tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post113388326179932334..comments2024-03-28T11:03:41.050-05:00Comments on Unlocked Wordhoard: English as a FieldDr. Richard Scott Nokeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01348275071082514870noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-1133977498058202842005-12-07T11:44:00.000-06:002005-12-07T11:44:00.000-06:00It's a Ghostbusters reference. Incidentally, you a...It's a Ghostbusters reference. Incidentally, you aren't the first person to ask about Gozer:<BR/><BR/>Dr. Peter Venkman: [discussing the creature Dana saw in her fridge] Zuul was the minion of Gozer. <BR/>Dana Barrett: What's Gozer? <BR/>Dr. Peter Venkman: Gozer was very big in Sumeria <BR/>Dana Barrett: Well, what's he doing in my ice box? <BR/>Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm working on that.Dr. Richard Scott Nokeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01348275071082514870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-1133940927169299382005-12-07T01:35:00.000-06:002005-12-07T01:35:00.000-06:00Nice post and responses.But could someone please t...Nice post and responses.<BR/><BR/>But could someone please tell me what the heck the minions of Gozer are?Kate Mariehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01340271913937155230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-1133931575652860222005-12-06T22:59:00.000-06:002005-12-06T22:59:00.000-06:00Thanks for such a thoughtful response. That's a r...Thanks for such a thoughtful response. That's a rallying cry I can get behind! (It's certainly much better than standing around waiting for the guys from the EPA to shut down the ghost containment grid, so to speak...)Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06014378351645909573noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-1133891182841953692005-12-06T11:46:00.000-06:002005-12-06T11:46:00.000-06:00Jeff wrote:"I'm a little troubled by the notion th...Jeff wrote:<BR/><BR/>"I'm a little troubled by the notion that young scholars have only 'a sense that something new [and] fresh is in the air.' Shouldn't they of all people have the most specific sense of where all this is going? Shouldn't they be directing the future of their own field?"<BR/><BR/>Well, we ARE working on specific directions, but not everyone agrees, so it takes a critical mass of Young Turks to determine where we are going. Young scholars have the least say in what gets published, who gets hired, how departments are structured, etc., so we have very little influence as individuals.<BR/><BR/>That "sense" out there, is the perception that some critical mass is growing, but beyond that, which position will finally dominate is little more than speculation.<BR/><BR/>If I had to speculate, I'd say that the field is moving toward some synthesis of textual scholarship and formalism. I suspect the big loser will be highly political work of all ideological stripes, particularly identity politics.<BR/><BR/>*shrug* But all that is mostly speculation, partially biased, no doubt, by my push toward textual scholarship. If anyone is waiting for a sign, then perhaps they should consider me Gozer,and this is my sign: <BR/><BR/>The future is textual scholarship! Go forth and consider the material (and electronic) text immediately! I have spoken!Dr. Richard Scott Nokeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01348275071082514870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-1133891052772830062005-12-06T11:44:00.000-06:002005-12-06T11:44:00.000-06:00The most damaging notion is that literary works ca...The most damaging notion is that literary works can perform only as 'representative' of one thing or another (i.e things in which other departments, and 'high theory' have a stake). <BR/><BR/>If texts were first and foremost allowed to speak for themselves, and conceptualised as being creative of effect (rather than as being constructed as unselfconscious repositories of extractable data) a step would have been taken in the right direction.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13713642.post-1133887955857037032005-12-06T10:52:00.000-06:002005-12-06T10:52:00.000-06:00I'm a little troubled by the notion that young sch...I'm a little troubled by the notion that young scholars have only "a sense that something new [and] fresh is in the air." Shouldn't they of all people have the most <I>specific</I> sense of where all this is going? Shouldn't they be directing the future of their own field? Or are they standing around like minions of Gozer, waiting for a sign to tell them what to do?<BR/><BR/>I agree with most of what you've written here. I adjunct occasionally, and I see in my adult undergrads a hunger for art, literature, aesthetic experiences, literary history--heck, even rhetoric and diction, stuff that many English PhDs find boring and old-fashioned. If it takes the field several decades to figure out what Oprah Winfrey already knows and what you've so sensibly outlined not in a manifesto but in a straightforward 500-word blog post, then we're talking about a field that's still far too trend-driven, disconnected, and unsure of its actual purpose to have an exciting future.Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06014378351645909573noreply@blogger.com