cover next page > title: Reading Across Cultures : Teaching Literature in a Diverse Society Language and Literacy Series (New York, N.Y.) author: Rogers, Theresa. publisher: Teachers College Press isbn10 | asin: 0807735515 print isbn13: 9780807735510 ebook isbn13: 9780585099095 language: English subject Literature--Study and teaching--United States, Pluralism (Social sciences) in literature--United States. publication date: 1997 lcc: LB1576.R396 1997eb ddc: 808/.0071 subject: Literature--Study and teaching--United States, Pluralism (Social sciences) in literature--United States. cover next page > If you like this book, buy it! < previous page page_i next page > Page i Language and Literacy Series Dorothy S. Strickland and Celia Genishi, SERIES EDITORS ADVISORY BOARD: RICHARD ALLINGTON, DONNA ALVERMANN, KATHRYN AU, EDWARD CHITTENDON, BERNICE CULLINAN, COLETTE DAIUTE, ANNE HAAS DYSON, CAROLE EDELSKY, JANET EMIG, SHIRLEY BRICE HEATH, CONNIE JUEL, SUSAN LYTLE Opening Dialogue: Understanding the Dynamics of Language and Learning in the English Classroom MARTIN NYSTRAND with ADAM GAMORAN, ROBERT KACHUR, and CATHERINE PRENDERGAST Reading Across Cultures: Teaching Literature in a Diverse Society THERESA ROGERS and ANNA O. SOTER, Editors "You Gotta Be the Book": Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading with Adolescents JEFFREY D. WILHELM Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High MARGARET J. FINDERS The First R: Every Child's Right to Read MICHAEL F. GRAVES, PAUL VAN DEN BROEK, and BARBARA M. TAYLOR, Editors Exploring Blue Highways: Literacy Reform, School Change, and the Creation of Learning Communities JOBETH ALLEN, MARILYNN CARY, and LISA DELGADO, Coordinators Envisioning Literature: Literary Understanding and Literature Instruction JUDITH A. LANGER Teaching Writing as Reflective Practice GEORGE HILLOCKS, JR. Talking Their Way into Science: Hearing Children's Questions and Theories, Responding with Curricula KAREN GALLAS Whole Language Across the Curriculum: Grades 1, 2, 3 SHIRLEY C. RAINES, Editor The Administration and Supervision of Reading Programs, SECOND EDITION SHELLEY B. WEPNER, JOAN T. FEELEY, and DOROTHY S. STRICKLAND, Editors No Quick Fix: Rethinking Literacy Programs in America's Elementary Schools RICHARD L. ALLINGTON and SEAN A. WALMSLEY, Editors Unequal Opportunity: Learning to Read in the U.S.A. JILL SUNDAY BARTOLI Nonfiction for the Classroom: Milton Meltzer on Writing, History, and Social Responsibility Edited and with an Introduction by E. WENDY SAUL When Children Write: Critical Re-Visions of the Writing Workshop TIMOTHY LENSMIRE Dramatizing Literature in Whole Language Classrooms, SECOND EDITION JOHN WARREN STEWIG and CAROL BUEGE The Languages of Learning: How Children Talk, Write, Dance, Draw, and Sing Their Understanding of the World KAREN GALLAS Partners in Learning: Teachers and Children in Reading Recovery CAROL A. LYONS, GAY SU PINNELL, and DIANE E. DEFORD Social Worlds of Children Learning to Write in an Urban Primary School ANNE HAAS DYSON (Continued) < previous page page_i next page > If you like this book, buy it! < previous page page_ii next page > Page ii The Politics of Workplace Literacy: A Case Study SHERYL GREENWOOD GOWEN Inside/Outside: Teacher Research and Knowledge MARILYN COCHRAN-SMITH and SUSAN L. LYTLE Literacy Events in a Community of Young Writers YETTA M. GOODMAN and SANDRA WILDE, Editors Whole Language Plus: Essays on Literacy in the United States and New Zealand COURTNEY B. CAZDEN Process Reading and Writing: A Literature-Based Approach JOAN T. FEELEY, DOROTHY S. STRICKLAND, and SHELLEY B. WEPNER, Editors The Child as Critic: Teaching Literature in Elementary and Middle Schools, THIRD EDITION GLENNA DAVIS SLOAN The Triumph of Literature/The Fate of Literacy: English in the Secondary School Curriculum JOHN WILLINSKY The Child's Developing Sense of Theme: Responses to Literature SUSAN S. LEHR Literacy for a Diverse Society: Perspectives, Practices, and Policies ELFRIEDA H. HIEBERT, Editor The Complete Theory-to-Practice Handbook of Adult Literacy: Curriculum Design and Teaching Approaches RENA SOIFER, MARTHA IRWIN, BARBARA CRUMRINE, EMO HONZAKI, BLAIR SIMMONS, and DEBORAH YOUNG < previous page page_ii next page > If you like this book, buy it! < previous page page_iii next page > Page iii Reading Across Cultures Teaching Literature in a Diverse Society EDITED BY Theresa Rogers and Anna O. Soter Foreword by Rudine Sims Bishop Teachers College Columbia University New York and London National Council of Teachers of English Urbana, Illinois < previous page page_iii next page > If you like this book, buy it! < previous page page_iv next page > Page iv Published simultaneously by Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027 and the National Council of Teachers of English Copyright © 1997 by Teachers College, Columbia University All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. "To You" by Langston Hughes reprinted from Collected Poems by Langston Hughes. Copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Reading across cultures : teaching literature in a diverse society / edited by Theresa Rogers and Anna O. Soter. p. cm.