International Mindedness in Literature and Language Arts - Naz

Lit 12 PLO: Demonstrate an awareness of the influences of gender, ethnicity, and class on literature.

One of the themes in literature is the plight of the oppressed. This is often relegated to characters from Charles Dickens novels (generally orphans and those from the west), or British and American books about people of white and European decent (i.e. The Grapes of Wrath, David Copperfield). It would be wise to study less known literature by authors from oppressed communities, so that the voice of the other can become the norm: Joseph Boyden's "Orenda", or Ben Okri's "The Famished Road." Both are studies of oppression within colonized communities, one set in Canada, the other Africa, looking at how colonization has created abject poverty, leading to violence and war.

Naz