Professor Urges More Study Of Afro-American Literature

Western scholars should pay closer attention to Afro-American literature because of the cultural experience of oppression which it uniquely articulates, Selwyn R. Cudjoe, assistant professor of Afro-American Studies said last night at the Cambridge Forum.

Cudjoe said the oppression of "physical slavery" has been replaced by "wage slavery" and the "spiritual" degradation of the ghetto.

But Cudjoe said Afro-American literature is not "protest literature;" it attempts to assimilate and express the experience of oppression.

This experience forms part of "another aesthetic in the world," which differs from the "Euro-centric" aesthetic of western literature in its humanistic values and its claim that art has a social responsibility to humanity, Cudjoe said.

"Man stands as the supreme value" in Afro-American literature, Cudjoe said.

Western scholars have neglected Afro-American literature, considering "even the most pedantic and empty scholarship" more important. Cudjoe said. Scholars should attempt to integrate Afro-American literature into their understanding of American culture, he added.

Cudjoe said Afro-American literature has gone through many of the same stages as American and European literature, from a classical period to realistic and naturalistic periods.

Afro-American writers of the twentieth century have tried to reconcile their African and American cultural heritages, he said.

Cudjoe, born in Trinidad, West Indies, received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Fordham University and his Ph. D in 1976 from Cornell University. He was appointed to the Afro-American Studies Department in 1977.