Introduction: Redefining English in Asia for the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Asian English: Histories, Texts, Institutions addresses the genealogies of textual critique and institutionalized forms of teaching of English language and literature in Asia through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, along with an examination of present options and possible future directions. Its central argument is that the establishment of Anglophone literature in Asia did not simply “happen”: there were extra-literary and academic forces at work, inserting and domesticating in Asian universities both the English language and Anglo-American literature, and their attendant cultural and political values. Nevertheless, Asian English has now established itself, and its literary and cultural traditions are part of a commonly available resource for a global community. We hope that this collection will have relevance to the practicalities of teaching both the language and its canon of classic texts, and that the historical formation and shape of English studies in Asia offers lessons that relate not only to the discipline but also may be applied to the humanities as a whole.