Contents
Foreword?ix
Acknowledgments?xi
Preface: ?Why Are We Reading This???xiii
The Tar Baby Incident?xiii
The LIST Paradigm: A Guided Approach to Teaching Literature?xv
Creating the LIST Paradigm?xix
Introduction: Culturally Responsive Reading: What It Is and Why It Matters?1
?Moving Out Beyond Yourself?: Coping With Culture Shock?3
Defining ?American? Literature: Reading Western ?Classics??4
Exploring Postcolonial Literature: Telling Our Own Stories?5
Achieving Agency: Rejecting ?The White Criterion??6
Misreading Multicultural Texts?6
Challenging Censorship?10
PART I: The LIST Paradigm: A Guide to Culturally Responsive Reading
1.?Culture in the Classroom: Introducing the LIST Paradigm?15
Teaching at the Academy?16
Exploring Cultural Myths?17
Exploring Definitions of ?Culture??20
Teaching Values?22
Introducing the LIST Paradigm?22
Literary Analysis?23
Literary Criticism?25
LIST Paradigm Exercises?25
Teaching Through the Lens of Culture?27
2.?Telling Our Stories: Exploring the Power of Narrative?35
Defining ?Story??38
Bibliotherapy?39
Mindful Reading?39
Types of Stories?40
3.?Readers, Reading, and the Reading Process?43
Why We Read?44
What We Read?44
How We Read?49
4.?Interrogating the Text: Asking Significant Questions?63
Conflicting Views on Reading Literature?63
Engaging Questions From Other Disciplines?64
Who Is ?Qualified? to Speak??67
PART II: Exploring the LIST Paradigm: Four ?Keys to Culture?
5.?Language: ?How Does the Author Contextualize Linguistic Signs and Symbols???75
Language as Resistance?76
Language in Postcolonial Studies?77
Reading Ousmane Sembène?s Niiwam?78
Language Creation: Code-Switching and Code-Meshing?79
Language Validation: Standard English and Vernacular?80
Language Use: Unlocking the Power of Language?81
Significant Questions?General?93
Significant Questions?Music?93
6.?Identity: ?Who Are These People and What Do They Want???97
Identity Politics (Race, Racism, and Colorism)?98
Literary Archetypes?103
Cultural Stereotypes?106
Significant Questions?109
7.?Space: ?How Do Characters Negotiate the Text?s Physical, Psychological, and Cultural Landscapes???111
Physical Space?112
Domestic Space (?Home?)?114
Racialized Space?115
Counterspaces (Third Space Theory)?116
Psychological Space?117
The Subaltern?118
Cultural Landscapes: The Slave Ship?119
Narrative Space?119
Significant Questions?120
8.?Time: ?How Does the Author Manipulate Time???123
Cultural Perceptions of Time?123
Historiography?124
Historicity?124
Exploring Time in Contemporary Fiction?125
Significant Questions?130
PART III: Exploring the LIST Paradigm: Unlocking the Text
9.?Cultural Contexts for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao?135
Reading Oscar Wao?136
Language in Oscar Wao?137
History: The Parsley Massacre?138
Major Influences?138
Author Background?139
10.?Exploring the LIST Paradigm: Reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao?142
Introducing the Novel?143
Narrative Structure?144
Language: "How Does the Author Contextualize Linguistic Signs and Symbols?"?144
Identity: "Who Are These People and What Do They Want?"?147
Space: "How Do Characters Negotiate the Text?s Physical, Psychological, and Cultural Landscapes?"?150
Time: "How Does the Author Manipulate Time?"?152
Coda?154
Appendix A.1: Exploring the LIST Paradigm: A Reader?s Guide?156
Appendix A.2: LIST Paradigm Worksheet?158
Appendix B: Defining Elements of Morrison?s Fiction?160
Appendix C: Notes on Narrative Structure?163
Appendix D: Suggestions for Pairing Texts?169
References?173
Index?184
About the Author?194
