“It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)”: Literature and Language in the Academy

Abstract

Many in the profession, though apparently comfortable, feel demoralized. The prospect of unalienating work impelled many of us to become teachers of language and literature. The humanities, we assumed, would make the world a better place. Yet the assumption by an intelligentsia that the life of intellect will improve humanity is a self-serving ideology. We teach our subjects in institutions that are part of a rationalized arrangement for the profitable use of knowledge. Our profession is part of that rationalization process. Thus there is a contradiction between the profession's humanist ideology and what we actually do. This knowledge has led many to be demoralized. We know that we do not control our conditions of work. Therefore our labor is alienated, and we are an intellectual proletariat. We should struggle against these conditions in an organized fashion. But the attempt to change the nature of our profession, our departments, and our schools can be effective only within the context of the larger struggle to change the role culture plays in a capitalist society. Ultimately such cultural transformations involve the struggle to transform the society as a whole. It is a struggle we cannot escape.