Literature Courses

In a letter (“Classic Writers,” Jan. 7), Norman Fruman claims that a 1990-91 survey undertaken by the Modern Language Assn. (MLA) does not deal with lower-division survey courses. Fruman is mistaken. Since 1990, the MLA has released two separate reports on the content of literature courses.

An MLA survey of the English curriculum, which focused on the 1990-91 academic year, included questions dealing with the authors and periods taught in lower-division survey courses. The data generated by these questions served as the basis for the article appearing in your paper on Dec. 29.

The article was correct in stating that “the study found that authors such as William Shakespeare and Nathaniel Hawthorne, thought by some to be in danger of being displaced by the rise of multicultural studies, in fact continue to dominate the so-called ‘meat-and-potatoes’ survey course. . . .”

Fruman questions the credibility of the findings of the 1990 survey because 73% of the respondents received their doctorates before 1980. (Fruman believes only older and therefore traditional respondents were surveyed.) Figures compiled by the National Research Council indicate that 77% of all those with Ph.D.s in English in 1989 received their degrees before 1980; therefore, the percentage in the MLA study is equivalent to that for the pool of Ph.D.s in English and is representative of the English professoriate.

BETTINA J. HUBER

Director of Research

MLA, New York