Doing English in Asia

In this day and age when English remains the global lingua franca, it is important for us—even incumbent on us—to think through the cultural, political, and social implications of how English is taught and learned in different parts of the world. Doing English in Asia offers informative and thought-provoking perspectives on what's happening on the ground. The intellectual inquiries and pedagogic strategies presented in this book reflect the considerable breadth and depth of this issue. A must-read for anyone interested in the theoretical and practical aspects of translingual, cross-cultural relations. -- Michelle Yeh, University California at Davis
As Andrew Delbanco points out, the fact that ‘teachers of literature have lost faith in their subject and in themselves’ is largely responsible for the deplorable ‘decline and fall of literature’ in American universities.1 Moreover, as Rita Felski argues, asking ‘Why Literature Matters in the 21st Century’— the ‘verbal tic’ that has ‘gone viral’ among humanities scholars in the West — only aggravates the legitimation crisis in perpetuating ‘the spirit that always negates’.2 The antidote, Felski rightly suggests, is to be found in the ‘affective realignment’ (p. 17) of humanities teachers to embrace, rather than negatively interrogating, the transformative power of their teaching subject. ‘Affective realignment’ is precisely what ‘doing English in Asia’ or, by implication, ‘doing Asia in English’, strives to achieve. For this reason, Doing English in Asia will surely attract a wide audience in Asia and beyond. * English: Journal of the English Association *