>Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:20:17 -0700 (PDT) >From: Juergen Hahn <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Re: Fwd: Dario Fernandez-Morera: We >have seen the enemy, and it is us. >To: "A. Robert Lauer" <[log in to unmask]> > >Bravo, Dario, I absolutely could not have summarized >it better! It occured to me there may be a reason why >things seem even worse now then when your highly >perceptive book came out: Those who represented the >current back then were largely still junior professors >who still had to reckon with the resistance from older >"universalist" scholars in their career evaluations. >The latter have been disappearing into retirement, >many unfortunately in pure panic, and those erstwhile >juniors are now the undisputed senior professors in >charge. So now you have the worst effects of the >Kuhnian paradigm, and the worst of all worlds. > >As for that scholar who considers the term "bourgeois >liberal crap" to be legitimate critical terminology, >how should one respond? Perhaps with "Marxist crap"? >Or "race-baiting crap"? But I fear that would mean the >final descent into the speechless nethersphere of the >"Hollow Men" (or women). > >Juergen Hahn > > > > > > > >--- "A. Robert Lauer" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > > > >Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 22:53:38 -0400 (EDT) > > >From: [log in to unmask] > > >Subject: Re: We have seen the enemy, and it is us. > > >To: [log in to unmask] > > > > > >«Y entre los santos de piedra > > >y los álamos de magia > > >pasas llevando en tus ondas > > >palabras de amor, palabras». > > > > > >Que estrofa mas evocativa! No la conocia. Gracias > > por citarla, Emilia. > > > > > >Spanish literature is not alone in the situation > > >that many at this forum lament. Many literature > > >departments around the country have eliminated > > >Medieval Studies or made them ancillary to other > > >studies of greater relevance.... Look at the > > >department of English at your university or > > >college and see who publishes on Chaucer; or who > > >publishes on Chaucer in order to show something > > >other than the chauvinism, patriarchalism, > > >obscurantism, and brutality of Medieval times, > > >against which some select Medieval writers > > >miraculously rebelled, as indubitably > > >demonstrated by the professor's > > >research. Taking a class dedicated to > > >Shakespeare is no longer part of the program, > > >but something voluntary. The same goes for > > >French. A course on Cervantes has ceased to be > > >a requirement of the undergraduate curriculum, > > >and in some cases this requirement has been > > >eliminated with the enthusiastic acquiescence of > > >Golden Age scholars, who have been against > > >"privileging" or "hierarchizing." The > > >humanities are studied basically in order to > > >show how chauvinistic, racist, and generally bad > > >the context in which they have appeared and > > >thrived has been; and how they have been placed > > >largely at the service of exploitation, etc., > > >that is, the humanities are studied in order to > > >show how ideological they have actually > > >been. Some years ago I thought the situation > > >was bad; but the situation has worsened since I > > >published my American Academia and the Survival > > >of Marxist Ideas. So the question is, if those > > >who study the humanities do not consider them > > >worth defending, why should administrators? If > > >we consider the sixteenth and seventeenth > > >centuries not a "Golden Age," but an age of > > >exploitation, religious obscurantism, and > > >general badness, which a few clever writers > > >secretly managed to denigrate, until we of > > >course thanks to our superior abilities have > > >managed to detect and prove their Straussian > > >deceptiveness, why should administrators be > > >concerned with subsidizing the study of this > > >historical cesspool, or students be concerned > > >with studying it at all? At best, let us better > > >conflate it with something of greater interest, > > >such as Liberation Studies, for example. If we > > >study Medieval and sixteenth and seventeenth > > >century writers basically to show how bad their > > >times were, how can we communicate any love of > > >the culture that, somehow, strangely, fostered > > >the existence of such great writers (notice the > > >paradox here) to our students so that they get > > >interested in studying the period > > >themselves? Of course in many cases the concept > > >of greater or lesser writer has disappeared as > > >well, along with the concept of greater or > > >lesser, period, so there are no great writers to > > >study anymore. Now, who would want to study > > >something under these conditions > > >consistently? I suppose we professors would, > > >along with pathologists, but that is not enough > > >to keep a field alive indefinitely...(I am > > >tempted to create a field: The Pathology of > > >Literature; two famous French professors once > > >did publish a book on "The Parasite" once, and I > > >am sure many other professors read it). If the > > >humanities have been basically an ideological > > >instrument of exploitation, etc. etc. should we > > >wonder that neither administrators nor students > > >put the humanities very high on their list of > > >priorities? I just attended a lecture on Persae > > >by a famous English professor. Her > > >prize-winning line of argument was how racist, > > >chauvinistic and eurocentric Persae and its > > >interpretations have been, at least until > > >recently, when, as she points out, satirical or > > >subversive adaptations have been made in order > > >to put Persae at the service of human > > >liberation, as understood by the English > > >professor of course. She expressed her > > >annoyance at other interpretations by > > >characterizing them as "bourgeois liberal > > >crap." Those where her exact words. She kept > > >mocking the notion that Salamis and Thermopilae > > >had anything to do with Western liberty--Western > > >liberty being in any case a notion that she > > >laughs at too. A month ago I attended another > > >lecture on Persae by yet another famous > > >professor, this time a classicist from > > >Stanford. His line of argument was that > > >egalitarianism is highly desirable, as is the > > >redistribution of wealth. Since he has the gift > > >of gab, as we all more or less do (after all, we > > >are professors), he did manage to make this > > >argument while talking around Persae. So my > > >friends, we have seen the enemy of the > > >humanities, and it is not administrators or > > students: it is us. > > > > > > > > > > > >---------- >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around >http://mail.yahoo.com 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. 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