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Salient. Victoria University Newspaper. Volume 38, Number 14. June 20, 1975

Pride Comes To A Fall?

Pride Comes To A Fall?

Dear Sir,

We loved Prof. Pride's beautifully-handled ironic 'criticism' of our article on the English Department at Vic. (Salient, 22 April). But although quite delightful to read it's the most miserable form of defence that you have to resort to when you know that there's nothing to be said for your point of view—at least nothing normal people (whoever they are) could sympathize with.

Let's get a bit more positive for a change. After returning from Wellington to Germany last November, I took a job as a lecturer at the University of Bochum, West Germany. Very interesting to see the other side of the staff-student 'power-struggle'. The staff are either pretty reactionary or (like me) apathetic, the student representatives at the departmental conferences aggressive and unrealistic. All the bad things in the English Department here change very slowly, at least on the official level, and all the pseudo-democratic fervour that spills out in conference leads to pretty well nothing.

So students don't change anything because they're apathetic or unrealistically extreme and the staff won't change anything significantly because they've got a vested interest in seeing things continue as they always have.

I soon came to realize, however, that change was possible and that I could play an instrumental part in it (I guess this is also true of the other English lecturers). Let me give three examples of courses I've held in the last few months to show that something interesting and useful can be done, in spite of the system.

1. A series of seminars on textbook analysis. We looked at a wide range of East and West German English textbooks to see how Britain was represented by their authors: a study involving extensive and sometimes heated discussion (in English), detailed study of stereotyping processes and vocabulary selection. Very useful, surely, for students who are going to be standing in front of a class in three years time.

2. 'Descriptive Grammar.' This is an obligatory course on stylistics/grammar, regarded by the students with widespread hatred. I've twisted the demands of the syllabus somewhat so that the first four weeks involved my swamping them in semi-lecture form with as much information as possible. This information was then modified or rejected as a result of class discussion and an investigation of the way vocabulary and grammar were handled in recorded review sketches ('Beyond the Fringe'), newspaper obituaries and a recording of a discussion between two housewives.

Prof. Pride believes that one shouldn't criticize before one has read deeply round the subject. I suggested that the class might like to read about ten pages from one book, and am delighted to have as much critical discussion and thinking as possible, right from the start. Some people—even students—do have a little natural intelligence of their own and are quite capable, after a bit of practice and a hit of help, of working things out for themselves.

These students are now doing group work, analysing the style of newspapers, advertisements, political speeches, comics, etc., with as much or as little help from me as they need. Most of them actually like it, and if you can get anyone to like grammar then I think something has been achieved.

An exam is required at the end of the course, and I'm not going to give it.

3. Ten seminars on the novels of Ira Levin. Of course, the staff were shocked that I could actually choose (heaven forbid!!) to deal with a writer of thrillers! (Actually none of them had heard of him, much less read anything by him, but they knew there was a film called 'Rosemary's Baby', which was popular, so that was enough. To make it worse there's not even any-written criticism of his work—nothing for students to read before daring to make criticisms of their own!)

They really enjoy reading these novels, and discussing them, and in a couple of weeks I shall hand over the whole conduct of the seminars to specific students for discussion of general trends in the four books.

Dickens and Shakespeare are dead, and Dickens and Shakespeare don't interest roost people, so let's work at something that does, shall we.

Sorry to go on so long about this. What I'm trying to say is that we really depend on young? lecturers to bring something realistic into courses. Clever ironic letters are all very well in their place, but for God's sake let's shake traditional sentiments a tiny little bit now and again.

Stretton Taborn,

University of Bochum, West Germany.