Oxford English Limited
Encyclopedia
Oxford English Limited was a socialist-feminist group of undergraduate and postgraduate students campaigning for progressive reforms in the Oxford University English Faculty between 1982 and 1992. OEL's demands included the abolition of compulsory Anglo-Saxon, new optional papers in women’s writing and in literary theory.
Oxford English Limited was created by Daniel Baron-Cohen, Ken Hirschkop and Robin Gable, with support from Terry Eagleton
at Wadham College. It organised a programme of seminars, visiting speakers, conferences, debates, student questionnaires and campaigns in pursuit of its aims. A typical highlight was the ‘State of Criticism’ conference on March 8 1986 (masterminded by President of OEL, Peter Higginson), at which more than 400 people assembled in the English Faculty building in St Cross
to hear Raymond Williams
, Terry Eagleton, Francis Mulhern and others discuss the future of literary studies.
OEL activists in later years included Ros Ballaster, Tony Pinkney
, Carol Watts, Stephanie Flood, Forbes Morlock, Sally Ledger, Alastair Williams, Ben Morgan, Terry Murphy and Giles Goodland. Tetsuo Maruko and Craig Dowler played supporting roles from the sidelines. There was some limited support from within the Faculty from David Norbrook and Paul Hamilton and Stephen Regan at Ruskin College.
In April 1986 OEL created a journal, News from Nowhere: Journal of the Oxford English Faculty Opposition
(ISSN 0957-1868) to further its local polemic aims and to advance work in left-wing and feminist literary theory and cultural studies more generally. Nine issues were published between 1986 and 1991. The editor Tony Pinkney’s contributions across these issues offer a sustained and theorised history (and counter-history) of Oxford English Studies from Matthew Arnold to the 1980s. A one-volume selection from News from Nowhere will be published in the near future.
The Oxford English Faculty of the late 1970s had not proved able to open itself to the waves of Continental theory which were then remaking the very field of literary studies, though good work was being done by figures like Anne Jefferson and David Robey in Oxford European language studies. Oxford English Limited, despite its exiguous resources as it battled an entrenched and powerful Faculty, thus represented the new energies of the subject, and it and its William Morris
-inspired journal remain a small but colourful chapter in the wider literary theory ‘revolution’ of the 1980s and 1990s.
Oxford English Limited was created by Daniel Baron-Cohen, Ken Hirschkop and Robin Gable, with support from Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton
Terence Francis Eagleton FBA is a British literary theorist and critic, who is regarded as one of Britain's most influential living literary critics...
at Wadham College. It organised a programme of seminars, visiting speakers, conferences, debates, student questionnaires and campaigns in pursuit of its aims. A typical highlight was the ‘State of Criticism’ conference on March 8 1986 (masterminded by President of OEL, Peter Higginson), at which more than 400 people assembled in the English Faculty building in St Cross
St Cross Road
St Cross Road is a road in Oxford, England. It connects South Parks Road to the north and Longwall Street to the south, where it also adjoins Holywell Street....
to hear Raymond Williams
Raymond Williams
Raymond Henry Williams was a Welsh academic, novelist and critic. He was an influential figure within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the mass media and literature are a significant contribution to the Marxist critique of culture and the arts...
, Terry Eagleton, Francis Mulhern and others discuss the future of literary studies.
OEL activists in later years included Ros Ballaster, Tony Pinkney
Tony Pinkney
Tony Pinkney is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, Lancaster University, England. He played an active role in Oxford English Limited , a leftwing group pressing for progressive reforms in the Oxford University English Faculty between 1982 and 1992, and edited its journal, News from...
, Carol Watts, Stephanie Flood, Forbes Morlock, Sally Ledger, Alastair Williams, Ben Morgan, Terry Murphy and Giles Goodland. Tetsuo Maruko and Craig Dowler played supporting roles from the sidelines. There was some limited support from within the Faculty from David Norbrook and Paul Hamilton and Stephen Regan at Ruskin College.
In April 1986 OEL created a journal, News from Nowhere: Journal of the Oxford English Faculty Opposition
News from Nowhere: Journal of the Oxford English Faculty Opposition
News from Nowhere was the journal of Oxford English Limited , a left-wing group of students and dons who sought progressive reforms to the Oxford University English Faculty syllabus between 1982 and 1992. News from Nowhere was created and edited by Tony Pinkney and ran for nine issues from 1986...
(ISSN 0957-1868) to further its local polemic aims and to advance work in left-wing and feminist literary theory and cultural studies more generally. Nine issues were published between 1986 and 1991. The editor Tony Pinkney’s contributions across these issues offer a sustained and theorised history (and counter-history) of Oxford English Studies from Matthew Arnold to the 1980s. A one-volume selection from News from Nowhere will be published in the near future.
The Oxford English Faculty of the late 1970s had not proved able to open itself to the waves of Continental theory which were then remaking the very field of literary studies, though good work was being done by figures like Anne Jefferson and David Robey in Oxford European language studies. Oxford English Limited, despite its exiguous resources as it battled an entrenched and powerful Faculty, thus represented the new energies of the subject, and it and its William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
-inspired journal remain a small but colourful chapter in the wider literary theory ‘revolution’ of the 1980s and 1990s.