What is the point of studying English literature?

[llamatron 10]

When I bump into those from school who found books boring they're still the same, stunted eg their lives are footie, beer and not much grasp of life outside their bubble. The readers are all like me, sophisticated wits and raconteurs with jobs paying more than 20K.

 

There is a difference between finding books boring and finding analysis of books boring. I love reading, but I don't like over analysing any book or poem, particularly in a group discussion way. I may muse on a book to myself, I may argue with others about how good it is and what I liked about it but I don't want to write an essay explaining what the examiners think the author meant when he/she wrote this line or that line, I would rather just enjoy the line!

 

I have such painful memories of "digging" and "Blackberry Picking"

 

Loved Macbeth when I finally read it a week before the exam, I have no idea what I was doing whilst the class were reading that one or how I got through the practice homework questions up to that point:huh: I guess I must have had a study guide that told you what the examiners wanted you to think about each question!

Edited September 2, 2013 by llamatron

[Uptowngirl 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.

 

Woy seems to have done OK by it all. Perhaps if you followed his lead you could become a millionaire and live in a nice house at Great Longstone.

[Ridgeway84 10]

There is a difference between finding books boring and finding analysis of books boring. I love reading, but I don't like over analysing any book or poem, particularly in a group discussion way. I may muse on a book to myself, I may argue with others about how good it is and what I liked about it but I don't want to write an essay explaining what the examiners think the author meant when he/she wrote this line or that line, I would rather just enjoy the line!

 

I have such painful memories of "digging" and "Blackberry Picking"

 

Loved Macbeth when I finally read it a week before the exam, I have no idea what I was doing whilst the class were reading that one or how I got through the practice homework questions up to that point:huh: I guess I must have had a study guide that told you what the examiners wanted you to think about each question!

 

Fair enough. However the next illiterate who says would of instead of would have will be traced and placed in a shallow grave.

[spilldig 188]

hang on hang on 1963? lol

 

couldnt bring something up slightly newer? even the moon landings is new compared

 

Yes, but people left school in 1963 able to read and write correctly.

[aliceBB 10]

Yes, but people left school in 1963 able to read and write correctly.

 

With the greatest of respect, that's rubbish. They didn't. There are (proportionately) just as many people in their 60s who read the Sun and struggle to express themselves clearly in a formal context (which is what I think you are talking about), than there are 16 year olds today.

 

However, by 'correctly' I think you mean 'in standard English'. If you knew anything about linguistics you would know that there is no such thing as 'correct' or 'incorrect' language. What is appropriate and effective as far as language us goes is wholly dependent on context.

[cressida 1,561]

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

 

Same here

[alchresearch 214]

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

 

I took Eng Lit as as GCSE and we didn't go near any of those.

[Gleadly 11]

I did O levels about that time and never touched english lit.

 

I had enough problems with english language, and I'm 100% english.

 

Mind you, I did play a part in 12th night. Now who was that by??

[spilldig 188]

With the greatest of respect, there is no such thing as 'correct' or 'incorrect' language.

 

That says it all really, doesn't it.

[Eccentric 10]

in a shallow grave.

 

Very good, that. By James Purdy, one of the few Americans worth reading.

 

---------- Post added 03-09-2013 at 20:05 ----------

 

However, by 'correctly' I think you mean 'in standard English'. If you knew anything about linguistics you would know that there is no such thing as 'correct' or 'incorrect' language. What is appropriate and effective as far as language us goes is wholly dependent on context.

 

I, on the other hand, know an awful lot about linguistics, and I think you are over-generalising the argument by not distinguishing ‘competence’ from ‘performance’. Chomsky would never deny that language can be correct; that is why grammar exists.

In effect, what you are referring to is Gumperz’ concept of ‘code switching’, or call it diglossia if you like. What one must take into account in this case is that many people have no access to / mastery of the other ‘codes’. Basil Bernstein already described this in the fifties. Lower-educated people tend to possess a ‘restricted code’ — which simply means that their form of language does not conform to the correct norm (irrespective of what your enlightened definition of ‘correct’ might be). Inability to switch to the ‘elaborated code’ bars them from access to a society whose higher echelons identify one another by dint of said ‘code’. Thus: if you strive to climb the social ladder, you must learn to speak posher.

[Hillpig 10]

When I bump into those from school who found books boring they're still the same, stunted eg their lives are footie, beer and not much grasp of life outside their bubble. The readers are all like me, sophisticated wits and raconteurs with jobs paying more than 20K.

 

Are you really on £20k? Wow. Just shows you there are some employers who are really nice to the daft lads.

[blake 10]

Eng Lit was always reckoned to be one of the easier of the main subjects. If you were bright academically but decided that you wanted to concentrate more on drinking and womanising as an undergraduate than actually studying and doing much work, you might choose Eng Lit, over say physics. You knew you could doss it and still get a decent degree.