/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.7784680]

The humanities are dying.

My university has only 80 English, history, and philosophy majors, out of 10,000 undergrads. Almost no high schools even mention the Greeks outside of 9th grade world history, and Victorian lit is now only a niche interest available to the few students who persistently try to find it and understand it.

What can be done about this? Why is it happening? I blame the mechanics of late capitalism, which force all education to be justified by its ability to earn money for students.

[Anonymous No.7784681]

>>7784680
Jews.

[Anonymous No.7784685]

>>7784681
Nah, Jewish individuals have done a really great job of promoting, continuing, and maintaining the classical tradition.

[Anonymous No.7784693]

The "Digital Humanities" are growing. To be clear, I'm not endorsing this crap, just sayin'.

[Anonymous No.7784710]

>>>/his/ ;-)

[Anonymous No.7784911]

>>7784680
What country are you from? What university are you going to?

I've had latin and ancient greek in gymnasium in germany, and I am not even in my mid-twenties. Currently studying philosophy and literature (which has the most students at my university.)
Maybe get around more?

Anyway, if you are saying they are dying you have to define what it means for them to be alive. Two hundred years ago barely anyone had all that much access to the humanities and people were just learning what would let them earn money/survive. Compared to that, the humanities are thriving.

[Anonymous No.7784944]

>>7784685
I will never understand why many people, particularly Americans, will continue to blame the Jews for the increasing demand that their education have financial worth. We routinely let ourselves be fucked over by the slave labor principles of the "Protestant Work Ethic." Meanwhile the Jews have been over there advocating classical (albeit more Hebrew and Biblical, not Attic, Greek) studies for centuries.

[Anonymous No.7784951]

It's not particularly attractive. I wouldn't care about humanities, but translation studies happen to be part of it. Now I don't regret being in humanities

[Anonymous No.7784952]

>>7784944
>catholic slothlord detected

stay in ur corrupt latin shithole, leave defending christendom to america ok

[Anonymous No.7784956]

>>7784911
>I've had latin and ancient greek in gymnasium in germany

Same here, I had a girl do all the Latin work for me though so even if my paperwork claims otherwise I'm complete shit at Latin.

Please remember to capitalize anything related to nationalities in English, it's Latin, Greek and Germany.

[Anonymous No.7784959]

Good riddance, who cares.

Also, the humanities have always only been studied by a privileged few, don't kid yourself

[Anonymous No.7785047]

>>7784944
If you are trained to love those who rule you, blaming outsiders seems much easier

[Anonymous No.7785069]

>>7784956
>Please remember to capitalize anything related to nationalities in English, it's Latin, Greek and Germany.
Oh, yeah, right. I always forget that, seems arbitrary.

[Anonymous No.7785078]

>>7785069

Well at least you're not speaking German, capitalizing every noun.

[Anonymous No.7785085]

>>7784911
>What country are you from? What university are you going to?

United States, and the University of Miami.

It's no top-tier institution but it's a regional giant, and one of the best private institutions outside the Northeast. We really deserve a better humanities selection, but the steady decrease in enrollment is leading to a decline in resources.

Latin can be studied at my university, but almost nobody has the time for it. In the US, taking only six classes is more than most.

[Anonymous No.7785088]

>>7784944
Agreed. The Hermenauetic tradition is also incredibly valuable in literary analysis.

I'm wondering now if Protestantism has actually hampered the intellectual rigor of the West, given its insistence on the vernacular and the modern.

[Anonymous No.7785093]

>>7784959
Problem is, the privileged few these days all study business studies or engineering

[Anonymous No.7785095]

>>7785085
For a masters degree you need to have the Latinum in Germany (basically a standard degree that affirms that you had so and so much latin in school or took a latin curse in university).

[Anonymous No.7785150]

>>7785095
Mad jealous desu

[Anonymous No.7785155]

