Making World English: Literature, Late Empire, and English Language Teaching, 1919-39

Making World English: Literature, Late Empire, and English Language Teaching, 1919–39 traces the complex historical relationship between English language teaching, imperial expansion, and literary culture in the interwar period. It reveals how English became a global language not merely through policy and power, but through the intertwined forces of education, ideology, and cultural influence.

Drawing on archival materials, pedagogical documents, and literary texts, this study uncovers how teachers, writers, and policymakers shaped the meanings and methods of “World English” in a rapidly changing global landscape. It highlights how education served as both an instrument of empire and a site of negotiation where diverse voices began to redefine English on their own terms.

The book examines how literature and language teaching became mutually reinforcing disciplines—how texts by canonical and colonial writers influenced curriculum design, and how the teaching of English abroad contributed to the making of modern literary identity. It situates these developments within the broader contexts of race, class, and nation-building.

Combining literary analysis with the history of education, Making World English offers a nuanced understanding of how English language teaching functioned as cultural diplomacy, intellectual exchange, and political negotiation during the late imperial era. Its interdisciplinary approach connects the study of literature, empire, and applied linguistics in new and illuminating ways.

A valuable contribution for scholars of English studies, postcolonial literature, and the history of ELT, this work challenges readers to reconsider how global English was constructed—and whose interests it ultimately served—at a formative moment in modern linguistic and cultural history.