The Value of Literature

In my last post, I stated that I believed that what I taught was important and that I wanted to protect the study of literature.  I did not explain why I thought that, which I intend to do in this post.  Be aware, I am not going to cite studies that say business owners often look to hire English students or studies that indicate our current government’s attempt to direct what is taught (and researched) in our post-secondary schools is ill-conceived because the traits that make someone desirable to hire are most frequently traits fostered in the Humanities.  Those studies exist, but I am going to talk about why I think the study of literature is important.  As I see it, I am not training my students to improve their chances of getting hired, though that is a wonderful secondary advantage of studying English.  Instead, I am helping to develop thoughtful, critical, engaged citizens who are able to interpret, analyze, and synthesize information.  I say “helping to develop” because I am only a guide; it is the students who must do the work.

Some of what I will say is applicable to all education, some to the Arts, and some only to what I do in the classroom.  I am writing only from my experience behind the podium (or pacing in front of the classroom).  In this way, the post could be dismissed as purely anecdotal.  That’s fine.  In some ways, I am trying to explain why I love what I do.

I truly want my students to fall in love with the written and spoken word as much I have.  I know that will not be possible for every student, but I make an effort to make every student an English major.  I do so because I love it, because I enjoy it, and because literature has become an integral part of my life.  I earnestly hope that literature becomes a large part of my students’ lives, too, even if they don’t become English majors.

So what value do I see in literature that it is worth protecting from the thoughtless, destructive cuts of the Redford government?  As an undergraduate, my life was changed because I studied literature.  I became more compassionate, more understanding, more thoughtful.  I learned to value difference, not just to “tolerate” it.  I learned how our perceptions of reality are shaped by the language we use (or by the language that uses us).  That life-changing experience has a value that Mr. Lukaszuk has no time for; it produces no immediate money.

While I was doing my MA, I learned the value of community.  I learned how much I could learn from friends who shared similar interests.  I learned the joy of meeting, in person, authors I greatly admired.  I began to understand that the Canadian Literature I loved wasn’t a collection of books but a huge community of people, not always in agreement, but always passionate about literature.

I wrote my PhD dissertation on the ethics of absence in Canadian prairie literature.  That is a topic that could never be turned into the kind of profit Mr. Lukaszuk would like to see.  But it was a topic that inspired me, and in a course I now teach on occasion--Literature and Nothingness--I hope to bring the same passion to the classroom that I brought to writing that dissertation.  I want my students to share that passion--or find their own.

The poetry I now study and frequently teach could be called “avant-garde” or “innovative” or “experimental.”  Well, here’s a sample of the kind of poetry I most enjoying reading and teaching:  http://mediamogul.seas.upenn.edu/pennsound/video/Stefans/Kluge/_FILES/a_car_drives/index.htm.  Here’s another example:  http://ubumexico.centro.org.mx/sound/bok/Bok-Christian_from-Motorized-Razors.mp3  Really, I just recommend that you take a week off and explore ubu.com.

Why do I like “reading” and teaching that work?  First of all, it’s funny.  Secondly, all of the training I have had is almost useless when encountering work like that or aleatory verse, for example.  I have to think of new reading strategies, different approaches to finding meaning in the work.  I have to become creative as a “reader.”

Will any of my students ever be hired to provide a manager with an analysis of Christian Bök’s “Motorized Razors”?  Never.  Clearly, then, having students engage with “difficult,” fun poetry is of no value because you can’t pump oil with a sound poem.  I can’t imagine any employer interested in hiring a person trained to encounter the difficult and bizarre, and develop creative, innovative approaches to what seems unapproachable.

Mostly, I hope you take some time and explore ubu.com.  I also hope that this weekend, Mr. Lukaszuk is able to sit down and relax with a sound poem that I would like to send to him, personally.  It says just about everything I wish I could say to him:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnuTeB5o6y0