The futures of English: Introduction from the UK

Abstract

Will students raised on social media still read English literature? What is the role of English/American literature in the PRC, India, Australasia, the USA? What is the role of English language in relation to other global and local languages? What is the role of decolonising efforts? How do our respective state apparatuses affect language and literature teaching? Part I ‘International Perspectives on English Language and Literature’ summarises the global spread of English since the eighteenth century and outlines the concerns of the special issue: the global futures of English language and literature in information society in Africa, Australia, India, the PRC, Europe and the UK, and the USA; the role of decolonising efforts; and the role of our respective state apparatuses in higher education policy. Part II, ‘English Studies in Britain Today’, discusses the findings of the recent (June 2023) British Academy report English Studies Provision in UK Higher Education, including the decline in literary studies among students and the rise of Creative Writing in part in response to political-economic rhetoric. Part III, ‘Global and World Englishes’, returns to global and transnational practices beyond Britain and Europe to argue for more inclusive, decolonising practices around world literatures. We might take the lived histories of global and world Englishes to transcend both romantic revolutionary and far-right exclusionary nationalisms in literary and language studies in favour of more cosmopolitan, multilingual, and convivial approaches.