ENG 355

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About

What is multicultural literature?

Multicultural literature is a broad term that purposefully includes the viewpoints of authors from all around the globe.

Due to this inclusive nature, readers can simultaneously experience the lives of people who live in different times and places than them and have very different experiences and viewpoints on life, while simultaneously understanding that many life experiences are, to some degree, universal.

Studying multicultural literature also serves to give a voice to members of oppressed or marginalized communities.

These kind of works are sometimes also referred to as “world” or “global” literature as they gain traction and are translated, if needed, to be more available to more readers. Global literature shares the experience of the writer to everyone willing to read, and if oftentimes written in plain narration with the use of imagery, or it is written in prose/poetry format.

As far as the 20th century goes, the literature written during those hundred years can teach us so much - from the concentration camps of the Holocaust to Native reservations in Northern America, global literature shines a light on voices that would previously have gone unheard. Thanks to modernization, including the internet, authors meld their cultural identity with their chosen identities and teach readers what it means to really be them and make their choices through their writing.

This blog was created by an English student to organize what has been learned about this topic, and will include separate posts on several important themes commonly found within multicultural literature.

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Theme: Trauma

In multicultural literature, the Holocaust period and survivors would likely be one of the first places someone would look if searching for themes of trauma, the behavior, and the physical and emotional effects that come from it. In this week’s readings we a few different perspectives on what it was like to be a victim of the Holocaust ideology and concentration camps. The protagonists in these stories speak of sadness and rage that helps us understand their feelings of hopelessness during that time.

For writers:

If your characters must undergo trauma and suffering during your story, consider what effect will come of it for them. Two people might react to the same adverse event in different ways. For example, the speaker in “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen” holds different feelings about the victims of the gas chambers than his friend, Henri, though they seem to have the same lived experience in the camps.

For teachers:

Many secondary students are familiar with the effects of trauma (whether it be purposeful or accidental) because of how many comic book characters were created. Generally, the formula for a character with powers goes: trauma plus magic or a chemical reaction equals a person magical or supernatural powers. Students might relate the theme of trauma shaping someone’s worldview, particularly as linked to the Holocaust, to the X-Men character Magneto. He appears to be an extremely powerful villain because of his abilities, his actions that result in the death of others, and his stance on mutants not coexisting with humans because he believes they are superior, but he was written as a Holocaust survivor who has experienced the extreme effects of prejudice and the trauma that comes with it, and he does not want mutants to suffer the same effects since they are already feared by humans. Students can explore Magneto’s motivations, as well as those of his super-powered/mutant children, to see how the effects of trauma lead them to do both good and bad things with their powers.

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Theme: Making Choices

We see the theme of choice often in stories where a character has many decisions to make that could impact their life, or the life of others. Studying multicultural literature can help us understand how people from different places and backgrounds might make choices differently or feel stuck making a choice they are not in agreement with.

For teachers:

An author many secondary students are already acquainted with is Sylvia Plath. Plath has a beautiful metaphor at the end of The Bell Jar about choice, and her metaphor is often used as inspiration in other pieces of writing and media, so some students may have heard it referenced before: the choices the protagonist of her story has are represented by figs on a tree as she sits at the trunk of it drying to make a decision, but one by one they all rot and fall to the ground. The death of the figs represents the feelings she had about how making one choice robs you of other possible avenues in life, and making no choice is a choice in and of itself. This same idea is explored in “The Garden of Forking Paths” by Borges, which we read during this topic. Students could benefit from a goal setting exercise about making choices to understand how they make their own based on their priorities and the opportunities available to them.

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Theme: Identity

Identity is a theme seen in much of the literature and films that we consume.

In multicultural literature, this theme is often correlated to a person/character’s culture, religion, and family. There are examples of how our identity is expressed that are extremely commonplace, like a son being named after their father, a daughter having their grandmother’s names as their middle name, children attending the same alma mater as their parents did, and young adults choosing to pursue the same careers they grew up watching their parents do (or taking over a family business). In “Chike’s School Days”, one reading from this topic, we read about the many names given to a child that reflect the cultural identity of his family, and how that affects how he relates to members of other cultural communities as he grows up and meets new people.

Identity is multifaceted, but it could be said that the first thing in our life that affects our identity is the name we are given by our families. They may reflect our parentage, culture, the values of our families, or a mix of several things.

For teachers:

One way to help students understand the importance of names to a person’s identity is to examine the naming of superheroes. Most students will be familiar with Marvel and DC superheroes that have names that reflect their powers or the values they hold. For example, when James Barnes (a character from the Captain America franchise) was brainwashed into becoming a supersoldier and a villain, he was called “the Winter Soldier”. But when his brainwashing was broken and he recovered and began fighting for the safety of Earth, he was called “Bucky” again, which was an affectionate nickname given to him by Steve Rogers. Studying this name shift can be an example to students to show how someone’s name can affect their identity and how we perceive them.

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Theme: The Relationship of Spirituality and Nature

In these modern times, humans in developed nations more commonly live apart, or separated from nature in urban developments or suburban mazes, rather than in or with it, due to industrial and technological advancements that changed the way society functions for most people. But humans, as mammals, have a tie to nature. When we read old stories written decades ago, especially from older cultures than our own (namely, American), it becomes starkly obvious that our way of living and day to day life now is completely sterilized and different from that of our ancestors, and that our relationship with nature and spirituality is felt and performed differently as well.

In some secondary English classes, students will read “Into the Wild”, and could be inspired by the story and desires of the protagonist, which have sparked many copycat efforts. Students will later learn about the Transcendentalism movement, including the work of authors like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Students are typically enchanted by learning that Thoreau spent a considerable amount of time living in a cottage in an unincorporated woodsy area owned by his friend, Emerson, while writing Walden about his endeavor to live deeply and authentically,...and then consequently disappointed by reports that he had his laundry done by his mother during this time, and had guests over for dinner parties.

