English: The Condition of the Subject

PHILIP W. MARTIN is Professor of Literature and Dean of Humanities at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. He is the author of Byron: A Poet before his Public (1982), Mad Women in Romantic Writing (1987) and co-editor (with Robin Jarvis) of Reviewing Romanticism (1992), and articles in books and journals on Romanticism. He is an editor of the journal, Literature and History, and has worked at a number of different universities in the UK.

'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

• 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