Email me at jmayhew at ku dot edu
"The very existence of poetry should make us laugh. What is it all about? What is it for?"
--Kenneth Koch
“El subtítulo ‘Modelo para armar’ podría llevar a creer que las
diferentes partes del relato, separadas por blancos, se proponen como piezas permutables.”
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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.
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).
Why would people feel guilty about it??
ResponderEliminarPolitics. People are suffering, so devoting energy to literature seems less urgent. (i guess.) Or: literature is elitist.
ResponderEliminarDo people in the natural sciences ever feel guilty about teaching their subjects while people are suffering?
ResponderEliminarAnother difference between the "two cultures." :-)
ResponderEliminarIt'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).
ResponderEliminar