English Without Boundaries

Book excerpt: This volume brings together a compendium of world-class research on English, from the Anglo-Saxons to Big Data. Selected from papers presented at the 2016 conference of the International Association of University Professors of English, the essays demonstrate the strength of English studies across the world, with contributions from scholars in China, Finland, Israel, Italy, Japan and Portugal, as well as from Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. The essays not only cross geographical boundaries, but also disciplinary ones. Contributors write about English through the prism of gender studies, history, linguistics, the digital humanities, theatre history and the history of the book; topics covered include mainstream writers such as Shakespeare and Milton, and shine light on less well-known topics such as Welsh poetry of the Wars of the Roses and captivity narratives in seventeenth-century North America. Bringing together perspectives on English from around the world, English Without Boundaries is a unique collection showing the energy and breadth of English studies today.