File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_1999/postcolonial.9902, message 37


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.




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