Reinventing English Studies

Abstract

English Studies today seems to be plagued by self-doubt. English Studies professionals appear to have lost the capacity for dialogue, as is evident from contemporary celebration of pluralism. The self-conception of Literary Studies as The 1001 Nights of literary analysis, for instance, is symptomatic of the loss of a common purpose and plan of action. The belief that good disciplinary fences make good neighbours of colleagues seems to be the foundation of practice in Literary Studies today. This new role that the discipline has scripted for itself is that of a victim, a far cry from its traditional self-image as a stakeholder in the process of social change through curricular reforms. This paper argues for the need to reinvent English Studies as a coherent discipline that can make a significant contribution to contemporary society. This paper claims that without such a self-conception, it would be difficult to profess English Studies. It invites English Studies professionals to view the recent developments in the study of literature and language teaching as a sort of a breakthrough that can help the discipline resolve some of the dichotomies that have been plaguing it for centuries.