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Two weeks\nago I gave the inaugural lecture for the four-year BA in English Studies at the\nUniversidad de Murcia. Actually, my lecture was intended to represent the\nLiterature and Culture segment of the degree, and a colleague from the\nUniversidad de Zaragoza, Dr. Iraide Ibarretxe Antu\u00f1ano, offered a second\ninaugural lecture on Linguistics. She asked the students present how many had\nchosen the BA because of an interest in Linguistics and only a few raised their\nhands. She asked then the rest whether they were interested in Literature but,\nagain, only a few hands were raised. The immense majority, then, had either no\nparticular inclination or had not made their mind up yet. Or were confused\u2013and no\nwonder!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now bear\nwith me\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr.\nIbarretxe, though a graduate in English Studies has a Doctorate in Linguistics\nand works for the \u2018Departamento de Ling\u00fc\u00edstica General e Hisp\u00e1nica\u2019 (not to be\nconfused with \u2018Filolog\u00eda Espa\u00f1ola\u2019). This is an interesting name for, as\nhappens, in my university we have no Linguistics Department and, indeed, the\nSpanish Department\u2013familiarly known as \u2018Hisp\u00e1nicas\u2019\u2013is the home not of this language\nspeciality but of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature. Linguistics\nbelongs, so to speak, to the Catalan Department\u2013at least, they are the ones in\ncharge of the first-year compulsory course common to all language-based BAs. At\nthe Universitat de Lleida, in contrast, Linguistics belongs to English Studies,\nand the corresponding unit is the \u2018Departament d\u2019Angl\u00e8s i de Ling\u00fc\u00edstica\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still with\nme?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many Departments\nin Spanish universities which, back in 2009 or thereabouts started offering\ndegrees called \u2018English Studies\u2019 (\u2018Estudios Ingleses\u2019) or similar are, however,\nstill called \u2018Departamento de Filolog\u00eda Inglesa\u2019. My university has Departments\nof \u2018Filologia Anglesa\u2019, \u2018Filologia Hisp\u00e0nica\u2019, \u2018Filologia Catalana\u2019 and\n\u2018Filologia Francesa i Rom\u00e0nica\u2019 even though the BAs are, apart from the above\nmentioned \u2018English Studies\u2019, \u2018Spanish Language and Literature\u2019, \u2018Catalan\nLanguage and Literature\u2019 and \u2018French Studies\u2019. The old degree in \u2018Classical\nLanguages\u2019 (\u2018Filologia Cl\u00e0ssica\u2019) has been integrated into a new BA called\n\u2018Ci\u00e8ncies de l\u2019Antiguitat\u2019 (\u2018Sciences of Antiquity\u2019). This BA mixes classical philology,\nhistory and archaeology and is offered by the \u2018Departament de Ci\u00e8ncies de\nl\u2019Antiguitat i de l\u2019Edat Mitjana\u2019. At the Universitat de Barcelona, in\ncontrast, they have a \u2018Departament de Filologia Cl\u00e0ssica, Rom\u00e0nica i Sem\u00edtica\u2019.\nAnd English is part of the \u2018Departament de Lleng\u00fces i Literatures Modernes i\nd’Estudis Anglesos\u2019\u2013not \u2018Filologia\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018A rose by\nany other name would smell as sweet\u2019, Juliet Capulet once said, trying to\nconvince herself that Romeo Montague\u2019s surname was of no significance. Her\nargument makes sense for the flower but not for her lover, as we know and she\nlearned tragically, whereas we need to wonder what this confusing nomenclature\nsignifies in relation to what we teach and who we are. I myself identify as a\n\u2018fil\u00f2loga anglesa\u2019 because I have an official document from the Spanish State\nguaranteeing that I possess degrees (\u2018Licenciatura\u2019, \u2018Doctorado\u2019) in \u2018Filolog\u00eda\nInglesa\u2019 but, even so, I call myself a \u2018cultural critic\u2019 rather than a\n\u2018philologist\u2019 (a job description I connect with the analysis and edition of\nnon-contemporary texts). For many in the anglophone world a \u2018philologist\u2019 is a\nsort of historical linguist, so see how confusing things can get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the\ntradition we come from, the study of a language and its Literature within a\nsingle degree is justified on the grounds that a language is the expression of\na culture and its Literature the highest artistic manifestation in that tongue.