But wait, my [teacher/father/mother/brother/BFF/insert-authority-figure-here] told me that theory was dead!

        Despite announcements that theory was dead or (worse?) trivialized, by theoreticians who were simultaneously practicing theory and denying it was possible, theory continues to evolve in several directions, especially in cultural studies and other socio-political branches related to Marxism, Feminism, and Semiotics.  You can see some new publications at the web site of Polity Press, a publisher which specializes in theory.  Especially because NC taught its supporters and its opponents that control of the literary canon could affect the long-range trajectory of American culture, the fight was fierce and victories were momentous.  Just as historians (and theorists) can learn a great deal by revisiting wars and revolutions long ago in time, so too we can discover some interesting ways to see how Goucher's English Major is structured and what you can do with/to/about that by seeking its roots in New Criticism.  To get an idea when it happened at Goucher, look at the publication dates for I.A. Richards' books and compare them with the dates of the editions in the Goucher Library collection, when they were ordered to support the restructuring of the major by the then-revolutionary New Critics who were shaking up the course listings.  If you connect that to Ohmann's 1970 essay looking back on that era's furious debates, you may be able to reconstruct some of the actual history of the Goucher English Department that now is forming part of your growth as an interpreter of literature.