“The Academic Apocalypse” by Ross Douthat: New York Times columnist feels existential dread, because study of literature is in midst of collapse
“This column tries to keep its cool, but last week I briefly surrendered to crisis and existential dread…How did I enter this apocalyptic mood?…by downloading a package of essays from The Chronicle of Higher Education…
“The package’s title is a single word, ‘Endgame,’ and its opening text reads like the crawl for a disaster movie. ‘The academic study of literature is no longer on the verge of field collapse. It’s in the midst of it.’ Jobs are disappearing, subfields are evaporating, enrollment has tanked, and…the custodians of humanism are ‘befuddled and without purpose.’ ”
Multiple Identity Literary Theory could invigorate the academic study of literature, if it is not too late.
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