Relativism and Western literature

Alan Jacobs, a cultural conservative who teaches college lit, says he can't fully agree with David Frum's familiar culture-war contentions about literature. For example:

Yes, a lot of crap gets taught because of "political correctness." But a great deal of major literature has been discovered as a result of paying attention to cultures beyond the West. Harold Pinter never wrote a play worthy to be compared with Wole Soyinka's "Death and the King's Horseman." I would give up the complete works of John Updike and Philip roth for Anita Desai's "Clear Light of Day," Chinua Achebe's "Arrow of God," and a handful of the gently brilliant comic novels of R.K. Narayan. And yes, I'm serious.

This reminded me of that semester back at LSU in the Eighties in which my best friend at the time, an English lit grad student, was in charge of coordinating the annual "Gathering of Poets" on campus. I'm not a reader of poetry, but I tagged along with him for the ride. There were four poets, not a one of whose names I recall. But I do recall there were three poets, middle-aged white people who taught in colleges, and one old black African man. The African dressed shabbily, and had the comportment of Fred G. Sanford. He was a joy to be around that afternoon, as he nipped off a pint of whisky he kept in his jacket pocket.

That night at the poetry reading, I was blown away by the epic power of his poetry. It was so full-throated and coursing with blood and passion and life. The white Americans sounded so spindly and bloodless and academic. It was almost comic. Granted, for all my skill at appreciating poetry, the old Dionysian African might have been a hack by comparison to the chilly Apollonians, but that evening left me thinking that the African really knew something about life and how it is lived, while the Americans came off as ghostly abstractions. His art was vital; their was formalistic and wispy and dull as hell. Or so it seemed to me.