Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:09:25 +0200Tony: 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, I 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" is still within our memorial reach: for those entering the profession today it is a past to be recovered.
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]
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
> ***********************************************