The end of subsidies and a focus on ‘impact’-led research may force literary criticism to reconnect with the public imagination.
English should be communicated, as urged by Hector (Richard Griffiths, left) in The History Boys, not languish in obscurity.
The lamentations of English scholars suffering government cutbacks have echoed around the Comment is free and education pages recently. Having three English degrees myself, two of which were free, I feel an instinctive sympathy for this view. But further reflection into the way the subject has changed over the last few decades makes me wonder whether the removal of subsidies, and the introduction of new “impact”-focused research assessments, may not be in the long-term interests of the subject….read more
