It is pretty annoying that "the literary canon is overly representative of white men" got taken to mean "we should never have to engage with classic lit ever again" by the most incurious people alive
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I think we should keep the concept of a canon as a bunch of works which are written in the context of one another. Like a centuries-long conversation. But we shouldn't be shocked when the influences don't travel in simple ways
I'm a fan of situated reading, where they pull out maps and timelines to discuss how ideas immediately shaping the (often white male) author permeate their works. One of my faves was Shakespeare's very Elizabethan conceit to portray Romeo and Juliet's Prince Escalus as a hands-off force of nature.
That sounds fascinating but when I went to Google it, "situated reading" seemed to mean "where a physical reader is actually located during the act of reading"...
I just checked and either I am misremembering or (perhaps more likely) the instructor who did it with us misdescribed it - Situated Writing apparently.
I feel the pain of "I know there's a whole field here and I know I mark out for it but what the hell does everyone else call it again??" I recently realized I've been using "kayfabe" wrong and trying to train myself out of it.
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smdh this is anti-intellectualism at its most blatant