Connections to a Diverse Literary Canon

 Decolonizing the literary canon has a lot of merit, besides increasing diversity, it can show unique viewpoints that we may not otherwise have been able to connect with. However, there were two small connections that I wanted to make between today’s discussion and that of my own viewpoints, and the real world.

Something I noticed a lot as the use of the word “classics” versus “modern literature” when people discussed taking away and adding books. Although not a especially significant difference, I want to highlight the idea that just because it was a popular book written by a white male author a long time ago, and it was picked up by mainstream society, it doesn’t necessarily qualify it as a classic. I’m sure there are a lot of ethnic classics as well, we’re just not as well acquainted with them. Another note I wanted to make was regarding the term modern literature when used to describe more “diverse” books. Authors that were female and people of color have been writing for a long time. A lot of their writing that is extremely good was also written a while ago, just because we’ve been more aware of it now, doesn’t really qualify it as modern.

Another parallel between today’s discussion and the real world that I saw actually had to do with college applications. Affirmative action has been a hot topic in that realm for a while now, and like decolonizing the literary canon, it is generally a favored idea. What really made these two click and connect for me today was the discussion of “absolute merit”. For college applications in America, although you have scores, rankings, and grades, the review is in general “holistic”, meaning all attributes are weighted and counted. Similarly, literature doesn’t really have “absolute merit” either. Books are perceived by different people in completely different light, some love the book, others hate it. It’s hard to decide what books are worth reading the most. Both of these ideas, diversifying the canon and affirmative action, have the idea of lifting up the unheard and silenced, which is a good goal. How much and the length we should go to is an interesting discussion. Balance is critical for decisions like these.