LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Sample Student Final Exam Answers 2004

3b: Is American Minority Literature about Literature or Culture?

How do you resolve the question, Is a course like American Minority Literature primarily about literature, or is it about culture, history, sociology, etc.?

·        You’re not expected to come down absolutely on one side or the other but to discuss the competing pressures for this course or the study of its texts.

·        What kind of balance have we struck, and what are the upsides and downsides of this balance? (Option: How would you “rebalance?”)

·        As an alternative or complement to the “balance” approach,” emphasize how and where literature and culture “meet and merge.”

·        Be prepared to use course themes, such as the “alternative narratives to the American Dream,“ the minority concept, etc. (Objectives 1 & 3).

·        Refer to at least one text from at least two different minority groups.

Sample answers

3b.            American minority literature occasionally comes under criticism.  Does literature as a title elevate the work to an unreasonable standard?  Does this allowance prevent assimilation?  With a class on the subject, is it sociology or canon?  These are all valid concerns, but many of these works are in fact literature.  Although they do deal with the minority plight, each work addresses identity, culture, and aspects of American life.  After all, Dreiser, Wharton, and James wrote about New York and society, but they are considered literature.  Therefore, strong fictional works, such as Ultima and Lone Ranger should be considered literature.  If for no other reason, they fulfill objective 1, alternative narratives to the American dream.  While other works may be more biographical in nature, these texts show that minority literature is literature, in the same regard as American Realism or Modernism.

            Both Ultima and Lone Ranger address the relationship of minorities to the American Dream, but they do more.  In both novels, cultural traditions are documented and preserved.  Ultima uses Spanish words as appropriate, in addition to considering the Catholic faith in parallel to the golden carp.  These two faiths symbolize the ambivalence of the Mexican American minority, just as Antonio does in selecting a life path.  At the same time, these style and nuance of Ultima reflects aspects of Mexican American culture.  The novel spends a great deal of time on dreams, and the process of growing up in a Mexican household is carefully documented.  This documentation allows an understanding by the dominant culture, but it could be dismissed as sociological.  However, Ultima truly deals with identity in adulthood.  Identity is one of the major themes of American literature; since the Declaration of Independence, the country has attempted to define itself through written works.  Since the novel shows the quest for identity in addition to documenting the Mexican American experience, it should be considered literature in the canon sense.

            At the same time, Lone Ranger deals with the identity of Native Americans.  However, this is done through a variety of stories, which creates the effect of oral tradition.  From this, feelings of pain and the amount of suffering the Native Americans have endured is explored. However, the stories also deal with the hope of renewal and the potential for change.  It is not an accurate sociological portrayal, because the characters are written with too much depth and humor.  To be truly sociological, a plainer dealing of facts would be in order.  Therefore, one again finds literature, because it is the documentation of identity and experience.

            With this considered, one has to identify the parameters of American literature.  As mentioned, the American canon focuses to a large degree on identity, what it is to be American.  The writers of this course are all American, and each is documenting experiences for others to read.  Whether the work carries an intensely political feeling, or if it is merely about growing in a changing world, it remains an experience by an American.  This considered, it is ridiculous to assume that something cannot be literature, because it defends minorities.  If such is to be the case, then America’s literary canon loses decades of experiences and records.  As for the sociological consideration, this is fair but not entirely justified.  After all, these are largely works of fiction, or at least doctored truth.  The works cannot be devoted the reliability of fact as a result.  Therefore, the most just treatment occurs only in leaving the works as literature.

            In conclusion, the American canon is not determined until many years after the work is written.  Often, the writer is deceased before the work is added.  In consideration of the great works, one finds a variety of texts, from persons of different races, ages, and social classes.  Why then would a work be disqualified for coming from a minority?  It is fiction, not fact, after all.  If these works are pigeonholed into sociology, the American canon suffers a great loss.  Instead, the works should be treated as literature, and considered through social and historical criticism. [RL]

In answering the question “Is American Minority Literature about Literature or Culture?” one must consider everything that makes a culture, a culture.  It is the culture that produces the literature and the genre of Minority Literature.  It is impossible to study this specific genre without knowing about the culture, its beliefs, its customs, and its history.  For example, you cannot understand why Juan Diego abandons his quest for proof of the existence of the Virgin of Guadalupe unless you understand that it is his culture that puts the needs of the family above all else.  Can you read minority literature as it is without understanding the culture?  Yes.  However, you lose some of its significance.  American Minority Literature is about both literature and culture.  It is the studying of the literature that emerges from a particular culture.

