I think its high time we teachers of the English Language went on a tirade against the beaten-track approach to teaching of literature.

The question i would like to put forward is Today's English literature syllabus - does it really address the demands of our time... Literature buffs, (including oldies who've been teaching Literature as a subject for decades may raise their eyebrows, if not a hue and cry or a hullaballo over my radical question... but leave alone prejudices.... come into the era of realism, after your hangover into idealism, and you find the english literature student at the undergraduate level doesnt have a good recipe to taste...

he has to swallow, taste, or digest whatever stale dishes are being offered to him (sorry feminists)... and i hope today's language and literature teachers would agree with me in toto when i say this... what has a MRS. DALLOWAY by Virginia Woolf gotta do with a student's prospects - be it in job or in life - pessimism to the core - or insanity and sanity - side by side- as the 'sane' author would love to call it..

OR what does a THOMAS HARDY contribute to the student's thought process- I am reminded of a goody oldy saying - You can take a horse to water, but not make it drink - you can take a student to college, but not make him think-

OR DO WE? Are we really making our students enjoy literature - or are we giving them an overdose of isms (that includes pessimism and stale archivisms_ for lack of better word)....

All ye Lit fraternity....and students of this lovli subject... dont you feel its high time we said adieu to this beaten track?