Leo Tolstoy is one of the greatest novelist who wrote, ” War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”. His grand daughter is a Jazz Vocalist named Victoria Tolstoy. I don’t have much knowledge of this person except that she is livng in Sweden. However when it comes to her music I am very familiar. I have listened to her music so much. She is really a phenomenal Jazz Vocalist.
Over the years, I have tried many times to tell my students in the college that Tolstoy’s grand daughter is a Jazz Vocalist and everyone I announce this, I have amost got no response from the students.
I thought I was telling this big story but students don’t respond. I found out that they don’t know any Russian writer, no Dostoevsky, Pushkin, or Chekhov.
I don’t expect Zero Gen students to be familiar with those writer’s works. I myself was an English Literature major but I was so interested in the late 19th Literature and did not read Shakespeare enough, but it would not hurt to teach those names among a great novelist of the world in the school. My time in 60s and 70s, those names were at least mentioned in some classes.
At least in Japan, those names seem to be eliminated from the school education. Is it because of the Right-wing, Left-wing matter in the politics? Or is this how they teach literature since the Cold War? Communism? (Those writers died before the Russian Revolution, just to clarify).
I would not get into the reason here, because the reason is not the big issue. The issue here is that any art should not be affected by any political agenda.That is against the democracy.
President Trump wanted to rename Kennedy Center of Arts, and the supreme court finally rejected. The president seems to enjoy the big buzz and this really was a big news to the world. However, in the places where nobody don’t notice, the certain art could be quietly sort out and sometimes rejected by the country’s policy or the direction of the politics. Japan might be a good example of this.
Banksy’s work signifies the freedom of expression. I am not a big fan or against Bnaksy’s way of expressing himself, but one thing is clear. If it is a free country, freedom in expressing oneself and sending the message through arts should be respected.
The freedom becomes a big issue when it is lost in the obvious way. But sometimes, the freedom might be obscured in the very quiet way.