English as a Foreign Literature

Abstract

Concepts travel (or fail to travel) within the disciplines as well as between them: The conceptual approach of any one subject can vary dramatically according to the institutional, national or historical culture of knowledge in which it is conducted, raising important questions about the role of academic context and community in influencing the aims and findings of research. The discipline of studies in English language and literature in Europe is a remarkable case in point: The increasing currency of English as an international lingua franca has – alongside the many political questions this raises – transformed continental European English Studies into a prime site in which concepts in literary and cultural studies have travelled between diverse national philological contexts. Yet there remains a considerable divide between the study of English Literature in the anglophone world and what might be called ‘English as a Foreign Literature’. Focusing in most depth on the relationship between ‘domestic’ English Literature and German Anglistik, this article considers the challenges and opportunities presented by increased mobility and exchange between differing conceptions of a discipline.