For my English class in my senior year of high school, we had to talk about intertextuality, which loosely represents how all knowledge is inextricably linked through texts or literary mediums — everything stems from something. So, when beginning my reading into Interdisciplinarity I expected a similar idea to evolve. While there are some consistencies between the two since philosophy was seen as the basis to other disciplines therefore connecting them together, it still has a big difference. To me intertextuality is a part of the definition of interdisciplinarity if a definition can be even given. I still have yet to define interdisciplinarity myself since the ambiguity of the term makes it difficult, but I feel that this hesitance is a large part of what interdisciplinarity is. Our reading of the introduction gives many meanings to this term which connects it to many parts of our communication as a society and that’s why I’m constantly baffled when people say to me, “An English major? Are you sure? Is that going to help you with anything? You won’t get a job with that degree. You’re going to end up changing it, English majors always do.”
How come so many people question the merit of an English major when what is learned tends to be the foundation for many subjects? Even mathematics could be considered a language in itself, it has rules and some rules can be broken. Themes learned in English classes, or the Humanities at least, are common throughout the disciplines. And this isn’t a one way street, other structured, defined subjects can meld into others. Nothing is entirely separate, nothing ever will be. Each idea, thought, motion, action, decision, and more, is connected to another idea, thought, motion, action, etc. And maybe this is the definition of interdisciplinarity — the general connection between anything and everything. While this might be a possible definition, Moran makes a very interesting point, “I want to suggest that the value of the term…lies in its flexibility and indeterminacy…In a sense, to suggest otherwise would be to ‘discipline’ it, to confine it within a set of theoretical and methodological orthodoxes” (14). Interdisciplinarity cannot be defined because it cannot be disciplined; its theory prevents this from occurring.
This is why I cannot define a specific reason to be an English major. While my intentions may be to graduate as an English major, to keep on this path I’ve set myself on, if interdisciplinarity exists and cannot be disciplined to one specific ideal, then why should I discipline myself. No matter what major you’re in an English class will have to be taken and no matter how much some people may tell themselves and others that it’s useless, it will impact how they communicate and how they decide to discipline themselves. Interdisciplinarity can be used in any context, in any subject, in any way it may be used which I think presents people with more freedom to possibly create their own discipline and/or break away from the disciplines they’ve been confined to.
So, yes, I’m sure I want to be an English major.