What are the humanities?

January 17, 2014 by hannagilley 5 Comments

In the introduction to his book English After the Fall, Scholes explains that English as a disciplinary department in university isn’t so much “useless” as having “been reluctant to define themselves in terms of use.” Which, frankly, is almost saying the same thing. But I understand what Scholes is getting at and this is why he has learned to adapt to the change and needs of his students. This is where he introduces his ideas of “textuality.” He states that English and Literature should not only be the study of books and poetry, but also film and digital media. To broaden the studies in an English discipline is to give it more meaning and “usefulness.” This is the state of the Humanities (including English) are in today: constant change and expansion to mirror an ever changing and fast-paced world in and out of University. 

Which leads me to my next though. The writers at the Huffington Post explain their positions as bloggers. Personally, I’ve never had a blog or read many blogs. But their argument, if you could call it that since there are over one million blogs today, is sound. In this hectic world, the attention span of the writer’s audience is minimal and fickle. Like a tweet on Twitter needs to be 140 characters or less, a blog needs to be informative yet interesting, detailed but not lengthy and most important, it needs to be relevant and even slightly ahead of the curve. Blogs are a way for any person to quickly publish their viewpoints on literally everything and anything. Arianna Huffington, the founder of one of the biggest blog sites says, “Anytime you get lots of eyeballs in one place, there is money to be made”(pg.18). Huffington was referring to the advertisement of blogging and other media such as news print and televisions news broadcasts. 

However that led me to another thought. Nussbaum claims that Humanities are taking the fall and financial cuts because students are being pressured to study other fields such as mathematics, engineering and technology at University because these are the courses and degrees that will lead to a higher profit for the U.S. in the global market. I’m not sure about you, but I’m not surprised by this sentiment. She says that the humanities, if studied, offer a more compassionate, open-minded and well rounded person integral to a successful democracy a thriving country. “Students of art and literature also learn to imagine the situations of others, a capacity that is essential for a successful democracy, a necessary cultivation of our “inner eyes.” 

Being a lover of language, culture and literary studies, I could not agree more with this statement of Nussbaum: The worldwide crisis in education is that students are made to be “useful machines rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves.” She wishes to “cultivate compassion” and “strengthen solidarity”(pg. 21). Students of the Humanities are not well oiled machines ready to work hard for the monetary profit of the country. Students of the humanities have read, studied, traveled, seen and experienced culture therefore have a broadened mind of the success of not only country, but of man and inner self.