\nThus, the reasoning goes, if you want to know all about English you\u2019re bound to\nlearn how each anglophone community contributes to the common language and how\nLiterature expresses its most sophisticated uses. This is, however, a very old\nframework, established back in the early 19th<\/sup> century in Romantic Germany,\nwhich is why the two main areas of knowledge under the yoke of \u2018philology\u2019 as\nit is known is Spain are pulling away from each other. In Literature we have\nbeen gravitating towards Cultural Studies, and thus expanding the number and\nvariety of texts in English available for study. In Linguistics, though I\u2019m not\nsure I am using the word correctly, they tend towards a kind of ambitious theorization\nin which the English language is just one element of the general entity known\nas language (funny how the difference between \u2018idioma\u2019 and \u2018lenguaje\u2019 helps in\nSpanish but is lost in English!). Properly speaking, then, there are very few \u2018philologists\u2019\namong us, English Studies specialists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am\nactually beginning to realize that, to be perfectly honest, I don\u2019t know what\nour Language and Linguistics colleagues do. What we do in Literature and\nCulture Studies is far easier to explain for we are classified by geographical\narea and\/or historical period. A course called \u2018Scottish 18th<\/sup> century\nPoetry\u2019 is self-explanatory but what do mysterious labels such as \u2018Pragmatics\u2019\nor \u2018Discourse Analysis\u2019 really mean? Is \u2018Historical Linguistics\u2019 the same as \u2018History\nof English\u2019 or is it a more theoretical area? I\u2019m even told that the yearly\nconference of AEDEAN (Asociaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos) is\nincreasingly seen as a Literature\/Culture event, for which there is some\nevidence (see the programme for C\u00f3rdoba this year), though not any\nintentionality. Linguists, I\u2019m told, prefer meeting at the conference of AESLA,\nthe Asosiaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola de Ling\u00fc\u00edstica Aplicada (http:\/\/www.aesla.org.es\/es<\/a>), at least\nthose inclined, logically, towards the applied aspects of Linguistics. This\nassociation, needless to say, goes far beyond English and you might well be a\nspecialist in Mandarin Chinese and join it (after all, it\u2019s about Linguistics\nnot languages). In the same vein, ASETEL, the Asociaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola de Teor\u00eda de\nla Literatura, welcomes all kinds of specialists but I don\u2019t think it has much\nweight within English Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ncentrifugal forces at work means that in some universities like Seville there\nare two separate Departments called \u2018Filolog\u00eda Inglesa\u2019, one for \u2018UK and US Literature\u2019\nand one for \u2018English Language\u2019. I know that other universities have considered\nthis structure but splitting Departments goes now against the crazy fashion for\ngrouping as many of them together as possible (for basic financial reasons). In\nmy own Department, we have asked several times to be considered at least\nseparate units, in the same way our colleagues in \u2018Filologia Alemanya\u2019 are a\ndifferent section. However, the UAB tells us that as far as they\u2019re concerned\nwe are a single body, which affects negatively our chronically under-staffed\nLiterature\/Culture section. If you think about it, an interesting solution\nmight be the reshuffling of the language and Literature Departments into two\nmacro-units: a Department of Language and Linguistics and a Department of \u00a0Literature and Culture, but I can hear the\ngroans already as a I write this. There is a sort of conviction, odd as this\nmay sound, that each Department\u2019s culture depends very much on the language\nnamed in our degrees and that, essentially, we \u00a0in English Studies are a sort of \u2018foreign body\u2019\nin habits and methods wherever we can be found. At least, I always have that\nimpression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now think\nwhat it is like for a newly arrived students, like the ones I addressed a while\nago in Murcia. They have most likely chosen English Studies with a vague idea\nthat they like this particular language (this is the same all over Spain) and\nwith very little actual knowledge of what the degree really means, much less of\nits tradition, and even of the meaning of \u2018filolog\u00eda\u2019. Then, on the first day,\nthey are given two examples of research in the field which could not be more\ndifferent and unorthodox: Dr. Ibarretxe\u2019s invitation to consider the whole\nfield of human language, not just English, and my own invitation to shatter the\nliterary canon and bring even television series and videogames into their BA.