Re: Inorganic Intellectuals and the Mythical Ideal of the Marxist Tradition
On Jan 16, 2007, at 3:54 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
According to the National Endowment for the Arts, “fewer than 3% of all books published in the U.S. . . . were translations,” writes John O’Brien (”A Simple Question,” Context, No. 14, 2003, at http://www.centerforbookculture.org/context/no14/simpleQ.html). In contrast, says O’Brien, “In Western European countries, the percentage of translations is about 40-50% each year. Many of these are from the United States, but a significant number are from a wide range of other countries.” I submit that American intellectuals are not cosmopolitan at all.
I’m not sure what this proves about intellectuals, because that 3%
vs. 40-50% no doubt includes lots of mass market stuff. But certainly
literary studies has been massively influenced by French, German, and
Italian writers. At your own university, I see plenty of examples of
internationalism, e.g.
presumably the courses are taught by intellectuals resident in the U.S.
Doug