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Pourquoi? Explaining Ourselves to the Literature Major

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

H. Jay Siskin
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Extract

Sir Toby. Pourquoi, my dear knight?

Sir Andrew. What is “Pourquoi”? Do or do not? I would I had bestowed that time in the tongues that I have in fencing, dancing, and bear-baiting. O, had I but followed the arts!

–William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (1.3)

I was asked to address thequestions “why major in literature?” and “What do we tell our students?” I make this assignment explicit because my initial reflections left me bewildered. Is not the study of literature part of the humanistic mission of the liberal arts? Or has the major changed in some way that would prompt these questions? To be certain that I had not missed any reconceptualizations of the discipline, I decided to investigate the rationales for the study of literature over the past century.

Type
The Changing Profession
Information
PMLA , Volume 117 , Issue 3 , May 2002 , pp. 515 - 519
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2002

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