That’s all I need from it for this class, a section of a required course known as Lit Core, the one literature class that almost all of the university’s undergraduates take, regardless of major. The now-widespread institution of a class in which undergraduates talk about literature didn’t begin to become normal until after the 1960s. Still, the decline has encouraged talk of a crisis of the humanities, and questions in particular about the role of literature in the college curriculum. It’s easier to see that process operating in advanced classes, where students are more likely to have already defined objectives for themselves, but it happens even in a required freshman literature class. A handful of students in the class decide to major or minor in English, but for many this is their one experience of a college literature class.

Source: Washington Post October 20, 2020 13:18 UTC