Teaching the Canon
- Teaching the Canon
The debate over the emerging Global Canon falls within the scope of the academy, comprised of individuals who play a critical role in determining the leading works of art and literature. We engaged two professors in a discussion of the ever shifting, and increasingly global nature of literature curricula in their college classrooms. We questioned them about the specific goals of their literature classes, what role non-western writers played in class discussions, and how the diverse backgrounds of their students influenced the classroom dynamic. We began the conversation, in the form of an e-mail exchange, moderated by World Policy Journal editors, with a simple question: What goals do you have as professors of world literature, with respect to your students' curricula and their lives beyond the classroom?
First, to present literature in its historical context, regionally, nationally and globally, to show the connection between the particular "local" situation of the work of literature, its relation to broader contexts and even the notion of "universal" values. Often this is dialectical—by discussing the particular and the universal, we find our senses of both modified. Second, to present literature as literature; that is, as a specific way of putting language together that is unique to literature. This is done with due respect to the fact that different cultures have alternative discourses, which approximate what western society understands literature to be. I attempt to raise the question regarding the kinds of social and cultural functions literature performs, and how these functions are manifested elsewhere. My hope is that if I meet these objectives, they will have a kind of ethical effect—that [my students'] assumptions about the world, of how "other people" act, about other values, ways of thinking, would be different. [End Page 11]
I agree with David. There is an ethical component to the study of literature and foreign literature in particular, a thinking through of assumptions pertaining to others and other cultures. Historically, in the postwar United States, comparative literature has been concerned with the task of fashioning world citizens. I think we must ask critically what it might mean to be a citizen of many cultures, and of the world. In my freshman seminars on literature, we read seminal texts by philosophers and political theorists on cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism.
In this context, my work is born of the conviction that curricula must play catch up to the cross-cultural make-up and curiosity of students, and the cities they inhabit. The cities where I have taught—Vancouver and now Abu Dhabi—have a higher percentage of foreign-born residents than New York or Los Angeles. I believe university curricula must do justice to these cities as sites of cross-cultural exchange. The students are Eastern Europeans interested in Latin American or Asian culture, or Latin Americans interested in the Middle East. In many instances, students are already the product of two or more formative cultures. The goal of my literature curriculum is to foster, channel and discipline the cross-cultural curiosity students already display in their everyday lives—consuming manga, music and Bollywood.
I very much like Paulo's point about the shifting identities of college-age students. They certainly are very diverse, and show the effects of global mobility of ideas and people. That said, I think it is also important to note that their diversity is brought about in different ways. There are those of the elite class, and then those who are the first members of their families to attend college. I try to engage all students in puzzling out this situation and use literature as one way to tap into issues of history, culture, and identity. The Canon has always been used to fortify some sense of national cultural identity. Now, with a slowly broadening Global Canon, new senses of exactly what Paulo says about world citizenship are coming about, and this has an effect on our re-assessing national and cultural identities.
My teaching has actually changed because of ideas that have come from international students with mixed backgrounds. Two...
