ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. English, the largest and most popular arts and humanities discipline, seems very different from other school or university subjects. The book is about why and how people study English. It explains key ideas about English and the study of literature. The book aims to be a stepping-stone to higher education by introducing significant new questions and ideas about English and literature. It also aims to explain why English is the way it is and what this means. It is shaped by four core ideas about English. First and most importantly is the idea that reading is active process, something people do. The book tries to show that English, and how we see literature, are constantly changing. All disciplines change over time; chemistry is very different now from how it was 300, 100 or even 50 years ago.
