首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
In 1971, according to the Association of Departments of English, about eight out of every 100 bachelor’s degrees were awarded to
In 1971, according to the Association of Departments of English, about eight out of every 100 bachelor’s degrees were awarded to
admin
2016-10-15
59
问题
In 1971, according to the Association of Departments of English, about eight out of every 100 bachelor’s degrees were awarded to English majors. Today, that figure stands at just a shade over four out of 100, with an equally precipitous decline evident in foreign literature enrollments as well.
As the nation’s lit departments go begging for students, they would do well to consult John Carey’s brilliant, funny, and insightful What Good Are the Arts, which makes a compelling and persuasive case that creative expression—especially the written word—is absolutely central to a rich and thoughtful life.
"Literature does not make you a better person, though it may help you to criticize what you are," writes Carey, a former Oxford professor and author of, among other books, 1992’s The Intellectuals and the Masses, a stunning reappraisal of British modernists as hate-filled class warriors terrified by the breakdown of social hierarchy. " But it enlarges your mind, and it gives you thoughts, words and rhythms that will last you for life. "
Ironically, in making his case for the arts, Carey spends most of his book tearing down what he considers specious justifications for them. Where Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer argued for art as sacred, spiritual and transcendent, Carey insists simply that "anything can be a work of art" and that standards of taste and beauty are irreducibly subjective.
Nor does he have any sympathy for left-wing critics of mass art such as Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, who viewed popular culture as a means of social control. Similarly, new theories about aesthetics rooted in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology, while interesting, fail to explain the wide range of individual responses to specific pieces of art, not to mention changing tastes over time.
If Carey finds no theory of the arts fully convincing, he remains their adamant champion.
In what smacks of special pleading, Carey contends that literature is first among the arts, mainly because it is the only art that is explicitly capable of reasoning. The chief implication of this is that literature can moralize in the best way possible. Not in a William Bennett Book of Virtues sense, which holds that if people consume the right sort of messages, they will be upright citizens. Rather, Carey writes that the world’s boundless literary canon "is a field of comparisons and contrasts, spreading infinitely outwards", challenging readers to be more thoughtful about the past from which they spring, the present in which they live, and the future which they will create.
John Carey’s work What Good Are the Arts ______.
选项
A、is popular in the world of literature
B、challenges readers to be thoughtful
C、reveals the value of literature to life
D、casts light on the decline of literature
答案
C
解析
根据第二段中的“…What Good Are the Arts,which makes a compelling and persuasive casethat creative expression…is absolutely central to a rich and thoughtful life”,C应为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/oHoZ777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Howsoonyourperformancewillberatedmayinfluencehowwellyoudo,accordingtoanewstudypublishedinthejournalPsychol
Fordecades,ferryboatscrossedthecoldwatersofMichigan’sStraitsofMackinac,shuttlingpeopleandvehiclesbetweenthetw
Theclean-energybusinessisturningintothenextbiginvestmentboom,inwhichrisksarelightlyignored.Untilrecently,reca
AlisonPrestonoftheUniversityofTexasatAustin’sCenterforLearningandMemoryexplains:Ashort-termmemory’sconversiont
WhathappenedattheUnitedNations?Howdidthecriticslikethenewplay?Soonafteranevent【C1】______,newspapersar
Eatinghealthilycostsabout$1.50moreperpersondaily,accordingtothemostthoroughreviewyetoftheaffordabilityofahe
Eatinghealthilycostsabout$1.50moreperpersondaily,accordingtothemostthoroughreviewyetoftheaffordabilityofahe
TVissooftenaparent’sgoodMend,keepingkidshappilyoccupiedsothegrownupscancookdinner,answerthephone,ortakea
Formostofhumanhistoryrichpeoplehadthemostleisure.Ontheotherhand,thepoorhavetypicallyworkedpersistently.Hans
Manywilldoubttobaccoindustryclaimsthatitissharpeningitssciencetoevaluate"healthiercigarettes".Butthat’swhatwi
随机试题
Wegener肉芽肿患者胸部X线检查的常见表现为系统性硬化病合并肺动脉高压患者的胸部X线表现为
某医院临床医生测得500例正常成年男子血红蛋白(g/L)的数据,用统计公式求出了该指标的95%的正常值范围,问这500人中约有多少人的血红蛋白(g/L)的测定值在所求范围之内?()
在检查患者左锁骨上淋巴结时正确手法应是上述肿大的淋巴结称之为魏尔啸(Vir-chow)淋巴结,它是
小青龙胶囊,药物组成有麻黄、桂枝、干姜、细辛、五味子、白芍、法半夏、炙甘草。功能是解表化饮,止咳平喘。主治风寒水饮,恶寒发热、无汗、咳喘痰稀。方中细辛在《中国药典》中的质量控制成分是()。
《中华人民共和国环境影响评价法》规定,对于环境影响很小、不需要进行环境影响评价的,应当填报()。
关于项目管理与社会技术支持的关系,下列说法不正确的是()。
单位工程施工组织设计一般在施工图设计完成后,在拟建工程开工之前,由()主持编制。
下列产品中,属于应征消费税税目的有()。
会计人员发现会计账簿记录与实物、款项及有关资料不相符的,一律不得自行处理。( )
下列关于平等权的表述中,正确的是()
最新回复
(
0
)