Closing thoughts on Scholes

So far Scholes’ book has been the most interesting and enlightening of the books we have read thus far in the semester.  Upon finishing The Rise and Fall of English I can truly say I have come away with some knowledge of the problems in English studies and how it is possible to fix them.  Scholes [...]

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Yay for History!

I must admit that when I first read Scholes’ proposition for a new General Education course in Chapter Four, I was confused and a little angry. System and Dialectic? Representation and Objectivity? A new focus on grammar!?!?! It seemed to me as if Scholes was proposing a return to the classical-studies colleges of the 19th [...]

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Real World Intertextuality

I know that I wasn’t the only person from this class to spend Monday with Dr. Daggett; not only did I see some of you there, but I also witnessed how far-reaching his presentation was after seeing a front-page newspaper article on the man.  My final reaction: wonderful speaker, frightening connections, great arguments, unclear direction.  [...]

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It is a fortunate fall

I’ve already established that I like Scholes- and that his style is, for me, consistently alluring and attention-keeping. I wasn’t let down by the second half of the book, though I admit that the number of tabs in the first half of the book far exceeds the number of even underlined portions in the latter [...]

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You want the truth?

While I truly enjoy Schole’s style of writing and ways of presenting the subject matter much better than Graff’s, I have to admit I was a little confused by his notions of “truth” in English studies. I felt that he spent so much time discussing the importance of truth in English studies that he never [...]

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Raw Chaos

The skill of a writer is a happy one because it is based upon play.
Ah, Robert Scholes. You’ve descended into my life like a whimsical breath of fresh air, bringing with you dangling preludes of change and evolution tangled between scholastic facts and personal revelations. You dazzle me, the eager reader, with chance and possibility, [...]

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The Needs of Students

I hate to admit that this book has brought out the sentimental literary fool in me, but so be it. It is so refreshing to me to read a book by a person who so clearly loves the discipline. Unlike Graff’s often detached and elitist tone, Scholes presents this narrative as a deep [...]

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The truth and nothing but the truth

In my opinion, Scholes’ book, The Rise and Fall of English, is not only the most comprehensive, but also the most interesting book we have read thus far in the semester.  As I read the first half of his book, I could tell that for Scholes the subject of English studies is a very personal [...]

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Order, Not Subtraction

Scholes provides an overview of the rise of English disciplinary history in his first chapter.  In his introduction to Yale, he says the following:

In 1767, English grammar, language, and composition were introduced by the tutors, who taught these subjects.  In 1768 a literary and debating society was established by the students.  In 1776 instruction in [...]

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