There were a lot of concepts in World Literature that I learnt about, with many of them helping to inform me of the cultural influences that different forms of literature, that aren’t necessarily Western, can provide. This subject truly helped change my perspective on a range of ideas that I had developed before, through the different texts, discussions and articles that I was exposed to this term.
The short story that I vouched for throughout almost the whole of the World Cup of Literature was Khalida Hussain’s “Enemy”, which represented Pakistan. I know I voted for her story every round that I could and although I’m glad that Indonesia was the victor, there was a strong connection I felt with that short story that made me wish it had won. Morality is a concept that I have been able to think about because I have no need to fear death itself, as all of my everyday needs are fulfilled; have an overabundance of time on my hands and every event is within a field of predictability. Hussain’s short story encapsulated the cultural differences in everyday life and, in spite of us both having thought about the value of human life, her understanding was one that could have only flourished in the distinct circumstances through her time in Pakistan. Her descriptions, the situation itself, her questioning of the importance and difference of human life through one single intruder is completely unique to what she could write and conceptualise. I also may have been biased as I wished for her posthumous success as it touched me that she would never be able to write anything again.
A poem from another writer in Pakistan by the name of Shakir Shujaabadi wrote this extremely short yet cryptic poem “Autumn Leaves”. In just four lines he has created an infinite amount of moral messages with only him knowing what he truly meant. In his poem, he could be referring to the brevity of his situation and how we need to be more mindful of those less fortunate than ourselves, and that there are many things that we take for granted in the comfort of our safe and comfortable homes. Another interpretation could be the fear of change. The fear of being left behind but also the importance of leaving room for the next leaves to bud. It’s all quite open to interpretation which, in all honesty, I quite dislike as it leaves people such as myself to appreciate it for much more than it may actually be worth, with us never really knowing how intentional the author’s words are to our developed notions unless it’s explicitly stated, to which some may argue diminishes it’s value. That might be my only issue with literature as a whole. The authors may well have written an event just for the sake of it only to have every word excruciatingly scrutinised and projected into much more meaningful morals, themes, messages and metaphors. This means that as long as you have some sort of sophisticated air to your writing, or lack thereof, then you can make people believe that you have extremely complex understandings of life and the concepts around you without needing to really elaborate.
Moving on, the crux of this whole term, for me personally, was my fluctuating opinions on translation, what it means, what it represents and how effective it truly is. I remember that for my first interpretation of translation I believed that it was impossible due to its many nuances, its language barriers, the differences in rhythm, the original authors meaning and so on. Yet the one article by Carol Rumens single handedly changed my mind. Rumens argued that what I before, and presumably others as well, had interpreted translation as was a perfect replica, which it is not. This suddenly shifted my interpretations of a good translation and I started to realise that translations do not have to reflect the author exactly but can be the offspring of something that is slightly different yet still just as meaningful or beautiful. Just having the ability to look into the identity and environment of another culture is a miracle and to completely undermine it through mistaking translation as imitation is simply wrong.
The implications that I now understand of being such a multicultural society is the within the different perspectives that we gain. As many other students pointed out, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ted talk really demonstrated our preconceived notions that we have of other cultures and societies and the importance of understanding the multiple facets that create the identity of a culture. The benefit of having so many cultures in one place is the already developed acceptance of other cultures and traditions. Prejudice arguably stems from an alienation of other customs and the normalization of a certain set of actions and traditions. Being in a multicultural society makes it harder for prejudice to develop, as we grow accustomed to our differences and our differences slowly merge into what we both consciously and subconsciously perceive as the societal norm.
Another thing that I learnt from World Literature was that a lot of the differences in World Literature are mainly stylistic. When reading the translations of the short stories of Iran and Japan, the idea arose to me that it these works of literature could have easily been written in an English context, the only differences being the way the authors wrote the story themselves, which is a differentiation across all authors. Moreover, there style of writing was something that I almost wished to incorporate into my own writing. Their pacing, their descriptions, their use of language were all features that were unique in their own way, which I guess is another benefit of being in such a multicultural society and being exposed to translations. The differences in stylistic decisions are something that we can take inspiration from and use to diversify the literature we are able to read, instead of being bound by styles only represented in classical and modern western literature.
To sum up, I believe that the texts I have read in World Literature have helped enlighten me and help me become a person more cognizant of the other cultures, people and perspectives that stem from our ever-growing multicultural society.
