Literary Studies in Action

Alan Durant, Nigel Fabb

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781134971282
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

`This is a textbook for the times, which addresses itself brilliantly to the twin phenomena of expanding horizons and diminishing resources of English studies.' - David Lodge

1	What are you letting yourself in for when you study ‘literature in English’?

When you start on a course of study in an academic subject or discipline you face this problem:

Q.Why should you take up this discipline in particular?

Why not any one of the other subjects you might take up instead? The only way you can decide between different fields of study seems to be by comparing the one you think you might study with other disciplines into which the field of knowledge and possible enquiry is divided up.

But this problem is circular when you start. To decide why it is worth working in any given field, you need to know something about what goes on in that field. But to know what goes on in it, you need to get involved, at least to the extent that you can compare it with other fields. But if you do that, you have already taken your decision, and started work in one particular field rather than another.

This circularity is not an irrelevant trick or puzzle; it has a practical bearing on your studies. To be able to compare different fields, you appear to need to start out by suspending serious questioning of what you are doing. But the only way of justifying this is to have enough faith that the larger questions will either not matter, or will become clearer later. By the time you know whether either or these is in fact the case, you are likely to be so far into your studies that many of your other options will have disappeared.

This seemingly needed ‘suspension’ of investigating the foundations and purpose of your studies is our starting point. In Literary Studies in Action we do not accept the need for such an act of faith in the purposes and value of studying literature in English. Instead, we begin by investigating your own initial perceptions, intentions and aspirations, to raise issues which the work which follows should then explore in detail.

You almost certainly already have some interest in and sense of literary studies, to have got to the point of picking this book up.

1.1 Your personal aims in studying literature in English

We begin by asking some basic questions about the field of literary studies:

What are literary studies in English for?
What do you expect to encounter when you set out on a course in literary studies in English?
What would you like to see in such courses?

As a way of beginning to explore these questions, consider your own intentions and circumstances. If you are on a course in literary studies, or if you are about to start one, why have you decided to work in this field in particular, rather than in any other? What do you hope the course will do for you, and what do you hope it will do to you?

Now do Activity 1 on page4

1.2 How your own motivation relates to public justifications for courses

Your responses to Activity 1 amount to a statement of your motivation, or reasons for choosing to work in the discipline. In one sense, you are a consumer of an educational package when you pick a course. You choose from a range of course ‘products’ available to you (hence some of the descriptions used to describe syllabus alternatives and the process of choosing courses: ‘course ‘portfolio of courses', ‘mini-cafeteria system of options’, etc.). You choose — within syllabuses and courses available — a type of study most closely in line with your aims and wishes.

But this idea of being an educational ‘consumer’ is only part of the story. In making your choice, you also set yourself on course for a particular kind of participation in the social process. You will be prepared for and directed towards particular kinds of social role, and not others. As you gradually gain specific types of skill and knowledge, your views of society and your capacity to act within it will be shaped in particular ways.

Q: Does the way you have described your motivation in Activity 1 suggest to you anything more general about your interest in education (e.g. how education relates to personal development, jobs, social outlook, etc.)?

One reason for being interested in questions of purpose or motivation before beginning to work in detail on

Activity 1 Assessing your own interest in literary studies (40 mins)

1. To identify your own motivation, among the many I different possibilities that exist, circle the appropriate I value on the scale against each item in the list below. I (Each item is an actual reason we have heard for choosing I a literary studies course.)

5 = feel strongly

0 = disagree; don't feel this

The reason I am interested in a course in literature in English is …

… because it will improve my communicative skills (e.g. writing, speaking, etc.).	543210
… because it will allow me to experience the thoughts and feelings of other people, including people who are no longer alive.	543210
… because it will help me in a process of self-discovery and personal development.	543210
… because it will give me a broad base of ideas for thinking about individual and social behaviour.	543210
… because it is less authoritarian and structured than other subjects.	543210
… because it will be a way of comparing aspects of my own culture with another culture.	543210
… because it isn't scientific or technological and it allows more scope for subjective answers.	543210
… because it's the area I have the best qualifications in.	543210
… because I'm not qualified to study in other, more desirable areas.	543210
… because the subject will lead to wider job opportunities than other subjects I might consider.	543210
… because it is not applied to any parti...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• SERIES EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION TO THE INTERFACE SERIES
• LIST OF ACTIVITIES
• SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THIS BOOK
• WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET STUCK
• SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING A COURSE WITH THIS BOOK
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• Introduction
• 1 What are you letting yourself in for when you study ‘literature in English’?
• 2 How has the study of literature tended to see itself?
• 3 The ‘objects’ of your study: ‘texts’
• 4 How do you find things out?
• 5 Sorting texts out
• 6 Language in texts
• 7 Interpreting
• 8 Developing theories
• 9 From your study into the world
• ANSWERS TO SELECTED ACTIVITIES
• REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Index