            In considering the “minority concept” as being “a power relationship molded primarily by some ethnic groups’ historical relation to the dominant American culture” (Objective 1), you must look closely at the definition as being a historical relation.  This is evidence that the minority group considers the historical relation between it and the dominant culture.  Therefore, its literature, too, must be considered to contain aspects of this historical relation.  As has been studied in this course, the literature that comes out of the minority group contains examples of its relation to the dominant culture.  Whether it is found in the slave narratives or the poetry of Mexican American writers, the relationship between the particular group and the dominant culture can be seen in the literature.  The written works cannot be separated from the experiences of its writers.

            Objective 3 can also be observed in minority literature.  This objective addresses the experience of minority groups as being involuntary and being connected to the past.  In all of the literature that has been studied in this course, we have seen evidence of this involuntary participation.  None is more evident than that which exists in the slave narratives.  Frederick Douglass’ experience is a heart-wrenching view of the involuntary participation of African Americans in the dominant culture.  This was truly a group who was “voiceless” and “choiceless.”  Without knowing the cultural experiences of African American slaves, the narrative of Douglass can be read as a fictional piece of work.  However, when you know and understand that his work is not fiction, you are able to gain a greater understanding of the lives of slaves such as him.  You must have the historical and cultural background of the group to understand and appreciate the talent of the writer.

            Minority Literature is an important genre of literature for all students and a course that can be appreciated by students of all disciplines.  The course is more than just reading the works of a particular writer.  It becomes a history lesson, a seminar in sociology, and a lecture in cultural anthropology.  The student becomes not only familiar with the writing, but educated in the story behind the story.  Reading this type of literature raises questions about more than just the author’s words, but instead, the author’s world. [KM]

            Is American Minority Literature about Literature or Culture?  It seems to me that the study of literature is always, at some level, about culture.  At the least, literature is reflective of culture.  In this course, we have used literature as a means of understanding various minority cultures.  This is a time-honored approach to literature.  Much of what we know about the Ancient Greeks, for example, we take from their literature.  (This is a particularly relevant example in that Greek literature often reflects the oral traditions of the people as it gave way to written word.)  Of course, we also have archeological and historical documents that augment the literary texts.  Conversely, we know very little of other ancient cultures who did not leave a legacy of literature behind.  Although we may have archeological remains, these relics generally open possibilities and ask questions more than give a true sense of the texture of people’s cultures and lives.  Further, we know from experience that historical documents relate only one element of human experience—generally focused on the conflicts between cultures rather than the history of a single culture.  These historical documents usually reflect either the view of the “victor” or the view of the group for whom the history was written.      

            Literature, then, offers us a more complete sense of the past, a more complete sense of people’s lives.  This concept lends itself readily to the study of Minority Literature.  While minority cultures in America are certainly not a thing of the past, they are often underrepresented and misunderstood by the dominant group.  The perception of history and present experience as told by the dominant group often does not reflect reality as perceived by a minority group.  Thus, literature gives minority groups a sort of collective voice, and also gives voice to individual minority writers.  Minority literature serves to balance the dominant perspective, to add dimension to the American experience, and to “bear witness” to the side of American history that the dominant would really rather forget.

            Finally, it is possible to look at minority literature from a strictly formalist point of view.  However, the formalist approach to literature depends largely on the literary canon for its premises and assumptions.  In other words, formalists look at the “great” works of the past and say, “here, this is great writing.”  The problem, of course, is that the canon itself is heavily biased.  Writers in the literary canon overwhelmingly represent European (white) male writers.  This fact is slowly changing, particularly as women are added to the canon.  Therefore, I think it is unfair to adhere too closely to past conventions about what makes great writing because the dominant group decided the conventions.  New literature should be judged on its own merits, and the culture the literature represents will often influence what is deemed worthy in writing. [TNK]

Minority Literature courses, and in fact minority literature in general, while works of literature in and of themselves, tend to be primarily about the history and culture about which they are written.  Minority literature touches the reader in ways that cannot be gained from other genres of literature.  In any good story, the reader crawls into the story, and into the lives of the character, or characters, in the story, and gains a new perspective into their lives and their feelings.  With minority literature, in particular, the reader feels the feelings of the minority group, and develops a new empathy for their plight, which can lead to greater understanding and communication between the minority group, and the dominant culture.  With racial discord so rampant in our culture today, while the literary value of a minority literature class is important, the social value of it cannot be overstated.

