The Rise and Fall of English : Reconstructing English as a Discipline

Robert Scholes

ISBN 10: 0300071515 / ISBN 13: 9780300071511

Published by Yale University Press, U S A, 1998

About this Item

Hardback. In this lucid book, an eminent scholar, teacher, and author takeds a critical look at the nature and direction of English studies in America. The author offers a thoughtful and witty intervention in current debates about educational and cultural values and goals, showing how English came to occupy its present place in our educational system, diagnosing the educational illness he perceives in today's English departemtns, and recommending theoretical and practical changes in the field of English studies. 203 pp. (We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. academic and scholarly books and Modern First Editions etc.).

Seller Inventory # 067469

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Rise and Fall of English : Reconstructing English as a Discipline
• Publisher: Yale University Press, U S A
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300071515
• ISBN 13: 9780300071511
• Binding: Cloth
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

This work examines the nature and direction of English studies in America. Robert Scholes offers an intervention in current debates about educational and cultural values and goals, showing how English came to occupy its present place in the American educational system, diagnozing the educational illness he perceives in today's English departments, and recommending theoretical and practical changes in the field of English studies. Scholes's position defies neat labels - it is a deeply conservative expression of the wish to preserve the best in the English tradition of verbal and textual studies, yet it is an argument for reconstruction of the discipline of English. The book begins by examining the history of the rise of English at two American universities - Yale and Brown - at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Scholes argues that the subsequent fall of English is the result of both cultural shifts and changes within the field of English itself. He calls for a fundamental reorientation of the discipline - away from political or highly theoretical issues, away from a specific canon of texts and towards a canon of methods, to be used in the process of learning how to situate, compose and read a text. He offers a proposal for a discipline based on rhetoric and the teaching of reading and writing over a broad range of literatures, a discipline that includes literariness but is not limited to it.

From the Author

Kirkus Unfair to Scholes
The Kirkus reviewer feels that I took a clear situation and made a muddle out of it. I think that I took a very complicated situation--that I specifically call a "muddle"--and made some sense of it. I also offer quite specific recommendations for changes in the discipline, looking at the situation of English teaching from different perspectives: historical, theoretical, personal, and practical. I sympathize with a reviewer on a short deadline, trying to get these complexities into a single paragraph. I just hope potential readers will not be put off by the result but will see for themselves.