“The truth is that, with the fading of the Renaissance ideal
through progressive stages of specialism, leading to intellectual emptiness, we
are left with a potentially suicidal movement among ‘leaders of the
profession’…” Gates has a strong opinion on race being a meaningful category to
the study of literature. However, he states that many theorists and authors
would argue that race does not play a role in literature but I cannot seem to
understand why they would argue against Gates claim. Literature is used around
the entire world; there are many races in the entire world as well as many
different languages. “The question of the place of texts written by the Other
in the proper study of ‘literature’, ‘Western Literature,’ or ‘comparative
literature’ has, remained an unasked question…” It was not until recently was
race an invisible quantity.
Another good point that was said my Taine, in which he
called “race” was “source of all structures feeling and thought: to ‘track the
root of man is to consider the race itself…’” As a human being, we as
individuals have structure of character and mind, which it is processed through
thought and feeling. Literature has thought and meaning, so how can one
disagree and argue that race does not play a significant role in literature? Taine’s
described his ideas about the role of race in literature in the most scientific
way possible.
1 comment:
I completely agree. How can one think that race does not play a huge role in literature, especially African-American literature? In order to fully comprehend African-American literature as a genre, one must first understand the history of African culture. A constant struggle for recognition in a white male-dominated society, African-American literature has come a long way since the eighteenth century. The style of writing, and the common use of the vernacular set A-A Lit apart from other genres. Race and the A-A culture is seen through the text, so there should be no reason why someone would argue race doesn't play an important role in literature.
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