English departments have become Shaker communities, enacting the reproductive rites of extinction. But every year there are fewer and fewer tenure-track teaching positions. Just last night I talked to a friend of mine, a recent Ph.D. from the number one department in the country. Is hired by English department. Department tells university.
University responds by announcing the closing of position.
University closes another position as well. In a twelve-person department, two people retire, and both positions are retired. It doesn't take a dodo to figure out that if we're directing our most promising scholars to medical school and law school, we're dumbing down our own profession. Fortunately, the fall of English is less precipitous at a heavily-endowed private college. So I guess the party's over.