Multiculturalism:
Multiculturalism, which began to become a recognized movement in
the 1970’s, was established to help give voice to racial
minority writers in order to diversify the white male dominated
literary canon. As the Multicultural movement developed, it began to
represent the writings of more minority groups such as political
subcultures and the gay and lesbian movement.
Historical
Importance: The movement to diversify the literary canon is a
natural response to the politically correct world we live in.
Theoretically, political correctness creates an environment where
voices of all people are heard equally. Multiculturalism was an
attempt to make society more sensitive to the minority voice by
sharing experiences. The canon has broadened to adapt to these varied
voices, but a struggle continues over whether the early canon should
be revised by adding the works writers who were unable to be
published earlier due to their disenfranchised state.
Multiculturalism’s
Most Famous Figures:
(source:
Miriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary)
Toni
Morrison (1931- ) originally Chloe Anthony Wofford. examined
in realistic detail the lives of African-Americans in The Bluest
Eye, Beloved (Pulitzer prize), Jazz, etc.; awarded 1993
Nobel prize for literature
Maya
Angelou (1928- ) wrote novels I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings, The Heart of a Woman, poems And Still I Rise, etc.
Ralph
Ellison (1914-1994) best known for novel Invisible Man (1952)
Amy
Tan (1952- ) examined the lives of Chinese immigrant women and
the very different ones of their American daughters in novels,
especially The Joy Luck Club
Exemplary
Quotes:
“You
know, honey, us colored folks is branches without roots and that
makes things come round in queer ways. You in particular. Ah was born
back due in slavery so it wasn't for me to fulfill my dreams of whut
a woman oughta be and to do . . . Ah wanted to preach a great sermon
about colored women sittin' on high, but they wasn't no pulpit for
me.”
-Zora
Neal Hurston,
Their Eyes Were Watching God
This excerpt, taken
from the 2nd
chapter of Their Eyes were Watching God
gives the reader a glimpse of the desperation and disenfranchisement
of black women during slavery. Even though Janie’s grandmother
had something to say, there was no place for her to say it and no one
to listen to her.
"At the age of twelve… I had a conception of life that no
experience would ever erase, a predilection for what was real that no
argument could ever gainsay, a sense of the world that was mine and
mine alone, a notion as to what life meant that no education could
ever alter, a conviction that the meaning of living came only when
one was struggling to wring a meaning out of meaningless suffering”
- Richard Wright
Black Boy
This quotation speaks of the certainty of discrimination
towards African Americans just after the turn of the century. By the
age of twelve an individual knew, with certainty, their destiny and
had a sense of the world no Caucasian, upper class individual could
ever comprehend.
“The dress I wore
was lavender taffeta… I knew that once I put it on I'd look
like a movie star… I was going to look like one of the sweet
little white girls who were everybody's dream of what was right with
the world. Hanging softly over the black Singer sewing machine, it
looked like magic, and when people saw me wearing it they were going
to run up to me and say, ‘Marguerite… forgive us,
please, we didn't know who you were,’”
-Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In this selection for Maya Angelou’s autobiography, she
expounds upon the desire within her, even as a child, to be better
than the position society has dealt her. In this passage, she
identifies the “dream of what is right with the world” as
a white child, alluding that a black child, herself, is the opposite.
Multiculturalism:
Multiculturalism, which began to become a recognized movement in
the 1970’s, was established to help give voice to racial
minority writers in order to diversify the white male dominated
literary canon. As the Multicultural movement developed, it began to
represent the writings of more minority groups such as political
subcultures and the gay and lesbian movement.