Continental Perceptions of Englishness, 'Foreignness' and the Global Turn

Book excerpt: This collection of essays explores the uneasy, and at times uncomfortable, relationship between English identity and the discipline of English Studies viewed from a broad, critical-creative perspective. The volume draws together literary and cross-cultural studies material in order to shed light on internal visions and external projections of Englishness, the interplay between Englishness and foreignness, and the degree in which they inform each other in the age of globality. Unlike conventional approaches, it sets the scene for a productive and inspiring dialogue between inside and outside perspectives of the subject, between homegrown and continental European perceptions of it and its pedagogy.