In contemporary (1980s) academia, English still functions ideologically: it universalizes bourgeois values, naturalizes the canon, and presents the act of interpretation as a neutral, liberal, humanizing activity—when in fact it is politically saturated.
English entered universities late (Oxford’s honors school in 1894, Cambridge in 1917) after fierce resistance from classicists. Its proponents (e.g., John Churton Collins, George Gordon) argued that English could produce gentlemen, not scholars—character formation over research. Eventually, I.A. Richards, F.R. Leavis, and William Empson gave it a rigorous, “practical criticism” method, but Eagleton notes that this technical formalism actually obscured its ideological function. Terry eagleton the rise of english pdf
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