I would like to know the recent trend in English Literature research
Ecospirituality
Queer Theory
Post Humanism
Medical Humanities
Memory Studies
Culture Studies
Graphic narratives, Gerontology, Health humanities, Dalit literature
I think Science-Fiction, Robotics, AI, Post-Humanism, Post-Animalism
The Environmental humanities
Blue humanities
Petrofiction
Animal studies
I'd rather suggest the following trendy themes:
Stylistic , syntactic and semantic studies are a bit new areas in reseach of english literature @ Revathe
@Onyinyechi Anyalenkeya - Interesting that you should mention Afrofuturism. I was just giving a lecture about this last week, wherein I compared Afrofuturism to "mainstream" futurism or science fiction, and an emerging field which I call "Indigeno-Futurism."
My observation focused on what I call the "Three Fs." Bearing in in mind that there are plenty of exceptions, Mainstream Futurism is rooted in fear, Afro-Futurism is rooted in fun, and Indigeno-Futurism is rooted in freedom, and I used the following examples to illustrate: spaceships, robots, and aliens.
SPACESHIPS: In Mainstream Futurism, the spaceships are generally great, big fancy things which are either blowing stuff up or getting blown up. In Afrofuturism, we have shiny ships with cool, sparkling "disco lights." Indigeno-Futurism is still working on it; although a couple of artists depict fascinating blends of Native designs with functional aerospace dynamics.
ROBOTS: In Mainstream Futurism, the robots are either depicted as boxy, servile tools, rebelling "terminator" killbots, or highly sexualized fembots. In Afrofuturism, the robots are making music with us (Freakazoids, robots, please report to the dance floor); otherwise, they are integrated with Black cyborg bodies, turning centuries of forced labour on its head, embracing the power of Blackness. Indigeno-Futurism, which is relatively new, appears to follow a more Japanese pattern when it comes to robots, where humans and robots are depicted as working together to solve some sort of problem, such as environmental degradation.
ALIENS: In Mainstream Futurism, the aliens are generally enslaving us, hunting us, eating us, or killing us. Again, there are exceptions. In Afro-Futurism, aliens arrive here to dance and party with us, often teaching us new moves. I'm thinking of the Mothership Connection's Strarchild, Stacy Lattisaw's Clyde in "Attack of the Name Game," and Newcleus's Cozmo-D from "Jam on It." Indigeno-Futurism, again relatively new, seems to depict aliens coming here to help save humanity from the messes we've made, often in conjunction with aboriginal first nations.