            In our minority literature class, we have struck a perfect balance between studying the literary value of particular works of literature, and studying the social value of the messages the authors tried to convey.  We have perhaps, spent too little time on the books read in the latter part of the course, but that was balanced out by the enlightening and lively conversations the class engaged in as we struggled to find a new understanding of each other’s cultures and lives.  The value of that, in my opinion, far outweighs the value of interpreting literature in a literary sense, in other words, looking for different types of writing styles, metaphors, similes, etc… 

            Most European Americans tend to look at everyone’s lives, and their chances for success, as the same.  It never occurs to them that what they perceive as the American dream may in fact be someone else’s nightmare.  In the books read in class, the reader is given a different perspective on what life in America is truly like for members of minority cultures and races.  In The Slave Narratives, we gained a perspective on what a horrible nightmare slaves faced upon arriving in our country, and in Black Girl Lost, we learned that things have not changed as much as we thought they had.  African Americans are still living in a culture of poverty and racism, and they seldom have the same opportunities to live the American dream as white, European Americans have.  The dominant culture still holds most of the power, and African Americans are still given little voice or choice about their own situations.  African American literature, both old and modern, express this in ways that cannot be gained from history books, or movies.  Their literature is priceless, and has the power to change lives and cultural relationships.

            One of the main things a reader gets from Minority Literature is the sense of tradition and family that is held in such importance by different minority groups.  While the dominant cultures ancestors came here voluntarily, and attempted to leave behind their cultures and languages, the minorities we studied were primarily ambivalent minorities, here by force, and involuntarily.  The dominant culture in this country strives to succeed in modern times, while many minority cultures hold onto their past, and fight to keep their traditions.  It is a hard concept for many in the dominant culture to grasp.  They do not see the value in holding onto the past.  Through Minority Literature, they can gain a new insight into the value of past traditions, and the importance of it to the writers of Minority Literature. 

            All three of the minorities we studied have their own take on assimilation into the dominant culture.  African Americans typically view the American Dream as a nightmare, as they were brought here by force, and have been persecuted ever since.  American Indians have a tradition of loss and survival, as they had everything they held important taken away from them by force, and have been fighting to hold onto what they can ever since.  In addition, Mexican Americans are truly the epitome of the ambivalent minority, as they are torn between their traditions, and assimilation into a culture they have much resentment towards, and that views them as immigrants in their own country.  What better way to develop a deep understanding of these group’s plights than through Minority Literature?  This is the true value of the narratives and stories written by minority writers, and should be the primary goal of a Minority Literature class. [KD]

When studying Minority Literature in a classroom setting the question arises as to whether or not to study only the literature or the culture as well. There seems to be a problem with trying to study literature of a people without knowing anything about the group that is writing. So the question changes from whether or not to study the culture, to how much of the culture, history, sociology should there be in the class.

            The first thing to understand when studying American Minority Literature is that not only do we have to study the writings of the people, but also the history of the people and why these people are considered a minority group. Through the comparison of the immigrant narrative Breadgivers to the slave narrative The Life of Olaudah Equiano an example of the most major difference between the minority and the immigrant is shown, that of the manner in which each group came to America and the manner in which they were treated when they arrived here. This is one way to input the “minority concept” in our readings. It tells a history of the people and why they are a minority. Other comparisons can be made from the book American Indian Stories by Zitkala Sá, to the dominant culture because there was problems such as involuntary participation, forgetting the past, and nuclear families, compared to the Native American idea of connecting to the past, and staying within tradition or alternative families. These differences bring out the aspects of the culture so that their emotion in some of their writings can be correctly understood as anguish and not racism.

            The most important thing to consider when studying in minority Literature is to have a balance between the information and the literature. To understand what Zitkala Sá means when she talks about certain deities in her culture you have to have the information of the hierarchy of those deities and the stories that go with them to understand the connotation. By looking at the creation stories of other tribes it is easier to understand those instances in novels when people refer to their cultures stories. This is a successful mix of the culture and literature that helps the student from being lost in the text by not having necessary information.

            The one problem with studying the history, culture, and sociology along with the literature in the course is that sometimes there is too much to read and not enough time to read it. For this reason these classes have sometimes been split into three separate classes, but if worked out carefully, it is possible to be successful with all three minorities in one class. As in this class we had one selection of historical documents followed by one or two books of literature. This was very beneficial because there was enough time to read everything and gain a brief amount of knowledge about each culture. There could be a change with the amount of African American Literature simple because there are three books to read, three historical short stories and two literature books where the other cultures had one historical handout and one or two books. This put a limited amount of time in which we could study the latter two cultures because African American literature had dominance. This could have been because there is a larger amount of African American Literature whereas all the Native and Mexican American texts are few and far between from a historical point of view.

            Throughout studying minority literature, it becomes apparent that the study of the literature cannot be dome with the study of the history or culture as well. This class then becomes not only a literature topic, but a historical and sociological one as well. This class though somewhat imbalanced met all of its objectives to the fullest and succeeds in becoming a multi-topic class that functions very well and gives its students a full understanding of what it means to be apart of a minority as well as the reasons for the writing styles with the literature. [CJJ]