It's not so much that I blame my students for not being interested in Spanish literature (just because they are Spanish majors). What depresses me is students interested in literature don't major in Spanish. Spanish is the 2nd most spoken language in the world (if you count several forms of Chinese as one, which is a debate for another day). You would think someone would want to major in Spanish just to read some portion of that literature.
For similar reasons, I don't think it's horrible if English departments define themselves as doing all sorts of things other than teaching literature. There are many valuable things to study in this world, and literature is only one of them.
But I'd still like there to be a department of literature that does mostly that. Once a literature scholar decides she's bored, she can transfer to "English" and "Spanish" and do something not related to literature any more.
I know what you mean! Often, when students come in for advisement and I suggest they take literature courses, their initial reaction is "Literature?? Never!" I ask them if they've ever taken literature courses, and the answer is always negative. Somehow, they have this weird notion that literature courses will be either boring or too difficult, which is based on no actual experience of their own.
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