Optional subject · Literature of languages
UPSC English Literature Optional Syllabus 2026
Paper 1 and Paper 2, word for word from UPSC's CSE 2026 notice (pp. 86–89). 250 marks each, three hours each.
हिन्दी में पढ़ेंUPSC's note
The syllabus consists of two papers, designed to test a first-hand and critical reading of texts prescribed from the following periods in English Literature : Paper 1 : 1600-1900 and Paper 2 : 1900–1990. There will be two compulsory questions in each paper : (a) A short-notes question related to the topics for general study, and (b) A critical analysis of UNSEEN passages both in prose and verse.
Mains Paper VI · 250 marks · 3 hours
English Literature — Paper I
(Answers must be written in English) Texts for detailed study are listed below. Candidates will also be required to show adequate knowledge of the following topics and movements : The Renaissance; Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama; Metaphysical Poetry; The Epic and the Mock-epic; Neo-classicism; Satire; The Romantic Movement; The Rise of the Novel; The Victorian Age.
Section A
William Shakespeare: King Lear and The Tempest.
John Donne. The following poems :
–Canonization;
–Death be not proud;
–The Good Morrow;
–On his Mistress going to bed;
–The Relic;
John Milton: Paradise Lost, I, II, IV, IX.
Alexander Pope. The Rape of the Lock.
William Wordsworth. The following poems :
– Ode on Intimations of Immortality.
– Tintern Abbey.
– Three years she grew.
– She dwelt among untrodden ways.
– Michael.
– Resolution and Independence.
– The World is too much with us.
– Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour.
– Upon Westminster Bridge.
Alfred Tennyson: In Memoriam.
Henrik Ibsen: A Doll’s House.
Section B
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels.
Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
Henry Fielding. Tom Jones.
Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
George Eliot. The Mill on the Floss.
Thomas Hardy. Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
Mark Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Mains Paper VII · 250 marks · 3 hours
English Literature — Paper II
(Answers must be written in English) Texts for detailed study are listed below. Candidates will also be required to show adequate knowledge of the following topics and movements : Modernism; Poets of the Thirties; The stream-of-consciousness Novel; Absurd Drama; Colonialism and Post- Colonialism; Indian Writing in English; Marxist, Psychoanalytical and Feminist approaches to literature; Post-Modernism.
Section A
William Butler Yeats. The following poems :
– Easter 1916.
– The Second Coming.
– A Prayer for my daughter.
– Sailing to Byzantium.
– The Tower.
– Among School Children.
– Leda and the Swan.
– Meru.
– Lapis Lazuli.
– The Second Coming.
– Byzantium.
T.S. Eliot. The following poems :
– The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
– Journey of the Magi.
– Burnt Norton.
W.H. Auden. The following poems :
– Partition
– Musee des Beaux Arts
– In Memory of W.B. Yeats
– Lay your sleeping head, my love
– The Unknown Citizen
– Consider
– Mundus Et Infans
– The Shield of Achilles
– September 1, 1939
– Petition
John Osborne: Look Back in Anger.
Samuel Beckett. Waiting for Godot.
Philip Larkin. The following poems :
– Next
– Please
– Deceptions
– Afternoons
– Days
– Mr. Bleaney
A.K. Ramanujan. The following poems :
– Looking for a Cousin on a Swing
– A River
– Of Mothers, among other Things
– Love Poem for a Wife 1
– Small-Scale Reflections on a Great House
– Obituary
(All these poems are available in the anthology Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets, edited by
Parthasarthy, published by Oxford University Press, New Delhi).
Section B
Joseph Conrad. Lord Jim.
James Joyce. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
D.H. Lawrence. Sons and Lovers.
E.M. Forster. A Passage to India.
Virginia Woolf. Mrs. Dalloway.
Raja Rao. Kanthapura.
V.S. Naipaul. A House for Mr. Biswas.
Text: UPSC, UPSC Exam Notice No. 05/2026-CSP (Civil Services Examination, 2026), pp. 86–89 ↗. Any spelling is UPSC's own.
Other literature of languages optionals
FAQ
English Literature optional: questions, answered
How many papers are there in the UPSC English literature optional?
Two — Mains Papers VI and VII (Optional Paper 1 and Paper 2), 250 marks and three hours each, 500 marks in all.
What does the UPSC English literature optional syllabus cover?
The full syllabus for both papers is on this page in UPSC's words, from its CSE 2026 notice (pp. 86–89).
Where is the official English literature optional syllabus?
In UPSC's notice for the Civil Services Examination 2026 (Exam Notice No. 05/2026-CSP), Section III, Part B, pp. 86–89.