Apologies not Accepted! The Prospect of English Studies and a Postmodern Apology of Literature

The One Serious Philosophical Problem Throughout the two-millennium history of literary criticism, it has been deeply felt that literature, as an intellectual enterprise aspiring to achieve institutional status, has always been tormented by an existential angst: it has been forced to grapple with the fundamental question of its own very existence in the face of practical inquisitions. The panoply of apologies vehemently deployed against such assaults, much to any literary student’s chagrin, is not shared by any other art. To even think about asking a typical Platonian question like what practical functions, social or otherwise, is music capable of accomplishing or can sculpture in any way lead to the social or moral betterment of its recipients would simply feel out of place.