On Monday 2nd October NLCS English department hosted a roundtable examining the significant ways in which studying English literature transforms how one sees the world, how one lives in the world and how one can be part of the change that is happening in the world.
The thunder outside of the packed Buss matched passionate presentations from teachers in the English department and from Year 13 students applying to study the subject at university. The department was delighted to welcome back ONL and Oxford graduate Kate Greenberg who spoke movingly about the way in which reading literature has shaped her work as a writer and activist. The English Department was also joined by Professor of Romanticism at Connecticut, Charles Mahoney who extolled the value of an English Literature degree in areas such as Law, Marketing and Business while returning us always to the power of literature to refine our ability to analyse, to synthesise and to evaluate.
A significant theme that emerged throughout the evening concerned the value of poetry. Many speakers shared reasons as to why poetry is uniquely placed to reveal the world in a way that impresses a comfortability with ambiguity, nuance, and scepticism. Even more importantly, as it is now widely accepted that the study of English literature serves as a powerful postern in fostering empathy, speakers illustrated how literature provides us unparalleled access into the lives, thoughts, and emotions of characters. These experiences can be significantly different from our own experiences, yet strikingly familiar in their human essence.
“In the Sixth Form, my study of English provided me with freedom, increased academic responsibility and the cultivation of myriad essential skills. It also enabled all my Sixth Form English studies (from Enrichment sessions to interview preparation and research) to be entrenched in a passion for the discipline and a strong sense of individuality.” Imaan, ONL, Class of 2023 – Reading English Literature at Trinity College Cambridge
On a more pragmatic level, students were able to see how an English Literature degree provides them with myriad opportunities when they do decide to enter the job market. Future work can range from teaching, marketing, publishing, journalism, law, being an author, working in politics, to working in theatre, television and film. Moreover, it is no coincidence that the CEOs of many Fortune 500 companies are English graduates. In 2016 Harvard Business Review, for example, profiled the increasing trend for top corporate companies targeting English graduates in their recruitment strategies.
The financial industries have also stepped up their targeted recruitment of English graduates. Goldman Sachs revealed that English students were among its second largest cohort of recruits, and that the company had begun holding special recruitment events aimed at English-related subjects at under and postgraduate levels. This is because English degrees create individuals who are uniquely placed to offer innovative approaches as a direct result of their training in applying new ways of thinking to complicated contemporary problems. Equally, in the fast-changing landscape of AI or LLMs (Large Language Models), for example ChatGPT, a key skill in this emerging area, is the ability to be precise, nuanced and sophisticated in the use of language for what is being called ‘prompt engineering’ – (putting in the instructions properly) – because the quality of the output depends on the quality of the linguistic instructions. English graduates are uniquely poised and prepared for these tasks.
It is not surprising that Plato feared Homer and poetry more broadly, dedicating a significant section of the final book of The Republic to this subject. A world with citizens who can imagine alternatives, articulate dissent and disagreement in cogent and persuasive ways, and in which we are reminded daily not only of our own humanity but that of others, is one that is more difficult to control.
