"Exploding English" crosses the boundaries of disciplines in a response to the frequently-asked question "What is going on in English studies?". It brings together elements of critical theory, intellectual history and the sociology of knowledge, with a linking thread of autobiography. The author, who has published poetry and fiction as well as literary criticism, and has been active in university administration, describes the changes in a particular form of British cultural life - academic literary study - that he has experienced since he became a university teacher in 1959. He sees the study of English in higher education as a synthesis that has been potentially insecure ever since it emerged at the end of the nineteenth century, and is now visibly fragmenting. The author considers the impact on traditional practices of the Thatcherite transformation of the academy, and of the "rainbow coalition" comprising poststructuralism, Marxism, and feminism, which he regards as symptoms rather than causes of disturbance. His reflections are pessimisitic but not despairing, and he offers some practical proposals for future developments. Anyone teaching English in higher education, and in schools; graduate students of English, students of theory of criticism.

Review

`a readable anecdotal collection of Bergonzi's pieces on literary study in modern England'American Literary Scholarship

`Exploding English is a substantial contribution to the debate on the troubled condition of English studies....Interested outsiders as well as academics, prospective as well as present students, and those with administrative responsibility for the future course of English studies could all benefit from reading this book.' Roy Sellars, Theatre Research International

`...his new book offers a balanced and eminently readable account of an ailing British institution, spiced with a journalstic eye for extremes, an awareness of schism and revolt, and a whiff of apocalypticism.' Patrick Parrinder, Notes and Queries June 1991

`he mainly instructs and delights the reader with "deliberate detachment", understated humour, and the finely judged wounds of a stylish swordsman ... the persuasiveness and wisdom Bergonzi generates must be experienced from the book, which concerns everyone.'Herbert Lomas, Sunday Telegraph

`he provides in ten succinct, informative, and for the most part beautifully articulated chapters, a narrative history of the "institutionalising of literary study in higher education".'The Listener

`lively, witty, highly personal and full of a combative energy'Times Educational Supplement

'wide-ranging account ... a lively and carefully argued book ... the kindliness and the quietly humorous down-to-earth-ness Bergonzi projects is itself a touchstone, by which to test the reality and worth of the apparitions which throng that world. I hope that the humane, patient and sensible attitudes, the intelligence and the wit of this book, will be reflected in the discussions it provokes.' John Freeman, University of Wales College of Cardiff, Verbal Arts Association Magazine, December 1990

`Bernard Bergonzi provides a literate and articulate intellectual history of English Literature in the British Academy while making perceptive comments on literary studies in American universities.' English Language Notes

'undoubtedly a highly readable account' David Punter, University of Stirling, Modern Language Review, Vol. 87

'absorbing ... the book serves to make its readers aware of the imminence of intellectual bankruptcy in the study of literature in higher education, it will have served an honourable purpose' English Studies, Volume 72, Number 6, December 1991

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