English “operated as a language of the coloniser,” the University of East Anglia has told students in the latest push to decolonise the curriculum in Britain.
The School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia has decided to abandon teaching its Literature In History II module, which included works from William Shakespeare and East Anglia alumni and Nobel Prize laureate Kazuo Ishiguro.
The course will be replaced with “Writing Across Borders” which is set to focus on “the way English operated as a language of the coloniser,” a freedom of information request from the Daily Mail revealed.
The move came after a group of students complained in a letter that their current coursework was too focussed on literature written by “white, cis-gendered male authors” and therefore centred around the “privileged, white, male experience”.
The students went on to accuse the department of being “complicit in upholding exclusionary, erasive, patriarchal, heteronormative and white supremacist standards.”
In the wake of national protests following the death of George Floyd in America, universities in Britain have increasingly sought to take advantage of the moment and decolonise swaths of education.
Over the past year, universities in the UK have targetted Charle’s Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Issac Newton, sheet music, Medieval English literature, The Queen, and even lectures on tropical viruses for violating the ever-expanding woke code on racism and colonialism.
Emeritus professor of sociology at Kent University, Frank Furedi said of East Anglia’s decision: “The project of decolonising the English language has nothing to do with genuine academic concerns. Associating the evils of colonialism with English literature is more about turning the subject into a political dogma than studying the merits of different writing and authors.
“None of this is about English literature. It is using English literature as a medium to make a statement about how morally superior these students are.”
The chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, Chris McGovern added: “The world of education seems to become madder by the day. Demonising great writers because they were white is an absurdity. Young people need to understand that a capacity for good or evil is not skin colour dependent.”
A spokesman for the University of East Anglia defended the move to decolonise the English language, saying: “Work that diversifies our curriculum and enhances quality is wholly integrated.”
“We are proud to celebrate the vast literature from around the world that includes many publications by our own award-winning graduates.
“The Office for Students [regulator] requires us to consider social inclusion and diversity in our approaches to teaching and learning, and expects us to listen when our students raise points with us about their experiences.”
The leftist lurch in universities only looks to ramp up, with over sixty top universities and other higher education institutions signing a “Race Equality Charter” which will award schools with “race equality badges” based on how well they decolonise their curriculum and enforce actions against so-called microaggressions.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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