Ancient Literature in our Modern World

Hello All,

My name is Muhammad Ahsan but you can all call me by my middle name, Yasir. Currently, my major is Finance and I’m double majoring in Communications and Industrial Organizational Psychology. My favorite book, one of which I am not yet done reading, is “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain. I’m sort of a foodie and love eating food that comes from different cultures and try to visit a new restaurant every week. I enjoy doing cardio and lifting weights and it’s become a daily routine to add to my healthy lifestyle.

In Jay’s text, the first paragraph on page 4, he states “One claim that is often made against the changes ushered in by the transnational turn in literary studies is that it has led to a debilitating fragmentation. Principles of coherence that have guided the field for decades have given way to a focus on pluralities, differences, hybrid identities, and complicated transnational geographies that are seemingly incoherent and unmanageable. I do not agree, because I believe that literary studies as a field has always thrived on fragmentation and challenges to coherence.”

What I don’t understand why he believes the fragmentation caused by the transnational outcome of literary studies after globalization is what makes the field thrive. There are of course different perspectives to a study done by different people but that does not mean that one should continuously study a single culture when it has been studied before. This same attitude is, from my perspective, what prevents literary studies from thriving because recent and unstudied topics aren’t given attention.