< div> < div> Widely considered the standard history of the profession of literary studies, < i> Professing Literature< /i> unearths the long-forgotten ideas and debates that created the literature department as we know it today. In a readable and often-amusing narrative, Gerald Graff shows that the heated conflicts of our recent culture wars echo& #8212; and often recycle& #8212; controversies over how literature should be taught that began more than a century ago. < br> < br> Updated with a new preface by the author that addresses many of the provocative arguments raised by its initial publication, < i> Professing Literature< /i> remains an essential history of literary pedagogy and a critical classic.< br> < br> & #8220; Graff& #8217; s history. . . is a pathbreaking investigation showing how our institutions shape literary thought and proposing how they might be changed.& #8221; & #8212; < i> The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism< /i> < u> < /u> < /div> < /div>