DOCUMENT RESUME ED 352 649 CS 213 590 AUTHOR Trimmer, Joseph, Ed.; Warnock, Tilly, Ed. TITLE Understanding Others: Cultural and Cross-Cultural Studies and the Teaching of Literature. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, Ill. REPORT NO ISBN-0-8141-5562-6 PUB DATE 92 NOTE 269p. AVAILABLE FROMNational Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Rd., Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 55626-0015; $15.95 members, $21.95 nonmembers). PUB TYPE Books (010) Collected Works General (020) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC11 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Cross Cultural Studies; Cultural Awareness; Cultural Context; Cultural Differences; Higher Education; *Literary Criticism; *Literature Appreciation; *Multicultural Education IDENTIFIERS Literature in Translation ABSTRACT This book of essays offers perspectives for college teachers facing the perplexities of today's focus on cultural issues in literature programs. The book presents ideas from 19 scholars and teachers relating to theories of culture-oriented criticism and teaching, contexts for these activities, and specific, culture-focused texts significant for college courses. The articles and their authors are as follows:(1) "Cultural Criticism: Past and Present" (Mary Poovey);(2) "Genre as a Social Institution" (James F. Slevin);(3) "Teaching Multicultural Literature" (Reed Way Dasenbrock);(4) "Translation as a Method for Cross-Cultural Teaching" (Anuradha Dingwaney and Carol Maier);(5) "Teaching in the Television Culture" (Judith Scot-Smith Girgus and Cecelia Tichi);(6) "Multicultural Teaching: It's an Inside Job" (Mary C. Savage); (7) "Chicana Feminism: In the Tracks of 'the' Native Woman" (Norma Alarcon);(8) "Current African American Literary Theory: Review and Projections" (Reginald Martin);(9) "Talking across Cultures" (Robert S. Burton); (10) "Walter Mitty in China: Teaching American Fiction in an Alien Culture" (H. W. Matalene); (11) "Text, Context, and Teaching Literature by African American Women" (Sandra Jamieson); (12) "Settee's 'Big, Bad' Love" (Chauncey A. Ridley); (13) "Baldwin, Bebop, and 'Sonny's Blues" (Pancho Savery); (14) "Filiative and Affiliative Textualization in Chinese American Literature" (David Leiwei Li); (15) "The Unheard: Vietnamese Voices in the Literature Curriculum" (Renny Christopher); (16) "Narrative Theory in Naguib Mahfouz's 'The Children of Gebelawi'" (Suzanne Evertsen Lundquist); and (17) "The Mixed Blood Writer as Interpreter and Mythmaker" (Patricia Riley). (SR) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** atUNDERSTANDING to OTHERS InCultural and Cross-Cultural Studies and cYz the Teaching of Literature A cw4 .o 0. (Is -j U S OtOARTIMINT Of SOtICATiON "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS °Mc, o EclucalsOnal RaaeleChand Improvement MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 0 TMS documeol has been reproducedas mewed from the 0,10d or ("foam/shoo Onginalona d 0 1.410, Changes nave been made toimprove reprOduchOd Quality Points 01 view Of OpM0/1$ stated in !Ns docu TO THE EDIICATIONAL RESOURCES menl do not nossatdy rprellnt Odictal INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) OERI posthon or pohcy Edited by Joseph Trimmer and Tilly Warnock 2 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Understanding Others College Section Committee Tilly Warnock, Chair University of Arizona Lil Brannon. SUNY at Albany Doris 0. Ginn, CCCC Representative Jackson State University Brenda M. Greene Medgar Evers College, CUNY Linda H. Peterson Yale University James F. Slevin Georgetown University Joseph F. Trimmer Ball State University Art Young Clemson University James Raymond University of Alabama H. Thomas McCracken, CEE Representative Youngstown State University Janet Emig, Executive Committee Liaison Rutgers University Understanding Others Cultural and Cross-Cultural Studies and the Teaching of Literature Edited by Joseph Trimmer Ball State University Tilly Warnock University of Arizona National Council of Teachers of English 1111 Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801 NCTE College Editorial Board: Rafael Castillo, Gail E. Hawisher, Joyce Kinkead, Charles Moran, Louise Wetherbee Phelps, Charles Suhor, chair, ex officio, Michael Spooner, ex officio Manuscript Editor: Amita Kachru Interior Design: Torn Kovacs for TGK Design Cover Photograph: Carl Pope Cover Design: Doug Burnett NCTE Stock Number 55626-3050 © 1992 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Understanding others : cultural and cross-cultural studies and the teaching of literature / edited by Joseph Trimmer, Tilly Warnock. