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/lit/ - Literature

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[ERROR] No.2150995 [Reply] [Original]

My English professor refers to pretty much every known great work of literature as being written by an "old dead white guy." He makes a point of using this phrase every time, and apparently he specializes in African literature. He's white.

What say you, /lit/? Is he full of shit, or have Africans actually written something of value that's genuinely on par with white literature?

>> No.2150997

Beat him up.

>> No.2150996

Although I do see value in African literature (Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka), your professor is still an idiot for using the "dead white men" canard.

>> No.2151004

Kill him.

>> No.2151010

Sure. Pepetela, Ben Okri, Amos Tutuola, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Naguib Mahfouz, Tayeb Salih, etc.

There are lots of great African writers, many of which I would say are on par with their contemporaries from white countries. Did you not ask your professor for recommendations?

>> No.2151013

>>2151010

No, I'm looking for an unbiased opinion.

>> No.2151016

Use him for what he specializes into.

>> No.2151021

>>2151013
Ah. Well, you can try looking into any of those authors I mentioned if you'd like to give African literature a chance.

>> No.2151023

>>2151010
Senghor is awesome. I'm sure there are others but my brain is frozen from this Coffee Mate sundae.

>> No.2151024

>>2151016
this

>> No.2151044

>>2151021
Not op, but I hate you for turning my wish list into a glutton.

Op, whitewashing all critical opinion into a bland statement only masks smell of shit until the paint fully dries.

>> No.2151067

There are great black authors but he's still being a cunt and a racist for putting things that way but you also shouldn't let him bother you because he's obviously a cunt, it doesn't hurt you anyway, and even if it did, he's just an english professor.

>> No.2151337
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[ERROR]

Dumas was a classy negro. Celine (wasn't he African too?) wrote some socially perceptive stuff that, for a change, wasn't all about how bad racism was.

Still, aint got nothin on glorious white literature.

>> No.2151341

kill him like tha niga you ar

>> No.2151346

Academics love minorities, because it makes them feel less guilty for being white middleclass. It is a pretty obvious ploy for cultural capital, mostly. Feminists, queer, black, chicana, etc. 'thinkers' wave their self-certified marginalization around in an attempt to guilt-trip the majority of academic establishment (straight white middleclass men) into including them in all the 'Introduction to [Subfield of the Humanities]' and some carrierists hop onto the bandwagon - nevermind that some might actually trick themselves into believing they are saving the world by rescuing the literatures of the oppressed into the canon.

>> No.2151358

pro author = "old dead white guy"
>hey im better than that, a young, alive white guy - i can create great literary works too
god i feel encouraged

>> No.2151365

I've got an idea OP, how about you defer to the expertise of your professor instead of being a know-it-all choad. After all, he earned his doctorate, you haven't.

>> No.2151387

>something of value

The problem is that you're only looking at the world through your own set of values. This is why you're a small minded person, and why given any small amount of power would be a tyrant. In other words, you're probably a bad person even if you don't feel like it. If you look even once, honestly, outside your own perspective then you will see how foolish you've been.

The point your teacher is making, is you can summon even a tiny bit of humility, is that we tend to respect old white men over others. I know, you feel like you are justified but ask yourself honestly: have I really read any literature from someone who was NOT a dead old white man? And If I did would I even be capable of understanding its merits without being part of the culture that spawned it?

>> No.2151390

Yes there is great African literature.

But that doesn't discount or nullify the current canon of great literature, it means we should expand it.

>> No.2151392

>>2151337
A perfect example. This guy is judging Dumas higher because he played by the rules of western culture in his writing. But how arrogant and myopic is it to imply that the standard of our western culture is an absolute standard?

>> No.2151398

>>2150995
>have Africans actually written something of value that's genuinely on par with white literature?

You sound like you're 13 and white. Go do your homework, troll, instead of whining about how your teacher offended your racist sensibilities on 4chan. Your professor just has a critical mind, something you clearly lack if you're asking this board for its opinion.

