"Conservative" English programs

[JustAnotherModernGuy]

I also believe that it is worthwhile to learn from people who you disagree with--even if you never end up changing your mind. What better way to learn how to argue against what you don't agree with? Or--at the risk of sounding a little too holistic--what better way to, you know, just flat-out learn?

Glasses,

Yes--this is an excellent point and one I'm currently learning. Previously I would dogmatically claim that "Book history sucks--I want to interpret literature, not claim to do empirical analysis on the history of the book-object." I'm now taking a course which is very concerned with reader response and book history. By the end of the term, particularly after presenting on William St. Clair's The Reading Nation, I'm sure I'll have a much more intellectually rigorous reason to support my initial gut reaction.

I will be better prepared if/when I give a paper on V Woolf/J Rhys/whoever and some book historian asks, "V Woolf/J Rhys/whoever really wasn't read that much and thus could not have had a significant effect on X; why aren't you working on author Z, whose texts were circulating at a rate of 150:1 to the one you discuss?"

The New Historicists, frustrated by their New Critical teachers, learned of the limitations of a strict formalist approach to literature. The New Formalists, frustrated by their New Historian teachers, are starting to see their teachers' limitations too. Why not learn the specific limitations of the people you are skeptical about? This might help you argue against (or reform) their projects.