1w ago

‘It’s another form of imperialism’: how anglophone literature lost its universal appeal

5 comments

I hope we start hearing more non-anglo voices, personally.
ah yes, the great unserved non-Western culture of ... Italy ...
it's wild how power writhes and changes, how Greece and Italy have become outside the center while being the origin of the center, especially ironic given this power gives so much talk of tradition and history.
- Anglophone is not interchangeable with Western.
  
  sure, but Western cultural hegemony has been Anglophone for a while, at least a century or two, its roots being from Italy, hence my perceived irony. Still, I get your point, I'm being uncharitable and lazy by fabricating irony that isn't there without generalizations I made.
The fact is that if you are a non anglo and want to read literature not written on you own tongue be it originally written in english or any other language, then usually the easiest road is learning english. I personally have not seen American, British or any other anglo setting as that interesting, ever. Language is still culture and when doing translations you still can't help but adding some anglo thinking and cliches into the story. Not that I think it's that high of a cost to pay for transferring literature from one culture to another
ps. The guardian 🤮