Chapter 1 The Rise of English in Two American Colleges

Assignment 1 My Life in Theory

Chapter 2 "No dog would go on living like this"

Assignment 2 Theory in the Classroom

Chapter 3 What is Becoming an English Teacher?

Assignment 3 "So Happy a Skill"

Chapter 4 A Flock of Cultures--A Trivial Proposal

Assignment 4 Pacesetter English

Chapter 5 A Fortunate Fall?

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Preface

Once upon a time there was a boy who loved language. He loved it all: nursery rhymes, stories, comic books, plays, movies, advertising, instructions on packages, even school books. What becomes of such a boy? If he is lazy--and lucky--he becomes an English teacher. I was such a boy, and that is what became of me. This book is my attempt to explain--to myself and others--just what has happened to my chosen profession. It is also an attempt to pay back, to a profession that has given me a rewarding life, something of what I have received. In these pages I have tried to explain, to myself and others, how English came to occupy its present place in our educational system--especially college education--, to diagnose the symptoms of an educational illness that I occasionally call "hypocriticism," and to make recommendations, both general and specific, for a change of direction, a reconstruction of the field of English studies as a discipline.

Such an undertaking risks giving offense to many people who are concerned about the field in question. Even more, it risks boring those who want dramatic indictments and sweeping condemnations of conspiracies to betray Western Civilization as we have known it. The reality of the situation, however, does not lend itself to such dramatic representation. It is not a neat conspiracy but a muddle--and it takes patience and perseverance to sort out a muddle--even a muddle in a tea pot, as any reader of tea leaves could tell us. Am I reading tea leaves? We shall see. In any case, I always try to read my texts as well as I can. In this particular case, however, I risk annoying both traditionalists and avant-gardists, by adopting a militant middle position on many of the questions that currently vex English studies.

Nevertheless, I would accept the designation "radical" for this enterprise because I am truly interested in returning to the roots of English studies--and because I shall be advocating a massive change of direction for those studies. Radical in one sense, many readers of these pages may find me "conservative" in another, because I am critical of much that has been going on recently in the name of "theory," and because I believe that concepts like "truth" and "reality" are necessary for the health of a discipline called "English." Others, I am sure, will see me as part of the great conspiracy to betray our way of life. But such political labels do not really matter, except to the extent that they may confuse things. What matters is the spirit in which the enterprise has been conducted. In this case, I believe, what matters is that the boy who loved language is still alive and well in the old man who has made his living by professing English and is now turning a well-disposed but critical eye on his profession. The old man still loves all the lively forms of expression and representation, verbal and visual, from epics and landscapes to cartoons and bumper stickers. What he has never learned, some would say, is "good taste." If this be true (and you will notice that he can use the subjunctive on serious occasions), then his experience must constitute the strongest evidence that an English education often fails to inculcate good taste, for some of the finest English teachers in the world have given him their best shot. (He is me, of course, or I, I suppose. O grammar! "O tempora, O mores!" as my friend Tully once remarked.)

The following five Chapters are independent but interrelated essays in which I begin with a historical discussion of the rise of English in two early American colleges, then examine aspects of what I describe as a fall or process of falling, and conclude with recommendations for changes aimed at making the fall a fortunate one. In between the Chapters are "Assignments," which were my responses to particular tasks I agreed to undertake within the field of English, during the time when I was considering the larger issues discussed in this book. It is my hope that these particular Assignments will lend specificity to some of the more general concerns of the Chapters. In some of them, and in other places in this book, I have not hesitated to bring my own experiences as a student and teacher of English into the picture. Whether these experiences will serve to enhance my credibility or diminish it, I must leave to my readers. In any case, to me, it seemed necessary on some occasions to bear witness, or own up to my personal stake in the matters under discussion. Everything in this book, I want to say unequivocally, is motivated by my love of the English language and my concern for the students who must learn to use it as well as they can. May they learn to love it as I have loved it, and may it serve them as well as it has me!