Throughout the last couple of weeks much of our class discussion as well as in many of the articles in class the major debate was over authenticity. The idea of the insider/outsider debate. Who can write multicultural literature? Do you have to be a part of the culture you are writing about?
In his article A Reply to Shannon the Canon, Rudine Sims Bishop, writes, "I do know the difference between race and culture, and what I tried to say is that you have to know a culture intimately if you're going to reflect it accurately in your fiction." I agree with Bishop in this statement and feel that it is a good response to the debate. It should not matter what culture the author identifies with if they can accurately depict the culture they are writing about.
Patrick Shannon writes, "multiculturalism is about changing the definition and reality of America until they stand for equality, freedom, and justice." If a book achieves this it doesn't matter who writes the book.
I hope to further look into this discussion on how do you determine if an author is a credible source, specifically a credible source to be writing multicultural literature.
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1 comment:
Hi Colleen,
I really agree with what you are saying in your blog. As long as it is quality, non-offensive literature, why does it matter who the author is? Like Harris said in her article when speaking about an author who is of European-American decent writing about another culture, "I selected them because they are informed about the group's literature; and they possess the critical consciousness that enable them to assess the literature in a forthright manner."
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