(Language and literacy series) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 0-8077-3552-3 (cloth : alk. paper).ISBN 0-8077-3551-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. LiteratureStudy and teachingUnited States. 2. Pluralism (Social sciences) in literatureUnited States. I. Rogers, Theresa. II. Soter, Anna O., 1946- . III. Series: Language and literacy series (New York, N.Y.) LB1576.R396 1997 808'.0071dc20 96-32594 ISBN 0-8077-3551-5 (paper) ISBN 0-8077-3552-3 (cloth) NCTE Stock No. 50284 Printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 < previous page page_iv next page > If you like this book, buy it! < previous page page_v next page > Page v Contents Foreword by Rudine Sims Bishop vii Acknowledgments xi Introduction Theresa Rogers and Anna O. Soter 1 PART I Classroom Stories 1 Negotiating the Meaning of Difference: Talking Back to Multicultural Literature Patricia E. Enciso 13 2 Re-Visioning Reading and Teaching Literature Through the Lens of Narrative Theory William McGinley, George Kamberelis, Timothy Mahoney, Daniel Madigan, Victoria Rybicki, and Jeff Oliver 42 3 Students' Resistance to Engagement with Multicultural Literature Richard Beach 69 4 No Imagined Peaceful Place: A Story of Community, Texts, and Cultural Conversations in One Urban High School English Classroom Theresa Rogers 95 5 Multiplicity and Difference in Literary Inquiry: Toward a Conceptual Framework for Reader-Centered Cultural Criticism Mary Beth Hines 116 < previous page page_v next page > If you like this book, buy it! < previous page page_vi next page > Page vi PART II Authors, Teachers, and Texts 6 Exploring Multicultural Literature as Cultural Production Arlette Ingram Willis 135 7 Reflections on Cultural Diversity in Literature and in the Classroom Laura E. Desai 161 8 Out of the Closet and onto the Bookshelves: Images of Gays and Lesbians in Young Adult Literature Mari M. McLean 178 9 Reader-Response Theory and the Politics of Multicultural Literature Mingshui Cai 199 10 Reading Literature of Other Cultures: Some Issues in Critical Interpretation Anna O. Soter 213 About the Editors and the Contributors 231 General Index 235 Index of Literary Works for Children and Young Adults 242 < previous page page_vi next page > If you like this book, buy it! < previous page page_vii next page > Page vii Foreword To sit and dream, to sit and read, To sit and learn about the world Outside our world of here and now Our problem world To dream of vast horizons of the soul Through dreams made whole, All you who are dreamers too, Help me to make Our world anew. I reach out my dreams to you. Langston Hughes, "To You" MUCH OF THE PROFESSIONAL writing on the teaching of literature in elementary and secondary schools has, in recent years, focused on reader-response theory and on multiculturalism in literature for children and young adults. Reader-response theory has provided the foundation for instructional approaches that emphasize the role of readers in constructing meanings and interpretations of texts, while multiculturalism has called for an expanded repertoire of authentic literary works to reflect the cultural diversity that characterizes American and global society. READING ACROSS CULTURES stands at the confluence of reader-response theory and multicultural literature or cultural studies, moving both in a new direction. The professional writing on the role of multicultural literature in classrooms has primarily focused on the need to make visible underrepresented groups and to counter negative images and stereotypes. The main educational benefit of these strategies for readers who are members of such groups has been presumed to be that such literature would, by legitimating their images, their heritage, and their cultural experiences, provide opportunities for building self-esteem. This would in turn lead to improved scholastic achievement, particularly in regard to written literacy. For