ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL DISCIPLINE

The article is an attempt to describe a global expansion of English (studies) as an academic discipline, in view of two developments marking the recent history of the discipline, one which has to do with the global spread of the English language and the subsequent global presence of English as an academic discipline, and the other which has to do with a transdisciplinary expansion of English studies. The article traces the development of the discipline from its roots in 19th century philology to a literary turn in the first half of the 20th century to an interdisciplinary turn that began in the 1970s. In the last period the discipline expanded in terms of its canon, but also in terms of its subject matter and methodology. Because of the unique global position of the English language as a lingua franca, which includes academic discourse itself, English studies has been facing a particularly strong imperative of addressing the issue of the universal character of knowledge. In this regard, the article points to the development of curricular "paradigm loss" (an observation made by Louis Menand), which in its own way presents evidence on the expansive character of English studies at this time. In discussing the various modes of the expansion of English as a discipline, the article stresses the need to reflect on the historical conditions of the emergence of this disciplinary development as part of disciplinary scholarship itself. [GRAPHICS] .