Foreword by Diane Elam Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. The Idea of Excellence 3. The Decline of the Nation-State 4. The University within the Limits of Reason 5. The University and the Idea of Culture 6. Literary Culture 7. Culture Wars and Cultural Studies 8. The Posthistorical University 9. The Time of Study: 1968 10. The Scene of Teaching 11. Dwelling in the Ruins 12. The Community of Dissensus Notes Index
Bill Readings was Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the Université de Montréal.
Readings argues compellingly that the university has outlived its
purpose--a purpose defined two centuries ago, when the nation-state
and the modern notion of culture came together to make the
university the guardian of national culture...What, Readings asks,
"is the point of the University, if we realize that we are no
longer to strive to realize a national identity, be it an ethnic
essence or a republican will?" What happens when the culture the
university was meant to preserve goes global and transnational
along with everything else? This is an intriguing argument.
And...it helps to explain much. From this perspective, for example,
Readings is wonderfully insightful on the "culture wars" that have
wracked universities and bewildered the public for two
decades...Readings offers a call to arms to those of us who live
and work in universities as well as to those on the outside--a call
to better understand our position in a changing world, to come out
of our professional shells, stop pining for a lost world, and
actively seek to construct something different...[This is] a
remarkable contribution.
*The Atlantic*
The University is a ruined institution, forced to abandon its
historical raison d'etre and enmeshed in consumerist ideology...The
task that substitutes for the pursuit of culture is the adherence
to Excellence, which relegates the university to the treadmill of
global capitalism. It turns out graduates as objects, not subjects,
at so much per head, under the scrutiny of the state bureaucracy.
That is the nub of Bill Readings's superbly argued pessimism...His
essay provides an insight into contemporary vexation as experienced
in every form of society and community obliged to exist in the new
globalized economy. The university has always suggested an
institution immune to wider trends, but Readings...argues very
convincingly for its fragility. It is a microcosm caught in the
coils of consumerism, and forced to act as a satrap in that
kingdom...The dysfunction, as he envisages it, is very deeply
pondered and rather brilliantly expounded.
*New Statesman and Society*
Bill Readings...presents a comprehensible and intelligent
interpretation of the status and meaning of the university today
which draws inspiration for its ideas from paradigms as diverse as
Jean-Paul Lyotard's seminal The Postmodern Condition and the cult
movie of the late 1980s, Bill and Ted's Excellent
Adventure...Anyone who has been through the academic mill in the
English-speaking world at any level in the last decade will
certainly have no problem perceiving the truth of Readings's
observation that corporate-style management has become part of the
fabric of university administration.
*Jerusalem Post*
[A] fiercely intelligent polemic about the contemporary
university...Whether they're polishing off the latest bit of
research or merely fishing in some desolate sound during the summer
break, The University in Ruins is a book that's indispensable to
everyone working in or attending post-secondary institutions. If
they're not in ruins yet, they're certainly under siege.
*Toronto Globe and Mail*
[An] acerbic, often witty critique of the University...[Readings]
would have made a formidable opponent in the debates that his book
will surely occasion...[W]e should be thankful [for Readings' book]
because it raises precisely the large theoretical questions that
university types often prefer to ignore.
*The Georgia Review*
Bill Readings' scholarly work The University in Ruins is one of the
most challenging and critical books of this genre. He argues
compellingly that there is a crisis of purpose in the modern
university...Readings' arguments about the linkages between
globalisation, corporatism, culture and the university provide an
important insight into the malaise of the contemporary
university...This highly intelligent and fiercely written book is a
fine epitaph to a scholar of rare distinction.
*Quadrant*
The University in Ruins is both challenging and accessible.
Readings can discuss the German Idealists and Macro-Economists, F.
R. Leavis and Francois Lyotard, Beavis and Butt-Head, even Bill and
Ted and (of course) their Excellent Adventure-all without
obfuscation or condescension. His book offers acute assessments of
higher education, its architects, and its critics. There is much
material for reflection and debate here; that's the way Bill liked
things and what he liked best about the university.
*Journal of English and Germanic Philology*
Sadly, Readings died in a plane crash shortly after this acerbic,
often witty critique of the University was completed. He would have
made a formidable opponent in the debates that his book will surely
occasion
But what we have is Readings' book, and for that we should
be thankful because it raises precisely the large theoretical
questions that university types often prefer to ignore.