readers who are members of dominant groups, the assumption has been that becoming acquainted with and finding their own connections to literature about people from nondominant groups would help < previous page page_vii next page > If you like this book, buy it! < previous page page_viii next page > Page viii them to value all peoples, accept differences as a natural aspect of human societies, and even celebrate cultural pluralism as a desirable feature of the world in which they live. Less attention has been paid to the specific kinds of instructional strategies that might accomplish these ends, to the effects on response of the sociocultural identities that readers assume, and to the influence on those responses of the social and cultural environments in which readings take place. READING ACROSS CULTURES helps to fill a gap by presenting stories of actual classrooms and the ways that teachers and students in those classrooms, from third grade to college, make and take meanings from a variety of texts. In so doing it takes us well beyond being satisfied with merely exposing readers to a variety of texts. It reminds us that the goal of multicultural education, and the role of literature within that context, is ultimately to help "to make our world anew," to transform society into one in which social justice and equity prevail, and that reaching that goal will require schooling in which teachers and students are able to confront and critique some of the thorny issues and -isms (such as racism and sexism) that are at the root of past and continuing inequities. READING ACROSS CULTURES shows how literature, through the power of its artistry, can be a catalyst for engaging students in critical discussions and for eliciting multiple perspectives and multiple voices in pursuit of understanding. It also reminds us that among those multiple voices are voices of resistance. Real change will not, therefore, be easy, nor will it come solely as a result of reading and responding to literature, which is, after all, an art form, not an instrument of indoctrination. Nor can literature, even with all its potential artistic power, be expected to carry the major responsibility for transforming the world. In the classrooms portrayed in the first part of this volume, emphasis is mainly on the readers, the teachers, and the texts. They are not, however, the only players in the game of reading and interpreting literature, particularly cross- cultural texts. One of the main issues in the criticism of so-called multicultural literature, especially literature for children and young adults, has been the extent to which an author's sociocultural background influences or interferes with the ability to create literature about characters who are members of a different social group, particularly when the author is a member of a dominant group writing about those who are not. In READING ACROSS CULTURES the author is included in the conversation, as is the critic concerned with patterns in the representations of social groups or with critical interpretations of literature across cultures and the teacher educator aware that his or her instructional strategies will have an effect across generations of readers. In short, Theresa Rogers and Anna Soter and the other authors in this collection take on the complexities < previous page page_viii next page > If you like this book, buy it! < previous page page_ix next page > Page ix of reading, writing, interpreting, and critiquing literature in the context of both culturally diverse and more nearly monocultural classrooms as well as the pluralistic larger society. In so doing they clarify issues and indicate some possible steps toward resolution of some of those issues. Teachers, teacher educators, and researchers with an interest in cultural studies, multicultural literature, and reader- response theory will find that READING ACROSS CULTURES can be a guide through some of the swiftly flowing waters of contemporary literary theory and criticism. It does not simplify the issues, because they cannot be simplified, but with its own set of multiple perspectives and diverse voices, it helps to clarify our vision and point the way forward toward a better understanding of the role that reading literature can (and cannot) play in helping to transform schools and society, the ways that reading, writing, discussing, teaching, and critiquing literature can help "to make our world anew." Rudine Sims Bishop Ohio State University < previous page page_ix next page > If you like this book, buy it!