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8141-5562-6 : $21.95 1. American literatureMinority authorsStudy and teaching.2. Plu- ralism (Social sciences) in literatureStudy and teaching.3. Literature and societyUnited StatesStudy and teaching.4. Ethnic groups in literatureStudy and teaching.5. Minorities in literatureStudy and teaching.6. Ethnicity in literature--Study and teaching.7. Culture in literatureStudy and teaching. I. Trimmer, Joseph F.II. Warnock, Tilly. PS153.M56U531992 92-31580 810.9'920693dc20 CIP 0 Contents Introduction vii I Theories 1 1. Cultural Criticism: Past and Present 3 Mary Poovey 2. Genre as a Social Institution 16 James F. Slevin 3. Teaching Multicultural Literature 35 Reed Way Dasenbrock 4. Translation as a Method for Cross-Cultural Teaching 47 Anuradha Dingwaney and Carol Maier II Contexts 63 5. Teaching in the Television Culture 65 Judith Scot-Smith Girgus and Cecelia Tichi 6. Multicultural Teaching: It's an Inside Job 79 Mary C. Savage 7. Chicana Feminism: In the Tracks of "the" Native Woman 96 Norma Alarcon 8. Current African American Literary Theory: Review and Projections 107 Reginald Martin 9. Talking Across Cultures 115 Robert S. Burton 10. Walter Mitty in China: Teaching American Fiction in an Alien Culture 124 H. W. Matalene v vi Contents III Texts 137 11. Text, Context, and Teaching Literature by African American Women 139 Sandra Jamieson 12. Sethe's "Big, Bad" Love 153 Chauncey A. Ridley 13. Baldwin, Bebop, and "Sonny's Blues" 165 Pancho Savery 14. Filiative and Affiliative Textualization in Chinese American Literature 177 David Leiwei Li 15. The Unheard: Vietnamese Voices in the Literature Curriculum 201 Renny Christopher 16. Narrative Theory in Naguib Mahfouz's The Children of Gebelawi 213 Suzanne Evertsen Lundquist 17. The Mixed Blood Writer as Interpreter and Mythmaker 230 Patricia Riley Index 243 Editors 253 Contributors 254 S Introduction Most of us who have spent our careers teaching literature probably agree with Clifford Geertz that "something is happening to the way we think about the way we think" (1983, 20). Although we would revise that statement to read "something is happening to the way we think about literature," we would see the irony in citing a cultural anthropologist to announce a change in the direction of literary study. Indeed, given the themes of recent scholarship, public debate, and professional chatter, we might even suggest that literary study is being revised into cultural studies. To some, this change may seem no more than an extension of conventional practice. We have always believed that studying culture was virtually synonymous with studying literature, because culture, in Matthew Arnold's sense of the word, referred to those great works of literature that contained "the best that has been known and thought" (42). We have also believed that our literature students needed cultural "background:' We have introduced them to historical periods (the Middle Ages), artistic monuments (the Elizabethan stage), and intel- lectual movements (Romanticism) so that they could understand the forces that influenced the literature we have asked them to interpret. For others, however, this shift toward cultural studies has prompted a revolution in theory and practice. The problem begins with the word culture. Although Arnold used it to -'2fine an exclusive and coherent literary tradition, Raymond Williams sees it as "one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language" (1983, 87). Its historical origins twist through the worlds of art and work, and its current usage evokes both "material production" and "signifying and symbolic systems" (91). Borrowing insights from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, linguistics, and philosophy, contemporary theorists have explored the multiple meanings of culture to determine how those meanings enrich and complicate our study of literature. Their speculation has uncovered questions that encourage teachers of literature to rethink the funda- mental assumptions of their practice: How do words and worlds vii viii Introduction interact? How does this interaction create cultural contexts? How do texts reproduce traces of those contexts? What is a literary text? How does a literary text relate to other texts? What do we do when we study texts, and which