“One of the surest ways of being original nowadays, since that is what we are all straining so anxiously after, would be simply to become a well-read man (in the old-fashioned sense of the term), to have a thorough knowledge and imaginative appreciation of what is really worthwhile in the literature of the past. The candidate for the doctor’s degree thinks he can afford to neglect this general reading and reflection in the interests of his own private bit of research.”In today’s academic world, you must find a niche. It won’t do to write generally about revenge in Hamlet or Nature in British Romanticism. To be heard you must be an expert on your subject, and you must find an angle adopted by no one else. Half of your career may be spent in search of this angle, but that’s the cost of a seat in the learned circles. At the end, if you’re lucky, you will be crowned eminent scholar on the feminist echoes in some obscure poem.
In Literature and the American College, Irving Babbitt warns of the dangers of specialization. He distinguishes between assimilation and production. College, he writes, is intended as a time of reflection, during which students assimilate the learning of the ages. Graduate school creates the productive scholar, who contributes his own thoughts and writings. If one skips the reflective stage and enters immediately on graduate-level productivity, “one may shine as a productive scholar, and yet have little or nothing of that humane insight and reflection that can alone give meaning to all subjects” (128).
Since our undergrad situation does not fully emphasize assimilation, Babbitt suggests another degree between undergrad and doctoral—a new degree focused on reading widely. He proposes a program which, through broad and intelligent reading, promotes discipline in ideas. Maybe our Master’s degree would fit this description, but even the M.A. is more research-focused than Babbitt intends. Students should become well-read, as he defines it: “to have a thorough knowledge and imaginative appreciation of what is really worthwhile in the literature of the past.” The proposed program’s instruction would emphasize the “relationship between literature and thought.”
An abrupt transition to grad school, writes Babbitt, “encourages the student to devote the time he still needs for general reading and reflection to straining after a premature ‘originality.’” Entering my senior year, I find myself with a basis in some fields and in certain eras of literature. However, I could use another year or two, at least, to fill in the gaps in economics; the history of ideas; logic and rhetoric; medieval, classical, and French literatures; and literary criticism--to name a few subjects! Of course, I must be selective. I can’t know everything and know it well. But I've often felt that I should read more of the classics before I’m ready to narrow down my interests. What constitutes readiness, though, or should I say “well-read-ness”?
I’m supposed to be looking for graduate programs, but I hesitate to just choose one of the fields I like right now. Maybe I’m using Babbitt as an excuse, but it sure feels like I’m “straining after a premature originality.” My inclination to postpone grad school could spring from a number of motivations, bad and good:
-fear of the unknown
-a valid need to fill in gaps of knowledge
-an irrational desire to be perfect at something before I even begin
-the hope that a path of study will magically unfold with unquestionable lucidity…at a later date
-laziness (have you ever tried to fill out those applications?)
-lack of clarity about the significance of literary study
These uncertainties, and especially that last factor in the list, prompted me to write this blog. And it’s helping—I’m airing concerns and, even better, surveying them in the light of past thinkers like Babbitt. I really don’t think I’ll end up in an obscure, narrow topic in graduate school, because I can choose my course of study. But choosing a preliminary field, and deciding whether to plunge in or delay, are very relevant issues.
A few thoughts provoked by your blog, Christine: In deciding what field of study to enter, reading some surveys of different fields might be of help. There is a series of such surveys that has appeared in the last few years that might be of interest, the Politically Incorrect Guide books published by Regnery. There is a Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature by Elizabeth Kantor, for example, as well as a Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism by Robert Murphy, the latter being something which could help fill in your knowledge of economics.
ReplyDeleteOn the matter of the significance of literary study, I would say this--literature is about communication. The interpretation of literature is about making sure that you get the right message from a work of literature. Insofar as human communication has value, properly interpreting it through literary study has value. God's communication to men in the Scriptures has, of course, ultimately transcendent value and thus the Bible is the world's most closely studied book. Leland Ryken, English professor at Wheaton who wrote Worldly Saints, also wrote Words of Delight: A Literary Introduction to the Bible, where he says, "But if we look at how the Bible presents its material, it resembles a literary work more than anything else. It is filled with stories, poems, visions, and letters. The thing that it is not is what we so often picture it as being--a theological outline with proof texts attached." Proper literary interpretation, when applied to the Bible, allows us to figure out what God is saying to us accurately, a matter of the highest importance. When improper literary interpretation is applied to the Bible on the other hand, we pervert what God is saying to us and produce religious error. How that happens is described by James Sire (who holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Missouri) in his book Scripture Twisting: Twenty Ways Cults Misread the Bible. Sire states: "As Christians and, we trust, good readers of the Bible, we need all the help we can get to be sure we are reading the Scripture accurately, that we are indeed worshiping the one true God. That's why I wrote this book: to help all of us--myself as much as anyone--to become better readers of the Scriptures, more devoted followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, more effective communicators of God's truth to all people. But the book also seeks a special audience--those being led, as are so many today, by false teachers into false doctrines and perhaps eventually into eternal darkness. May God use this book to help stem the tide of error." Literary study then, can be a matter of the greatest importance when done in a God-honoring way.