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+----- Thread: The Fall of English Literature [Christodoulou] (/showthread.php?tid=1591)
The Fall of English Literature [Christodoulou] - mklabgr - 08-15-2026
The Fall of English Literature
by [Daisy Christodoulou]
Daisy Christodoulou examines the striking decline of English Literature as an academic subject alongside the rise of mathematics. Using A-level trends as an example, she notes that maths and English Literature have effectively exchanged positions in popularity. Rather than blaming changes to England’s curriculum, she argues that two broader forces are more convincing explanations: economics and declining reading habits. Students increasingly view education as an investment and therefore gravitate toward subjects such as mathematics that appear to provide stronger employment and financial returns. At the same time, recreational reading has weakened, with smartphones and social media competing for both time and sustained attention.
Importantly, Christodoulou does not present the rise of mathematics as something regrettable. She argues that mathematics has earned its popularity: statistical and quantitative literacy are increasingly essential in modern life, while mathematics also possesses intellectual beauty comparable to that of great literature. But she makes the reverse argument for literature. Literature is not merely culturally beautiful; reading and writing are extraordinarily useful technologies for communicating and, more fundamentally, for thinking. Writing allows people to develop ideas beyond the limits of working memory. This leads to one of the article's most interesting observations about AI: if we routinely delegate writing to artificial intelligence, we risk delegating part of the thinking process itself.
Christodoulou therefore rejects the idea that humanities education should respond to declining attention spans simply by replacing long books with extracts, videos and audio. Instead, she proposes emphasizing the value of demanding, sustained reading precisely because it is difficult. Students have demonstrated that they are willing to tackle challenging subjects such as mathematics and physics when they understand their value; the humanities must similarly demonstrate both their utility and beauty. Nevertheless, she remains pessimistic, suggesting that English Literature could eventually become culturally marginal in Britain, much as Classics has become—a particularly significant change given the historic role of writers such as Shakespeare and Dickens in British cultural life.
Key takeaways
- English Literature is declining while mathematics is rising, reflecting broader changes in education and student priorities.
- Declining reading and digital distraction may be as important as curriculum design in explaining the humanities' difficulties.
- Writing is a tool for thinking, making excessive outsourcing of writing to AI potentially intellectually costly.
- The answer may not be to make literature easier, but to show students why difficult, sustained reading is valuable—both practically and culturally.
ARTICLE