Decolonizing the Literary Canon

In our harkness discussion today, we talked about whether or not we should decolonize the literary canon. One point our circle discussed that I would like to expand on is what benefit decolonizing literature would have on readers.

Because most authors of the pieces of literature we have read are white and male, the characters they have written about are also primarily white and male. There is little to no representation of minorities in almost all of the pieces we have read this year. These titles only show a narrowed point of view and as classmates said, a “bubble” of a privileged world. Because of this lack of diversity, we don’t see an accurate representation of the world we live in. 

Another benefit to decolonizing the literary canon is that it would motivate us to read more books. A classmate brought up the fact that one of the best books she has ever read was about a character that she could relate to and understand. If the characters in the books we read are primarily white males, the majority of us won’t be able to relate to them. A motivating factor for many readers is to be able to connect with the characters in their books and with the little representation of minorities, many of us can’t do that with the books integrated in our curriculum. 

To understand our diverse world that we are living in today, we need titles that are also diverse and show many points of view that we can learn from.