\nIf any of them originally registered to, say, study Shakespeare and learn\nEnglish grammar, they must be wondering what hit them\u2026 And what hit them is,\nprecisely, what I\u2019m trying to pin down: the centrifugal forces of our study\narea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At this\npoint it is also necessary to raise the matter of how current ideas about science\nare also having an often unacknowledged impact in our midst. I have no doubt\nthat Linguists are scientists and consider themselves so because they use\nmethod that can only be called scientific: data gathering, running experiments,\nand so on. Curiously, every time I tell a linguist that I\u2019m not a scientist but\na critic, s\/he usually responds that I\u2019m certainly a scientist, too, because I\nuse a method. I do use a scholarly method of study, research and argumentation,\nwhich I also teach my students how to apply, and that is certainly based on\ngathering data (textual evidence from primary sources, ideas from secondary\nsources). I think, however, that there is an important difference: I don\u2019t use\nlabs, nor run experiments as scientists do and, above all, I celebrate full subjectivity,\nwhich is not welcome in science. I\u2019m actually far more comfortable with the\nGerman concept of Wissenshaft<\/em>, \u00a0which is practically impossible to translate\nbut that I translate in my own style as \u2018the cultivation of wisdom\u2019, surely twisting\nthe original word to suit my own ends. If you get the idea, I feel conceptually\ncloser to Philosophy than to Linguistics and this a peculiar thought coming\nfrom a \u2018philologist\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any kind of\nre-arrangement affecting knowledge as produced and transmitted by (Spanish)\nuniversities is costly and cumbersome. The school I work for is called \u2018School\nof Philosophy and Letters\u2019 which may have made sense back in 1968 when it was\nfounded but is a really eccentric name today: Why is Philosophy foregrounded? What\nis the meaning of \u2018Letters\u2019, except a reminder that we have lost \u2018Belle-lettres\u2019\nto the passage of time? When I asked whether we could possibly be renamed \u2018School\nof Humanities\u2019 I was reminded that many colleagues would possibly prefer \u2018Human\nSciences\u2019 and that, anyway, the current name is convenient enough. As, I should\nadd, \u2018Departament de Filologia Anglesa\u2019 is convenient enough but, then, no\nlonger descriptive. Or, I think, accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps, in\nthe end, I just feel a bit envious that the language colleagues can call\nthemselves \u2018linguists\u2019 and be done with the problem of what a \u2018philologist\u2019\nshould be called today. Those of us in Literature and Culture are not faring\nthat well for if you call yourself a \u2018literary critic\u2019 people will think you\u2019re\na reviewer and I don\u2019t think I know anyone calling themselves \u2018literary\ntheorist\u2019 with the confidence others use the word \u2018linguist\u2019. Maybe I should\ngive \u2018literary scientist\u2019 a chance\u2026 and, yes, I\u2019m kidding. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And to the\nstudents in Murcia, and any other first-year students in language and\nLiterature degrees: remember that scientists were once called \u2018natural philosophers\u2019\nand don\u2019t forget that we used to train you as \u2018fil\u00f3logos\u2019. Yes, lovers of\nlanguage in all its extension\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\npublish a new post every Tuesday (for updates follow @SaraMartinUAB). Comments\nare very welcome! Download the yearly volumes from: http:\/\/ddd.uab.cat\/record\/116328<\/a>.\nMy web: http:\/\/gent.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two weeks ago I gave the inaugural lecture for the four-year BA in English Studies at the Universidad de Murcia. Actually, my lecture was intended to represent the Literature and Culture segment of the degree, and a colleague from the Universidad de Zaragoza, Dr. Iraide Ibarretxe Antu\u00f1ano, offered a second inaugural lecture on Linguistics. She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}