Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

epresentative ~nullicultural tlnivel-sity renewed a sense ofthe social mission of En
literaiy critics aiming 'to keep alive the possibilities of debate about human and ar
issues' by ineans of 'a radical-liberal consideration of connections between artistic
criticai response' rather than a 'revolution of the existing paradigm of literary studie
It is true. for example. that sonle tendencies within Marxism are usefully
assimilable . ... other tendencies are ultimately unassimilable. principally in
their insistence on identifying, and taking strongly aligned positions about.
conflicting forces in an otherwise observable social reality whicll all writing.
in its content. is supposed to reflect. or even mediate . . . . Given tlie present-
day responsibility of tlle university to a heterogeticous humanity and social
structure, it secrns to me that literary studies may best serve students.
\\)hatever their race or ideology, by means of searching modiiications and
changes within tlie existing model (Chapman 1985: 157.159)'.
kind', and the worry was
tllat althougli ending apartheid is important, it ought not to obscure the
eq~lally important task of creating a democratic culture which will support a
post-apartheid democracy (Frost 1988: 15).
~itiity. a~icl tile suhjcci of acadcrnic liagic~grapl-iy (sce Chap~ilan 1995).
220
,4cczrieemic Exchanges
ics optimistically attributed the underhnding ofeducation to racist policies:
~ortage offunding we suffcl.(Maugl~an-Brown 1988:48).
lture' would fall before the
escape into pseudo-rcvolutiona~y rhetoric wliose verbal activism often
conceals aspiritual and intellectual emptiness (Lieskounig 1989:25,29).
forces and tensions of the university were viewed in functional terms
modifications capable of re-tooling institutional practices (distorted under
The courage of those advocating the progressive vision in the era of the state's
22 1