>attend "interdisciplinary" universities that teach trades as well as scholarship and whose idea of "humanistic education" is to force future gym teachers and middle managers to read 71 pages of homer over the course of four years (can't make it too onerous!!! have to pass almost everyone!!!!)
>bachelor's becomes universal baseline degree and becomes joke as a result, every post-bourgeois prole in entire society has what used to be a real degree
>the teeming hordes of nothing non-people spill over into master's degrees as well, so that departments have to cut funding for MA's because otherwise they would be too enticing an extension of University: Daycare For Adults Edition
>MA's now useless and meaningless, now the "maybe I should get my MA :S" degree for retards living in their mom's basement for 3 years after graduating
>endless roiling sea of nothingness garbage un-persons spills out even further, now encompasses PhDs
>what used to be the highest educational attainment in the civilisation, churning out nearly guaranteed well-rounded intellectuals, is now a 8 years of whining about how you should get more free government funding for wanting to apply your mediocre shit brain that should be farming barley somewhere to DANTE
>YET ANOTHER DANTE THESIS, THANK GOD, WE CERTAINLY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH GASSET HYPOTHESIS PROLE DRONES BARELY INCOMPETENTLY MANAGING TO ABSORB THE SCHOLARLY TRADITION ON DANTE IN ITS MOST SHALLOW ORTHODOX FORM SO THAT THEY CAN REGURGITATE ANOTHER MEANINGLESS IDEOLOGICALLY TRENDY NON-CONTRIBUTION TO DANTE
>thank god we now have this well-rounded guy who can't even remember what his glorified term paper was about, entering an utterly clogged job sector before dumping out and becoming a middle class day labourer because he can never compete with the upper crust of actually smart people who actually should have been studying dante
>yes let's definitely fund another crop of tens of thousands of dante """""scholars""""" who can't even pass their language exams without them being put on Babby Mode difficulty in the developer console
>yes totally let's let them unionise and whine nonstop for 10 years (degree was supposed to be done on 5-7??? what happen???) about how they deserve infinitely more money from the government for contributing nothing
>this whole edifice has been a joke for three generations, the magisterial western tradition of humanistic education and intellectual-creation being turned into a daycare centre for progressively more echelons of the neo-pissant-bourgeoisie
>some guy on a forum: "There are 17 fewer useless Literature majors who won't even gain dilettantish levels of knowledge about Literature despite ostensibly studying it for 5 years. Literature.. is dying."

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'M DROWNING IN PROLES HELPHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Anonymous No.7785183]

>>7784956
you always fucking post about that anon.

[Anonymous No.7785193]

>>7785183
I made like one other post about that and it's relevant to the topic, leave me be

[Anonymous No.7785208]

Humanities is worthless. Good riddance to pompous retards who think highly of themselves for doing such basic bitch work.

[Anonymous No.7785226]

I enjoyed this post.

Lots of fucking stupid people get "degrees" nowadays.

[Anonymous No.7785230]

>>7785226
Meant for >>7785155

[Anonymous No.7785240]

I enjoy the humanities and I've shown talent in art.

But I also want and need a real career that's not a hobby of mine that colleges will let you major in even if there is no chance of employment afterwards

What's the alternative?
I don't want to be a high school teacher and STEM is a meme

[Anonymous No.7785265]

>>7785150
I should add this is probably only true for Geisteswissenschaften ("science of mind", basically humanities), I doubt Naturwissenschaften ("science of nature", basically STEM) need a Latinum for a masters.

[Anonymous No.7785408]

>>7785240
Be an editor

[Anonymous No.7785454]

>>7784680
>My university has only 80 English, history, and philosophy majors, out of 10,000 undergrads

Where is this? I find this hard to believe out of context.
If you are at MIT or something I would understand this stat easily

[Anonymous No.7785459]

>>7784680
Mechanics of socialism made this, in the age of capitalism you had plenty of literature. We aren't moving towards a more capitalistic world at all.

[Anonymous No.7785472]

>>7785095
That is not true anymore

[Anonymous No.7785474]

Jerusalem vs. Athens, Google it.

[Anonymous No.7785476]

>>7785472
Yeah, I just remembered they changed that like a year ago. Never really mattered for me since I always had the latinum, so I didn't need to take the latin course in uni.

[Anonymous No.7785491]

>>7784911
While there are some traditional gymnasiae most of them don't teach Latin or Ancient Greek anymore. The humanities are dying in Germany as well.

Also what can you do if you want to study something like language, philosophy or any other of the humanities? There aren't many jobs for these degrees.

[Anonymous No.7785498]

>>7784680

> My university

Yes, your university. That doesn't make your blanket statements accurate.

If you're asking why traditional literature-based humanities seem to be less popular, I think it's obviously because new, alternative media is much more appealing to Generation Y.

But to say humans will ever stop being curious about our unique condition, and the themes of love, justice, and whatever other "humanisms," is absurd.

The medium may change, but the questions won't.