*The Georgia Review*
Readings argues compellingly that the university has outlived its
purpose--a purpose defined two centuries ago, when the nation-state
and the modern notion of culture came together to make the
university the guardian of national culture...What, Readings asks,
"is the point of the University, if we realize that we are no
longer to strive to realize a national identity, be it an ethnic
essence or a republican will?" What happens when the culture the
university was meant to preserve goes global and transnational
along with everything else? This is an intriguing argument.
And...it helps to explain much. From this perspective, for example,
Readings is wonderfully insightful on the "culture wars" that have
wracked universities and bewildered the public for two
decades...Readings offers a call to arms to those of us who live
and work in universities as well as to those on the outside--a call
to better understand our position in a changing world, to come out
of our professional shells, stop pining for a lost world, and
actively seek to construct something different...[This is] a
remarkable contribution. -- David Harvey * The Atlantic *
The University is a ruined institution, forced to abandon its
historical raison d'etre and enmeshed in consumerist
ideology...The task that substitutes for the pursuit of culture is
the adherence to Excellence, which relegates the university to the
treadmill of global capitalism. It turns out graduates as objects,
not subjects, at so much per head, under the scrutiny of the state
bureaucracy. That is the nub of Bill Readings's superbly argued
pessimism...His essay provides an insight into contemporary
vexation as experienced in every form of society and community
obliged to exist in the new globalized economy. The university has
always suggested an institution immune to wider trends, but
Readings...argues very convincingly for its fragility. It is a
microcosm caught in the coils of consumerism, and forced to act as
a satrap in that kingdom...The dysfunction, as he envisages it, is
very deeply pondered and rather brilliantly expounded. -- Anthony
Smith, President, Magdalen College, Oxford * New Statesman and
Society *
Bill Readings...presents a comprehensible and intelligent
interpretation of the status and meaning of the university today
which draws inspiration for its ideas from paradigms as diverse as
Jean-Paul Lyotard's seminal The Postmodern Condition and the
cult movie of the late 1980s, Bill and Ted's Excellent
Adventure...Anyone who has been through the academic mill in
the English-speaking world at any level in the last decade will
certainly have no problem perceiving the truth of Readings's
observation that corporate-style management has become part of the
fabric of university administration. -- Natasha Lehrer * Jerusalem
Post *
[A] fiercely intelligent polemic about the contemporary
university...Whether they're polishing off the latest bit of
research or merely fishing in some desolate sound during the summer
break, The University in Ruins is a book that's
indispensable to everyone working in or attending post-secondary
institutions. If they're not in ruins yet, they're certainly under
siege. -- Stan Persky * Toronto Globe and Mail *
[An] acerbic, often witty critique of the University...[Readings]
would have made a formidable opponent in the debates that his book
will surely occasion...[W]e should be thankful [for Readings' book]
because it raises precisely the large theoretical questions that
university types often prefer to ignore. -- Sanford Pinsker * The
Georgia Review *
Bill Readings' scholarly work The University in Ruins is one
of the most challenging and critical books of this genre. He argues
compellingly that there is a crisis of purpose in the modern
university...Readings' arguments about the linkages between
globalisation, corporatism, culture and the university provide an
important insight into the malaise of the contemporary
university...This highly intelligent and fiercely written book is a
fine epitaph to a scholar of rare distinction. -- Mal Logan *
Quadrant *
The University in Ruins is both challenging and accessible.
Readings can discuss the German Idealists and Macro-Economists, F.
R. Leavis and Francois Lyotard, Beavis and Butt-Head, even Bill and
Ted and (of course) their Excellent Adventure-all without
obfuscation or condescension. His book offers acute assessments of
higher education, its architects, and its critics. There is much
material for reflection and debate here; that's the way Bill liked
things and what he liked best about the university. -- Stephen M.
Buhler * Journal of English and Germanic Philology *
Sadly, Readings died in a plane crash shortly after this acerbic,
often witty critique of the University was completed. He would have
made a formidable opponent in the debates that his book will surely
occasion But what we have is Readings' book, and for that we should
be thankful because it raises precisely the large theoretical
questions that university types often prefer to ignore. -- Sanford
Pinsker * The Georgia Review *
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