At least I'm not always appealing to one form of art, or isolated works when trying to set a position. I'm more familiar with the fine arts since that's what I've had the most exposure to in terms of theory and applied, even if somewhat second hand. Literature is only a small piece of the arts, and increasingly irrelevant outside of the field due to the destruction of necessary skills for simply reading them, much less comprehension, and even to a lesser degree critiquing them (in no small part due to the educational policies pushed by those more influenced by post-modernism/progressivism).
You have no idea what you're talking about.
Ulysses and
Gravity's Rainbow are considered paradigmatic examples of their respective historical periods. I can name you dozens of other works from Joyce's and Pynchon's contemporaries, but what good does it do when you haven't read any of them? Why can't you take my word for this, when I take your word on the valences of contemporary psychological theory? Why am I not an expert? I won't lie, your perspective on my authority pisses me off.
Literature is far from a "small piece of the arts." It's not increasingly irrelevant, you just can't stand that it is relevant because you don't agree with what you presume are the widely-held political views of most writers. I don't think you have any grounds for this presumption, nor do I think you really know what most writers think.
And furthermore, a literature PhD has to know about other genres of art, primarily visual. You can't study modernist literature and not study Magritte, Picasso, Manet, Fritz Lang, Luis Bunuel, Abel Gance, etc. Your theory of modernist "sermons" still doesn't apply to these people.
The problem is that artists as a group are intensely ignorant of matters outside of the techniques of their craft, and this ignorance permeates the creations.
Seriously? I'd like to see evidence of this claim.
The people swarming the hive of a fine arts building I have to see can't even manage to regulate their sleep/wake cycles or follow basic hygiene and nutritional guidelines, much less provide insight into the complexities of the human condition. I wouldn't deign to tell a painter how to paint, or a writer how to write, in terms of technique, and would respond poorly in kind if they started critiquing organized psychology. Yet this is exactly the problem with artists: They can't help themselves but give uninformed opinions on anything that seizes their fancy. They refuse to stay in their lane, so I'll shove back. I'm sure you can point to an erudite artist or two, but these one or two are not responsible for the production of the majority of art of every type.
An artist or two? You're insane.
Have you ever stopped to think that the exposure to art you have is more limited than mine? You experience artists in a single university location, educated by a single academic community. You don't have a wider exposure to artists or to art; you have a myopic view of a small group of artists getting their undergraduate degrees or MFAs. Personally speaking, most people in this general group have a very immature and under-developed view of the world, and in no way represent the intellectually complex perspective of professional writers/artists.
From what I can tell, it isn't art in general that you should have a problem with, but the kind of art theory promoted in your wife's department. I'd recommend that you broaden your frame of reference before you go spouting nonsense.