ABSTRACT
There is a minor yet well-established tradition of using students as test cases for the validity of educational or interpretive theories. I.A.Richards, Norman Holland and Stanley Fish are probably the best known practitioners of this form of academic democracy, and the ability of Fish’s students to replicate the stylistic and interpretive acumen of their tutor is a credit to the US university system. In what follows I shall consider the effects of the past three decades of turmoil in Anglo-American literary theory on the experience of undergraduates in Britain and Ireland. It will not be a comprehensive survey; it will be based upon my own experience and accounts from students and teachers in other institutions. And it will not confine itself to the intellectual flaws and benefits of modern literary theory. Its purpose will be to urge my academic peers to pause for a moment and consider what they are doing and who, if anyone, will benefit from their various techniques and allegiances. It will conclude with a proposal for the restructuring of degree programmes that involve ‘reading English’.
