'From New National to World English Literature offers a personal perspective on the evolution of a major cultural movement that began with decolonization, continued with the assertion of African, West Indian, Commonwealth, and other literatures, and has evolved through postcolonial to world or international English literature. Bruce King, one of the pioneers in the study of the new national literatures and still an active literary critic, discusses the personalities, writers, issues, and contexts of what he considers the most important change in culture since modernism. In this selection of forty-five essays and reviews, King discusses issues such as the emergence and aesthetics of African literature, the question of the existence of a "Nigerian literature", the place of the new universities in decolonizing culture, the contrasting models of American and Irish literatures, and the changing nature of exile and diasporas. He emphasizes themes such as traditionalism versus modernism, the dangers of cultural assertion, and the relationships between nationalism and internationalism. Special attention is given to Nigerian, West Indian, Australian, Indian, and Pakistani literature.' (Publication summary)
Contents indexed selectively.
'In this extensive and thought-provoking collection, Bruce King clearly establishes the scope of coverage signalled in his title. His introduction outlines the collection’s trajectory as an historical mapping of the discipline: the use of “many names [to describe] a developing body of literature is itself significant”, suggesting that these essays and reviews “can be read as a story about how a major area of literary study has developed and the political and cultural changes it represents” (3). The writings in this volume constitute a considerable achievement over many decades of work, mapping the shifts in disciplinary coverage matched by these shifts in labels, and they are diverse in their function as reviews, essays and direct textual analyses. While this material is not “new”, it nonetheless offers a fresh look at “how newness enters the world” (Bhabha 1994, 212). (Introduction)
'In this extensive and thought-provoking collection, Bruce King clearly establishes the scope of coverage signalled in his title. His introduction outlines the collection’s trajectory as an historical mapping of the discipline: the use of “many names [to describe] a developing body of literature is itself significant”, suggesting that these essays and reviews “can be read as a story about how a major area of literary study has developed and the political and cultural changes it represents” (3). The writings in this volume constitute a considerable achievement over many decades of work, mapping the shifts in disciplinary coverage matched by these shifts in labels, and they are diverse in their function as reviews, essays and direct textual analyses. While this material is not “new”, it nonetheless offers a fresh look at “how newness enters the world” (Bhabha 1994, 212). (Introduction)
