LITR 5731: Seminar in American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake, fall 2001
Student Research Proposal

Donnette Arnold

Ok, about my final paper. i was doing some thinking this wkend as i was working on my paper. i am also currently applying for the doctoral program for education leadership at UH Central. For that app. i must write up a statement regarding the current educational/social issues that exist today. i am doing some reading to prep for that. so far the reading includes topics such as why we are now including minority and feminist courses/programs in our schools today. Could I use this route as a sounding board for my paper somehow? i would like to incorporate somehow the reading i am doing into the paper for this class. obviously it would benefit me two-fold. if you have any ideas, please pass them on. i would greatly appreciate it. again, i am only beginning to put ideas together, so i am not so sure it will work, but i would like to try. ??

Dear Donnette,

Yes. It's a worthy topic. You could try it as a paper topic or as part of a journal.

Two random observations on the topic, one of which I may have made to our seminar earlier.

Many high school and college students, even supposedly conservative or mainstream students in college prep classes, prefer "minority literature" to "the canon" of great writers. Especially in twentieth century literature, "great writers" often equal difficult, complex, obscure, fatalistic, baroque, esoteric, etc., whereas minority writers often tell a starker, more traditional narrative. One of the handout articles the other night referred to the journey of self-discovery in African American literature.

One danger, though potentially it's a "whiny" one, is that, in the process of expanding the canon of literature and history to be more inclusive of minority or multicultural materials, the educational establishment may be seen as being newly exclusive of another group--in brief, white men, or even men in general. Note how few men are in our seminar; the undergraduate class in Minority Lit this summer has even fewer. I've never felt threatened by any of these changes because I was always at least somewhat alienated from the worlds of business and sports to which most white men of my class restrict their conversation. But just as certainly these standard kinds of guys were rarely warm to literature in the first place, and now they often find a political pretext for their alienation.

There are many other issues to consider, though, so I hardly require you to attend to these. I'll be glad to hear more from you, so please check in as your plan develops.

Just to further muddy the situation, I have an article in my files that points out that, at least in high schools, the traditional canon still dominates. Drop by and I'll dig it out for you and make a copy.

Dr. White,

Thanks for the reply. I believe I am going to pursue this topic as my project for the final, but i am not quite sure which format i will use - the paper or the journal. (if you have suggestions, please pass them this way.)

As for your observations, that is exactly the type of information being discussed in these texts that i am studying. i then noticed that of the few graduate lit courses offered, at least 1/2 were not classical canonical literature. they were courses such as Pacific Rim, Minority, Women in Lit, etc. it seems that even our own university has "fallen prey" to this "political movement" . as for our class, i have noticed that of the class members, not only are there few men, but the men are the most silent of the group. normally when there were men in the classes i have attended at UHCL, the men were just as outspoken as the women. i will keep reading in an effort to come up with some form of a topic.

thanks for taking the time to reply. greatly appreciated!!!!

d.