> now, eng lit comes with trigger warnings. You can't read half the canon because it's racist or classist or sexist.
This is a gross misrepresentation both of what trigger warnings are for and what the actual relationship of undergraduates and courses to the texts are. And it's undoubtedly based on nonsense coming out of a very small number of American universities.
Cambridge have gone freestyle: https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/cours... "Uniquely, we do not have a syllabus: instead, students work with their supervisors to devise a programme of study for themselves. There are few English departments left in the world that allow you to study the full historical range of literature in English, and we pride ourselves on the strong grounding this gives our students."
"In the first two years of your degree, you cover the full historical sweep of literature written in the English language from the medieval period to the present day" - this sounds like a really large amount of work!
So what you're saying is I exaggerated for effect? Undeniable.
Do you think a modern 2020s student experience is like mine, or yours? I think it's both harder (higher expectations, more course width) and potentially lower value (increased competition) and arguably less fun.
Aside from pointing out my hyperbole, what do you think to the primary question?
This is a gross misrepresentation both of what trigger warnings are for and what the actual relationship of undergraduates and courses to the texts are. And it's undoubtedly based on nonsense coming out of a very small number of American universities.
Oxford are still doing a traditional course which is Beowulf in the first part and Victorians in the second: https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate-admiss... / https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/victorian_l...
Cambridge have gone freestyle: https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/cours... "Uniquely, we do not have a syllabus: instead, students work with their supervisors to devise a programme of study for themselves. There are few English departments left in the world that allow you to study the full historical range of literature in English, and we pride ourselves on the strong grounding this gives our students."
"In the first two years of your degree, you cover the full historical sweep of literature written in the English language from the medieval period to the present day" - this sounds like a really large amount of work!
A far more serious threat to English Literature is not the "cancellation" of individual authors but the wholesale actual cancellation of courses: https://metro.co.uk/2022/06/27/sheffield-hallam-university-s...
> Now, 75% of the age group go to uni
It's only just gone over 50%. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-49841620
(I was the last generation to get a student grant, but I had a small loan for living expenses)