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The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to…
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The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to English and American Literature (edition 2006)

by Elizabeth Kantor

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288590,879 (3.48)3
This was originally published in March of 2007:

Why you should read this book:

To Read Better, To Write Better.

Nothing just ‘happens’ to me. Shortly after reading Dr. Elizabeth Kantor’s book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature, I received my newsletter from my alma mater. In there I read about the recent death of an English professor whom I had for a freshman composition course back in 1982. May he rest in peace. His death, and reading Kantor’s book, got me to thinking about my own education. I went to a state school where the tuition was affordable and where the science program was strong. Granted, there were no Nobel laureates on the faculty, but the majority of the classes were taught by professors rather than graduate students. When comparing my education with those of friends who went to the Ivy League schools, I always joked that I was getting a degree at ‘bargain basement’ prices while they were paying an enormous amount to get the same thing. I also argued that my inexpensive degree prepared me well for life.

Now I am not so sure. I took one composition class, and a course in Shakespeare, and after that my greatest literary works were technical reports for various chemistry and physics laboratory assignments. Granted, the career track I selected has blessed me with the means to provide for my family – the highest purpose for an occupation is to finance the vocation one has chosen. It also has blessed me with a job that I really, REALLY enjoy:

“IwanttobeadoctorsoIcanusemyinterestinthesciencestohelppeople”
- Me, on multiple applications and interview for medical school

But in so many ways, I am still the socially awkward guy with very little to say and so ill-equipped to say it. My wife is far more interesting to talk to, and she didn’t spend nearly so much time in a classroom. And worst of all, whenever some quote or comment comes to mind as I go through my life, invariably it is from some television show or movie. This is from a man who got rid of the television from our house 12 years ago. May God forgive me for remembering so much garbage. If I quote poetry it is more often some line from some rock song, such as:

“Run, rabbit run.

Dig that hole, forget the sun,

and when at last the work is done

don't sit down it's time to dig another one.”

(This is what I say whenever someone passes me on the freeway; they become the ‘rabbit’ which will flush out any police on the road ahead of me.)

So here I am, a forty-something man trying to fix what I see as a glaring deficiency in my development as a man striving to be a good example to his children and less boring to those around me. Reading, writing, blogging, and encouraging my children to do the same are all things that I have taken as ways to improve myself.

I read Dr. Kantor’s book to read better and to write better. I picked her book, partly because it was given to me at a time when I needed something to distract me, but also because of the label ‘politically incorrect.’ I live and breathe politically incorrectness, so the book had instant appeal to me. I also suspected that what she said in the Introduction is true: that English or American literature is one of the last things one will study in an English department. A central theme to this book is that reading English and American literature will teach one about our culture, and show how the writings of a century ago (or more) can be relevant in this day and age. The politically incorrect zinger is that most of the literature was written by white males, or ‘dead white males,’ as the cover boasts.

The book is divided into three parts.

The first, titled ‘What They Don’t Want You to Learn from English Literature,’ covers writings from Beowulf(in old English), Medieval Literature(Malory), the Renaissance(Shakespeare), the 17th Century(Milton), 18th Century(Pope, Swift), 19th Century(Coleridge) and the 20th Century. There is also a section on American Literature (Twain, O’Conner). This brief overview of literature piqued my curiosity and gave me some ideas on where to start reading first.

The second part of the book, ‘Why They Don’t Want You to Learn about English and American Literature,’ discusses some of the reasons for not teaching literature in English departments. While I am not in a position to validate Dr. Kantor’s thesis, I have to say that my recollections of the English department at my alma mater are similar to those in the book. Even my class in Shakespeare was filled with watching movies (King Lear, Romeo and Juliet) rather than reading more Shakespeare. Higher level English classes were on more strange topics and seemed to be pushing the liberal agenda.

