JAMB Literature Syllabus 2024 Pdf Download

Download the Literature 2024 JAMB syllabus PDF if you want to score high in Literature in English. If you are writing 2024 UTME, this page is specially dedicated to you. Firstly, to better your expectations, you need to prepare the properly. The proper way is to study diligently and practise past questions using CBT. Furthermore, to read diligently, you need to get the materials needed to study.

Additionally, you can take free Literature in English CBT Practice Questions here. The major aim is to get you to score 90+ in Literature. You should be aware of the fact that JAMB tests candidates on Literary appreciation, poetic devices, and others in the examination.

Finally, you have to make use of anthologies and critical texts to do well. The good news is that you can get everything on this particular page.

What is the Most Important Material Needed for Success in JAMB Literature in English?

The most important material needed for success in JAMB for Literature in English is the syllabus for the examination. This JAMB Literature in English Syllabus covers all the topics you should know without leaving any behind. You can practise JAMB Literature CBT here free of charge.

Aims of JAMB Literature syllabus 2024

The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) syllabus in Literature in English is to prepare the candidates for the Board’s examination, which are to generate, deepen and sustain interest in literature in English generally, and create awareness and understanding of the principles and techniques of all the genres of literature from diverse cultures.

Objectives of JAMB Literature syllabus 2024

It is designed to test their achievement of the course objectives which are to:

• stimulate and sustain their interest in Literature in English;
• create an awareness of the general principles of Literature and the functions of language:
• appreciate literary works of all genres and across all cultures;
• apply the knowledge of Literature in English to understand cultural literature and political and economic activities in society.

Content of JAMB Literature Syllabus 2024

JAMB breaks Literature in English syllabus into five parts. These parts are:

• Drama
• Prose
• Poetry
• General Literary Principles
• Literary Appreciation

Detailed Syllabus for JAMB Literature in English 2024

Drama

Content of Drama in Literature in English

You can read all the elements of drama in this post. It has all elements of drama arranged alphabetically. You can also see a summary of some selected texts for drama here.

1. Types of Drama
   • Tragedy
   • Comedy
   • Tragicomedy
   • Melodrama
   • Farce
   • Opera
2. Dramatic Techniques
   • Characterization
   • Dialogue
   • Flashback
   • Mime
   • Costume
   • Music/Dance
   • Decor/scenery
   • Acts/Scenes
   • Soliloquy/aside
   • Figures of Speech
3. Interpretation of the Prescribed Texts
   • Theme
   • Plot
   • Socio-political context
   • Setting

Objectives of Drama in Literature

Candidates should be able to:

1. Types of Drama
   • identify the various types of drama;
   • analyze the contents of the various types of drama;
   • compare and contrast the features of different types of drama.
2. Dramatic techniques
   • demonstrate adequate knowledge of dramatic techniques and stage directions used in each prescribed text;
   • differentiate between styles of selected playwrights;
3. Interpretation of the Prescribed Texts
   • determine the theme of any prescribed text;
   • identify the plot of the play;
   • apply the lessons of the play to social reality.
   • identify the spatial setting and temporal period of the play.

Prose

Content of Prose in Literature

Types: Prose Fiction

Fiction
• Novel
• Novella/Novelette
• Short story

Non-fiction
• Biography
• Autobiography
• Memoir

Faction: a combination of fact and fiction
• Narrative Techniques/Devices

Point of view
• Omniscient
• First-person
• Second person
• Third person
• Stream of consciousness
• Epiphany

Characterization
• Round
• Flat
• Foil
• Hero
• Anti-hero/villain
• Heroine etc

Language
• Textual Analysis
• Theme
• Plot
• Setting (TemporaL’Spatial)
• Socio-political context

Objectives of Prose in Literature in English 2024

Candidates should be able to

Types of Prose
• differentiate between types of novels.
• identify the category that each prescribed text belongs to;
• analyse the components of each type of prose;
• identify the balance of facts and fiction in literary fiction.

Narrative techniques/devices
• identify the narrative techniques used in each of the prescribed texts;
• determine an author’s narrative style;
• distinguish between one type of character from another;
• Grammar, diction and clarity of expression

Textual Analysis
• determine the thematic pre-occupation of the prescribed text;
• indicate the plot of the novel;
• identify the setting and period/timing of the novel.
• relate the prescribed text to social reality.

