Emerging Issues in Research in English Literature

Abstract

As the pre - Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus observed, “There is nothing permanent except change”. Change is the inevitable law of nature and emerging issues can be seen as proclivity for change. This paper is a specimen of meta-research as it researches on research issues itself. Meta-research is a recent field of research that investigates research practices with the ultimate goal of finding evidence-based improvements. The word research is derived from the Middle French "recherché", which means "to go about seeking”. For this investigation, I have tried to compare and analyze the catalogues of proposed researches in the subject of English Literature in prominent Indian universities. The issues include - the investigation of voices which have not been identified yet or suppressed especially in regional/vernacular languages; in popular literature of culture, there is an issue of representing voice of women, which has been stifled till now. Other emerging issues are reinterpreting violence and trauma narratives with respect to major events like Vietnam war , cross border violence in Kashmir ,politics of power, states of exile and refuge in diaspora, concept of identity, self and nation, Dalit writings, post modernistic renderings of classical and medieval texts, etc.