ABSTRACT
The teaching of English in Japan is a hot topic; the teaching of English literature in Japan is much less so. The diminishing of literature’s place in English education can be explained in terms of a broader weakening of the cultural capital of literature (any literature, even Japanese) in contemporary Japan. But it can also be explained in terms of the globalizing of English as an academic subject. English literature departments in Japanese universities are facing many of the same challenges as their counterparts in other parts of Asia – challenges usually attributed to the pressures of globalization, such as the need to prepare students for globally competitive job markets and to help the nation withstand globalized onslaughts of capital, technology, and commodified and/or foreign cultures that are viewed as “a deep and troubling danger to fundamental aspects of the narrative of Japanese national identity” with its attendant notions of ethnocultural homogeneity and personal and social security (Yamagami and Tollefson 2011: 28). On their websites, English departments, and the institutions that house them, position themselves as crucial gateways and gatekeepers of the global tsunami by pledging to condition their students to cope with globalization armed with one of its key weapons, English.1 A key outcome of this attitude towards globalization is instrumentalized language education in which the language itself is seen primarily as a tool for communication rather than a medium of expression or representation.2
