Multicultural Literature
in the Classroom: Politics and Pedagogy: The Language(s) of Multiculturalism
Session Coordinator:
Keith Alan Sprouse
Department of Modern
Languages
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney, Virginia 23943
ksprouse@hsc.edu
“Multilingualism and the Study of Ethnic
Literary Texts”
According to the
last census carried out in the United States
in 2000, there are more than 47 million people living in America (18%)
who speak languages other than English at home.
Among them are still a good number of people who do not speak English at
all, but the majority are at least bilingual, if not multilingual. The predominant use of English in the United States
poses the question of what language to use in different situations to those
people who, mainly due to immigration, have to choose between languages.
This fact is reflected in the works of
bilingual or multilingual writers in the United States, who mostly write in
English but often incorporate their native languages into their works. As has been discussed by critics, their
reasons to use foreign language and/or culture-specific references in their
works may range from considerations of ethnic identity, cultural authenticity,
and political considerations. Naturally,
these issues often coalesce and may constitute specific problems or challenges
to the readers of those works, particularly those readers unfamiliar with
either the employed languages and/ or the represented cultures.
Using four authors from four
different ethnic backgrounds –Diana Abu-Jaber, Sandra
Ciscneros, Henry Roth, and Amy Tan- I will (1)
discuss what function these authors assign the languages they employ, i.e how they relate to those languages, analyze the ways
the authors make use of their native tongues and possibly other languages, (2)
discuss the reasons for these incorporations and the effects on the reader
(mainly the student in the classroom context), then (3) analyze possible
consequences for the teaching of bilingual works (from the teacher’s
perspective).
Maria Assif
Truman College
“Historia de España
= Història d'Espanya: Teaching
Spanish Identity in
Catalán”
Cultural
relations between Cataluña, the bilingual autonomous community in Spain, and centralist Madrid are historically tense. In 2000, the Royal Academy of History issued
a report on the history of Spain
taught in Spanish secondary schools that added fuel to this fire. It concluded that the history taught in
Cataluña and other communities of the periphery was laden with sociological,
pedagogical, and political problems, whereas in the central communities such as
Madrid it
found no problems. This sparked a heated
debate in the nation which continues today.
In
2002 I completed a study in Spain
evaluating this problem through textbook analysis and evaluation of articles in
journals and newspapers in Spain. After taking a look back at this study I look
at the debate that has continued over the past four years and evaluate not only
how Catalan nationalism but also the linguistic controversy that exists in
Spain have contributed to this problem and the ongoing question of
multiculturalism within the Iberian Peninsula.
Emmy Adel Smith
New York University
emmy@virginia.edu
“Tio Conejo, Brer
Rabbit’s Venezuelan Cousin: From Badman to Culture
Hero”
This paper has been motivated by several
questions that conflate different disciplines (children’s literature, folklore
studies, cultural studies, literary criticism, among others): How limited/inclusive
is students’ definition of folklore? How visible is the line that separates
folklore from mainstream literature? How much different is students’ reaction
to texts that are labeled folklore as opposed to those that are labeled
literature (even if these are based on folklore)? How subversive can folklore be as opposed to literature? Do students know that there are
political motivations to their being exposed to only part of their folklore in
school? How do translations of other cultures’ folklore work in a USA classroom?
What can the causes and consequences be for the
misattribution of origin of a given piece of folklore?
This latter issue
characterized the publications of Tio Conejo stories in Venezuela:
as the autochthonous (criollo)
character, with little or no connection to Africa
and the descendants of the African slaves that so much have contributed to
Venezuelan folklore. In this paper I
discuss issues of race, class, and gender as reflected by the rabbit tales and
appropriated by Venezuelan poet and author Antonio Arraiz
in his book Tio Tigre y Tio Conejo, which confer the trickster/badman-hero
a more political role turning it into a role model for political activism
and national identity. I also analyze the history of publication of the Tio Conejo stories in conjunction
with the African American rabbit tales. Finally, I reflect on my teaching
experience so far and the pedagogical hurdles, as well as the victories, in
teaching folklore-based children’s literature in the USA and incorporating “other”
translated voices. The material so far collected from students’ responses
reiterates the importance of frontal approach to multiculturalism.
Henrry Lezama
Illinois State
University