Looking at the emergence/invention of English c1900, looking at the differences between the constitution of the subject in higher education and in schooling, looking through the perspective of post-structuralist thought, post-modernism and feminism this course will engage students with questions about the cultural politics of the emergence, history and contemporary state of English and its various institutions. The course is concerned with the cultural politics of English and with some of the main positions taken in relation to public rhetoric about its identity and function. Some of the following questions and issues will be addressed: Why has English been seen as central to the National Curriculum? Why have there been arguments about the real identity of the subject? What different traditions of English are there? What does it mean to be literate and how is "literacy" defined through the educational practices of English in schools? What have been the impact on English of discourses on text, language, subjectivity and cultural politics?