Aegis 2013
14
art. Most academic writing in the humanities, I feel, has become ossified and stultifying: jargon-laden, often impenetrable, ideologically narrow, excruciatingly didactic and ‘groupthinky.’ I wanted to move away from that and did. For me, however eccentric, a more autobiographical kind of writing was the answer—a great liberation. (I also made art-making and the visual a much more central part of my creative life.) This turn toward the personal—likewise my interest in making images and blogging about it— no doubt has had a lot to do with my growing skepticism regarding the long-term survival of academic English studies. Many top-flight English departments have lately begun hemorrhaging majors—and, in particular, majors engaged in the historical and philological aspects of the subject. The economy no doubt has something to do with it. But more and more students would much rather do ‘creative writing’ than study the history of the English language over the centuries or familiarize themselves with the great authors of the past. I don’t see a robust future thus—I’m sorry to say—for literary history as an academic discipline. We English professors are caught in the endgame. Yes, kids! I am a cultural pessimist! A real Debbie Downer! [Laughs.] To steal a line from a friend, the issue for me isn’t whether the glass is half-full or half-empty: actually it’s already smashed on the ground and one’s drink is all over the floor. So you might want to take some of my maunderings here with at least a teensy grain of salt. I hope you will prove me wrong! [Laughs again]