Abstract

his essay resumes a discussion that began in 1992, when Gary Tate and I debated the place of literature in Freshman English during the annual meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Those presentations, revised for College English, appeared in the March 1993 issue and generated several responses, four of which were published in the October 1993 issue. At that time, neither Tate nor I wished to respond to the responses, for our purpose had been to engage teachers in an important discussion about the nature and purpose of the first-year course. Having taken our turn in the conversation, we wanted others to have their say. What they said was revealing. Most of the responses in College English take exception, not to Tate's position (that literature belongs in Freshman English), but to mine (that it does not). Though you will want to read the four responses as they originally appeared, let me abstract their principal claims here: