About

      Good afternoon, readers! My name is Caleb Frame and I'm currently constructing this blog as part of my assignment for my Multicultural Literature Course. I am currently a college student working toward my Bachelor's Degree in English with an emphasis on Technical Writing. Although my focus is on technical writing, I am an avid lover of fictional works, especially science fiction, fantasy, and any combination of the two. Personally, however, I find myself somewhat uninteresting.

       As part of this assignment, I am to discuss Multicultural Literature based on what I've read and written this semester in order to provide some context for the blog posts I am to present. From what I have derived of my readings, the context for literature that comes from multiple cultures is somewhat obvious to me. Literature is influenced by its writers, and its writers are inherently influenced by their culture. By this, I mean that writers are influenced by their cultural traditions, the circumstances of their lives, the time period in which they existed, and other important events that have occurred in and around their lives. 

    For example, there are inherent differences between Ancient Eastern literature and Contemporary Eastern literature. Ancient Eastern literature was influenced more by the traditions of the culture at the time. As such, it writes in a manner befitting its time period, somewhat more sanctimonous and with odd flares of verbiage that might seem strange to a modern reader. As opposted to Contemporary Eastern literature, which was influenced by the culture of the time, events such as the broadening of Eastern civilization to the influences of the rest of the world, and the revolutions that followed, as well as modernization greatly influenced the writers of the time. Texts are much more descriptive of their environment and characters are no longer cultural staple archetypes, not to mention the broader use of purple prose. 

    Additionally, I am to define the term "global" as it relates to literature. To define Global Literature, I would provide explanation as to how literature can become considered global. Literature can be considered global when integrations of elements of a number of different cultures can be detected, located, and identified within a text. Put into a simpler context, literature is global literature when multiple countries can read it and comprehend the cultural references being made without additional context.

     A lot of 20th-century literature presents representations of the blurring of national boundaries, and portrays struggles with cultural identity quite well. Many different texts make references and use terms from cultures either neighboring their own, or from cultures that are related quite well to their author's respective life experience. This in and of itself resembles the earlier definition of global literature, as individuals from those cultures can each examine the text and derive context from the cultural references made by the author. Of course, this blending also makes it difficult to discern one culture from another, which is quite indicative of a struggle that a lot of modern literature has with having a singular cultural identity. For example, you will find in the story Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, one of the texts that has influenced my writings for 20th-century literature, that the protagonist struggles with understanding her mother's lessons and to-do list until she understands her mother's culture and customs. A relatively simple example of struggling with cultural identity.