Folk Architecture – Folk Foodways and Culinary Practices – Folk Games – Dress and Clothing – Manners and Customs – Customary Law and Jurisprudence – Worldview - Regional Variations and Versions.
Unit–10 Fieldwork, Documentation and Archival Practices
Categorization of Fieldwork Operations: Pre-fieldwork, Fieldwork and Post-fieldwork – Notions of ‘field’ and ‘data’- Thick and Thin Data - Methods and Techniques – Survey Method, Observation Method – Ethnographic Method - Postmodern Ethnographic Method – Dialogical and Discourse Methods - Focus Group Method - Documentation and Archival Practices – Preservation and Conservation of Tangible and Intangible Cultures – Fieldwork Ethics and Copyright Issues – Patent Rights.
