"Shakespeare class not required for many English degrees; Major holdouts include Harvard and Wellesley" by Nick Anderson Washington Post April 25, 2015
WASHINGTON — William Shakespeare, born in England about this time 451 years ago, is in little jeopardy of being forgotten in literature or popular culture. His native language has gone global. His poetry and plays, endlessly influential, are read, translated, adapted, and performed around the world.
But a new report has uncovered what to many might be a surprising fact: English majors at the vast majority of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the United States aren’t required to take a course focused in depth on Shakespeare.
“We have found our Bard suffering ‘the unkindest cut of all,’ ” said the authors of the report, from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, stealing a line from “Julius Caesar.”
“At most universities, English majors were once required to study Shakespeare closely as an indispensable foundation for the understanding of English language and literature,” they wrote. “But today — at the elite institutions we examined, public and private, large and small, east and west — he is required no more.”
Lamenting this state of affairs, the authors couldn’t resist tossing in another quote: “O! what a noble mind is here o’erthrown.” (That one is from “Hamlet.”)
The four exceptions, among the 52 schools analyzed, were Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley, the US Naval Academy, and Wellesley College....
I'm done reading my part.
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WASHINGTON — William Shakespeare, born in England about this time 451 years ago, is in little jeopardy of being forgotten in literature or popular culture. His native language has gone global. His poetry and plays, endlessly influential, are read, translated, adapted, and performed around the world.
But a new report has uncovered what to many might be a surprising fact: English majors at the vast majority of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the United States aren’t required to take a course focused in depth on Shakespeare.
“We have found our Bard suffering ‘the unkindest cut of all,’ ” said the authors of the report, from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, stealing a line from “Julius Caesar.”
“At most universities, English majors were once required to study Shakespeare closely as an indispensable foundation for the understanding of English language and literature,” they wrote. “But today — at the elite institutions we examined, public and private, large and small, east and west — he is required no more.”
Lamenting this state of affairs, the authors couldn’t resist tossing in another quote: “O! what a noble mind is here o’erthrown.” (That one is from “Hamlet.”)
The four exceptions, among the 52 schools analyzed, were Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley, the US Naval Academy, and Wellesley College....
I'm done reading my part.
--more--"