This section also included a chapter on what literature is for; namely, to ‘teach and delight.’ This section adds another reason for studying literature to my rather simplistic statement at the beginning of this review. Here I quote Dr. Kantor:

“Once you begin to know really good literature, you’ll want to fill your mind with it. You’ll find yourself measuring the objects you pursue, the satisfactions you achieve, and the kind of person your actions are making you against the standards you find in our classic novels and plays. You’ll want to store poetry up for your old age, so you‘ll have something of real value to turn over in your mind in the nursing home: you’ll be able to close your eyes, put your head back during the perpetually running soap operas and quiz shows (or whatever fresh humiliation they’ve dreamed up for “seniors” by then), and see Shakespeare’s sonnets, or Jane Austen’s marvelous characters, instead.”
(Page 210)

I would rather spend my waning years recalling the good, true, and beautiful than rehashing episodes of Gilligan’s Island.

The third, ‘How You Can Teach Yourself English and American Literature – Because Nobody Is Going to Do It for You,’ gives practical suggestions for a life-long study of literature. One of the best suggestions is to follow what Dr. Kantor calls Reed’s Rule, (after a professor at Chapel Hill, NC): For every piece of literature, ask, Why is this word, and no other word, in this place and other place? This suggestion is a bit much for someone who can’t spend so much time reading, but it does teach one about the English language.

More practical suggestions for those who have passed beyond the undergraduate years are to: 1. Learn poetry by heart, 2. Go see plays(better yet, act in a play), and 3. Talk with others about literature. This last one could be done by starting a book club.

When I mentioned these three suggestions to my wife, she asked that I memorize [a poem I wrote years ago] first.

I recommend this book without reservation. I plan on starting with something from the ‘Old English’ period to read, and then go from there.
  19vatermit64 | Jun 19, 2010 |
Showing 5 of 5
This book is several books in one.

First, it is a rather good capsule introduction to English and American literature. It is organized chronologically, first giving its attention to individual works, beginning with Beowulf, and later moving on to literary eras, such as the Augustan, selecting a few representative and especially important authors from the period. The author knows her topic, and has much that is interesting and original to say on her chosen subjects.

Second, the book is a diatribe against the ideologically stunted work of English scholars and professors today. Here again, the book is a success. There seems to be an inexhaustible supply of papers and indeed whole books that illustrate how the scholarship of today has become, mostly, a blinkered and boring exploration of ideologically dictated trivialities dressed up in a specialized vocabulary intended to impress rather than to communicate anything at all.

Third, the book intends to draw morals from this literature for our modern circumstances, making reference to the historical circumstances in which the original works were written, and drawing parallels with events or customs of today. In some cases, it succeeds rather well, and in others, it does not. I was most put off by the many references to "the patriarchy", which apparently is the modern English professors' greatest enemy, but in the author's opinion is just great. I know what "a patriarchy" is, but I struggle to even understand what "the patriarchy" is supposed to mean to these warring factions. I think this may be the one instance where the reactionary quality of the intent of the book works against it. This weird notion of "the patriarchy" needs to be undercut with a little more insight, not just accepted in the everything-they-say-is-bad-is-actually-good mode.

This book is part of the "Politically Incorrect" series. I've tried a few of these books and have been surprised at how good they are. The books themselves are generally far better written and more informed than their coat-trailing series title or generally rather cartoonish cover illustrations would suggest.

I was most surprised by the author's opinion that Shakespeare's comedies are his best work. I have never really enjoyed these since I became an adult but I like Macbeth and Richard III more and more. I've taken the hint, and will do my best to give the comedies another chance. ( )
  themulhern | Sep 1, 2023 |
Several years ago, I picked up this book when my husband and I were collecting books from the Politically Incorrect Guide series.

Having been an English major, this title particularly intrigued me. But this volume from 2006 became lost on the shelves and was rediscovered as I prepared to oversee my son’s high school online class on American Literature. Apparently, the methodology of teaching literature in universities today had changed dramatically since the mid to late 1980s when I attended college.

At Whitworth College, we discussed the historical background of the text—both the time in which the piece was written and the author’s background. We sought to understand what the text actually said, often using glossaries for older texts such as Chaucer’s. (I spent a semester studying part of The Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English.) In class, we students discussed what ideas the authors conveyed in their writings—their beliefs about God, man, nature, and society. I often felt that the study of literature was a study of humanity—faith, psychology, sociology, politics, and history all wrapped up into one discipline.

