Literature Lost : Social Agendas and the Corruption of the Humanities / John M. Ellis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ellis, John M., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Humanities--Evaluation--Study and teaching (Higher)--United States.

Humanities.

Humanities--Political aspects--United States.

Political correctness--History--United States.

Political correctness.

Humanities--United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 p.)

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2008]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the span of less than a generation, university humanities departments have experienced an almost unbelievable reversal of attitudes, now attacking and undermining what had previously been considered best and most worthy in the Western tradition. John M. Ellis here scrutinizes the new regime in humanistic studies. He offers a careful, intelligent analysis that exposes the weaknesses of notions that are fashionable in humanities today. In a clear voice, with forceful logic, he speaks out against the orthodoxy that has installed race, gender, and class perspectives at the center of college humanities curricula.Ellis begins by showing that political correctness is a recurring impulse of Western society and one that has a discouraging history. He reveals the contradictions and misconceptions that surround the new orthodoxy and demonstrates how it is most deficient just where it imagines itself to be superior. Ellis contends that humanistic education today, far from being historically aware, relies on anachronistic thinking; far from being skeptical of Western values, represents a ruthless and unskeptical Western extremism; far from being valuable in bringing political perspectives to bear, presents politics that are crude and unreal; far from being sophisticated in matters of "theory," is largely ignorant of the range and history of critical theory; far from valuing diversity, is unable to respond to the great sweep of literature. In a concluding chapter, Ellis surveys the damage that has been done to higher education and examines the prospects for change.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1.The Origins of Political Correctness

2. The Diversity of Literature

3. Gender, Politics, and Criticism

4. The Academic Politics of Race

5. Class and Perfect Egalitarianism

6. Activism and Knowledge

7. Power, Objectivity, and PC Logic

8. Is Theory to Blame?

9. How Did It All Happen-and What Comes Next?

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780300144192

0300144199

OCLC:

1024005697