Eagleton on the humanities
As I have noted here before, the future of the humanities as an accepted part of higher education has become an issue of some significance, not least in the light of the approach now being adopted in England (where it is intended that humanities programmes will no longer enjoy state funding). Readers interested in this may want to have a look at the case put forward by Terry Eagleton, Professor of English at the University of Lancaster, writing in the Guardian. I would not necessarily support his key argument (which is to do with role of the humanities in opposing capitalism), but the article is well worth a read.
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December 19, 2010 at 6:20 am
I’m not so certain that this will be the catastrophe that’s been made out. It might harden up the financial situation of the A,H&L departments where for years they were the goto places for funding shortfalls in other areas.
Semester division of the year with its plethora of short easily changeable courses are a godsend to the uni’s finances but the Undergrads get short shrift for no uni library will buy for a course with a shelf life of two years tops.
The Lib’ might get the half dozen core texts for a 150 students. If the course is interesting -meaning a tad out of left field- then there is nothing more certain than there will be little or nothing to read round about the core. What can the Lib do really, it cannot have a buying policy hinging on the vicissitudes of vagabond scholars. But this means the buying policy deals exclusively with post-grads.
This policy leaves in the mouths of the thinking Arts undergrad the nasty taste that they are nothing more than fresh meat.