Literature is the product of an individual and his time. Great literature, though, surpasses a given time period because it addresses the human condition.

According to author Elizabeth Kantor, many universities no longer teach English literature but Marxism, feminism, and Freudian thought. She quoted one Arizona State University student saying she “learned to ‘deconstruct the racist, misogynistic, homophobic subtext’ of the literature she studied.” It sounds like they are pulling rabbits out of a hat, finding ideas that aren’t really there.

During my senior research project class, the professor introduced us to Marxist, feminist, and a few other types of literary criticism for our information so we’d be aware of them as we embarked on our personal research. But they didn’t expect us to write that type of criticism.

Kantor’s thesis is to demonstrate how English departments in the United States have run amok in political correctness and how such instruction denies students access to timeless truths that great literature of the English language can teach us all.

In Part I, Kantor provides an overview of the different periods of English literature with one chapter dedicated to the American canon. In a sidebar in each chapter, the author provides a brief list of recommended titles for the reader.

In Part II, Kantor supplies one chapter on how the PC English professors suppress English literature and another chapter on what literature is for: “to teach and delight.”

The author closes her book with Part III, in which she teaches readers how to read great literature on their own. This book includes endnotes and an index. And, of course, as a PIG book, it is embellished with sidebars that jab at the politically correct world.

Anyone who has a literature background, like me, or wants to dive into the classics but has always been afraid to, will enjoy Kantor’s easy-to-read style and unabashed criticism of the literary left.

https://lorindasponderings.com/2016/10/11/book-review/ ( )
  Newton_Books | Jul 3, 2017 |
This was originally published in March of 2007:

Why you should read this book:

To Read Better, To Write Better.

Nothing just ‘happens’ to me. Shortly after reading Dr. Elizabeth Kantor’s book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature, I received my newsletter from my alma mater. In there I read about the recent death of an English professor whom I had for a freshman composition course back in 1982. May he rest in peace. His death, and reading Kantor’s book, got me to thinking about my own education. I went to a state school where the tuition was affordable and where the science program was strong. Granted, there were no Nobel laureates on the faculty, but the majority of the classes were taught by professors rather than graduate students. When comparing my education with those of friends who went to the Ivy League schools, I always joked that I was getting a degree at ‘bargain basement’ prices while they were paying an enormous amount to get the same thing. I also argued that my inexpensive degree prepared me well for life.

Now I am not so sure. I took one composition class, and a course in Shakespeare, and after that my greatest literary works were technical reports for various chemistry and physics laboratory assignments. Granted, the career track I selected has blessed me with the means to provide for my family – the highest purpose for an occupation is to finance the vocation one has chosen. It also has blessed me with a job that I really, REALLY enjoy:

“IwanttobeadoctorsoIcanusemyinterestinthesciencestohelppeople”
- Me, on multiple applications and interview for medical school

But in so many ways, I am still the socially awkward guy with very little to say and so ill-equipped to say it. My wife is far more interesting to talk to, and she didn’t spend nearly so much time in a classroom. And worst of all, whenever some quote or comment comes to mind as I go through my life, invariably it is from some television show or movie. This is from a man who got rid of the television from our house 12 years ago. May God forgive me for remembering so much garbage. If I quote poetry it is more often some line from some rock song, such as:

“Run, rabbit run.

Dig that hole, forget the sun,

and when at last the work is done

don't sit down it's time to dig another one.”

(This is what I say whenever someone passes me on the freeway; they become the ‘rabbit’ which will flush out any police on the road ahead of me.)

So here I am, a forty-something man trying to fix what I see as a glaring deficiency in my development as a man striving to be a good example to his children and less boring to those around me. Reading, writing, blogging, and encouraging my children to do the same are all things that I have taken as ways to improve myself.

I read Dr. Kantor’s book to read better and to write better. I picked her book, partly because it was given to me at a time when I needed something to distract me, but also because of the label ‘politically incorrect.’ I live and breathe politically incorrectness, so the book had instant appeal to me. I also suspected that what she said in the Introduction is true: that English or American literature is one of the last things one will study in an English department. A central theme to this book is that reading English and American literature will teach one about our culture, and show how the writings of a century ago (or more) can be relevant in this day and age. The politically incorrect zinger is that most of the literature was written by white males, or ‘dead white males,’ as the cover boasts.

The book is divided into three parts.

The first, titled ‘What They Don’t Want You to Learn from English Literature,’ covers writings from Beowulf(in old English), Medieval Literature(Malory), the Renaissance(Shakespeare), the 17th Century(Milton), 18th Century(Pope, Swift), 19th Century(Coleridge) and the 20th Century. There is also a section on American Literature (Twain, O’Conner). This brief overview of literature piqued my curiosity and gave me some ideas on where to start reading first.

The second part of the book, ‘Why They Don’t Want You to Learn about English and American Literature,’ discusses some of the reasons for not teaching literature in English departments. While I am not in a position to validate Dr. Kantor’s thesis, I have to say that my recollections of the English department at my alma mater are similar to those in the book. Even my class in Shakespeare was filled with watching movies (King Lear, Romeo and Juliet) rather than reading more Shakespeare. Higher level English classes were on more strange topics and seemed to be pushing the liberal agenda.

This section also included a chapter on what literature is for; namely, to ‘teach and delight.’ This section adds another reason for studying literature to my rather simplistic statement at the beginning of this review. Here I quote Dr. Kantor:

“Once you begin to know really good literature, you’ll want to fill your mind with it. You’ll find yourself measuring the objects you pursue, the satisfactions you achieve, and the kind of person your actions are making you against the standards you find in our classic novels and plays. You’ll want to store poetry up for your old age, so you‘ll have something of real value to turn over in your mind in the nursing home: you’ll be able to close your eyes, put your head back during the perpetually running soap operas and quiz shows (or whatever fresh humiliation they’ve dreamed up for “seniors” by then), and see Shakespeare’s sonnets, or Jane Austen’s marvelous characters, instead.”
(Page 210)

I would rather spend my waning years recalling the good, true, and beautiful than rehashing episodes of Gilligan’s Island.

The third, ‘How You Can Teach Yourself English and American Literature – Because Nobody Is Going to Do It for You,’ gives practical suggestions for a life-long study of literature. One of the best suggestions is to follow what Dr. Kantor calls Reed’s Rule, (after a professor at Chapel Hill, NC): For every piece of literature, ask, Why is this word, and no other word, in this place and other place? This suggestion is a bit much for someone who can’t spend so much time reading, but it does teach one about the English language.

More practical suggestions for those who have passed beyond the undergraduate years are to: 1. Learn poetry by heart, 2. Go see plays(better yet, act in a play), and 3. Talk with others about literature. This last one could be done by starting a book club.

When I mentioned these three suggestions to my wife, she asked that I memorize [a poem I wrote years ago] first.

I recommend this book without reservation. I plan on starting with something from the ‘Old English’ period to read, and then go from there.
  19vatermit64 | Jun 19, 2010 |
I noticed this book because its title reminded me of Richard Armour's hysterically funny English Lit Re-Lit and American Lit Re-Lit. I'd been reading about Jane Austen, and I decided that I might as well see what Kantor had to say. I'd recommend Armour over this any day. Kantor is concerned because English literature professors "don't teach great English and American literature." And one of the problems is "that they do their best to indoctrinate their students into leftist politics." Whereas Kantor see the responsibility of English departments "to preserve our literary and linguistic heritage and transmit it to future generations." As well as to indoctrinate students into Kantor's own socio-political beliefs, which occupy more of this book than any appreciation of literature does.

As to my own political beliefs, I was once called a conservative anarchist by one of my friends, and most of my other friends thought that she hit the nail on the head. Conservatives think that I am very liberal, Liberals laugh at the thought.

