The Humanities and Artisanal Education: Technocrats and Artisans in the Contemporary University

This essay is an exploration of the ways in which the practices of the arts and humanities have been understood through craft and play. It argues for a historical understanding of quality mass higher education as a postwar phenomenon and offers a critique of technological solutions to the dilemma of providing quality higher education. Through a series of close readings of literary, cinematic, and sculptural objects and texts, this article looks at reactionary and progressive meditations on the temporality of craftsmanship. It explores the work of D. W. Winnicott, Martha Nussbaum, Christopher Newfield, Philip Roth, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Ann Agee.