English studies: the state of the discipline, past, present, and future

English Studies: The State of the Discipline, Past, Present and Future is an accessible and wide-ranging consideration of concerns facing English Studies and its unique position within the university and society. It intervenes in current debates about the future of English Studies, the Arts and Humanities, and the university itself. This volume brings together: a proposal for English to be understood as a ‘boundary practice’; an exploration of the study-guide genre; an account of J. Derrida’s ‘the university without condition’; a case study of English and ‘employability’; a consideration of how the subject might negotiate current technological changes and government interventions; the dilemma of cognitive literary criticism and the relationship between English in Higher Education and Secondary Education. The contributors to this volume draw out the pedagogical ideals that lie at the heart of English Studies, tracing, in the face of current challenges, historical and contemporary debates surrounding English Studies in the university.