Interviewer: In The War Against Grammar, David Mulroy argues that one of the reasons grammar instruction has become less common is that “the whole concept of literal meaning has fallen into disfavor in academia." Do you agree, and if so, do you think this phenomenon is something to be worried about?
Benton: I believe literal meaning has rightly come under suspicion in the world of professional literary criticism and I am glad literary critics urge readers to consider the importance of context and bias when they are analyzing a text. At the same time, however, teachers often complain about undergraduate students’ inability to grasp the literal meaning of the texts they are assigned to read for class. To address this problem, I believe teachers should more frequently ask students to write summaries of non-fiction texts.
Interviewer: Do you think there is a connection between the suspicion of of literal meaning and the declining interest in traditional grammar instruction?
Benton: I am not convinced that there is, no.
