What are some big controversies in literature?
Shakespeare in general has divided many people on many topics. Whether he was a catholic, whether he was gay, etc.
these issues have mostly dissolved into the SJW generation insisting no/yes and the scholars saying yes/no, though. spoiler: the older interpretations have much better grounding
Entertainment v. Aesthetics
Politics v. Aesthetics
>>7797908
I'm looking for some a little more obscure ones than Shakespeare! Any ideas?
>>7797899
Adding post- to everything makes it new and exciting.
My favorite controversy in all of the humanities is the idea that Shakespeare never existed and all of his works were done by several different collaborators who kept to the same style throughout their lifetimes. It's bullshit though.
>>7797908
And then some Baconians rock up and start a fight.
>>7797918
Iconoclasm?
There's a lot of discussion about 'Beowulf'.
Why modern literature is so fucking awful
Whether MFA is a complete waste of time and money
Whether Infinite Jest is a 20th century classic or an all-time classic
>>7797899
There's the hoax "trinity" of Nasdijj, JT Leroy, and James Frey.
Editors today are the reason there is hardly any great literature published.
>>7798020
and the Publishers (aka frumpy women married to bankers that work for vanity)
>>7797925
Francis Bacon.
>>7798030
It was clearly the Earl of Oxford, retard.
>>7798038
Abandon all hope.
>>7798038
why would you start a publishing house when you know nothing about it and there's plenty of self publishing options available?
>>7798161
I guess he's thinking that even a crappy publishing house is somehow more "legit" than self-publishing.
If anyone here starts a /lit/ publishing house I'm sure it'll be like a trainwreck between wordsworth and muumuu house.
The Dreyfuss Affair.
J'accuse!
banned books in schools:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments
Harper Lee releasing her second novel
Literary merit of Mein Kempf
Literary merit of Eliot Smith
>>7797899
The idea that GRRM/Rowling/etc are good authors is pretty controversial at the moment. (Hint: They're not.)
>>7797999
For example?
>>7797908
And how Tolstoy despised him. I liked Orwell's piece on that.
>>7799079
Mainly its origin. It was written down sometime in a ~300 year period in the early middle ages, and the oral legends it was transcribed from, its author, time of writing, real events/people referenced, are all pretty open questions.
Pretty much the only consensus in study of the life of Homer is that he was not literally a blind travelling story teller.
>>7799074
do any serious academics or critics think they're good?
Do your own homework.
Death of the Author
"What did he mean by this?"
And its variants are the most pressing, thought-provoking questions in literary discourse.
itt shit no one will care about in a century apart from shakespeare's identity
>>7800243
Not really a controversy. The author didn't die as soon as Barthes wrote his essay, but loads of other theorists in addition to him have created a pretty solid foundation for not needing the author anymore.
Ulysses when it first came out in the US and UK
Lovecraft and the world fantasy award
>>7799079
yeah so if I remember correctly the oldest written version is that of a jesuit monk in modern day denmark that supposedly wrote down a mythology that was passed down orally for at least 10 generations - so it's difficult to tell how much liberty the monk took in writing it down, and how much is actually representative of the culture that created it. Beyond that, the English translations vary wildly, as it was translated from some obscure now nearly extinct language (ancient Celtic, perhaps?). The two english translations people read in the modern day is this old one that a lot of people say is really shitty, and this new one originally translated by Shamus Heaney that is a lot prettier and easier to read, but some criticize as not being as faithful to the original text.
The debates surrounding the Cannon.
PS: The Cannon is supreme.
>>7800161
yes of course. many critics loved the harry potter books. especially those who recognised them for what they were, i.e. a series of books intended for children the same age as the characters in the books.
there is some numpty on /lit/ who keeps posting that one harold bloom quote about the books but fuck him
>>7798038
The /lit/ book is one of the most shocking works of literature I've ever read.
>>7805209
>Some shit
Do you think Muslim literature, Qurans will be burned in USA?
>>7797899
not all of them become movies
