Abstract

abstract:

Teachers of literature around the world are confronted with a stark reality: shrinking reading public of literature in society, and dwindling enrollment of literary majors in colleges and universities due to the ongoing digital revolution and pressures from STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects. The diminishing interest in literature is an undeniable fact recognized in both Western and Eastern literatures. It is under these not-so-rosy circumstances for literary studies that the author of this article reads with great interest the book, Thinking Literature across Continents coauthored by Ranjan Ghosh and J. Hillis Miller, and wishes to join them in discussing the fate and future of literature in the age of globalization and telecommunication. Reflecting on the conceptual and practical issues identified by the book, the author also offers his own observations and ideas on the current conditions of literature and suggests practical strategies to cope with the predicament faced by literary studies in our time.

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