Justifying
My
English (Arts) Degree:
Litany for the Fact-Based Critic
Preface
What is the point of an English degree? What does it really offer? Once you have one, what do you do next?
These are questions that many English majors have more than likely attempted to answer at some point in their educational career. On too many occasions, I have been cornered by, what I will call, the “fact-based” critics. They could care less about my explanations of the importance of passing on culture and understanding social dilemmas and change through literature. It is for this reason that I have devoted my time and energy to recording what appears in this section. While I have never really questioned the validity or purpose of my English degree, it is pleasant to be constantly reassured of the substance of one’s learning, especially in the face of doubt. I hope to accumulate an arsenal of historical and physical evidence to use in defense against the harshest of these critics.
Litany for the Fact-Based Critic
- Courtier à respected subjects of the court
o Had to be accomplished in music, drawing, sport, dance/fighting, poetry
o Must display moral and spiritual elegance
§ Only way to attain this is through wide-spread reading and understanding of literary culture
- Power, in the Elizabethan period, came from mastery of the skills involved in an Arts degree
o The monarch was required to be proficient in reading, writing, interpretation, etc.
o No disconnect between literary and political activity
- Humanism à artistic, intellectual, and cultural movement
o Focus on educational reformà attacked Scholasticism
o Trivium and Quadrivium
§ Trivium was the first stage of learning and the base for future learning
· Wholly focused on language skills
· Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric
§ Quadrivium (The Four Paths)
· Science side
· Arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy
o The base of all education is rooted in the Arts!
- In high school, English is mandatory until Gr. 12, while science becomes optional after Gr. 10
- All science students in university must take a certain number of arts courses to fulfill the requirements of their degree
- The Globe Theatre was one of the first corporate entities
o Started by Shakespeare, a literary icon
o More to literary culture than reading and books, to get involved in literary culture you had to have an economic base
- Skilled educators were needed to establish transnational trade routes
o These were hybrid people who could be courtiers, soldiers, diplomats, and poets all at once
o Pivotal in developing the “backwaters” of Europe into global centersà affects all of us in the present era
- My girlfriend applied for medical school this year; most schools required a full credit of English at the university level
o Ahh! What a cathartic experience, watching her get a taste of close reading, papers, and essay-based exams after giving me the gears about my degree… Revenge is sweet!
- Sir Francis Bacon created the theory of inductive reasoning
o Bacon was an icon in literary culture
§ Thomas Jefferson claimed he was one of the greatest men that every lived, alongside John Locke and Isaac Newton
o Literary culture created the scientific method… you’re welcome scientists!
- Ethical Argumentà Linking human action with knowledge
o Action is a form of knowing àpoetry is action
§ Knowledge à Action à Poetry
§ Cannot separate poetic invention from knowledge
o Cannot simply talk about virtue, it must be enacted
§ Ex. Story about Sir Philip Sidney
· When bleeding to death on the battlefield, was offered water and said to give it to someone more in need, as he knew he was about to die.
· Exemplifying the poetic theory he discusses
· His actionsàpoeticàvirtuous
- The ability to reason comes from the articulation of different views, and in order to articulate you must be familiar with the basic language and writing skills
- Music and math are intimately linked
o Pythagoras used music (string length and tone) to develop theories on ratios and proportions
