The Humanities Crisis and the Future of Literary Studies [Hardcover]

Demonstrating that the supposed drawbacks of the humanities are in fact their source of practical value, Jay explores current debates about the role of the humanities in higher education, puts them in historical context, and offers humanists and their supporters concrete ways to explain the practical value of a contemporary humanities education.1. The Humanities Crisis Then and Now 2. Professionalism and Its Discontents 3. Humanism, the Humanities, and Political Correctness 4. Getting to the Core of the Humanities, or Who's Afraid of Gloria Anzald?a? 5. Aesthetics, Close Reading, Theory, and the Future of Literary Studies 6. The Humanities and the Public Sphere in the Age of the Internet

What the world needs now is a defense of the humanities that puts the past thirty or forty years of literary criticism and theory front and center. Seriously. All too often, when scholars in the humanities try to explain their work to a skeptical or curious public, they revert to the anodyne language of the liberal arts brochure, as if it would be bad PR to talk about 'the contingency of value' or as if everyone would like us if we simply issued an apology: 'turns out we were wrong the sign is not arbitrary after all.' Thankfully, Paul Jay is having none of it. The Humanities Crisis and the Future of Literary Studies reminds me (and will remind you) how our understanding of the humanities has been enriched by interpretive theories and new social movements and why their varieties of critical thinking are valuable in and out of the classroom. Any humanist hoping to engage with a skeptical or curious public should read this book. - Michael B?rub?, Director, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Pennsylvania State University, USA

The word on the street today is that the humanities are in crisis, partly because of shrinking budgets and job-conscious students, partly because 'theory' has allegedly turned those students off. In this sharply argued book, Paull“'