Academic Instincts

by Marjorie Garber

Book Overview

In this lively and provocative book, cultural critic Marjorie Garber, who has written on topics as different as Shakespeare, dogs, cross-dressing, and real estate, explores the pleasures and pitfalls of the academic life. Academic Instincts discusses three of the perennial issues that have surfaced in recent debates about the humanities: the relation between "amateurs" and "professionals," the relation between one academic discipline and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691115710
• ISBN13: 9780691115719
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Witty and Satiric

Prof. Garber's book is an insider's look at the foibles of the academic profession. She has three main themes: the dichotomy between professionals and amateurs, discpiline envy (she uses Freud to great effect here!) and academic jargon vs. plain English.Each theme is buffeted with ample quotes from literature and contemporary cultural critics. Prof. Garber's strength is her ability to weave together disparate realms of academic life to poke fun at (in an admiring way) the academic profession with all of its growing pains and characteristic paradoxes (the dilettante as professional; the professional amateur etc...).On the whole, an interesting, fast-paced look into the strange world known as academia.