[Anonymous No.7785506]

>>7785491
>While there are some traditional gymnasiae most of them don't teach Latin or Ancient Greek anymore.
Well, you certainly did not have latin at a gymnasium.

And you are wrong, greek is a rarity these days, but there is still a latin class at virtually every gymnasium. (You usually pick between latin and france in 6th grade.)

[Anonymous No.7785518]

>>7784680
i blame "social science"
it lets people superimpose their vague notions of the humanities over society at large so they can feel smart and important. non-STEM gratification with none of the intellectual heavy lifting.

people love to play around with concepts they don't understand, like stoners talking about "philosophy"

I don't think it's necessarily for the worse though, not as many hacks get churned out. It's pretty easy to study the humanities on your own time nowadays, especially if you do independent study or have a smart professor you can talk to sometimes.

[Anonymous No.7785519]

>all these people disparaging the humanities

What is happening to /lit/? I thought we were all current or former English majors pursuing our intellectual curiosities? We're all on the same path here, with the same interests in beauty and discovering the most refined expressions of the human experience. If someone wants to devote their life to their passion, let them. Jesus.

[Anonymous No.7785526]

>>7784680
When there's an almost limitless international library/archive available very cheaply in comparison, why would someone pay for university?

[Anonymous No.7785532]

The same is happening to Physics because 'it isn't marketable'.
The commoditization of education is disgusting.

[Anonymous No.7785533]

>>7785078
At least it has Consistency

[Anonymous No.7785534]

>>7785519

> all current or former English majors

lol, no. Nor should it be so; this is a board for anyone who wishes to discuss lit.

[Anonymous No.7785536]

>>7785519
Im a psychology major that likes to shitpost.

[Anonymous No.7785544]

>>7785532

On the other hand, at least the kids sticking with the subject area are there more likely out of passion for the subject.

Law school, for example, used to be the "safe bet" for a lot of people for grad school, but no longer.

Now, people like myself who actually care about studying law because of a burning desire to learn about what "justice" actually is, and how it may best be utilized, are left. The rest of the kids who wanted "safe bet" economically-sound careers have moved elsewhere.

[Anonymous No.7785553]

>>7785474
are you talking about Leo Strauss?
dude is the GOAT

[Anonymous No.7785556]

>>7785544
>believing in justice

[Anonymous No.7785561]

>>7784693
yep. digital humanities are also a way to actually get funding within the humanities as well.

[Anonymous No.7785565]

>>7785544
>people like myself who actually care about studying law because of a burning desire to learn about what "justice" actually is

TOP LEL
what school?

[Anonymous No.7785570]

you can get all that stuff on the interweb and read it fo free. why go to school[in usa] for a gorillion dollars just to have an incompetent teacher try to "bring it alive" for students who literally dont care and are just fulfilling degree requirements? if you want to really study classics, you have to go to high tier colleges or seminary. but the classics education in most classrooms is abhorrent.

[Anonymous No.7785583]

>>7785556

Very edgy. Yes, I believe in justice. Not that it exists in the natural world, but that it must exist if society is to subsist.

>>7785565
I'm graduating Penn State this year. I want to either go straight to law school in Philadelphia, or, if I'm accepted, attend the Institute of Mind and Brain and receive my M.Sc

[Anonymous No.7785609]

>>7785506
>>>7785491 (You)
>>While there are some traditional gymnasiae most of them don't teach Latin or Ancient Greek anymore.
>Well, you certainly did not have latin at a gymnasium.

I had Latin at school just like Ancient Greek but I never learned because I could master the courses without learning. I wish I learned though

[Anonymous No.7785618]

>>7785609
Is that why you think the plural of gymnasium is "gymnasiae"?

[Anonymous No.7785630]

>>7785618

> Gymnasium is a Latin word (with origins in Greek), and its plural in Latin is gymnasia. But gymnasium is also an English word—one that has been in the language for centuries—and English speakers are allowed to treat it as one. In any case, the issue of gymnasium‘s plural was settled long ago; gymnasiums outnumbers gymnasia by a ratio of about 100 to one in 21st-century English-language texts that are searchable online. The ratio is roughly consistent throughout the English-speaking world.

[Anonymous No.7785649]

>>7785630
Yes, exactly. Now read the word again to find out what form was actually used in this thread.

[Anonymous No.7785660]

>>7785649

I wasn't the guy you replied to, just wanted to clarify how it's used now.