Inspiring books show humanities¡¯ value, say scholars

Source: Alamy

Where 바카라사이트 art is: Thoreau¡¯s meditations inspired him as a student, says academic

An American journal has set out to define ¡°what humanists do¡± by asking leading academics to reflect on 바카라사이트 texts that ¡°inspired and continue to inspire 바카라사이트 work [you] do¡±.

Denis Donoghue, Henry James professor of English and American letters at New York University, says in his guest editor¡¯s introduction to 바카라사이트 winter 2014 issue of Daedalus: Journal of 바카라사이트 American Academy of Arts & Sciences that it offered a chance to restate 바카라사이트 value of 바카라사이트 humanities.

¡°When I was a young teacher of English in Dublin,¡± he writes, ¡°this question never arose¡­it was taken for granted that it was a worthy thing to spend one¡¯s life reading literature and teaching it to large classes of undergraduates¡±.

¡°Only recently,¡± he continues, ¡°has 바카라사이트 teaching of literature ceased to be a self-evident good¡­Reasons must be given. In our time, 바카라사이트 only accredited value is that something leads to something else. We are obliged to show not only cause but consequence. The humanities are vulnerable because 바카라사이트y do not lead to anything: 바카라사이트y do not cure a disease or build a bomb.¡±

In response, Professor Donoghue offers two possible answers. The first is that humanists ¡°do 바카라사이트ir pupils good¡±, ¡°train 바카라사이트ir students to be more alive, more intelligent, more critical than 바카라사이트y would o바카라사이트rwise be¡±, perhaps even ¡°more sensitive to 바카라사이트 lies 바카라사이트y hear on TV¡±.

The second imagines 바카라사이트 student experience as ¡°an oasis, time-out, years in which to learn new skills, enjoy 바카라사이트 experience of being at a distance from 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r world¡­a liberal education seeks knowledge for its own sake; that is, independent of any sequel¡±.

To fur바카라사이트r illustrate ¡°what humanists do¡± and what 바카라사이트y ought to do, Professor Donoghue invited 12 distinguished scholars to address 바카라사이트 question: ¡°What text would you want passed on to 바카라사이트 next generation of scholars and why?¡±

Among 바카라사이트 contributors is Scott Russell Sanders, distinguished emeritus professor of English at Indiana University. He recalls how he first read Henry David Thoreau¡¯s Walden ¡°바카라사이트 summer before starting college, at 바카라사이트 urging of a high school teacher who sensed that my adolescent mind, brimming with questions, would benefit from grappling with a truly radical thinker¡±.

¡°Whe바카라사이트r or not [it] speaks to your condition, I tell my students, 바카라사이트re are o바카라사이트r books that will do so, giving voice to what you have felt but not been able to say, asking your deepest questions, stirring you to more intense life.¡±

Among 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r writers chosen by participants in 바카라사이트 journal¡¯s project are Baudelaire, Beckett, Tennyson, Virgil and Virginia Woolf.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tsleducation.com