A more fascinating and emotionally neutral read for this theme might be “Yellow Woman” by Leslie Marmon Silko. A woman and a man, formerly strangers to each other, take part in a short lived but extremely important relationship, with both of them basing their understanding of the experience on a cultural myth based in spirituality and nature that they were both told throughout their lives.

Literature has always been tied to our relationship with nature, likely because so many authors write about how they experience life while using nature as a backdrop and inspiration for every metaphor they create. In order for modern secondary students to understand the reality that although we live away from nature now, it is in human nature to dwell in it to find happiness, comfort, and spiritual solace, they need to be exposed to multicultural literature: stories of Native Americans and natives of other continents can be first in line.

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What are social norms?

Societal norms (sometimes referred to as “mores”) are unwritten/unspoken but widely known and accepted behaviors in a group setting.

Norms can change over time as behaviors become more accepted

Norms vary from culture to culture, by gender, or between countries

Norms provide order and predictability that is necessary to keep many parts of society, like businesses and communities, going

Norms in multicultural literature

In Sealed Off, the people stuck inside the tram during the air raid drill start to abandon norms after becoming more comfortable in their surroundings. Although nothing life changing happens, some of the people on the tram leave the situation with a different understanding of others than they had before.

In Diary of a Madman, the main character and narrator fears that cannibalism is being normalized in his village despite it being taboo, and that he is set to be the next victim. Although the cannibalism in the story is imagined by the main character, it is used in the story by the author to represent how social norms are affecting his people.

For teachers

Students likely are familiar with common social norms in your culture, country, and society, but are unlikely to have also considered how negative things can be normalized through traditionalism.

After discussing traditions we usually don’t consider the root of (trick-or-treating and carving pumpkins at Halloween, for example), students can read stories about things that are normally taboo, like murder, being normalized by cultural tradition or state sanctioning

Many students are familiar with The Hunger Games, where murder that is normally a crime has been deemed as necessary for the traditional rites that keep the powerful in control of the country. This can be connected to Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery, in which a sacrificial murder is tradition in a town that believes that it is necessary for a good harvest. After reading, the students can connect how negative acts can become normalized and how powerful norms are.

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Theme 2: Consequences, Cause and Effect

In literature and in nature, we often see recurring patterns.

One of the structures of those patterns is cause and effect, which is sometimes better illustrated and described as the consequences of an action. Young elementary aged children are taught to identify cause and effect in simple terms - “it is warm out, so I took off my sweater”, and so on. But understanding this theme in the context of more abstract events and ideas is more difficult and complex.

When we think of the consequences of our actions or the effects of our choices, we often forget that there are also consequences and effects that come with making no choices or actions at all. In “XXVI. Boat of Cypress” in Classics of Poetry, the narrator laments that, in their perception, they cannot leave the situation they are in, and despite the fact that they feel they have ‘behaved with dignity’, their siblings have no empathy for them.

This theme is often shown in pop culture. One example that can be referenced with young students is the plot of Captain America 3: Civil War, one of the most popular movies of the last decade. In the movie it is shown that the Avengers have been able to act unchallenged and without barriers, and while they usually do more good than harm because they fight villains, their superpowers and fights of epic proportions have also affected regular, uninvolved people. Tony Stark wants the Avengers as a whole to make the choice to have rules put in place over their power after the mother of a civilian victim of an Avengers battle confronts him about how his actions impacted her and her son’s lives. Stark believes the only way to make the situation right is to make the choice to reign themselves in as a whole. But other members reject the idea and want to remain free to make different choices in the future. Due to the infighting known as the “civil war” within the group, irreparable physical damage is done to the heroes on both sides, and several end up in prison.   

For teachers:

Students can understand cause and effect, and consequences in concrete and abstract situations (physical/political, for example) found in multicultural literature by comparing the actions common in stories they read written by authors of the past by comparing to modern literature and entertainment.For example, students can view a movie, like Captain America 3, and work with a partner to re-imagine and rewrite the outcome of the story if the characters had made different choices. This will help them understand not only the thoughts of a writer, but also why this is such a common theme.

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Theme 1: Choice and Power/Lack of Choices and Powerlessness

In Topic 1:

We read four multicultural texts that include themes of characters being robbed of their power or agency, whether that be physically or circumstantially, and having difficult choices to make because of their new position in life. One choice can change the entirety of a plot line of a story, or even someone’s life.

For teachers:

How power and choice are tied to each other is a theme present in many stories, even modern stories. Most secondary students are familiar with these themes in the context of dystopian media, with stories set in universes where a government or leader takes the power of the common people and pits against each other where they must make difficult choices. An example of this theme found in modern Western media is in The Hunger Games, which most high school students would be familiar with before discussion in class. Many of the tributes in the games have no personal agency and those who have more training and benefactors have more power in the arena and are able to make more choices, although this does not guarantee their victory. 

For example, the character of Foxface in the first Hunger Games novel: she is extremely smart and knowledgeable, which makes her death from eating poisoned berries come as a surprise. Fans believe it is implied that she made the choice to eat the berries knowing they would kill her because she was not as strong and confident as other competitors, and would have rather committed suicide than be killed by someone else.

This choice can be directly paralleled to Gregor’s death in Kafka’s widely known piece of global literature, “The Metamorphosis” to help readers understand how lack of power influences the choices characters are likely to make. Conversely, as seen in “Faust” by Goethe, power can give you choices you never would have thought of beforehand, whether good or bad.