Associate Professor, Department of English, The IIS University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. Email id: rimikasinghvi@gmail.com
Online published on 25 July, 2016.
This paper seeks to explore how literary theory can confront a central issue of our time – the future of higher education – by attempting to examine contemporary debates about the role of the humanities in the twenty-first century. A historical analysis reveals that the humanities have almost always been characterised as being in “crisis”, revealing the recurring concern that their traditional orientation has been ruined by esoteric theory and political correctness. The social and cultural values of a humanities education are, in fact, most effectively taught in courses that emphasise theoretical thinking, sensitivity to social justice and the ability to use scholarly and critical methodologies. The university in general and the humanities in particular have a special obligation to question and challenge those assumptions in contemporary culture that would otherwise go unquestioned. In arguing that the vitality of the liberal arts derives from their capacity to question the dominant trends, the continuing relevance of humanistic literary criticism seems assured.
Theoretical assumptions, Critical methodologies, Literary studies, Humanistic literary criticism, Literary theory, Pedagogy, Meaning-making
