Studying Literature in Kuwait
I’ve got literature on my mind today. I was thinking of recording a series of posts talking about my experience studying Literature in Kuwait: the pros and cons of studying western literature in an Eastern setting, benefits and drawbacks of small campus learning, the things I learned, the things I regret, etc.
As with anything, the learning environment is equally important to the process of learning itself. It influences what we read, the materials covered in class, the resources available to us, etc. And in a lot of ways, it shapes your interests for the future.
I went to an American collage here in Kuwait. One of the drawbacks of learning literature in Kuwait was the lack of variety in the materials covered. Our campus is small compared to a most western collages, and the English Department smaller still. We don’t have enough professors to cover a wide variety of topics and not enough literature majors to fill the classes. As a result, most of my literature classes are overview courses that cover specific time periods. Courses specializing in any one area, author, genre, etc was pretty much non-existent.
It might seem like I’m complaining a lot. Honestly, it’s not all bad. We have some really great professors who have really taught me a lot of great things. My classes are always super interesting. I guess the biggest complaint I have is that I wish we could slow down sometimes. Spend a little more time on one particular poem or a particular author’s work instead of zooming by from one to the next.
Learning the basics of literature is important, and we have a lot of ground to cover. But in hindsight, I think we sometimes forget to sit back and really appreciate literature for its writing, turn of phrase, or even the emotions it invokes in us. We are so busy thinking, we forget to feel.
