Why teach literature?

Abstract

The most obvious counter to the question "Why teach literature?" is, of course, "Why not?" But before going on to think about why not, I'd like to address the question more directly. Somehow the question feels hopeless, like a shrug, and seems to presume that we've come to the end of the line as regards the teaching of literature as a valid university option for the early twenty-first century. In order to examine the future of something, it may be helpful to re-examine its past. The teaching of literature in Britain began in the late-nineteenth and _ early twentieth centuries, and, according to writers such as Terry Eagleton, was entirely ideologically motivated. English literature became part of the academy just as religion was losing its grip. George Gordon, one of the earliest professors of English literature at Oxford University, wrote: "England is sick... English literature must save it." [Excerpt]