The Importance of Being Minor

The Importance of Being Minor Gregory Jusdanis Scholars studying "minor" or peripheral cultures face almost insurmountable barriers in gaining recognition for their subject since it occupies a marginalized area in the dominant episteme. Publishers and editors of journals express little interest in their work and often financially squeezed libraries allocate only modest funds for material not destined for core courses. Universities, when creating new positions in the humanities, focus on those subject areas in greatest demand . A cursory glance at the MLA Job List reveals an overwhelming bias for specialists in English, French, German, and Spanish. Even departments of comparative literature, despite their declared ecumenical perspective, are keen to compare principally the literary traditions of a few countries in western Europe. The combined effect of these exclusionary practices is the denial of authenticity and validity to those areas at the margins of the "great" traditions. Pedagogically this means that most students either do not have the possibility or are not always encouraged to take courses in literatures outside the mainstream. The experiences of most of the world's peoples, as Cary Nelson observes, are "obliterated in the 'humanism' of the English curriculum"1 (1987: 50). There are signs that this regime is slowly, albeit grudgingly, giving way, as the much publicized reforms of the Stanford University core curriculum seem to indicate. Even traditional scholars see the need to modify course offerings. Gerald Gillespie, for example, recognizes that the shortcomings of comparative literature must be redressed through the addition of "significant work in Asian, Pacific, Near Eastern, and African languages, but while expanding, not diminishing, our European repertory" (1987: 22). Revision of curricula, however, is not the sole solution. Our horizons should expand beyond this goal to inquire into the very status of peripheral disciplines in a field dominated by a small number of "great" literatures. The present study will address some issues concerning the "miJournal of Modern Greek Studies, Volume 8, 1990. 5 6 Gregory Jusdanis nor" and "major," especially how the former can participate in the production of knowledge regulated by the latter. I begin with the assumption that if we, as students of marginal disciplines, do not wish to be confined permanently to the outer boundaries of the Humanities, vainly communicating only with ourselves, if we do not wish to speak the language of others, limited by their questions and answers, we must reflect on our own situation, study our own practices, and discuss our own theoretical crisis. As Cary Nelson reminds us, only a theorized discipline, engaged in self-criticism, "can be an effective site for a general social critique" (1987: 48). Modern Greek studies may become such a site by focusing on its particular problematic for its own intrinsic worth and also with the aim of drawing conclusions from its own specific case relevant to both marginal and central disciplines. Greece's cultural and political history is peculiarly significant for developments elsewhere because of its anomalous relationship to Europe . It was a European nation yet was located on the periphery of the continent and dominated by the Ottomans for 400 years; Classical Hellas was venerated as the birthplace of civilization whereas modern Greece embarrassed Europeans by its backwardness; it was, as Herzfeld puts it, disconcertingly exotic and familiar (1987: 2). Its relative geographical and cultural isolation from Europe impeded European influences, but its proximity, especially after the War of Independence in 1821, enhanced the exportation of European ideas to the country. Greece was and continues to be a minor player in the theater of Europe. The study of its culture has consequently been relegated behind the major scenes of academic interest. Modern Greek, a typical minor program, confronts the prejudices I have enumerated and, further, finds no niche for itself in the disciplinary structure of the university. The heir to one of the longest, uninterrupted, linguistic traditions in the world is in effect an orphan. Modern Greek scholars quite often, and justifiably so, decry their marginalized status in the academic communities of north America and western Europe. While Romanian and Portuguese are housed in Romance Languages, Polish is accommodated in Slavic or Eastern European Studies, and Chicano literature has lodged itself in Spanish departments, there is...