I'll add a query to the queery:  What does this mean, to
"just want to study literature"?

And an observation:  It should occur to us that there is some
middle ground between just studying literature (though, as I
say, I cannot parse that "just") and "running for public office."
The problem with the current debate is that virtually all the
participants have an interest (vested, no doubt) or some kind of
an agenda (hidden, probably) in keeping things in such stark, either-or
terms.

It seems to me that the self-declared proponents of "just literature"
are every bit as guilty as the politically correct crowd of setting
up a situation where "if you're not with me, you're against me."
Whatever happened to the open mind?  To teaching as some kind of
an adventure where even the teacher might experience some surprise
and expansion?

Too much whining in the profession these days, on both sides.  (Well,
there ARE those in the middle, I think I'm there myself, who are actually
teaching instead of looking for enemies.)

Glen Johnson