Literary Studies in Indian Universities: Notes on the Present Scenario

Abstract

Literary studies has never been a neutral process of imparting aesthetic knowledge but has proved itself an institutional mechanism of cultural (re)production. Since its inception, English literary studies has been engaged in forming the hegemonic cultural practices in India. Earlier it was a tool of cultural domination in the hands of colonial rulers, today it is an institutional stratagem to construct a kind of cultural elitism. Literary syllabus is never impartial accumulation of literary texts but it is an ideological apparatus of someone’s vision. It been observed that departments of English in India are passing through a crisis – many of their postulates which were once considered self-evident and universal are questioned and challenged. In the wake of the western critical theories with their anti-foundational and anti-essentialist notions, what has been commonly accepted as essential ‘knowledge’ is now subject of hermeneutic reassessment. There is a cry for a paradigmatic shift in pedagogical practices. It is essential to realise that hubbubs over the literary canon that usually centre around what is included and excluded in literary curricula really signify more profound political, economic, and cultural relations and histories.  With these preposition in mind, the present paper seeks to address the following queries: