The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to English and American Literature (Politically Incorrect...

The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to English and American Literature (Politically Incorrect Guides) | Elizabeth Kantor | Hear the Collective Wail of The Associate Professor

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The Politically In...

	The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to English and American Literature (Politically Incorrect Guides) Elizabeth Kantor Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2006 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 44 reviews view larger image
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The Politically Incorrect GuideT to English and American Literature exposes the PC professors and takes you on a fascinating tour through our great literature-in all its politically incorrect glory. Included: a syllabus and how-to guide to give yourself the English lit education you were denied in school.

PIG to English and American Literature

This is a superbly written book by someone intimately familiar with the subject matter. It exposes the post-modernist absurdities with delightful wit and not in an accusatory manner. This book would be an excellent text for a mid-level college English course, and could help students prepare for being hoodwinked by silly professors with agendas. Some of the best consideration of Shakespeare I have seen since my "pre-politically correct" studies as an English major in the late 60's.

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Hear the Collective Wail of The Associate Professor

I can't think of a better way to recommend the P.I.G. to English and American Literature than simply to refer the prospective reader to the negative reviews already posted. If Dr. Kantor has these sandaled "scholars" in a lather she has surely hit the mark.

I am of that age that witnessed first hand the transition wherein the study of the traditional Western canon went from being the foundation of a serious education to a marginalized (and demonized) travesty. My high school teacher brought "Beowulf" to life and my sputtering university teaching assistant excoriated "Romeo and Juliet" as a rape manual.

The P.I.G. to E & A Lit. is a sliver of sanity that the college freshman can slip into her book bag with which to deprogram herself after each session of her required Lit. class. She can pick up her easy "A" and yet hold on to a love of the great works of our language. This is an antidote to one of the bitterest poisons dispensed by the ineffectual prigs currently seeking to murder our culture.

A genuine appreciation and love for the literature of Western civilization obviously comes from reading the works themselves rather than anyone's analysis or recommendations. But one must start somewhere and Kantor's guide is a fine "menu" from which to order.

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The book isgood; it needs improvement in certain areas.

Kantor's love of "Dead White Male Literature" is enthusiastic. She argues on behalf of the better-known authors and literary pieces in English literature. There were a number of flaws I found with how she presents the book.
She neglects to inform at an indepth level us why certain authors are on the list of (insert time period) literature you must not miss; examples of this include: Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, Newman et cetera. This is commonly found in the chapters on 19th and 20th century literature, and to a lesser extent in previous chapters. It would be nice if she could at least explain why she is recommending these texts.
Her chapter on American literature is awful. She neglects literature written before 1800, virtually all of the Transcendentalists. One quote that she has in the chapter "Henry James's novels aren't American enough to qualify-- he lived in Europe and England for most of his adult life" (Kantor 168). If he lived in Europe for most of his adult life, couldn't Kantor have placed him and the recommendation to read _The Portrait of a Lady_ in the chapter on either 19th or 20th century along side with fellow English writers?
The last issue I really have were clear omissions of authors. Along side the conspicuously absent chapter on American lit., I found several authors not mentioned. How could someone forget about: D.H. Lawrence, Thackeray, Robert Louis Stevenson, or Defoe; and other well-known authors get a passing reference,for example the Bronte's.
The quotes in the boxes entitled "What They Don't Want You to Learn from..." provide discussion questions for my class; for this, I thank you. These "discussion" questions led a few of my students playing Devil's Advocate, and as such caused all of my students to formulate different tactics to debating the sticky subject of Literature.

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