Hello Literature Editors

[Amal Chatterjee]

Hi everyone (though there seems to be just two of us at the moment!)

I'm a (South Asian/British) novelist and historian  trying to get the Literature workgroup alive. 

One the first things I think it needs (besides more editors) is an agreement on subgroups. I've made some suggestions on the  Workgroup Home page. Please do disagree with me , they're just thoughts. I think the subgroups will probably be defined most by the specialisations of the editors - or, if you want, how the editors describe/see themselves.

[Profrap]

Hi Amal,

Thanks for your work getting this started.  I've left a brief note on the workgroup homepage; I agree with your latter observation that, at least for now, the interests and expertise of current editors and authors should give us our first priorities.

I've been working on "Geoffrey Chaucer" and "The Canterbury Tales" -- my original doctorate was in Chaucer and medieval literature -- but am also working on some material from the Victorian period, in which I currently work.  Right now my main project there is an entry on Wilkie Collins's and Charles Dickens's play, "The Frozen Deep"

Other entries I have thought about working on include "Charles Dickens," "Leicester Square," "Charles Frederick Field," and "Algernon Charles Swinburne.  I'm also working on a (literarily-connected) new entry for "Sir John Franklin."

Russell Potter

[Amal Chatterjee]

Hi Russell (and, I hope, others)

Shall we our interests and current specialisations and see how that works as the basis for a preliminary set of sub-groups?

Mine would include:


Colonial Literature in English
Indian Literature in English
Post-colonial Literature in English
Indian Literature
Fiction (General)
The Novel

You mentioned authors. Do they fall under the purview of Literature Editors or Biography Editors?

Have taken a look at the disappearing Top level articles (cf Workgroup Home page) and don't have an answer ...
Amal

[Profrap]

Hi Amal,

There was quite a lot of chat about Biography -- I think most articles will be cross-listed from Biography to their relevant fields, since "Biography" per se is not an academic discipline or sub-discipline.

Also, I solved that earlier problem with tagging articles (though I haven't fixed it yet); it turned out to be easy -- we just need to add the standard workgroup tag along *with* the top level tag and the article will list properly.

cheers,

R U S S E L L

p.s. a more complete list of my special areas of study:

Chaucer and Medieval English Literature
Victorian Literature
Irish Literary Renaissance
Works of James Stephens
Works of Ella Young
Works of Flann O'Brien
The Gothic in Literature
Works of Steven Millhauser
Works of L. Frank Baum
Literary Modernism
History of the Language
African-American Literature

(an, in and across other disciplines):

19th century Arctic Exploration
Sir John Franklin
Elisha Kent Kane
Panoramas, dioramas, and other 19th-century visual technologies
Early film
Early mechanical television (J.L. Baird)
Hip-hop music and culture
Folk music

[Jason Sanford]

Amal:

I second the previous thanks on your work starting this workgroup and discussion. I've been working on the African American literature and William Shakespeare articles (although the Shakespeare article still needs a ton of work). My specialty is Southern Literature from the United States. I also agree that author articles should fall under this workgroups efforts.

I look forward to taking part in this workgroup.

On a side note: Russell, I'd be interested in getting your opinion on the African American literature article and any work you think it needs. Feel free to leave any comments on my talk page or here.

[Profrap]

Hi Jason, good question -- I'm going to start a new thread on the Af-Am article.

RP

[Amal Chatterjee]

Had a busy day.  Shall we proceed by making a list of subgroups and topics under them that we feel invidually capable of editing. Mine would read something like this:

Colonial Literature in English
-Works of Rudyard Kipling
-Works of Philip Meadows Taylor
-Indian Writing before Independence

Post-colonial Literature in English
-African Writing in English
-Malaysian Writing in English
-South Asian Literature in English
-Indian Writing in English
-Sri Lankan Writing in English
-Pakistani Writing in English
-Works of RK Narayan
-Works of Ruskin Bond
-Works of Nissim Ezekiel
-Contemporary Novelists
-Works by Writers of Indian origin

Something that concerns me: we need more folk, with specialisation other than English, don't we?

