OCCIDENTOCENTRIC FALLACY: DOWNSIZING THE WORLD, OR KEEPING THE OTHERNESS OF THE OTHER

Abstract

A new critical fallacy is proposed, summing the regular tendency in literary criticism and, even more generally, in the humanities, to reduce studying a phenomenon as universal as literature in examining only its Western manifestations. The perspective is ulteriorly distorted by ignoring or disqualifying all non-Western traditions of literary criticism. Literature, along with its relevant scholarship, has thus, in the West has never been seen and considered in its totality. Instead, what is really only a fragment and one among the possibilities of realizing the literary has been accepted and perpetuated as literature itself. This lopsided view is in sharp contrast to what is practiced in natural sciences, with their unbiased methodology including all of the world as their proper field. Warning of the various negative consequences of such an approach (especially considering the deeply human relevance of literature), the article argues for a reading and critical correctness that will replace the accepted provincialism and falsification.