English for Dummies

In his essay, "The Rise of the English," Terry Eagleton describes the unfavorable attitude of society toward the study of English in the late 19th century. He quotes a Royal Commission witness as saying that English literature "might be considered a suitable subject for 'women...and second- and third- rate men (24)'" Eagleton goes on to explain that English studies were considered inheritantly feminine, in their attempts to "soften" and "humanize" the working class. Eagleton writes "the rise of English in English ran parallel to the gradual, grudging admission of women to the institutions of higher education; and since English was an untaxing sort of affair, concerned with the finer inner feelings rather than with the more virile topics of bona fide academic 'disciplines', it seemed a convenient sort of non-subject to palm off on the ladies (24)."

Science, math, philosophy, even philology, were considered worthy of serious intellect, of meaningful pursuit--of men. But English was seen as the silly little niche for the inferior class (women, of course, amongst them). But that Royal commissions quote was from 1877...surely attitudes are not the same. English studies must be considered something other than trivial, mustn't they? Eagleton propones that there were far fewer Sir Walter Raleighs after Wilfred Owen. While this is true, and there are far less credible sources lambasting English as a sort of willy-nilly study, I would argue that there is a prejudice against literary studies in general that is deep-seated in the minds of many people, even those at university.

I have encountered, throughout undergraduate and graduate studies, many students, even English majors themselves, who regard science and math as "hard" majors, and English as a relatively "soft" one, sometimes even touted as "useless." Indeed, holytaco.com lists "The Ten Most Worthless College Majors"; though Religion is number one, English is up there at number four (Dance, incidentally, is number five). Holytaco.com can't understand the point of being an English major when "someone can spend a weekend with a box of Cliff’s Notes and have only a slightly less conversational knowledge of what you spent 4 years studying."

This goes to show how deep-seated some prejudices are, and that the dogma of 1877 still exists, among the ignorant, today.