Disciplining English : Alternative Histories, Critical Perspectives

Shumway, David R. (EDT); Dionne, Craig (EDT)

ISBN 10: 0791453669 / ISBN 13: 9780791453667

Published by State University of New York Press, 2002

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 270230-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Disciplining English : Alternative Histories, Critical Perspectives
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791453669
• ISBN 13: 9780791453667
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Offers historical and present-day perspectives on what English departments do, and how and why they do it.

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.

About the Author

David R. Shumway is Professor of English and Director of the Center for Cultural Analysis at Carnegie Mellon University. His books include Creating American Civilization: A Genealogy of American Literature as an Academic Discipline. Craig Dionne is Associate Professor of English at Eastern Michigan University.