English: The Condition of the Subject

CAROL ATHERTON Co-ordinator of A-level English, Bourne Grammar School, Lincolnshire, UKJONATHAN BATE Professor of Literature, University of Warwick, UKRONALD CARTER Professor of Modern English Language, Nottingham University, UKMARK CURRIE Professor of English, University of East Anglia, UKGARY DAY Principal Lecturer in English, De Montfort University, UKSIMON DENTITH Professor of Literature, University of Gloucestershire, UKNATASHA DISTILLER Senior Lecturer in the English Department, University of Cape Town, South AfricaROBERT EAGLESTONE Senior Lecturer in English, Royal Holloway College, University of London, UKGRAEME HARPER Professor and Head of School, University of Portsmouth, UKCRAIG HAMILTON Lecturer in Humanities, University of California at Irvine, USAMARTIN KAYMAN Professor in the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory, and Head of the School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University, UKREVATHI KRISHNASWAMY Teaches at San Jose State University, California, USAANDY MOUSLEY Senior Lecturer in English, DeMontfort University, UKSHARON O'DAIR Professor of English, University of Alabama, USAMARK ROBSON Teaches at the University of Nottingham, UKLAURENCE STEVEN Teaches English at Laurentian University, Canada

• Acknowledgements Preface Notes on Contributors Introduction: The Condition of the Subject; P.W.Martin PART I: ENGLISH IN THE PLURAL Only One Subject? Englishness in Continental Europe; M.Kayman Common Speech, Uncommon Discourse: Whose English is English?; R.Carter In Search of the Subject: English in the New South Africa; N.Distiller The Condition of Indian Writing in English Today; R.Krishnaswamy Twin-share Accommodation: English and Creative Writing; G.Harper PART II: CURRICULA English Studies and the Life of the Mind; C.Hamilton English after Anti-Humanism; A.Mousley Deskilling English: Theory, Cynicism and Ethics; L.Steven Firm Foundations? The Condition of English at A level; C.Atherton Defending the Canon; G.Day Class Work: Site of Egalitarian Activism or Site of Embourgeoisment? S.O'Dair PART III: KNOWLEDGE Framing Theory; R.Eaglestone Impractical Criticism; M.Robson The End of Difference; M.Currie The Pedagogy of Historicism; S.Dentith In Defence of Gradgrind; J.Bate Index

'It is a while since the subject took a long, hard look at itself and so Philip Martin's book is an invaluable and timely intervention into discussions about the position and direction of the discipline at a moment when English Studies is still deliberating ways forward after the theory wars. This stimulating collection of wide-ranging essays reveals once more the subject's diversity while registering a thoughtful anxiety over threats from without as much as undertaking a renewed scrutiny of differences of opinion within.' - Professor Peter Childs, Dean of Research, University of Gloucestershire, UK