Anonymous wrote:St. John’s - my DS just finished 1st year and LOVED Strong core curriculum taught in small seminar classes.

Anonymous wrote:Sure. And physics departments shouldn't discuss any theories developed after Newton's Opticks!

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Anonymous wrote:Take a look at Holy Cross. A great classics dept, the only Jesuit liberal arts college, and a great track record getting students into law, medicine and PhD programs.

You mean the Holy Cross English department that offers

“ Interdisciplinary courses cross-listed with Africana Studies; Catholic Studies; Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies; and Peace and Conflict Studies”?

Jesuits have always cared about marginalized people. The focus is on inquiry and critical reading — not indoctrination. For example, the Gender studies group condemned the over-turning of Roe v Wade, while others at the school applauded it. It will be debated, but students are not taught a right answer.

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP and that's ridiculous.

I think there's really a two-front war in defending the integrity of the university.

On the right, you have those who want to teach sanitized history or creationism.

Then there's the woke left who want think the proper teaching of the humanities should be replaced by faddish identity politics.

I reject both.

Anonymous wrote:The late great Harold Bloom warned how literary studies was taken over by cultural studies, i.e. not reading the great works at all or "reading" Shakespeare and Dickens through faddish ideological lenses (feminist, Marxist, por-modernist). Traditional literary scholars are in the minority.

At what colleges these days can one get a serious education in literature these days?

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Anonymous wrote:Agree with OP.

One LAC offers a course titled Queer Feminist Environmental Studies (Hamilton College).

Is it required?

Required or not, it’s still ludicrous.

I agree, but I just wouldn’t send my kid there. Doesn’t affect me.

Anonymous wrote:Agree with OP.

One LAC offers a course titled Queer Feminist Environmental Studies (Hamilton College).

Anonymous wrote:In my experience, literary studies in the university tends to not respect or revere a novel based on its aesthetical and intellectual merits, but on the origin of its source. I would be disillusioned to say indefinitely that politics play no part in literature. But I think what’s been happening across universities is extremely concerning. Great authors, legendary authors, who are worth our time, should be read.

Anonymous wrote:In my experience, literary studies in the university tends to not respect or revere a novel based on its aesthetical and intellectual merits, but on the origin of its source. I would be disillusioned to say indefinitely that politics play no part in literature. But I think what’s been happening across universities is extremely concerning. Great authors, legendary authors, who are worth our time, should be read.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why OP is saying that things like feminism or Marxism are faddish. These ideologies have been around for hundreds of years if not more … at what point do they stop being a fad? Does OP also think that women wearing pants is a passing fad? Or representative democracy?

I posted above about the podcast talking about the feminist and radical political messages in Canterbury tales. These themes have been in literature forever. And talking about them makes old stuff more relevant to readers of today. I’m a huge Tolstoy fan and studied it in college — even then we talked about tolstory’s really complicated and troublesome attitudes towards women. I don’t see how you can read Tolstoy or Austin or Dickinson without talking about feminism or how you can read dickens or Shakespeare without talking about class politics.

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that Harold Bloom was kind of a dick (may he RIP).

But in all seriousness, have you looked at the course requirements for an English lit major at...any college or university?

I attended a fairly lefty private university a while back. There certainly was some occasional political talk about the professors' opposition to the Iraq War (suprise! they were right!), and I chose to take some electives focused on gender and race (as well as a Shakespeare seminar!). But the bulk of the major was developing a base in the canon of English and American literature. Lots of stuff by old white guys. I looked back today at the required and elective courses in the department, and not much has changed. That is typically what you get when you choose to be an English major. If you're talking about comp lit then that's different.

It sounds like you're assuming a lot based on Bloom's comments and I suspect he wasn't saying what you think he was saying.

Anonymous wrote:In my experience, literary studies in the university tends to not respect or revere a novel based on its aesthetical and intellectual merits, but on the origin of its source. I would be disillusioned to say indefinitely that politics play no part in literature. But I think what’s been happening across universities is extremely concerning. Great authors, legendary authors, who are worth our time, should be read.