Prof. Copeland is Out of Touch
 
To the Editor:

It�s upsetting to me that Roger Copeland, an out-of-touch critic who seems to despise most �post-modern� ideas, would propose to teach such courses as �Art on Trial� (a course inspired by the NEA culture wars of the Reagan Era) and �Happenings, Non-Literary Theater, and Performance Art.� Copeland�s extremely offensive and poisonous letter in last week�s Review is an attack on first-year Shahana Siddiqui and an attack on what Copeland calls �identity politics.�
Typically, Copeland begins his letter by degrading the forum in which he is about to speak: �Only the most vigilant guardian of common sense could possibly find time to respond to all the nonsense that�s published, week after week, in the Oberlin Review�s �Letters to the Editor� section....� He then proceeds to insult Siddiqui because she is concerned about certain political and personal issues � issues which Copeland implies are �ridiculous,� �destructive,� �pervasive� and beyond �any reasonably intelligent young person.� Finally, Copeland remembers the way things used to be: �Once upon a time, before the advent of identity politics...� and mourns the loss of education as he defines it, which includes �transcend[ing] the limitations of our own genetic hard-wiring, thereby enabling us to imaginatively project ourselves into the psyches of others.� He implies that a truly educated artist is easily able to �really understand... the experience of those whose race, class and/or gender is different from [his/her] own.� The assumption that an artist has the capability (and the right) to assume the identity and write on behalf of anyone else, no matter what racial, sexual, or class-based issues are involved, is a highly dangerous, violent and very Euro-centric, aristocratic approach to political and social art.
I took Copeland�s courses, �The Concept of the Avant-Garde� and �Happenings...� two years ago, and I found myself striving with great difficulty to freely formulate my own opinions without feeling threatened by Copeland�s biased point of view. Based on my experience of his teaching style, I would suggest that in practice, Copeland�s definition of education involves only unimaginatively �projecting ourselves into the psyche� of Roger Copeland. I believe Copeland�s negative reaction to identity politics is based on fear. Identity politics is a threat to all critics, like Copeland, who feel they have the knowledge and experience to judge all works of art, no matter what the subject matter may be. Copeland�s criticisms (the writings I have read and the lectures I have endured) are made which such mind-numbing authority and condescension that he must feel he �knows better� than the rest of us, and how dare anyone suggest that his ability to judge a work of art is limited by his life experience! When Copeland�s freedom as an art critic is threatened by the �post-modern� notion of identity politics, he lashes out with a bitter and cruel attack on all ideas and all people who would stifle his authoritative diatribes.

�Corey Dargel 
Conservatory senior