Rethinking the English Literature Canon Through Global and Postcolonial Perspectives
Rethinking the English Literature Canon Through Global and Postcolonial Perspectives Introduction A literary canon can seem like a settled list of works passed from one generation of readers to the next. But every selection reflects ideas about value, inheritance and whose experiences deserve attention. The English literature canon is not simply discovered; it is assembled, taught and revised. Rethinking the canon through global and postcolonial perspectives does not mean abandoning close reading or dismissing older texts. It means asking what a familiar reading list leaves out, how its boundaries were drawn and what we learn by reading works from different histories alongside one another. This is more complex than replacing one fixed list with another. These questions help readers understand how the English literature canon has taken shape over time. The question is not simply whether a text belongs, but what readers see when it is placed beside other voices.…