The Dartmouth Observer

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Sunday, July 14, 2002
 
Welcome to the Dartmouth Observer.

You are probably wondering: who are we and what are we all about? A good question. The Observer was conceived by John Stevenson '05 and myself a few weeks ago as a publication intended to promote intellectual discourse on the Dartmouth campus from a non-partisan perspective. At present, we are a modest, web-only endeavor; in time, we might even come out in print.

My primary interest is the phenomenon known as the American Culture Wars. I approach it as a student of literature and history who happens not to be an American. Being a foreign student at Dartmouth has many advantages, one of which is the ability to see things from a rather disinterested, almost anthropological perspective. The debate about the Western canon, multiculturalism, race relations, political correctness - these fascinate me to no end. I have some opinions on them, of course, and some of you might call me conservative because of them, but I like to think that I've arrived at these opinions having thought them out carefully without regard for existing ideological positions. But you will be hearing more in the future.

For now, here are three articles on literature and history that I think are worth pondering:

Andrew Delbanco, The Decline and Fall of Literature
Roger Shattuck, Nineteen Theses on Literature
V.S. Naipaul, Our Universal Civilization

Enjoy. And tell your friends about this. We are looking for contributors and welcome intelligent feedback.

Chien Wen Kung '04