For most Americans, criticizing literature critics is rather like shooting fish in a barrel: so much of their work is either unreadable or difficult to take seriously. I will agree with Kantor that some are beyond parody. Personally, I was so at odds with my teachers, not necessarily for Kantor's reasons, in the literature courses that I was forced to take, that I never took any more voluntarily, although I am an avid reader. Perhaps I am failing to see that we are on the slippery slope, but it is not as if the classics are going out of print, or don't still generate quite a lot of critical attention that is more strictly literary in nature. Still, since this is presumably Kantor's profession, she is right to be concerned. But the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend, and I don't care for her take on the subject either.

When I was a child, shades of Mary Bennet, I would try to draw lessons from my reading that would enable me to understand how people ought to be. Finally, I realized that my sources were not in agreement among themselves, and I would have to puzzle this out for myself. The devil can cite scripture to his purpose, and Kantor has no problem cherry-picking lessons from literature to suit her ideas. Some reviews that I have read have questioned why she left out certain authors: my guess is that they did not fit into her agenda very well. From Beowulf and the poem the Battle of Malden, Kantor draws that lesson that while it might be alright for us to describe George "Dubya" Bush as George the Poorly Judging, that would not justify our failing to support all his plans. The discussion on Chaucer is interrupted by a digression on why Kantor doesn't like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Kantor cheerfully dismisses the problem of heretics being burnt at stake on the grounds that good Christians can always be vindicated later, like Joan of Arc. Presumably, bad Christians and nonChristians deserve to be burned.

Reading the section on Jane Austen, it strikes me that Kantor's enthusiasm for patriarchy and separate spheres for the sexes sits oddly with her Ph.D. Even if she has her patriarchs' approval, our forebears, who she finds so much wiser than ourselves, would have considered her education inappropriate and liable to interfere with her duties as wife and mother, if not downright unnatural and ungodly. For most of the period covered by this literature, she wouldn't have been let in a college even with permission from her patriarch. Perhaps this is why she feels the need to speak so feelingly of her husband's patience. She argues that Jane Austen was a fan of patriarchy, and that her men failed by being insufficiently patriarchal. On the other hand, one could argue that JA was showing that however good patriarchy might by in theory, it was doubtful in practice. Sort of like the argument that a benevolent dictatorship would be the best form of government if only it weren't so difficult to find and keep benevolent dictators.

Kantor is sometimes dead-on in her criticisms, but her faith in a nostalgic look at the past is unrealistic. The book is rather feeble, as well. I don't want to be too negative. The last three chapters, giving advice on how to read literature to better appreciate the author's work have real merit. Kantor nails some really silly things in her discussion. Unfortunately, I think that she is as rigidly ideological as the people she criticizes. Some of her information would be helpful to people needing basic insights into the historical development of literature, but this can be gotten from less tendentious and tedious sources. There are some notes, but mostly Kantor simply states her opinions; if you agree, this may be very eloquent, but I don't think she is persuasive to the skeptical. The notes are sometimes good and sometimes very sloppy. One of her quotes is simply noted as "From a bedtime prayer composed by Jane Austen", and the next is "From another bedtime prayer composed by Jane Austen" Since I sincerely doubt that Kantor heard these prayers from Austen herself, there must be some source from which she got them. Perhaps there is something in them that Kantor doesn't want us to read? (They can be found at http://www.mirror.org/ken.roberts/; according to the website "These prayers are reprinted in "Volume VI: Minor Works" (pp. 453-457) of R.W. Chapman's edition of "The Works of Jane Austen" (Oxford, 1954)"),

The index is not very detailed, and I found that I had to browse the book to pick out specific points that I remembered. Recommended for conservative Christians desiring reassurance. ( )
1 vote PuddinTame | Nov 16, 2008 |
I was hoping this book would be a little more bold in breaking the standard acceptance of a PC culture, but it's a lot more subtle than that. It does point out places where writers and poets aren't being as PC as they could be by today's standards, but it's also important to remember that they were usually writing in line with the standards of their day. I personally hate being PC, and I'm an English student, so I really thought this would be right up my alley. Well, it was very enjoyable and interesting, but not nearly as offensive or taboo as I was hoping it would be.
  rsottney | Mar 19, 2008 |
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