ENGLISH STUDIES IN INDIA: Contemporary and Evolving Paradigms

Banibrata Mahanta and Rajesh Babu Sharma (eds)

About the Book

This volume is a collection of scholarly papers that explore the complex issues concerning English Studies in the present Indian context. The discussions in this volume range from historical perspectives to classroom-specific pedagogies, from sociological and political hierarchies to the dynamics of intellectual development in the English language environment. Interrogating both policy and practice pertaining to English Studies in the context of Indian society, culture, history, literature and governance, the chapters seek to formulate contemporary perspectives to these debates and envision alternative possibilities.
Since the introduction of English to India more than 2 centuries ago, the language has transmuted the very fabric of Indian society, culture, history, literature and governance. The idea of India cannot be conceived in its entirety without taking into consideration the epistemological role that English has played in its formation. The present globalized world order has added dimensions to English Studies which are radically different from those of India’s colonial and postcolonial past. It is therefore imperative that the multitudinous shades and shadows of the discipline be re-examined with inputs drawn from the present context. This volume is for scholars and researchers of English literature and language studies, linguistics, and culture studies, and others interested in exploring new paradigms of engagement with the disciplinary formulation of English Studies in India.

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Contents

1.    English Studies in India: Reviewing Borders, Remapping the Terrain  /  Banibrata Mahanta and Rajesh Babu Sharma
Part I
2.    Reading the World: Growing Up in the ‘Discipline’  /  Mahasweta Sengupta
3.    Shakespeare as an Instrument of Epistemic Violence   /  Santanu Niyogi
4.    Another Window on the World: English for Creative Expression in the Indian Context   /  Amritjit Singh
5.    Negotiating Between Languages and Cultures: English Studies Today  /  Sonjoy Dutta-Roy
6.    Comparative Literature as an Academic Discipline in India  /  Santanu Biswas
7.    University Teachers of English and the New Humanities  /  Prabhat K. Singh
Part II
8.    Provincialising Europe Through English Literary Studies in India  /  Kamalakar Bhat
9.    Democratising the Language of Feminist Expression: English and Bhasha Contexts of Indian Women’s Writing  /  Bharti Arora
10.    The Organic Intellectual and English Studies in India  /  Prabhat Jha
11.    The Journey of English in India: Experiments, Contradictions and the Tribal /Dalit Question  /  Richa
12.    United by a ‘Foreign’ Language: The Evolution of English in Multilingual India  /  Partha Sarathi Nandi
13.    Spiritual Preaching in India: English as a Tool for Religious Propagation  /  Pinak Sankar Bhattacharya
Part III
14.    Teaching English Literature/Language: Perspectives from a Non-metro University  /  Somdev Banik
15.    Testing English Studies in India: Problems and Possibilities  /  Stuti Khare
16.    English Studies in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Mode: Possibilities and Challenges of Pedagogy  /  Nandini Sahu and Srideep Mukherjee
17.    Vocationalisation of English Studies in India: A Critique  /  Ravindra B. Tasildar
18.    Localising the Alien: Newspaper English and the Indian Classroom  /  Asima Ranjan Parhi

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About the Author / Editor

Banibrata Mahanta teaches English Literature at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. His areas of interest are Contemporary Theory, Visual Culture, Linguistics and ELT. His publications include Joseph Conrad: The Gothic Imagination and Disability Studies: An Introduction. He has written on disability, old age, and on various aspects of postcolonial literature and theory, especially the iconography of Indian nationalism, Indian Writing in English, and English Studies in India. He has also authored and edited study material on folklore and culture studies for distance learning students. An occasional translator, he has translated poems, stories, and novels into both English and Hindi.

Rajesh Babu Sharma, Associate Professor of English, teaches literary theory and ELT at University of Lucknow, Lucknow. In his research and writing, his primary concerns have been ontology and epistemology of canon, marginality, gender identity, and the literary text. He has published a book, Canon After Deconstruction: Paul de Man's Perspective and more than a dozen articles in national and international journals. His areas of interest are critical theory, philosophy of language, hermeneutics, psychoanalysis and English Language Teaching.

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