ANDREW DELBANCO
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sonal convicti o n . They manifested an independence from (tho ugh not a
dismissa l o f) preva iling ideologies and a fidelity to the text th at are
among th e qualities literary study is supposed to sustain and encourage,
but whi ch are so rely missing in the current atmosphere on campus.
D urin g th e weeks I spent with th ese teachers, I was exhilarated by
how different th ey we re in spirit from what I usually encounter in the
academy. T hey we re no t scholars o r th eo ri sts, but exemplars of what
used to be ca ll ed intelli gence . Th ey disagreed viol ently with each o th er,
but with no sense o f ri ghteousness o r linge ring ill-will. They maintained
an attitude that a friend of mine (a distinguished poe t wh o teaches in a
maj or uni versity) recently told me was no longe r present in di scussio ns of
prospec ti ve appointments o r curri cular qu esti ons in his department. He
called thi s attitu de
disinteres tedn ess .
By invo king thi s mu ch-discredited
Arnoldi an ideal, he did not, I think , mcan to lament th e passing of some
naive concepti o n o f un contested truth , but rather th e spirit o f truth–
seeking - the abili ty and will, in evaluating the wo rk of a writer o r an–
other critic, to assess fa irly the human va lu e of some po int o f view differ–
ent from o ne's own . H e was talking abo ut th e abili ty to make no t
merely applica ti ons o f an ideo logical test, but good-faith effo rts to enter
the imagi nati ve wo rld o f ano th er consciousness, however di fferent it may
be from o ne's own . Th e ability to do thi s seems an uncontrove rsial
value. But in many humaniti es departments it is ge tting little mo re than
lip service. This is true, I fea r, o n bo th sides o f the "politi cal correc tness"
divide - a term I don't mu ch like , sin ce it implies a relation , if no t an
equivalen ce, between a mood in Ameri ca n academi c life and a po liti cal
orthodoxy that has been enormo usly costly to the wo rld in bl ood and
hope. T here is a tactl ess di spropo rti o n in the term. Yet it does refer to a
real phenomeno n ; and like any member o f a lively English department , I
have witn essed its effec ts: fragm entati o n into ideo logical blocs; ri sin g
anxie ty amo ng g radu ate students abo ut w hi ch camp is best to j o in ; a
rush to bring into the curri culum wo rks of marginal intellec tual signifi–
cance fo r the sake o f th eir representati ve ness; timidi ty in evaluating th e
work of mino rity candidates for degrees and appointments; and most of
all, an atmosphere of mutual suspi cio n and intolerance .
Unfo rtunately, mu ch of th e po lemical literature o n thi s situati o n
tends to attribute it to th e work o f a cabal (e ither th e young " PC"
crowd o r th e " old boys, " depending o n th e sympathies of the observcr) .
The problem ge ts talked about through military metapho rs that suggest
an executed strategy - a raid o r o ffensive condu cted by o ne generati on ,
or gender, o r ethni c min o ri ty, o r sexually dissident interest group , under
orders from its headquarters in Durham o r Berkeley o r some o ther capi–
tal from whi ch subversive agents are dispatched.
