Wednesday, 3/5/97
English department should give American writers a voice
British-based 10 series could use an American counterpart
By Tommy Nguyen
Jesus! Who knew English would spark such an on going polemic?
Ever since that first feature article questioned the diversity of
the English department’s curriculum, there have been no less than
three Viewpoint responses.
Although I think the exposure is great for the major, I would
have to say it’s all a bit overstated. I say this, thoroughly
believing that there is nothing out there – certainly not canons,
curricula, or syllabi – preventing us from reading what we want to
read. I know the English major requires you to read a lot; but it
is equally true that if you are a serious reader, reading a lot has
made you become an English major in the first place. So if you do
not find a favorite book on your professor’s reading list, your
spare time should be readily available to compensate your
losses.
I realize, however, that spare time won’t be enough to satisfy
everyone’s qualms with the major, for many of us demand a letter
grade for what we read, and many of us don’t read unless we get
one. I hope this doesn’t represent the majority of English majors.
Besides, if you’re just after a superficial grade, this discussion
shouldn’t concern you, since it shouldn’t matter what type of
literature you read.
But to many of us what we read does matter, and with that we
should naturally move on to the flip side of the argument: some
courses force us to read texts we don’t want to read. It should be
generally admitted that every major has core classes we’d rather
avoid, and the English department forces us to read canon authors
because they know most of us will not read them by our own
volition.
They’re right. I haven’t met one English major who has made a
conscious effort to avoid all marginalized authors: women, Native
Americans, gays, etc. But I have seen hordes of students descending
from the sky doing their best to avoid Milton and Chaucer – and
unfortunately, I’m one of them. It’s unfortunate, because I know
reading more literature has never hurt anybody, and in fact one
grows stronger from it. Even reading an essay by T.S. Eliot (that
racist) can be beneficial, since it is added empowerment for us to
learn first hand the very ideas we oppose. For example, atheists
who have read the Bible are far more impressive than the ones who
have not.
Though the major is called English, it is certainly not called
"British" or "British Writers and Their Culture." And here is where
my role as an apologist comes to a dead end. English is a language
that has a rich, traceable legacy in literature. American
vernacular is one among many traditions participating in it.
My only gripe against the 10 series (a survey of British
authors) is that there is no American series to match it. I agree
that every English department should have preparatory survey
courses. But, in the last century or so, there has been no other
voice that has articulated the English language more prolifically
and more diversely than American literature. Any adequate survey
program must offer a Henry James for every Chaucer, a Faulkner for
every Shakespeare, and a Toni Morrison for every Virginia
Woolf.
An American series would solve a lot of diversity problems from
the beginning, since by its very nature American literature is much
more pluralistic than its British counterpart.
But even I’m a bit weary of my own suggestions; because
realistically, those of us who are more concerned with the written
text, rather than the insides of book jackets and popular
estimations, simply go on reading.
We will leave you canon agitators and defenders with what you do
best – in the meantime we’ll read the books for you and tell you
how they all turned out. We’re throwing it all in and we’re reading
it all, and we’re going to finish, knowing the endings to stories
we like and don’t like. But in any case, our final assessments,
hopefully, will only be derived from the good of the written work
in front of us.Nguyen is a fourth-year English student.