18 Challenges to Contemporary Literature
These ‘challenges’ seem to be not much more than a description of the changing trends in media consumption. They are threats to contemporary literature only if we use a very narrow definition of ‘contemporary literature’ e.g. the 20th century publishing orthodoxy. But I think a broader definition of ‘contemporary literature’ would be more helpful: by including all forms of writing, even blogging, twitter, e-books, “balkanization,” etc., we can see the rapid changes as opportunities, not challenges. Publishing houses, though, should definitely be afraid.
Also, some points miss the mark altogether:
15. Scholars steeped within the disciplines becoming cross-linked jack-of-all-trades virtual intelligentsia.
Interdisciplinary studies is a challenge to contemporary literature? How?
17. Polarizing civil cold war is harmful to intellectual honesty.
I think Dostoevsky, Hemingway, and others did a pretty good job of writing about polarizing global conflicts.
