Date: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 00:01:24 +0100 From: Volker Schmidt <voschmid-AT-stud.uni-frankfurt.de> Subject: Re: Some More Sharmila, _American_ academia? I am aware that you are trying to make clear that your statement about the need to debate poco studies can in a way be placed in a certain culture - but _America_? As far as I noticed, there are lots of people on this list from all kinds of places - (former) colonies as well as (former) colonizers. Since it is probably not necessary to formulate why the formerly colonized should deal with poco studies - it's "their" literature, after all! -, might it make sense to limit your search for justfication to the so-called "Western world"? Or did you actually use the term "American" with an intention I didn't catch? Just a qustion from a Eurocentrist, Volker Sharmila Mukherjee wrote: > I don't think it's a question of "defending" the need to teach poco lit in > Western academia. That kind of tone smacks a little bit of arrogance and > polemicism. The idea is to open up a rational inquiry into this area of > academic interest. If you read histories of literature you'll find that > even an intellectual as "maligned" (by posterity I suppose) as Matthew > Arnold has accused Western culture and literary tastes of being > "provincial" and "exclusive". I don't think poco people are the pioneers > in this respect, though their intent is more overtly political > (justifiedly so). I think it's really important to have this debate going: > the nature and function of poco studies in American academia. --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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