Reading Literature In English And English Studies In Bangladesh Postcolonial Perspectives (Paperback)

Rethinking Literature in English and English Studies in Bangladesh: Postcolonial Perspectives, like the author's 2007 publication, Imperial Entanglements and Literature in English, is a collection of essays and reviews looking mostly at literature in English from postcolonial perspectives. However, Rethinking Literature takes a more sustained look at the state of English Studies in Bangladesh and examines some English language teaching issues in greater detail. It also offers readings of Shakespearean plays, examines Karl Marx's writings on India, and considers the afterlife of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People in Satyajit Ray's film version as well as in Chinua Achebe's fiction. Always, the emphasis is on reading literature and considering English language teaching from our location in time and space critically and in the light of issues such as Postcolonialism, Neo-globalization, Neo-liberalism and the possibilities of new configurations in the realm of ideas. Among major authors and critics analyzed or reviewed in Rethinking Literature in England English Studies in Bangladesh: Postcolonial Perspectives are William Shakespeare, Daniel Defoe, E. M. Forster, R. K. Narayan, Chinua Achebe and Edward Said, but emerging South Asian authors writing about immigration, expatriation, diaspora matters, and return to the homeland are also given some attention. Terms such as "South Asia" and the "Global South" are given special consideration as are late twentieth century and recent theoretical/ critical concerns such as power/knowledge and canon formations, commodification of learning, transnationalism, ecocriticism and sexuality. A special section of the book examines the past and present English language situation in our part of the world, discussing problems and examining solutions offered and alternative ways of thinking that are relevant.