>> No.2151399

>>2151346
People like this frighten me, and I think they will be the primary enemy to the progress of humanity. They always defend themselves by acting persecuted, it is a sad sight. No comment can run contrary to their thinking without being a direct attack on them personally. Anyone who doesn't treat their ideas as serious and equal is a deluded moron. They have built up in their head some strange fictional interpretation of events, based on absolutely nothing.

The main problem is their venomous arrogance. It allows them to believe whatever they tell themselves. They think they are a step ahead, but in truth they never even left the starting gate. If they would set down their arms for one second, and have a long hard look at the foundations of their belief, they would see how wrong they are.

They seem to think that their ideas and the ideas of the people they attack are equal. But the two ideas are not alternatives; one is violent closed minded delusion, one is openness and understanding.

>> No.2151405

>>2151399
People like me frighten you? Or the people I described as 'academics'?

>> No.2151406

>>2151405
You. I think you're probably a bad person and the opposite of all the progress mankind has made in the modern world.

>> No.2151409
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[ERROR]

>African literature

>> No.2151412

>>2151346
what do you know about the academic world? you talk like you're part of it and know exactly what the situation is... you obviously dont.

>> No.2151421

>>2151399
People like you frighten me. You refuse to address the arguments of those who disagree with you, instead spinning massive paranoid webs about their views must be the bane as civilization as we know it. You feel a constant need to alert the world that you're playing the world's smallest violin for yourself whenever you encounter people who have different feelings about issues than yourself.

You are incapable of rational discussion. You are a petulant, needy child who wraps himself in progressive robes.

You think that mudslinging is an argument. You deserve to sit at the same table as a moron and scumbag like Rush Limbaugh. You are just as low as he is, and you will remain so until you learn to argue someone's issues and not just sling pejorative around (and if you're going to just sling pejoratives at someone, then for fuck's sake, at the very least have the courage to address that person when you're doing so).

>> No.2151436

>>2151421
It's just so easy to have an uninformed opinion. Arguing against them is only justifying them. It isn't a matter of being unable to handle rational discussion. I can handle that just fine. But what you have to understand is that your thoughts are irrational.

I know you think that your ideas should be able to stand next to other ideas and have equal footing. But isn't just that they're wrong, it is that the enormous bed of assumptions they lie upon is wrong. Arguing against your points is absurd. I have no interest in your silly points, but I do have an interest in the toxic miasma they are thinly wrapped around.

Understanding other cultures is absolutely central to growing as a human. Without knowing history, you're looking at the world through a straw. To really know anything at all you have to see beyond our own culture. All the judgement you are making and the scenarios you are inventing only make sense if you can only see the world from one little perspective. Academics do not love minorities out of guilt. They love having a broad perspective on the world. Which you lack.

>> No.2151439

He's technically correct, but sounds like a douche. Are you a freshman? Perhaps he's simply trying to get you to reimagine the canon.

>> No.2151441

Is he fucking a black woman?

>> No.2151447

>>2151439
Someone said canon?

>> No.2151450

>There are lots of great African writers, many of which I would say are on par with their contemporaries from white countries.

Jesus motherfucker christ.

>> No.2151451

>>2151450
Because you've read all the writers I mentioned in that post, I'm sure.

>> No.2151452

that's true, and is even true for americans

whenever I see a list of master pieces is always full with american old white men

>> No.2151457

>>2151013
>unbiased opinion

...

>> No.2151458

>>2151399
I'm not sure if you're talking about people like Vlad the Implyier, or the people Vlad is criticising in his post.

>> No.2151462

>>2151458
I'm talking about Vlad. The people in Vlad's post do not exist.

>> No.2151465

he should work for nickelodeon

>> No.2152103

>>2151399
5/10

>> No.2153256

"old dead white guy"
what's left after a bitch screws with your head.

need to go out smack them up. going to pig farmer.