Poetry in JAMB Literature Syllabus 2024

Content of Poetry in Literature

1. Types of poetry
   • Sonnet
   • Ode
   • Lyrics
   • Elegy
   • Ballad
   • Panegyric
   • Epic
   • Blank Verse, etc.
2. Poetic devices
   • Imagery
   • Sound (Rhyme/Rhythm, repetition, pun, onomatopoeia, etc.)
   • Diction
   • Persona
3. Appreciation
   • Thematic preoccupation
   • Socio-political relevance
   • Style.

Objectives of Poetry in Literature

Candidates should be able to:

1. Types of poetry
   • identify different types of poetry;
   • identify the distinctive features of the poetic types.
2. Poetic Devices
   • determine the devices used by various poets;
   • show how poetic devices are used for aesthetic effect in each poem;
   • identify the figure of speech in the texts.
   • Show how poetic devices convey message and meaning.
3. Appreciation
   • Deduce the poet’s thematic preoccupation from the poem;
   • appraise poetry as an art with moral values;
   • apply the lessons from the poem to social reality.

General Literary Principles in JAMB Literature syllabus 2024

Content of General Literary Principles in Literature

Literary terms:

foreshadowing, suspense, theatre, monologue, dialogue, soliloquy, symbolism, protagonist, antagonist, figures of speech, satire, stream of consciousness, synecdoche, metonymy, etc, in addition to those listed above under the different genres.

Objectives of General Literary Principles

Candidates should be able to:

• identify literary terms that are specific to drama, prose, and poetry;
• identify areas of overlap in all the genres e.g. verse in drama and poetry, narration in all the genres.

Literary Appreciation

Content of Literary Appreciation in Literature

• Unseen passages extract from Drama, Prose, and Poetry.

Objectives of Literary Appreciation

Candidates should be able to:

• identify literary devices used in a given passage/extract; provide an interpretation of the given passage/extract; iii. relate the extract to true life experiences.

A List of African and Non-African Drama, Prose, and Poetry for JAMB Literature syllabus 2024

The books and poems below are what JAMB candidates are expected to study to do well in the examination. These are the officially selected books and poems that will help JAMB candidates to do well in the forthcoming examination. Furthermore, you should note that JAMB will not ask a question outside these given texts and poems.

African Drama

• Wole Soyinka: The Lion and the Jewel

Non-African Drama

• John Osborne: Look Back in Anger

List of African Prose

• Alex Agyei-Agyir: Unexpected Joy at Dawn
• Buchi Emecheta: Second Class Citizen

List of Non-African Prose

• Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights.

List of African Poetry

• Leopold Sedar Senghor: Black Woman
• Niyi Osundare: The Leader and the Led
• Agostinho New: The Grieved Lands.
• Otunar Farouk Sesay: The Song of the Women of My Land
• Lade Wosomu: Raider of the Treasure Trove
• Onu Chibuike: A Government Driver on His Retirement

List of Non-African Poetry

• John Donne: The Good Morrow
• Maya Angelou: Caged Bird
• T.S. Elliot: The Journey of the Magi
• D.H Lawrence: Bats

Recommended Texts for JAMB Literature Syllabus 2024

Anthologies

• Obafemi, O. and Agoi (eds) Of Shadows and Rainbows — Musings in Times of Covid (An Anthology of poems, plays and short stories) PEN Nigeria, Online
• Hayward, J. (ed.) (1968) The Penguin Book of English Verse, London Penguin
• Johnson, R.,Ker, D, Maduka,C. Obafemi3O (eds.) (1996) New Poetry from Africa, Ibadan: UP Plc
• Kermode, F. (1964) Oxford Anthology of English Literature, Vol. II, London: OUP
• Nduke Ofiono and Odoh Diego Okenyodo (eds) Camouflage; Best of contemporary writing from Nigeria, an anthology of new Nigerian writers, mace books association, 2021, New edition.
• Parker, E.W. (ed.) (1980) A Peagent of Longer Poems London: Longman
• Senanu, K. E. and Vincent, T. (eds.) (1993) A Selection of African Poetry, Lagos: Longman
• Soyinka, W. (ed.) (1987) Poems of Black Africa, Ibadan: Heinemann

Critical Texts

• Abrams, M. H. (1981) A Glossary of Literary Terms, (4th Edition) New York, Holt Rinehalt and Winston
• Emeaba, 0. E. (1982) A Dictionary of Literature. Aba: Inteks Press
• Murphy, M. J. (1972) Understanding Unseen, An Introduction to English Poetry and English Novel for Overseas Students, George Allen and Unwin Ltd.