When I read Habibi I had actually felt that it was a good book and I could not understand why it was so controversial outside of the relationship between Liyana and Omer. I had really thought that it had portrayed a good message, one of peace and acceptance. I even wrote about that in my questioning the text paper.
After being in class I feel very different and realized some of the negative aspects of the book. When I read it by myself I had noticed the violence, but I had not really thought about it critically. I had been focusing on other aspects. When it was brought to my attention in class I felt very naive and I realized that being in a class like TE 448 is a very valuable thing. Without this class I may have provided the book Habibi to someone else to read. Now that I know the background of the book, and realize how negatively the Jewish are portrayed in this book I will not recommend it and my view on it changed completely.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Insider/Outsider Debate
After reading the four articles for class I have a lot of insight on just how much controversy surrounds the idea of multicultural literature. Some people, such as Violet Harris (Shannon,2), define multiculturalism solely in terms of race. Others, such as those explored in Cai, believe that all literature is multicultural. With this debate there is the question of who should write multicultural literature. The main question here is if there is a difference between multicultural literature written by insiders from that of pieces written by outsiders.
Insiders have the upper hand when writing multicultural literature because it is about themselves. They relate directly to the piece they are writing and they can draw upon personal experiences to formulate the piece as well. They also have a respect for the work that shows through and makes it truly authentic, because they would not want to negatively stereotype themselves. Although this is true of insiders, I feel that outsiders are able to create meaningful multicultural literature as well. If the outsider is willing to put in the time and effort to get all the facts straight and not draw upon any stereotypes they can write very effective literature.
I feel that the debate put forth in the readings and in class is a tricky one. Multicultural literature can be defined as many things, as I saw in the readings. According to the Cai article "all literature is multicultural". I would like to explore that idea more because it really stood out to me, because from the readings I myself wonder if multicultural literature is a genre of its own. I would also like to be exposed to literature on the same topic written by an outsider and one written by an insider to compare the difference. I feel that this activity would be able to help me decide if there is a noticeable difference between the two.
Insiders have the upper hand when writing multicultural literature because it is about themselves. They relate directly to the piece they are writing and they can draw upon personal experiences to formulate the piece as well. They also have a respect for the work that shows through and makes it truly authentic, because they would not want to negatively stereotype themselves. Although this is true of insiders, I feel that outsiders are able to create meaningful multicultural literature as well. If the outsider is willing to put in the time and effort to get all the facts straight and not draw upon any stereotypes they can write very effective literature.
I feel that the debate put forth in the readings and in class is a tricky one. Multicultural literature can be defined as many things, as I saw in the readings. According to the Cai article "all literature is multicultural". I would like to explore that idea more because it really stood out to me, because from the readings I myself wonder if multicultural literature is a genre of its own. I would also like to be exposed to literature on the same topic written by an outsider and one written by an insider to compare the difference. I feel that this activity would be able to help me decide if there is a noticeable difference between the two.
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