| Disciplining English: Alternative Histories, Critical Perspectives Contributor(s): Shumway, David R. (Editor), Dionne, Craig (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0791453669 ISBN-13: 9780791453667 Publisher: State University of New York Press OUR PRICE: $33.20 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2002 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Semiotics & Theory - Education | History - Education | Higher |
| Dewey: 428.007 |
| LCCN: 2002021187 |
| Physical Information: 0.52" H x 6.02" W x 8.96" (0.70 lbs) 237 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: These provocative essays explore the unwritten, often unacknowledged codes, conventions, and ideologies overseeing the evolution and current practice of English as a "discipline." The first section of the book offers historical perspectives: how "composition" became distinguished from "literature," how key intellectuals shaped the discipline, and how various specialties--Renaissance literature, American literature, "theory"--became subfields. The second section focuses on how certain aesthetic categories of art and universal experience persist today in the actual teaching and writing of "English." While it is fashionable to say that we are living in the age of poststructuralism, or that literary theory has delivered us from idealized conceptions of authorship and inherent meaning, these essays examine how these conceptions nevertheless remain and are transmitted: in different types of classroom settings, in textbooks, and in the self-fashioning of academic careers. At a time when the role and function of English departments have become matters of both academic and public debate, this book will be a welcome resource for students, professionals, and anyone interested in the Culture Wars of the past two decades. |