New Humanism Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Abdul R. JanMohamed

Critical Essay by Abdul R. JanMohamed

SOURCE: JanMohamed, Abdul R. “Humanism and Minority Literature: Toward a Definition of Counter-Hegemonic Discourse.” boundary 2 12-13, nos. 3 & 1 (spring-fall 1984): 281-99.

In the following essay, JanMohamed traces the influence of New Humanist ideas on later evaluations of minority literature, arguing that the New Humanists established rigid cultural standards that still impede criticism of non-traditional literature.

Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian novelist and poet, claims that in the process of articulating the plight of their people, in depicting the trauma produced by colonial domination, and in the attempt to redefine the direction of indigenous cultures, African writers have inevitably involved themselves in a dialectical polemic with Western cultures: “They have found themselves drawn irresistibly to writing about the fate of black people in a world progressively recreated by white men in their own image, to their glory and for their profit.”¹ However, this accurate description of the predicament of...
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