LITR 5731: Seminar in American Multicultural Literature

Web Highlight, spring 2006

Thursday, 9 February: Song of Solomon, chapters 3-9, pp. 56-216 (complete part 1, up to part 2)

Web-highlighter: Giselle Hewitt (midterms)

Introduction: Originally I chose the following midterms to highlight because both were topics focused on in our class discussions, and later found they both shared an idea of reclaiming one’s identity.  As a minority group African Americans share the identity of culture loss, forced participation, survival, and a constant striving to reclaim their identity.  Renaming and literacy being two ways used to make this claim.

Danny Corrigan 2004 midterm: “And the Children Shall Know Their Names:  The Significance of Names in Classic Slave Narratives, Song of Solomon, and Push”

Renaming gave the power needed to claim identity.

“…a constant theme of censorship and intrusion on black life from the dominant society is demonstrated… by a consistent pattern of misnaming.  It is only by claiming their own names that they are able to discover their true identities.”

Olaudah Equiano used both his given and chosen names together as his identity.

“…he is able to create a single self by acknowledging that behind the public persona of Gustavas Vassa, the person created by Western slave traders, there lives the empowered voice of Olaudah Equiano, a chosen voice representing the legacy of Africa.”

Song of Solomon uses nicknames to replace birth names and create a new identity.

“Descriptive nicknames are prevalent in Milkman’s society, as his own name shows, and are often bestowed by the community in recognition of some personal attribute.  Railroad Tommy and Hospital Tommy are named after their respective careers, Guitar Bains is named after his love of musical instruments, while Empire State acquires his amusing nickname because ‘he just stood around and stared.’”

“…these novels explore the theme of the importance of names in determining self-identity and self-awareness.”

James Hood 2004 midterm:  “Keeping ‘The Dream’ Alive: Gaining Visibility and Vision through Literacy”

Literacy of the language and one’s culture is important in finding your identity in the world and “gaining” access to “The Dream”.

“Functional literacy is described as having the rudimentary reading and writing skills that are necessary to survive in a given society, while cultural literacy might be defined as having a knowledge, among other things, of the symbols, myths, images, beliefs, and canon of one’s culture.  These two forms of literacy…contribute to a person’s ‘visibility’ and ‘vision,’ both of which are vital elements for keeping the Dream alive.”

Frederick Douglass is a good example of using literacy for both escaping and then as a tool to reshape his identity.

“Douglass…uses his newly acquired literacy skills to effect an escape from his oppressors, and then uses those same skills to speak out against the institution of slavery on behalf of others who were still ‘voiceless and choiceless.’”

Song of Solomon shows the character Milkman becoming culturally literate and growing into his new identity through this knowledge.

“…so ‘cultural illiteracy’ is therefore ‘making him dead’ because he has neither a past nore a future, drifting aimlessly through life with no real Dream….In searching for the gold, Milkman discovers his family’s ‘traditional but disrupted’ past, and although he does not find gold, he obtains another treasure – a wealth of cultural literacy.”

“…literacy, both as traditionally defined as having the ability to read, write, and ‘function’ in society and in the sense of meaning cultural literacy, which creates an awareness of self – even if it is a self defined by one’s ‘two-ness’ – both contribute to a type of visibility and vision.”

Conclusion: As stated in the introduction, both realigning oneself through renaming and literacy can be used to reclaim one’s identity.  Both midterms had well organized themes, but I was especially impressed with Hood’s midterm on literacy because he included culture as an aspect of literacy which also allows a person to reshape their identity.  These models both show how minorities tend to hold onto their culture and at the same time constantly redefine themselves.