Vision Statement of the Department

• The department sees literature not as a chronologically arranged body of texts and authors but as the embodiment of life of Kannadigas in the past, thus taking the analysis of literature in its social and cultural moorings, towards cultural studies.
• The department expands the boundaries of literature to include oral, written, ritualistic practices encoded in language as well as in materialistc practices to produce a body of research on various issues related to history, community, culture, society and polity.
• To develop appropriate methodologies of literary analysis for the purpose.
• To bring out Kannada poetics by undertaking theoretical studies as well as gleaning out the theoretical underpinnings found in the writings of Kannada writers and others who have worked on Kannada literature.

Mission Statement of the Department

• To engage with old texts with contemporary perspectives the Department has created a series called Samskritika Mukhamukhi (cultural encounter), several volumes have already been published in this series and the series continues.
• Along with that engage with important writers/researchers of 20^th century to create a sense of academic history of Kannada Studies, two programs have been held already in this series.
• To engage with the literature produced by contemporary new generation writers.
• To engage with the little known, less known streams of Kannada literature/culture

Major Contribution of the Department :

1. Altering the ways in which some of the old texts were perceived through Samskritika Mukamukhi series.
2. Enlarging the scope of literary studies by placing it in the larger historical and philosophical context.
3. Producing a body of Knowledge on contemporary new-generation writings
4. Creating a pool of scholars to undertake such studies.