The first day of class in my literature course didn’t go well, and that’s putting it mildly. Students looked uncomfortable and terrified, refused to answer even the simplest questions, offered no reaction to my jokes, and stayed on the edge of their seats prepared to take off at any moment.
We, the professors, are to blame for this sorry state of affairs. We are so scared of our own area of expertise, so embarrassed by it, so apologetic about having chosen it, that this attitude always contaminates our own students. We are on our way to becoming a glorified language school and all we do brings this prospect closer to us. Like a person who believes s/he is ugly or stupid and communicates this belief to others, we transmit our doubts over whether learning literature is a worthy pursuit to our students.
And then we – the same people who dropped the word “literature” from the name of our department, who create one language course on top of another without having created a single new literature course for a decade, who “don’t have time” for research, who cringe with discomfort when assigning works of literature, who make endless excuses why students are still not ready to read a page in Spanish after taking language classes for 8 years – wonder hypocritically why on Earth the students are so reluctant to study literature. Yes, really, what a mystery.
It would be so easy to claim that big bad administration is to blame. That would not be true, though. None of the things I listed here were encouraged, proposed, or initiated by the Dean’s or the Provost’s office. We are doing this to ourselves.
I am done with this, people. I spent my childhood being embarrassed about loving books and hating athletics. I did not get 5 degrees in literary studies and publish 11 scholarly articles in respected, peer-reviewed literary journals only to find myself feeling embarrassed about loving to read once again. I am now declaring a battle against the belief that literature has no place at a university. I was part of the problem and now I will be part of the solution. If nobody wants to join me, I will be the solution.
And don’t think I’m just saying this. I have a top-secret plan that I have already started to put into effect whose goal is simply to teach literature and vindicate this pursuit. The plan is top secret because I don’t have the energy for yet another round of discussions (in person, by email, on Skype, on the phone) about how the students are not prepared and they will hate literature anyway so why undermine my career and spoil my life trying. My career is fine, my life is fine. Stop being so worried about the imaginary horrors that await me if I actually practice my profession.
To my colleagues everywhere I want to say this: stop feeling apologetic for what you do. Do whatever you need to convince yourself that you are not selfishly practicing a self-indulgent hobby but are doing something important. Do it now before you have apologized us all out of a field of learning and a career. You don’t need to prettify the teaching of literature or convince anybody it is useful. Just convince yourself already.
Clarissa's Blog 
Hey Clarissa,
Love it 🙂 I haven’t been posting much for a variety of reasons, but this post hit me in a personnal way (kinda wierd I know.. especially when I was the athletic valedictorian in high school who LOVED to rag on my literature teacher on how worthless literature is). My opinion on literature has somewhat changed, although I still do not enjoy reading (fictional works that is) much and have no passion for pure literature.
What I REALLY love about this post is your passion for something, your willingness to express it, and from what I have seen from your blog so far your ability to DELIVER on it. Still personally struggling with the delivery sometimes for my passionate beliefs… but this post hit me at a low point where I need some encouragement so thanks… and keep being Clarissa 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you, my friend! I’m always here to encourage in case you need it.
LikeLike
Literature should have clearly a strong place at a university. It’s like 0+0=0.
LikeLike
How were you a part of the problem yesterday?
LikeLike
No, not yesterday, but when I was a newly hired and innocent person, I got involved in creating these useless language courses that push out literature courses.
LikeLike
This is surprising.
LikeLike
Thanks for writing about this. I often have the same issue with myself. I guess I never really put my finger on the issue and you definitely opened my eyes to what I was feeling. I teach Sociology, so I can empathize with you for unnecessarily feeling apologetic and embarrassed about my field. It’s only my second semester teaching outside of my teaching assistantship, so I’m still a little green and inexperienced. This post will certainly help me turn things for the better in my own classes.
LikeLike
Those scientific integrist fucktards… 😦
LikeLike
You cannot have an effective language class without engaging with literature to some degree (even at the lowest levels), and you cannot have an effective literature class without knowing how to read in the language. The idea of separating them (or of separating language from “content” or “culture” or whatever) drives me insane.
LikeLike
I think you can separate but only in advanced course.
LikeLike
http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2013/01/100-arts-classes-to-be-eliminated/?fb_action_ids=10151217440753314&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210151217440753314%22%3A451205864934613%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210151217440753314%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
LikeLike
God. This will go to a separate post.
Thank you for letting me know.
LikeLike
I hate the self-hating lit professor.
LikeLike
I know! They will end up destroying literary studies.
LikeLike
With your permission, your manifesto will be printed and displayed on my office door on Monday.
I have never fetl apologetic about my love for literature in class, but I have often felt apologetic about my love for philology. Never again. From now on I will share my passion for the future subjunctive in Portuguese with my students without feeling ashamed about it, among many other fascinating topics.
LikeLike
Of course, I will be very flattered.
Look at the Law School, folks. They never feel apologetic. In fact, their arrogance and self-congratulation knows no bounds.
LikeLike
Scientific studies that demonstrate that literature increases brain power are described in this article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9797617/Shakespeare-and-Wordsworth-boost-the-brain-new-research-reveals.html.
LikeLike