In an Inside Higher Education article, Gary Saul Morson and Morton Schapiro argue that academics defending the humanities have effectively dehumanized them.  If students and the broader public are to be persuaded that it is worth their while to study great works of literature, then the case needs to be made that those works provide a better insight into the human condition than can be obtained through other means.  Furthermore, there are no short-cuts to acquiring those insights; the reader must experience these works to gain the necessary empathy for their human subjects:  ‘with a novel,’ say Morson and Schapiro, ‘one has to identify with the major characters and coexperience their inner lives. Equating the work with the text is like equating music with its score, or expecting a blueprint of a house to keep out the rain. The humanities, especially literature, are about the human.’  For the full article, click on the link below:

Gary Saul Morson and Morton Shapiro, ‘The Dehumanities,’ in Inside Higher Education, June 13, 2017.