What is the point of studying English literature?

[fatrajah 10]

 

Not really. I got nothing of value from studying the subject & I suspect this is also true for the majority. I was hoping for a few replies to convince me otherwise. Not much luck so far though.

[Chris_Sleeps 10]

What books did you study?

[Longcol 604]

Back in the day when I did my "A" level English Lit I was the only lad in a class with about 15 lasses

[wornout53 10]

I studied English literature to O level and it left me with an abiding love of the written word.

[janie48 98]

I loved English literature it introduced me to Dickens, Shakespeare, Jane Austin and Charlotte Bronte.

[skinz 10]

Not really. I got nothing of value from studying the subject & I suspect this is also true for the majority. I was hoping for a few replies to convince me otherwise. Not much luck so far though.

 

 

I suspect you suspect wrong. Using the vast majority of others is a poor claim to inflate your failure to grasp anything from EL.

 

Personally I don't think you'll be convinced. It's the Spanish tourist thing "If I can't have beer n fish n chips I don't want owt".

[hennypenny 10]

My daughter has just completed a year of AS level English Literature at college. She is enthralled with it, loves the subject completely has done loads of wider reading around the subject and it has introduced her to books that she probably wouldn't have read otherwise. She is considering doing English Lit at University now as she is enjoying it so much.

[Staunton 18]

My daughter has just completed a year of AS level English Literature at college. She is enthralled with it, loves the subject completely has done loads of wider reading around the subject and it has introduced her to books that she probably wouldn't have read otherwise. She is considering doing English Lit at University now as she is enjoying it so much.

 

That is great news!

[Jessica23 10]

Are you suggesting that it is necessary to study the subject in order to gain these skills with language etc? I'm sure it is quite possible to do this through life experience, reading books for pleasure & reading the "better" sorts of newspaper.

 

Are you? Ok then. Perhaps something that your extensive life experience and reading for pleasure should have taught you along the way is that it's foolish to dismiss a whole area of knowledge because you didn't find it fun at school, though.

[MadManMoon 10]

I endured 5 years of studying this subject & thought it the most boring & futile subject in the curriculum.

Incidentally, I was taught the subject by the same teacher that had taught Roy Hattersley about 20 years earlier.

 

But the real reason for your post has nothing to do with English Literature but that you were hoping to get a few sarcastic comments on Roy Hattersley:hihi:

[fatrajah 10]

What books did you study?

 

In the last year we studied: Lord Jim, a novel which started well enough, but became unreadable about one third of the way through; Twelfth Night of which I can remember nothing apart from a character called Lancelot Gobbo;

Michael, a long & dreary Wordsworth poem.

[hennypenny 10]

That is great news!

 

Thank you, I think it is Mind you I do think her enjoyment of the subject could have something to do with never having gone to school and so being allowed to explore English herself in her own way, and not having been forced to the slow pace of a group setting, which I think can really dull the fun of the subject. She never got as close to disliking learning as she did when doing her GCSEs, I think they are calculated to kill any love for the subject, but as she was able to do the study over a few weeks rather than years, she managed to not lose her love for learning altogether.