|
|
For eight years I have taught a course called "Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults" to graduate and undergraduate students. One key question occurs time and again, "what is authentic multicultural literature?"
I offer my current reflections as a work-in-progress, knowing I will continue to refine my thinking. At present I find that applying a tripartite dictionary definition of "authentic" provides the most satisfactory way to respond. The three definitions are:
Authentic multicultural literature must show evidence that it is grounded in the accurate facts of a culture and that authors and illustrators have adhered faithfully to the original culture in their literary interpretations. Source notes and author notes provide one place to seek evidence of cultural accuracy. (See Betsy Hearne's "Cite the Source," School Library Journal July, 1993, 22+; August 1993, 33+). Critiques or reviews by persons knowledgeable about the culture are another.
A book is authentic multicultural literature if it satisfies only these first two requirements. An author or illustrator can produce this literature through careful research and study. For example,
Lois Ehlert's picture book, Cuckoo/Cucu A Mexican Folktale/Un Cuento Folorico Mexicano, translated by Gloria De Aragon Andujar. (Harcourt Brace, 1997) tells a traditional Mayan folk with illustrations "inspired by a variety of Mexican crafts and folk art." Notes in the book reveal that Ehlert, who is not Latina, conducted meticulous background research, studying story forms and cultural artifacts at museums in the U.S. and Mexico in order to reproduce accurately essential cultural features. The accurate presentation and interpretation of the story in both languages is another gauge of authenticity in a bilingual book.
But I believe that literature which provides the deepest level of authentic cultural enlightenment for a young reader satisfies all three definitions-it requires research and immersion. The works of creators who represent a culture that has become their own, either through birth or extensive experience, can best portray cultural subtleties. Here are some recent examples:
Ed Young in Voices of the Heart (Scholastic, 1997) uses collage art, to explore the cultural meaning of twenty-six Chinese characters each including the symbol for heart. Ed Young , born in Tientsin, China, learned to read and write Chinese as a child. But only when, as an adult, he studied Chinese philosophy did he rediscover the symbolism embedded in Chinese characters.
Patricia McKissack's Ma Dear's Aprons, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (Atheneum, 1997) is set in the turn-of-the-century South. A young African American boy anticipates what he'll share with his mother by her colorful aprons signifying day and chore. The aprons of Patricia McKissack's great grandmother, a domestic worker in rural Alabama, provided the inspiration for a personal story blended with cultural fact about the seldom-seen strength of an African American single mother domestic worker.
Paul Goble's The Return of the Buffaloes: A Plains Indian Story about Famine and Renewal of the Earth (National Geographic Society, 1996) contains extensive author notes about the Lakota. Sioux. The story features a Plains' Indian spiritual figure seem from another perspective in his 1984 book Buffalo Woman. For many years Goble, British by birth, has immersed himself in the culture of the Plains Indians, studying and living it.
Here is my teaching stance summarized:
This conversation about cultural authenticity must continue as it is much more complex and has many more ramifications than I have space to cover here.
|