engleski

The Future(s) of English Studies in the Era of Globalisation : Redrawing the Boundaries?

My paper discusses the influence of the ongoing process of globalisation on transformation and remapping of English literary studies. The dialectical tensions this process brings about in the traditional framework in which we study literature are analysed by juxtaposition of different views on formation of literary canon (Harold Bloom and Edward Said). They are considered in relation to the changes in literary studies since 1960ties. What was once conceived as 'work' is now construed as text, or rather, "social text" (as opposed to T.S. Eliot's critical views) since it is related to the political and socio-economic circumstances and cannot be isolated from all other texts. Marginalized texts, e.g. women writers or fields e.g. Irish Studies have been increasingly introduced to the curriculum. Facing the shift from interpretation to contextualisation our profession is increasingly concerned with the problem of boundaries (cf. Greenblatt and Gunn) and experiences a series of challenges to its constitutive interpretative paradigms. My paper argues that although they add to its variety, these changes also threaten the cohesiveness of the field as a whole. The future of English studies is, therefore, seen as a dynamic reconciliation between opposite, sometimes antagonistic tendencies in "redrawing the boundaries" within/of the field.

English studies; globalisation; remapping; literary canon

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