Yes, you can be wrong in English class. I did not always think this way. I used to consider (and I think the opinion is still held) that English class is a place to talk about feelings and poetry and deep things. “Thank goodness English class is nothing like math,” I would always say. “Thank goodness there aren’t any equations to be solved.” I am still relieved English is different from math. My brain is not wired for calculus. The answers in English are more complex.
The coursework in the English degree is different from the coursework we see in the Engineering degree, or in the Biomedical Sciences degree. Academic disciplines differ from one another because they’re answering different questions. I had an English professor who helped me to see this. I was struggling to compose a Chaucer research paper; I felt uncertain of my ideas because I could not find evidence that would satisfy me. My professor explained that the information I had was sufficient evidence to support my reading of the text. He said, in pursing more information, I was stepping outside my obligation for research.
“English majors are not engineers,” he explained to me. “We’re answering questions of theory and interpretation. Engineers, however, have to be exact. They have to know things such as, ‘Will this bridge I designed hold up under tons of weight?’ But we are proving a possible reading of a text.” The student in English polishes a lens through which to examine a piece of writing.
Yet it remains I can be wrong in my interpretation--I can be incorrect in my reading of a text. This is where ideas about “close reading” surface. We have to answer, “What does it appear this author is trying to say?” Close reading is digging into a text, examining each sentence, each word, and holding on to the idea that the author had intention in selecting the words he selected.
Close reading is not happening in a classroom where a teacher explains, “This poem means whatever you want it to mean.” My feelings about a poem are often not in sync with the author’s intended meaning. That’s why I’ve got to examine the words on the page.
Can I be wrong in English class? You bet. For an example, see the disgraceful paper I wrote in eleventh grade about my feelings and guesses about what T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” could possibly mean.
A concept which I apply rigorously to the Word. I dislike attempting to make my own interpretation...I'm never satisfied that I've accurately grasped what the Author was saying. Other forms of writing, however, leave a little room for personal application, I suppose. Maybe that's why poetry fries my brain a little :)
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