9 abr 2011

Guilt

I remember being surprised that my colleagues in Latin American literature felt guilty or conflicted about teaching literature. I have never, ever felt guilt about teaching literature.

5 comentarios:

Clarissa dijo...

Why would people feel guilty about it??

Jonathan dijo...

Politics. People are suffering, so devoting energy to literature seems less urgent. (i guess.) Or: literature is elitist.

Andrew Shields dijo...

Do people in the natural sciences ever feel guilty about teaching their subjects while people are suffering?

Andrew Shields dijo...

Another difference between the "two cultures." :-)

Spanish prof dijo...

It's the John Beverley tradition. I have the opposite problem: I teach a lot of what would be considered "popular culture" (from soap operas to movies to detective fiction), so I get attacked by some people for "demeaning" the status of literature. On the other side, others say that what I teach has too much "Anglo" influence, so I don't respect the "real" Latin American identity (whatever that means).