>Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:09:25 +0200
>From: Isaac Benabu <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Fwd: José Antonio Madrigal to Frank
> Domínguez : Re: Literatura y los
> programas académicos
>To: "A. Robert Lauer" <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask]
>
>Tony:Â I agree with the flow of your thoughts
>about the changes that have taken place in our
>chosen field of study , yet when you express
>relief at the idea of retirement from the
>aridness (my word) which has come to
>characterize the teaching of literature, IÂ wish
>to disagree with you, and say that the
>responsibility for what has happened during our
>term of academic service is ours and,
>consequently, it is up to us to pass on our
>understanding of what happened to the next
>generation. Whatever it was that turned the
>study of literature into something "other"Â is
>still within our memorial reach: for those
>entering the profession today it is a past to be recovered.
>
>Two values (however unfashionable!) which the
>creation of great literature and the teaching
>of the humanities  have in common are clarity
>of thought and precision in written expression:
>they both strive to communicate. Together with
>the "author", these values have gone out of the
>window. Instead, they have been replaced by
>jargon (which undoubtedly conceals thought), and
>by approximation rather than precision when it
>comes to meaning. It is our generation that saw
>a non-sense article (so described by its
>imaginative author) submitted to a pretigious
>literary review, passed by two readers and
>published. And we may have even enjoyed that
>author's subsequent confession in Time magazine
>that what he had submitted was "macaronic" non-sense.Â
>
>If we, who stimulated the growth of that
>jargon, proved incapable of explaining in
>major conferences such as the MLA why we had to
>resort to jargon rather than clear, scientific
>prose, what can we expect from the students we
>educated? Those very Ph.d.'s applying for jobs
>today to whom you refer and whom, you say,
>display an ignorance of the very texts which
>make up the subject they purportedly have
>applied to teach, grew up in classrooms where
>thinking was abandoned in favour of ideological
>posturing, and where repetition was more
>important than the formulation of original
>thinking. The fashionable industry of the study
>of literaure took over from the more modestÂ
>explication of literature. A lack of
>self-confidence in what we were doing, don't you think?Â
>
>Late it may be, but never too late! That is why
>in our retirement, we may address these issues
>for the next generation rather than having them discover them for themselves.
>
>Finally, I apologize if I have repeated ideas
>already expressed by others before me, without
>attribution, but I have just keyed into this discussion this morning.Â
>
>An inflamatory afterthought on re-reading your
>piece: Your "Golden Age" breaks down into the
>study of literature (i.e. prose, and includes
>written poetry), oral literature and theatre.
>Theatre is distinguishable from literature , as
>Aristotle cared to point out early on, yet for
>the most part, we continue to approach it as
>literature, with tools devised for the analysis
>of literature. And even when we show
>willingness to refer to "performance", it may be
>because the word has been given a new coinage
>in contemporary scholarly jargon:
>traditionally (primarily, perhaps) the wordÂ
>was applied to theatre and theatrical
>representations, when it was not used in the
>more general sense of "to do, carry out".
>
>But that is a matter for another discussion...Â
>
>Isaac  Â
>
>Professor I. Benabu,
>Dept. of Theatre Studies,
>The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
>Mt. Scopus,
>Jerusalem
>Tel.:(+972-2)5883940
>------
>WebMail: [log in to unmask]
>
>On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:17:00 -0500, A. Robert Lauer wrote
> >
> >
>>Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:36:18 -0500
>> > From: "J. A. Madrigal" <[log in to unmask]>
>> > Subject: Fwd: Frank DomÃnguez: Re: Literatura
>> >  y los programas académicos
>> > To: "A. Robert Lauer" <[log in to unmask]>
>> >
>> > My two cents...Frank is right (hi Frank) except when he blames the
>> > administration. It is our fault, and only our fault, because we forgot
>> > that we went into this profession to study literature, not philosophy,
>> > political theory and other disciplines that should complement what we do
>> > and not become our core.
>> > When we interview the future scholars of our profession, and specially
>> > from the better PHD programs, it is
>> embarrassing how little literature they
>> > know. In most occasion, I find myself talking to them about works they
>> > don't know in their own field. Incredible that someone in Golden Age
>> > sometimes is better read than they are in their own fields. But Frank,
>> > you are right, only three fields exist today: Spanish American Prose,
>> > Contemporary Peninsular literature and Linguistics. The rest is old and
>> > boring.
>> > Also, the only individual in my Department who teaches Theory beginning
>> > with Plato is me...Anything before the Contemporary period is as
>> > dead...
>> > Retirement from this profession is a welcome change!!!
>> > Tony
>> >
>> > ***********************************************
>> > J. A. Madrigal
>> > Castanoli Professor
>> > Dpt. of Foreign Languages
>> > and Literatures
>> > Auburn University, AL 36849-5204
>> > Fax: 334-844-6378
>> > Phone: 334-844-5183
>> > ***********************************************
>
>Prof. A. Robert Lauer
>The University of Oklahoma
>Dept. of Modern Langs., Lits., & Ling.
>780 Van Vleet Oval, Kaufman Hall, Room 206
>Norman, Oklahoma 73019-2032, USA
>Tel.: 405-325-5845 (office); 405/325-6181 (OU
>dept.); Fax: 1-866-602-2679 (private)
>Vision: Harmonious collaboration in an international world.
>Mission: "Visualize clearly and communicate promptly"
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>Teatro de los Siglos de Oro
>
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