Friday, May 10, 2013

Getting the point — and not …

… Adventures in Neurohumanities | The Nation. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)


Neurohumanities has been positioned as a savior of today’s liberal arts. The Times is able to ask “Can ‘Neuro Lit Crit’ Save the Humanities?” because of the assumption that literary study has descended into cultural irrelevance. Neurohumanities, then, is an attempt to provide the supposedly loosey-goosey art and lit crowds with the metal spines of hard science. 

The humanities, as currently tight, probably don't deserve to be saved. Great literature should be read as a means of forming character. On the other hand, if you want to know what genuine literary scholarship looks like, read Ernst Robert Curtius's European Literature in the Latin MIddle Ages.

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