UGC NET English 2021 Shift 1 Paper Analysis | Section-Wise Breakdown & Exam Trends

Overview of UGC NET English 2021 Shift 1 Paper

The UGC NET English Paper (Shift I) conducted in 2021 presented a sharp and academically rich blend of canonical literature, theory-heavy questions, and a rising focus on cultural studies and print history. The 2021 Shift 1 paper was a rich blend of canonical British texts, theory-intensive sections, and interdisciplinary elements like journalism and linguistics. With no questions from American literature and only 2 from research aptitude, the focus clearly leaned towards literary criticism, culture studies, and historical context. This analysis breaks down the trends, section-wise weightage, and hidden patterns every aspirant must understand. For aspirants preparing in future cycles, this paper offers crucial insights into how NTA is evolving its evaluation — moving away from simple recall and toward deeper connections, critical frameworks, and intertextual awareness.

Here’s a full section-wise breakdown and analysis.

🇬🇧 British Literature in UGC NET 2021 – Focus on Periodicals and Poetry – 27 Questions

(5 from Journalism/Periodicals + 22 Literary/Genre-Based)

British Literature continued to anchor the paper with 27 solid questions, but with a noticeable shift in focus.🔍 5 questions were dedicated to early periodicals, magazines, and journalism, including:

• The Cornhill Magazine

• Journal of Popular Culture

• Charles Lamb’s pseudonym “Elia” in the London Magazine

• Chronological arrangement of early journals

This confirms a clear trend: UGC is integrating media history into literature, demanding familiarity with the contexts that shaped British literary publishing.

The remaining 22 questions covered a wide span:

• Classical: Greek Tragedy Trilogies, Hamlet

• Metaphysical: Donne’s poems

• Poetry: Line matching from poets like Yeats, Wordsworth, Plath, Dickinson, Eliot

• Chronology of characters (Mirabell, Shylock, Jimmy Porter, Sir Epicure Mammon)

• Victorian authors like Browning, Dickens, Gissing

• Moderns like Woolf’s Orlando, Yeats’s When You Are Old

• Theatre of the Absurd (Pinter, Beckett)

• Essays by Addison, Russell, Woolf, Bacon

• Novelists: Ian McEwan, Somerset Maugham

• Assertion-Reason questions linking plays and movements

📌 Takeaway: British Literature questions are becoming more genre-integrated, historically layered, and context-aware. Surface-level knowledge is no longer sufficient.

🇮🇳 Indian Writing in English – 12 Questions

This section had a balanced mix of foundational texts, literary criticism, and educational policy context:

• Education and Policy: Wood’s Despatch (1854), UGC (1978)

• Criticism and Theory: Spivak’s Subaltern concept, Braj Kachru’s World Englishes, Subaltern Studies

• Literary: Nissim Ezekiel’s poetry, Girish Karnad’s use of Yakshagana, Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai

• Match-the-list on early Indian English novels

• Commentary by Meenakshi Mukherjee on Indian novel structures

📌 Takeaway: Indian Writing questions reflect a hybrid of literature, policy, and postcolonial theory. Post-2000s criticism is gaining significant weight.

❌ American Literature in UGC NET 2021 – A Surprising Omission – 0 Questions

📌 Takeaway: A notable absence. This underlines the unpredictability of UGC NET — always prepare American literature, but expect variance in representation.

📚 Literary Criticism, Theory & Culture – 30 Questions

As expected, this was the most dominant section, with 30 questions spanning ancient, classical, modern, and contemporary theory.

Topics included:

• Greek foundations (Pindar, Sappho, Aristophanes)

• Longinus, Sidney, Arnold, Shelley

• Eliot, Woolf, Orwell, Cleanth Brooks

• Feminist chronology, New Criticism, Chicago School

• Postmodernism & New Historicism (Jameson, Greenblatt)

• Cultural Studies (Baudrillard, Bourdieu, Spivak, Hall)

• Major theoretical texts: Mimesis, Culture and Imperialism, Decolonising the Mind, Modernity at Large

• Match-the-list on modern essays, publications, and academic schools

📌 Takeaway: If you want to qualify NET, this is your power section. Theory isn’t optional — it’s the core of modern exam strategy.

🔤 Language and Linguistics – 10 Questions

Questions in this section tested both core linguistic theory and applied knowledge:

• Empiricist linguistics vs. Chomsky

• Brain-language mapping

• Grammar and performance theory

• Phoneme and phonology

• Polyglots and borrower words (Spanish)

• English in India as a link language

• SEU (Survey of English Usage)

📌 Takeaway: This section remains highly scoring if you focus on Chomsky, phonetics, language evolution, and sociolinguistics.

🌍 World Literature & Diaspora – 8 Questions

Though limited in number, this section required wide cultural awareness:

• Nadine Gordimer’s Beethoven Was One Sixteenth Black

• Global classics: Don Quixote, Sorrows of Young Werther, Lost Illusions

• Nietzsche’s nihilism, Flaubert’s realism

• Nobel address by Garcia Marquez referencing Pigafetta

• Match-the-list: Brecht, Strindberg, Havel, Williams

• Language-author match: Baudelaire (French), Plath (English), Marti (Spanish), Heine (German)

📌 Takeaway: Cultural literacy and literary globalism are must-haves. Expect a blend of Nobel lectures, philosophy, and canonical fiction.

🧪 Research Aptitude – Only 2 Questions

A sudden drop from the usual 5–6 questions:

• MLA Handbook

• Scientific vs. Literary Research

📌 Takeaway: Don't ignore this section — although fewer in number this time, it could bounce back in future exams.

📖 Reading Comprehension – 10 Questions

This time, four passages were given, with a blend of prose, poetry, and literary analysis:

• 3 Questions on Harold Bloom's The Use of Poetry

• 3 Questions on a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins

• 2 Questions from Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles

• 2 Questions from Shakespeare’s The Tempest

📌 Takeaway: RC in UGC NET is not general comprehension — it’s literary comprehension, and it demands genre familiarity and close reading.

🎯 Final Insights: UGC NET English 2021 Shift I

Section	No. of Questions	Key Highlights
British Literature	27	Journalism focus + deep textual analysis
Indian Writing in English	12	Theory-heavy + early literary foundations
American Literature	0	Surprisingly skipped
Literary Criticism & Theory	30	Full-spectrum: classical to postmodern
Language & Linguistics	10	Brain, grammar, usage, sociolinguistics
World Literature & Diaspora	8	Nobel speeches, global texts, movements
Research Aptitude	2	MLA, types of research
Reading Comprehension	10	Literary-focused RC with 4 passages

📝 How to Prepare Based on 2021 Paper?

✅ Master literary theory — it's non-negotiable✅ Prepare British Literature with historical + media context✅ Strengthen understanding of Indian literary criticism✅ Stay ready for interdisciplinary questions — journals, brain theory, cultural studies✅ Read with purpose — RC now demands critical engagement with literary passages

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