January 3, 2008
Scotland downgraded
Leading Scottish literary figures have criticised a decision by the US Library of Congress to reclassify their work as a subsection of English literature.From "wogs begin at Calais" to "English begins at Land's End". Full article here. More "wog" etymology and discussion here.The move means Scottish literature will no longer have its own section in the world's biggest library. . .
A spokesman for the library said it would be reconsidering the controversial decision. . .
Ms Lochhead, Glasgow's Poet Laureate, said the move was caused by "ignorance" and accused the library of "cultural imperialism."
Posted by David on January 3, 2008 5:05 PM
"English Literature" is an absurdly confusing title anyway. Does it refer to England as a political entity, or the English language? If the latter, why pretend that there is an American literature? If the former, how on earth are you going to disentangle which Brits post 1707 are English, which Scots? Are the "Harry Potter" novels English or Scottish literature: Ms Rowling wrote them in Scotland. How about "James Bond"? He was half Scots, half Swiss. Or don't we count the national origin of a fictional character? If we look at the author, "Ian Fleming" sounds Scottish to me! My first Google hit on him reports "Born in 1908 as the son of Valentine Fleming, and the grandson of the wealthy Scottish banker Robert Fleming, Ian Lancaster Fleming grew up the member of a rare class of Englishmen ..". There you are, he's both Scottish and English, apparently.
Posted by: dearieme on January 3, 2008 6:29 PM
cronaca.com