Literature degrees are aimed at literature lovers. In this regard, the degree makes two basic promises: its students will read a lot, and its graduates will be able to work in the world of books in one way or another. And it’s true that, broadly speaking, it fulfills both promises.
Students’ bookcases grow year over year. And, if they are lucky, graduates work in teaching, publishing, research or communication. However, there are certain things that a degree in Literature doesn’t teach. And it makes sense: Literature is such a broad field that it’s impossible to cover everything. There are books, authors and even whole literary movements that are necessarily going to be left out. However, it’s also true that some of these things are not part of the degree for a matter of perspective rather than timing. Literature degrees teach a particular way of understanding literature, and that leaves out important aspects.
Degree in Literature
Most Literature degrees have one of two orientations: teaching or research. That has two main reasons. On the one hand, it’s a working issue; if students are going to become teachers or researchers, it makes sense for classes to be oriented in that direction. On the other hand, there’s also competition with other degrees. Many times, the same universities that offer degrees in Literature also offer Editing, Art History or even Creative Writing degrees, and it makes sense for each one to have its own focus. However, at the end of the day, this is often limiting, because it leaves out certain fundamental notions to understand the production and distribution process of books.
5 Things They Don’t Teach You in a Literature Degree
Not all Literature degrees are the same; many times, they don’t even have the same name. In turn, they don’t all teach the same, nor do they teach it the same way. That means, therefore, that the list below is not going to fully apply to all of them. However, it’s also true that, despite their differences, all these degrees have many common aspects. And that means that they will have at least one of these five things that are not taught in Literature degrees.
1. How Are Books Made
Despite what the cover says, a book is not the work of a single author. In most cases, manuscripts undergo several revisions, by editors and proofreaders, before reaching their final version. Authors cut, rewrite, reorder, and make new versions on demand, and many times what is published is very different from what was first presented. A very clear example is the title—in many cases, it’s a decision made by the publisher, who after all is the one who’s most interested in creating an attractive and marketable product. However, in academic studies, this process is rarely discussed, in part because it leaves virtually no traces. In the end, it seems that all the decisions of the book, from the cover to the last comma, were made by a single person, which is almost never the case.
2. How Writers Live
Biographies have little place in Literature degrees, and for a good reason. It makes no sense to explain a novel through the life of its author. Cervantes fought in the Battle of Lepanto and he was captured by the Moors, yes, but he was by no means the only one. And only he wrote Don Quixote. However, it’s also true that understanding how writers live—and above all, what they live off of—gives a good idea of the production conditions of certain works. Dostoievski wroteThe Gambler in less than a month, dictating it at full speed, for the sole purpose of fulfilling a contract with his publisher and paying his gaming debts. That explains why it’s one of his shortest novels. Borges began giving conferences—some of the best conferences in Spanish—when, in 1945, he was left without his work as a librarian. A writer’s livelihood clearly affects their production, and motivates the creation of certain works and not others.
3. How does The Publishing Market Work
Literature is only part of the publishing market. There are also school, science, cooking, philosophy, journalism, instructions, history, languages, law, and agronomy books, among many other subjects. The book is a versatile device, which can be used for many things. Publishing houses of a certain size do a bit of everything; literature is one of many possible commodities, and they generally treat it as such. Most books are published by a combination of two impulses: love and money.
In turn, books are not only published: they are also sold. And that happens in many ways. They are sold in bookstores, on websites and at fairs; on paper, on audio and as ebooks. There are bookstores that buy books before selling them, bookstores that only receive and display them, and bookstores that charge to show certain books and not others. And there are also distributors, companies dedicated exclusively to storing and distributing the books. All these actors play a decisive role in the publication, distribution, and marketing of literary works, and represent potential career paths for literature students, yet they are rarely taken into account.
4. How Is Literature Related to Other Arts
Literature is one of several possible cultural expressions and, of course, it’s related to other arts and sciences. And this can be seen in a number of ways. Darwin’s On the Origin of Species introduced the idea that humans and apes share common ancestors. This led, among other things, to the emergence of many stories about monkeys with humanoid features, such as “Yzur,” by Argentinian writer Leopoldo Lugones.
But there are also less direct transmissions. English Romanticism was a much broader cultural movement than Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poems; it can also be seen in the paintings of J. M. W. Turner and in the gardens of Lancelot Brown. Film montage, developed by Einsestein, is contemporary with avant-garde novels that used superposition of materials. Of course, studying these types of relationships in depth falls within fields such as Art History or Cultural Studies, but studying Literature without understanding the context can lead to erroneous conclusions.
5. How to Write
Literature degrees teach you how to read, not how to write. And that can be disappointing for many unsuspecting new students. This has to do with the focus of the degree, of course. Literature is all about very disparate, often unique styles, which can’t be taught. But it’s also true that, in the working sphere, there are many jobs that require writing in a more neutral and depersonalized style. That type of professional writing practiced by journalists and editors has its rules, but they are not taught in a literature degree.
