New Literatures in English by Cristina Banfi & Raymond Day This article is a revised version of a talk given by the authors at Colegio Champagnat in May 1994 for APIBA (Asociación de Profesores de Inglés de Buenos Aires) The title of this article may seem at first sight rather puzzling, but, hopefully, its meaning will become clearer as you read on. As teachers of English, we are all acquainted with literature in English, we have studied English and American literature. We must, however, be aware of the fact that these are not the only literatures produced in the English language; what is more, as we will show, in recent years it is literature from other English-speaking countries that has reached the highest levels of recognition. It is these ‘new’ literatures that we wish to discuss in this article. As mentioned above, we have all studied English literature. We know that it is about the works of Shakespeare, Byron, and D.H. Lawrence. We may also have studied American literature: E.A. Poe, Faulkner, and Salinger. However, we have not studied literature produced in other English-speaking countries, at least not on their own right. We may have heard of Salman Rushdie, not as the winner of the Booker Prize in 1981 for his book Midnight Children, but rather as a consequence of the fatwa imposed on him in 1989 by the Ayatollah Khomeini for another book The Satanic Verses. In recent years, a shift in focus has taken place, and there is a recognition that ‘... some of the strongest writing in English of our times now comes from non-British authors’ (Ford 1988, p.236). As mentioned above, the importance of the literature produced in the Inner Circle 1 has long been accepted, but it is only in the last few years that literature from the Outer Circle has been given a more prominent position. As a consequence of this students at school and universities no longer study English Literature, but Literature in English (see below for more detailed implications). 1 B. Kachru (1985, 1995) divides the English-using world into three concentric circles: - The Inner Circle consists of the native English-speaking countries, e.g. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA - The Outer Circle comprises the former colonies or spheres of influence of the UK and the USA, e.g. India, Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines, Singapore, among others. In these countries, nativised varieties of English have achieved the status of either an official language, or of a language widely used in education, administration, legal system, etc. - The Expanding Circle consists of countries where English is fast becoming a dominant second language in the domains of education, science and technology, e.g. China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and the non-anglophone countries of Europe. 1/6