Amal

[Michael D. Sheridan]

Just thought I'd introduce myself a bit, being a new literature author and all.

I can't say I'm particularly specialized per se in anything, being no more (at present, at least) than a lowly master's degree holder, but mostly what I plan to concentrate on in the literature field is Turkish literature—I wrote the Wikipedia article on that subject, and most of the articles on Ottoman Divan literature poets, if anyone would like to have a look at the style of contribution I tend to make.

I suppose that's all for the nonce. Anything else you might need to know is on my CZ user page. Cheers, and happy editing.

Michael D. Sheridan

[Profrap]

Michael,

Welcome aboard!  Your familiarity with Turkish literature will be a real asset to CZ, I'm certain. If you'd like to take the Turkish literature entry live and give it a once-over, that would be great.  Also, if you haven't yet, don't forget to add your name to the list of Literature Authors.

cheers,

R U S S E L L

[kalital]

Hi. I specialize in:

African American Literature
Feminist Literature in English and translation
Post WWII U.S. Literature
War Literature (particularly Vietnam War)
Literature of the 1960s

Also in literary criticism, with an emphasis on African American critical theory, semiotics, and feminist theory.

I'll mention here, as I've mentioned other places in the forum, that I find it disturbing that African American Literature falls under neither category of Literature sub-groups listed on the Workgroup page.  It's not geographical or chronological -- it's an ethnic literature and we really need a category for that since it would also include the literatures of cross-national ethnic groups and diaspora groups (Chicano literature, American Indian literature, Jewish literature, etc.)

Kali Tal

[kalital]

I am withdrawing from Citizendium because of the racist and sexist sentiments expressed by Larry Sanger, who claims that the disciplines of Ethnic Studies and Gender Studies do not belong in the list of top level categories, or as individual categories at all in Citizendium.  Sanger has unilaterally decided that all race and gender topics should be split up under traditional disciplinary headings, so that there will be a sub-group of "African American Literature," and "African American History," but no category -- at any level -- in African American studies, and he embraces the same tactic of fragmenting Gender Studies.  The fact that his broad strokes of exclusion primarily effect women and minority scholars does not seem to matter to him. 

Once again, this is a case of a white male scholar with no experience in either race or gender studies legislating, with broad strokes, how those disciplines will be represented in an academic endeavor he hopes will be of major importance. He does it with no regard for the current state of scholarship in those fields, or the expertise of their practitioners -- an irony in an academic endeavor that claims to rely on expertise for its authority.  Expertise apparently only counts if it agrees with the naive opinions of the untutored white man in charge.

Frankly, I am embarrassed to have had anything to do with CZ and I will be publicly critiquing Sanger's policy in various venues. I hope that all supporters of race and gender studies will join with me in boycotting CZ, and with protesting Sanger's decision. 

Kali Tal
http://www.kalital.com

[Jason Sanford]

I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by "I find it disturbing that African American Literature falls under neither category of Literature sub-groups listed on the Workgroup page." African American literature is listed in the Literature workgroup and has been from the start, right along with English lit, American lit, and so on.

[Profrap]

Well, while I do not necessarily agree with the issues cited by Kali Tal for her withdrawal from the Citizendium project, I am very sorry to see her go.  She was, and could have continued to be, a very vital presence.  It seems to me, irascible though I can sometimes be, that a wiki-based environment can be an ideal one for the full articulation of difference, not only between editors on various matters of substance, but also across and between the disciplines themselves.   It may be heated at times, but at least some of that heat is very useful!  If we let issues such as these get in our way,we ourselves may well be to blame ...

I think we should work to create workgroups at whatever level/form CZ editors and authors find useful, that's part of the wiki pholosophy, I feel...

Russell Potter