English Literature: From Ideological Mission to Postcolonial Condition

The ongoing debates on the colonial essence of some sciences, including English literature, are not confined to Iran. This issue has been a global concern, and many intellectuals have discussed it all over the world. While some of such discussions are propagandic and none-scientific, some others are systematic, reasonable, and illuminating and can be taken as theoretical background. These theories can be helpful in the substantiation or rejection of the possible misuses of science, literature, and English literature respectively, an amalgamation of which can lead to the formation of a solid theoretical background. In addition, these theories are able to explore the solutions of avoiding the shadow of ideology and colonization. First of all, by applying the existing theories, the present research aims at proving the ideological mission of English literature; then, by citing another set of theories, it tries to acknowledge the present-day anticolonial condition of this major and its departments in leading universities. In addition to the postcolonial approaches, this research proposes metanarrative insight as another required tactic that can act as a progressive step in the current changes of English literature. In the end, the present research avers that nowadays English literature, in its evolved form, is not only a neo-colonial apparatus but also is an anticolonial entity.