The English Department

The formal beginning of English literature as a discipline is a contested site if not shrouded by mystery altogether. Ben Jonson Dr Johnson Matthew Arnold-all these and many more can claim to be the beginner of a tradition which has travelled deep and wide in time and space for more than ten centuries now. But though the beginnings cannot be ascertained with accuracy it is clear that the discipline has started falling apart. The essays collected in this book is a modest attempt at understanding the dynamics of this tradition from the literary to the cultural from English to englishes from literary criticism to critical theory from literary studies to cultural studies