analyzing multicultural literature ya 2007
TRANSCRIPT
Analyzing Multicultural Literature
LIB 617 Readings and Research in Young Adult
LiteratureFall 2010
Why analyze literature?
To discover the full spectrum of
the content
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A little Newtonian physics
Isaac Newton first used the word
spectrum (Latin for “appearance” or
“apparition”) in print in 1671 in
describing his experiments in optics.
Newton observed that, when a narrow
beam of white sunlight strikes the face of a
glass prism at an angle, some is reflected
and some of the beam passes into and
through the glass, emerging
as different colored bands.
– NationMaster Encyclopedia
> Visible light
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Spectrum requires a prism
Estonian composer
Arvo Pärt:– I could compare my music to white
light which contains all colours. Only a
prism can divide the colours and make
them appear; this prism could be the
spirit of the listener.
• about his music: Alina
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Prism as a filter
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin:
– The biographer finds that the
past is not simply the past, but a
prism through which the subject
filters his own changing self-
image. • Goodwin, Doris Kearns (1979).
„„Angles of Vision‟‟, in:
Mark Pachter (Ed.), Telling Lives: the
biographer‘s art. Washington, DC: New
Republic Books. Cited in Debate and
Reflection: How to Write Journalism
History
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A prism to view the full spectrum of literature
Personal
6
Real
Invented
SMiley face
Personal?
Do you feel as if you‘re involved;
part of the action?– That these are real people we‟re dealing
with—some identifiable personalities (even
when they‟re not “people”?
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Real?
Is there something that makes you
feel that this could have happened? – Even when it couldn‟t in real life?
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Invented?
Is this story invented, created by
one or more authors (not necessarily
―artificial,‖ rather is it fiction)?
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Smiley Face?
Does it seem generic, impersonal?
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Two Continuums
Real Invented
Personal SMiley Face
Put ‗em together!
P
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SM
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Real
Invented
Application to Literature???
. . . and Indians????
Top Left Sector of Matrix14
Up close and personal—and real!Real
P
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Folklore: consists of culture,
including stories, music, dance, legends,
oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular
beliefs, customs and so forth within a
particular population comprising the
traditions (including oral traditions) of
that culture, subculture, or group. It is
also the set of practices through which
those expressive genres are shared.
(Wikipedia)
Invented
A rival to Paul Bunyan and John Henry
Fink, Mike, 1770?–1823?– American border hero, whose exploits have been so
elaborated in legend that the actual facts of his life are
difficult to discover. He was born probably at the frontier
post of Pittsburgh, took part in the wars against the
Native Americans of the Ohio region, and subsequently
became a keelboatman on the flatboats of the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers. He later turned to trapping.
• “Mike Fink.” The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008.
Retrieved September 17, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Fink-Mik.html
• See also Mike Fink: an American anti-hero
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Mike Fink taleBy ―the then beautiful village of
Louisville‖
– Among [a] band of [Indian] outcasts was a
Cherokee, who bore the name of Proud Joe . . .
Joe still wore, with Indian dignity, his scalplock;
he ornamented it with taste, and cherished it, as
report said, until some Indian messenger of
vengeance should tear it from his head, as
expiatory of his numerous crimes. Mike had
noticed this peculiarity; and, reaching out his
hand, plucked from the revered scalplock a
hawk's feather. . . . [Mike‟s] ball had cut it clear
from his head; the cord around the root, in which
were placed feathers and other ornaments, still
held it together; the concussion had merely
stunned its owner; farther - he had escaped all
bodily harm!
• “Mike Fink, the Keel-boatman” in Thorpe, T.B.
(1854). The Hive of ―The Bee Hunter.‖ A Repository of
Sketches, Including Peculiar American Character,
Scenery, and Rural Sports.
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Bottom Left Sector of Matrix17
Invented, but Personal Real
P
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a
l Invented
Quality literature, sometimes
adaptations, or else original
writing, with universal appeal and
meaning for everyman and
everywoman
A personal, if invented YA story
The Absolutely True Diary of a
Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
– The National Book Award-winning novel THE
ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME
INDIAN by Sherman Alexie is such a magnanimous stew
of reality and hope --- and the particular traumatic
existence of a reservation teen in contemporary America -
-- that you can't possibly put it down, no matter how sad,
disgusted or freaked out it makes you.
• Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
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Personal, invented and more controversial
The ―Little House‖ series– If Pa Ingalls had built his little house on
the periphery of an antebellum southern
mansion and Mrs. Wilder had described its
Black slaves in the same terms she depicted the Osage
Indians, her book long ago would have been barred
from children‟s eyes, or at least sanitized like some
editions of Mark Twain‟s The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. Mrs. Wilder‟s book even contains
the popular variation of General Sheridan‟s
racist remark about what constitutes a good
Indian.
• Dennis McAuliffe, Jr., Little House on the Prairie
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Real Smileys!
Top Right of the Matrix20
Real
Recognizable stories,
but unoriginal and
shallow
A real smiley?
My Heart Is On the Ground
Ann Rinaldi
– The book adds to the great body of
misinformation about Native life and
struggle in the United States and Canada. This one
book epitomizes the utter lack of sensitivity and
respect that has come to characterize the vast majority
of children's books about Native Americans. Non-
Native readers of My Heart Is On the Ground will
continue to be validated in whatever feelings of
superiority they may have; Native children will
continue to be humiliated.
• Review in Oyate. See also the accompanying essay “Literary License”
or “Mutated Plagiarism”? and Fiction Posing As TruthSeptember 22, 2010 Analyzing Multicultural Literature
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Invented smileys [perhaps contrived?]
Bottom Right of the Matrix22
Invented
Generic, unoriginal,
impersonal, shallow
A stilted example?
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Functions of multicultural literature
Rudine Sims Bishop:– provide knowledge or information
– expand how students view the world by offering
varying perspectives
– promote or develop an appreciation for diversity
– give rise to critical inquiry
– illuminate human experience• In Using Multiethnic Literature in the K–8 Classroom (ed. Harris,
V.J. (1997)), cited by Debbie Reese in Native Americans Today, a
ReadWriteThink lesson from NCTE and the International
Reading Association
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Useful resources
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