DELUSIONS OF LITERACY: THE LAHEY LECTURE OF CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

Abstract

A lecture by Robertson Davies speaks for itself, as the reader will find, and needs no introduction. But its place in this Journal at this time deserves an explanation. What is happening in English studies at any level of education touches the sensitivities of English-speaking people in a way no other "subject" appears to do; questions about the value of what we do with words seem to be disturbingly intimate with questions about the value of what we do with life. The Journal will attempt in its next issue of February, 1979, a survey of the present state of English studies; and Robertson Davies' eloquent expression of feelings that are shared by many - an expression as exemplary of a style in life as it is of mastery with words - is by way of being a curtainraiser to that theme.