English Education: The Critical Imagination, Terror, and Totalitarianism

Abstract

In T. S. Eliot's (1950) play Murder in the Cathedral, the Archbishop of Canterbury, engaged in a of wills with his monarch Henry II, confronts three tempters. After the last tempter speaks, the Archbishop ruminates: last temptation is the greatest treason / To do the right thing for the wrong reason (196). We teachers of literature and composition believe we are doing the right thing by teaching literary analysis and encouraging our students to assume the intellectual rigor of serious study of the language arts. However, we seldom justify the teaching of these courses with reasons other than the practical ones of going to college or finding a job. In our dollar-driven world, this single-vision, to borrow William Blake's phrase, is eminently natural, but is it the only, the best, or the right reason? In recent years, I have attempted, in remarks primarily intended for teachers of advanced placement literature and composition courses but relevant to all language arts instructors, to clarify our justifications for teaching literature and composition courses. Of course, most of us would agree that the worlds of language and imagination have inherent worth. Although Immanuel Kant's argument for the aesthetic response has less currency in our theory-driven world than it once did, somewhere deep in our souls many of us, perhaps secretly, delight in Marianne Moore's (1990) imaginary gardens with real toads (1318). However, without losing sight of the sheer pleasure of imaginary gardens, I have, in the past, challenged instructors to remember that teaching literature and composition to students offers them other-less concrete but, nonetheless, practical-rewards, such as empowerment, selfunderstanding, and effective communication skills. The relevance of the kind of thinking and writing most literature and composition courses require, exemplified at the advanced levels by the advanced placement examinations, seem questionable not only to teachers and administrators but also to our students. Since the collapse of Enron and WorldCom, since the indictments of stock analysts and traders, and especially since September 11, we Americans struggle to cope with a loss of innocence comparable to that which horrified the world in 1917. In the space of a few hours after the collapse of the World Trade Center, we realized that the bombing of our embassy in Sudan, the attack on the battleship Cole, and the killing of our soldiers in Saudi Arabia all represented what Bernard Lewis (2001), the distinguished Princeton professor of history, calls the clash of civilizations. Herein this of values lies one of the right reasons for engaging students in literature courses, even if it means simply having them discuss passages from literature and analyze characterizations and plot structures.