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In the course of the 20th century 'English Literature'
has developed into 'Literatures in English' as a global reality which has had an
enormous impact on the academic discipline of English literary criticism over
the past few decades. This paradigmatic change has not only led to the opening
up of many new areas of study but also to heated critical controversies about
terminology, approaches, concepts, and values especially in what is usually
called Postcolonial Studies, which are in full swing. This volume attempts a
review of the present situation, with the specific aim of identifying and
assessing the creative potential of the whole globalized area of English
literature and literary studies. A great variety of aspects of this theme are
studied in this volume. Voices from many parts of the world and different
speaking positions engage in a dialogue that is concerned with advancing both
literary theory and critical practice.
The present volume is the result
of an International Conference held under the auspices of CISLE-Centre for the International Study of Literatures in
English at the University of Innsbruck. It contains the
contributions from thirty-eight scholars around the world who deal with general
issues like literay criticism vs. cultural studies, intermediality, and the
potential of a comparative approach or reception studies but more centrally with
diverse aspects of postcolonial discourse and its future, or with more specific
concepts like ethnic identity and hybridity, interculturality and cultural
difference as well as national images and stereotypes, the ethics of reading, or
history, memory and life writing, to name only the most discussed topical
subject areas covered in this book. In these discussions the literatures in
English produced around the world are explored. Among the contributors we find
distingushed scholars/writers like Joan Anim-Addo (Caribbean/England), Dennis
Haskell (Australia), Edwin Thumboo (Singapore), and Andrew Parkin
(Canada/Hongkong), or leading scholars in their fields like Rüdiger Ahrens OBE,
Hermann Real, and Jürgen Schläger (Germany), David Carter (Australia), Munira
Mutran (Brazil), Stella Borg-Barthet (Malta), John Thieme (England), or Satendra
Nandan (Fiji)
The book is subdivided into three sections: Section I
contains papers that deal with general theoretical and comparative aspects of
literary studies, Section II is devoted to the study of general aspects of
Postcolonial literary theory and practice, and Section III contains papers which
are subdivided by the different regions dealt with in them: Europe (GB including
African British Lit., Ireland, Malta), the Caribbean, Canada (including ethnic
literatures), Africa, Asia (India, Singapore, South East Asia, Philippines),
Australia (with particular emphasis on Aboriginal literature and art) and New
Zealand.
The editors exemplify the internationality of this volume.
Wolfgang Zach, Past Vice-President of EACLAS and IASIL, is Director of CISLE and
Professor of Literature at the University of Innsbruck (Austria). Michael
Kenneally, Past President of IASIL and CAIS, is Director of the Centre for Irish
Canadian Studies and Professor at Concordia University Montreal
(Canada).
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