Jay wrote:
Look, it's obvious you don't have an answer to give here. You don't know. So, you're trying to be a dick to cover up your ignorance. Typical uzique. Good show.
i don't know? seeing as you're incapable of using google to look at the academic department website of ANY english department WORLDWIDE (surely this is a testament to your own research capabilities, young jedi!), here's a list of successfully completed research projects conducted by students at an english department for a college near you:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/english/post … warded.htmas you can tell by this small and by no means exhaustive list of research topics, you can see that the average english researcher is pretty much using a cross-disciplinary approach to explore issues from all areas: from maths/logic, to philosophy, to history, to sociology, to politics, to economics, to psychology, and beyond. often merging many disciplines. literature itself is merely a device or a prism from which to conduct this research: you simply anchor your thought in an author, or a book, or a literary concept. i know this may be really really hard for you to understand, but please do try. i know you struggle with this high-minded academic stuff-- and that's okay. but there's no need to be pig-ignorant, or to insinuate that english departments worldwide don't do anything demanding. i know it makes you feel incredibly small and uncomfortable to know that there are people out there of greater intelligence than you, reading longer, much more complicated books... i know, i know this hurts you. with your proudly-assembled bookshelf of textbooks at home and your popular science and popular history non-fiction sections. i know you like to think you've reached the intellectual apex thanks to your well-honed socratic dialogues here on d&st... the gruelling demands of the back-and-forth here are enough to exercise any mind into pristine form, i agree. but so it is, jay: english departments exist, and they do real academic research, and it is completely above your understanding. i'm sure we can all find a way to carry on living after acknowledging this little inconvenient truth. i'm always here for a PM conversation if you feel as though you need some help accepting this knowledge.
Last edited by Uzique (2011-12-15 07:46:49)