Weeks 1–2: Studying English

(not) Robert Eaglestone and (not) Jonathan Beecher Field bask in the adulation of English majors

Robert Eaglestone and Jonathan Beecher Field's Studying English: A Guide for Literature Students is the newly-updated version a book that has a lot of traction within our English department, particularly in this course, because it does an excellent job of providing a thoughtful foundation for work in the field and a sense of how that field has changed over time. While I'll miss Doing English, the book it's supplanted — largely for its title's strange and somewhat untoward phrasing — I'm grateful I'll no longer have to read long tangents about British secondary education. Nonetheless, Eaglestone's original introductory note offers some key ideas we don't want to miss.

"People usually set off 'doing English' without thinking about what they are doing in the first place and, perhaps most importantly, why they are doing it," he observes, continuing, "While it sometimes looks as if English is simply the discussion of literature, it is a subject, or a discipline, and this shapes ideas that are often 'below the surface' or taken for granted and are not discussed." Thus the key notion here is for the reader to be actively and mindfully engaged in their navigation of the world of English language and literature. We'll follow his example and consider how we might actively "do" other sorts of related discourses (like audio, video, and visual arts) within the realm of English studies after we finish with his book.

In essence, the book offers three main aims:

• to orientate* you, by explaining what you are doing when you are doing English;
• to equip you, by explaining basic key ideas;
• to encourage you, to explore newer ways of doing English.

And this will be carried out over the book's four sections — which are concerned with how and what we read; the relationship between reading, writing, and meaning; and the ever-changing and growing realm of English studies — before concluding with a consideration of the importance of English. 

Here's our reading schedule for Studying English:

• Wednesday, January 11: Part 1, Ch. 1–3
• Friday, January 13: Part 1, Ch. 4–5; Part 2)
• Monday, January 16: No Class — MLK Day
• Wednesday, January 18: Part 3
• Friday, January 20: Part 4 + Conclusion

* this is the sort of amazing British parlance that's no doubt been purged from the book entirely