The current project under the research cluster envisages an exploration and re-orientation of canonical, theoretical and pedagogic frameworks in English literary studies in India, in its operation through the distance mode. Distance-mode programmes in dual-mode universities tend to entrench and fossilize the problematics of literary studies and can therefore serve as fertile testing ground for study and exploration.  Distance education is by nature an additional or alternative mode of learning for those outside the conventional system, and therefore well suited for exploring and framing alternative critical-pedagogical approaches. Examining ways of incorporating learner heterogeneity, imperative for distance education, can provide useful insights for face-to-face education which is also grappling with the question of cultural relatability. Research on the ‘distant’ learner in open/distance learning and technologies of bridging this distance now centres on digital technologies, which is just as relevant to the face-to-face mode.