The elephant as professor of zoology

The Culture #66: How poets teach poetry

“Gentlemen… are we next to invite an elephant to be professor of zoology?” The question of the Harvard linguist Roman Jakobson, blown like a poison dart at a proposal to appoint Vladimir Nabokov as a professor of literature, is one of the great put-downs of modern academia. But though Jakobson won the battle, he lost the war. In the last half-century, herds of novelists and poets have been welcomed into literature departments, as creative writing began its worldwide rise to academic respectability.

Of course, many would now suggest we invite the expert students into the common room too.