What Is English?

What Is English? is Peter Elbow's challenging and very personal "picture of a profession that cannot define what it is." Written in a lively and accessible style, What Is English? contains Elbow's reflections on the 1987 English Coalition Conference and on its implications for the profession as a whole. Elbow identifies and tackles the major areas addressed by the conference:the question of what "English" meansthe place of theory in reading and writingthe conflict between those who teach literature and those who teach writingthe controversies surrounding the canonthe nation's increasing preoccupation with assessmentTo include the voices of others who attended the conference, the book contains "interludes"—short pieces between chapters—in which teachers from all levels of instruction express their feelings and describe their experiences.