"My own kind?" I'm sorry, you make it sound like I'm a different species. I'm certain you didn't mean to imply anything of the kind.
I do read literature written by my ethnic group. "My own kind," as you so eloquently put it. And by women. And by plenty of other people -- many, many, many of whom were directly influenced or work in response to the Western Canon, and in response to Western civilization. Without the knowledge of the Western Canon, I would not know to what they were responding. I wouldn't grasp the references they made, the allusions they made, the very world in which their work was situated. I wouldn't understand the reception their works had, or why they stand alone. I would only understand them in one dimension, in one level of discourse, and I would not be able to look across any boundary in order to place them contextually on the landscape in which they emerged. That's why the Western Canon matters -- it makes up a large portion of the territory on which we all trod in the West.
So let me phrase it this way: I'm sorry that you think the only experiences that can speak to you are the ones that come from your socio-ethnic group, and that the dominant paradigm offers you nothing, not even the opportunities to break it once you understand it. I'm sorry that no-one taught you how to use the master's tools to break down his structures. However, my education has been far more comprehensive, and I shall seize my opportunities where and when I may.
no subject
I do read literature written by my ethnic group. "My own kind," as you so eloquently put it. And by women. And by plenty of other people -- many, many, many of whom were directly influenced or work in response to the Western Canon, and in response to Western civilization. Without the knowledge of the Western Canon, I would not know to what they were responding. I wouldn't grasp the references they made, the allusions they made, the very world in which their work was situated. I wouldn't understand the reception their works had, or why they stand alone. I would only understand them in one dimension, in one level of discourse, and I would not be able to look across any boundary in order to place them contextually on the landscape in which they emerged. That's why the Western Canon matters -- it makes up a large portion of the territory on which we all trod in the West.
So let me phrase it this way: I'm sorry that you think the only experiences that can speak to you are the ones that come from your socio-ethnic group, and that the dominant paradigm offers you nothing, not even the opportunities to break it once you understand it. I'm sorry that no-one taught you how to use the master's tools to break down his structures. However, my education has been far more comprehensive, and I shall seize my opportunities where and when I may.