Studying English
From Robert Eaglestone, Doing English: A Guide for Literature Students, 3rd edn (Oxford: Routledge, 2009)
- “English deals with texts, certainly, but not just with what we read. It also explores how we read. It is concerned with the interpretationof texts and ideas that arise from interpretation. The French writer and thinkerMichel de Montaigne (1533-1592) wrote that ‘we need to interpret interpretations more than we interpret things, and how we interprettexts, whether they are novels, TV advertisements, political speeches (or anything), is absolutely central to the world today. Moreover, exploring how we read is also ‘learning about learning’ and so adds to a wider range of skills and ideas that will continually develop through life. The expertise in interpreting texts and thinking about interpretation that you learn from English may be applied in other fields.
- Once we are aware of different ways of interpreting texts, it becomes clear that there isno neutral, objective approachto literature. In turn, this means that there could be no single method of doing English, new or traditional, and no single correct interpretation. […] English is a pluralist subject (it accepts a wide range of approaches) and is open-ended— ‘doing’ English is never ‘done’.
- Because of its development and content, English is a very diffuse subject. In one sense it is an ‘under-labourer’ to other disciplines; not just because it teaches skills of literacy, writing and reflection, but because it examines interpretation, which is vital for other subjects on the curriculum But English is also a subject where a huge range of ideas is played with, constructed, taken apart, argued over and so on. It reflects the infinite scope that literature displays, and should, perhaps, demonstrate this flexibility more frequently. A consequence of this ‘diffuseness’ is the endless controversy surrounding English. Because the subject has no one obvious core, everybody with an agenda wants to claim that the particular issues that concern them are central to English.
- English, as culture and as a subject that studies culture, isinvolved with our relationships with others and with the world.Culture is woven inextricably into how we get along and has far-reaching effects in the wider world. A consequence of this is that English is not just about texts, but also about you, about others and about the nature of society.
- None of this is to argue that in English ‘anything goes’. Looking at texts, interpretation and a wide range of significant ideas, then relating this to our cultures and societies, involves knowledge and careful thought. Perhaps most of all it involves constantly takingresponsibilityfor each interpretation. English also asksWhydo you think that about the text?”
(pp. 147-148).
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