Multiculturalism & some Bob Dylan

After engaging myself into the arguments proposed by each of the given authors I found myself deep in thought about what the word “multicultural” truly means, and what exactly it is that defines a piece of literature as multicultural. After grueling hours of pondering and thinking, and a lengthy night of sleeping on the issue, I was able to come up with a few concrete points to explain my newly enlightened point of view on multicultural literature

I agree with Shannon and his definition of multicultural. In his article he defines culture as “a shared set of ideas, behaviors, discourses, and attitudes which internally and externally define a social group,” therefore to be multicultural literature is to examine or highlight any of the great variety of these cultural and social structures (Shannon 2). The problem with this definition is that multicultural literature then provides the possibility to delve into the realm of any culture imaginable, be it by race, gender, religion, etc. By using the term multicultural, literature written from any perspective or written about any group of people is included in this definition allowing all literature to fall under the category of multicultural therefore defeating the purpose of classifying literature at all.

In the rebuttals of Sims Bishop and Harris they too agree with Shannon’s definition of culture, but omit his opinion of what multicultural literature should consist of. Allowing mainstream literature to qualify as multicultural defeats the purpose of creating the subgroup as it desensitizes the importance of presenting the unheard story or the “story that has not yet been adequately told” (Sims Bishop 7). As Cai writes in his article, a part of the ongoing multicultural debate, the purpose of what is known as multicultural literature is to help students “become aware of racial discrimination and oppression” (Cai 315). Perhaps then the choice to define this literature of the unheard minority as multicultural is the wrong route to take. I agree with Harris in the idea that multiculturalism should be an effort to “concentrate on those who are most excluded and marginalized” as historically, and still today those people, typically people of color, have been overlooked (Harris xvi).

In terms of whether or not it is necessary for the author to be a part of the culture he/she is writing about, I believe that as long as the author has adequate background knowledge and a solid understanding of the experience of being part of that culture and how that culture operates within society, then the author’s cultural heritage should not matter. If the story can be accurately told and presented to the masses in a respectable manner then it is successful in getting the point across and exposing society to a different perspective. A perfect example I would like to highlight is Bob Dylan. Based upon my blog you are probably beginning to realize my infatuation with Bob Dylan, but that aside, I would like to focus on his writing for a moment, as I believe it falls under the category of, for lack of better wording, multicultural literature (although not children’s literature) by presenting the “untold story” with songs like “Hurricane” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”.