Ten years ago in The Rise and Fall of English, I argued that the fall of English studies might be fortunate if the field could be reconstituted as a discipline. That no longer seems possible to me. In this article, I therefore argue for a shift from a field organized around the concept of literature to one organized around textuality: the production and reception of texts in all the media that use the English language. This will only be possible if we first recognize that English studies has really fallen.

Commentary| April 01 2002 The Transition to College Reading Robert Scholes Robert Scholes Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Pedagogy (2002) 2 (2): 165–172. https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-2-2-165 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Robert Scholes; The Transition to College Reading. Pedagogy 1 April 2002; 2 (2): 165–172. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-2-2-165 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsPedagogy Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2002 Duke University Press2002 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

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It is tempting to read the French printer's creative typography as an allegory of contemporary education: pigs on the right, dogs on the left, and a of cultures timidly trying to find a place among them. Are all those creatures perhaps feeding on the rotting carcass of Civilization? Other interpretations may well occur to you. Feel free-this is not a classic text; it lacks authority and intentionality. My own reading of it, however, reminds me of what a contested field education is today, how polarized and politicized it has become, how difficult it is to speak reasonably and effectively about a coherent core of study for college students. Nevertheless, this is just what I propose to undertake. Specifically, I hope to explain just why such concepts as Great Books and Western Civ cannot really solve the problem of our flock of cultures, and then I shall go on to make a trivial proposal for a different core of humanistic study for college students. The arrogance of such a gesture is all too apparent. In my own defense I can only say that it is accompanied by a comparable amount of humility. I do not expect to solve our problems here, only to advance our discussion of them beyond the point of mutual accusations and recriminations.

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