The Politics of Knowledge - Edward W. Said

In Edward W. Said's essay "The Politics of Knowledge," he discusses imperialism and global and modern culture. He references Yeats as a non-Western writer and activist, which I was surprised by because I guess when I think of Western writers I always assumed that meant the US and Western Europe...

Anyway, the essay focuses on the "dead white European males," and is in part a response to another paper Said wrote, which was attacked. The attacker (or critic) was a female African American history professor who called attention to the presence of white Western males and the lack of "African American, Arab, and Indian writers." Said addresses this, saying his paper focuses on European imperialism, but that he did address the response and effect of imperialism all over the globe.

Said also addresses identity and cultural differences, stating that different cultures produce different ways of thinking among people. Said then moves from the theoretical approach and touches briefly on the relationship between the United States and Iraq - his basic argument is that theory and actuality are interconnected, and cultures and thought overlap.

This leads me back to our class discussion last Thursday - do we need African Lit, Women in Lit, Native American Lit? Or do we then need to have Men in Lit, Urban Lit, Rural Lit? How many subcategories can we break down, or should we just have general Literature classes where the professors choose what they wish to teach? Does that extinguish the need for a canon, or even just the existence of one? Does every culture that produces literature deserve to have a special class, genre, or study dedicated specifically and solitarily on JUST literature from within that group or race? ...Or is that going too far? I haven't completely made up my mind on the issue...thoughts?