A philosopher perceives English as more acutely affected by gener-
ational differences than other disciplines: “It seems to me that the
differences in criteria don’t cut so clearly among disciplines, but also
across generations. I mean, what [an older scholar] thinks is good
scholarship is not what [this other person] thinks is good or interest-
ing scholarship. So you have at least two generations in addition to
disciplines.”
At the other end of the spectrum of perception concerning the
evaluative skills of literary scholars, one English professor differenti-
ates his standards from those of other disciplines by noting that
“people from other disciplines did not read as closely as I did.” He
goes on to say:
I am coming from English, and in English today anything goes
and most of our theories in English are...influential in diverse
areas. So most of the time I feel like I know where they’re coming
from and they kind of know where I’m coming from. The disci-
pline of English is extremely fluid, probably the most fluid. [For
me the best proposal] is something that is very well written and
does a lot of close reading of text and brings out very suggestive
implications, conceptual and theoretical. The problem with us in
English is that it is extremely difficult to define great writing, but
when you see it, you don’t miss it.Historians also believe that “you recognize [excellence] when you
see it,” but this field is characterized by much greater consensus than
is the case for English literature.
History, the Consensual Discipline
Historians are more likely than scholars in other fields to character-
ize their discipline as presenting a relatively high degree of agree-
On Disciplinary Cultures / 79