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Literary work: a medium to
cross-cultural understanding
and communication
Within the workshop:
The role of literary work
in teaching and learning
Isabelle Lecomte
M.A. (communication)
February 9, 2008
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Table of contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Literary work : What is it ?
3.
What is culture ?
4.
What is communication ?
5.
What does cross-cultural communication mean ?
6.
Literary work in English: cross-cultural communication ?
7.
Two examples: The Kite Runner and Corruption
8.
Literary work in the classroom
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1. Introduction : concepts
1. Impossible to divorce from culture of
language we are teaching
2. English is “globalized,” inc. through literary
work in various types of English: cultural
influence from location creates differences
Speech (English), like behavior, is
influenced by social variables
3. English words have cultural connotations
4. Cannot understand American or Australian
perceptions of the world without studying
texts from authors from these countries
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2. Literary work : definition
Includes
Prose, drama, novels, essays, short
stories, plays, etc.,
Text which are read (books on tapes or
CDs)
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8. Literary works in the classroom
• Material presenting issues important for
that culture (to learn the appropriate
vocabulary), ex.: books of Pramoedya
Ananta Toer
• Purpose: learners link the values
reflected in their own language, and
those reflected in the new language
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3. What is culture ?
• Def.: “The total of the inherited ideas,
beliefs, values, and knowledge, which
constitute the shared bases of social
action.” Collins English Dictionary
• It is what we received from the past
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Culture and traditional beliefs
•
Local traditional practices dealt with rulers, authority,
power, different ethnic groups, and languages.
•
Earlier traditions are better than present values. (Golden
Age of Rome, Renaissance…) Local values are retained.
Whoever tries to reject, let alone, destroy them, risks
sanctions by cultural authority. Whoever destroys local
values will be excluded from the culture that dominates.
(clothes)
•
Community links based on shared past, a shared tribe, a
shared nation and ethnic groups, and religious or
educational background. People with different bases are
not trusted as they are beyond this community.
(intermarriage, business)
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4. What is communication?
• Def.: “The imparting of exchange of
information” Collins English Dictionary
 Communication occurs between two agents.
• It is a two-way process. It is the result of
negotiation of meaning
– One person sends a message
– The other person interprets the message according
to his or her culture.
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Theory of communication
REPRODUCTION
History-based
COMMUNICATION
CULTURE
The cross-roads
Ibetween culture and
communication
=
NEGOTIATION
Geographybased
•© Bakti
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Theory of communication
Communication is radically different from
culture
1. Culture is turned to the past
2. Communication is turned towards the
future
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Communication and
negotiation
•
Communication encourages people to work together
•
Relationship based on mutual trust (from other ethnic
group or religious background). (cities)
•
A negotiation process promotes equality, and justice.
Negotiation is supported based on the current and future
needs. (uprooting, America)
•
The past is not seen as the best of times. Present and
future are opportunities to improve. One group of people
is not higher than the others…. Trust between people and
group becomes an objective, as opposed to links based
on the past.
(Bakti, 2004; Ravault, 1994)
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5. What does cross-cultural
communication mean?
• It is an exchange of information between
individuals from two different cultures
• The sender of information is active, and
the receiver is also active, as he or she
interprets the information according to his
or her own experience, background,
religion and other values, etc.
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Words need to be learnt
in a context, in a cultural and
geographical environment
• What is a “nice” café?
• What is an “ideal” dog?
• What is a “beautiful” house?
• What is a “good” looking girl?
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6. Literary work in English:
a cross-cultural communication
• A communication tool: As a medium, literary work is
a bridge between the writer and the reader, 2
cultures
• Ex: books by Indian authors, Japanese authors,
Indonesian authors
• Using literary work encourages cross-cultural
communication
• By understanding another culture, students can
apply a critical look at their own culture (they can
compare)
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Literary work addresses
global / human issues
•
Relationships
between individuals
•
Outlook on society
•
Spiritual issues
•
Gender issues
•
Environmental issues
•
Morality
• Class / hierarchy issues
• Behaviors
• Human rights
• Democracy
• Pluralism
• Lifestyle
• Civil society…
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7. Two examples
1. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Pulitzer Price
1. Corruption, Pramoedya Ananta Toer
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7.1. The Kite Runner : Summary
A well-off boy (the author) in Kabul, Afghanistan, and
his friendship with the son of a servant.
How the rich boy failed to protect the poor boy
How this experience hauted him well after his
emigration to the United States
Able to escape to Afghanistan, he is however called
back to Kabul by his dying uncle
Finding out his friend has died and left a son, the
author adopts this son, having been told that his
friend was actually his half-brother.
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The Kite Runner :
What do we learn ?
In Afghanistan
• The historical and geographical context
• The classes and their relations
• The symbols, behavior associated with status
(impossible for servants to fight back : HR
issues)
• Relationship between men and women
• The suffering associated with war
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The Kite Runner :
What do we learn ? In the United States
The pluralism which exists in the US
Please loose their previous status and
rebuild a new status based on work
The difficulty of immigration
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The Kite Runner :
What do we learn ? Back in Afghanistan
Afghanistan is seen through the eyes of a
new American
Afghanistan is the old life, the US is the
new life : represents the typical american
dream
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7.2. Corruption : Summary
A civil servant is happy and proud of his honest
life. His spouse and family, however, compare
their life with that of other civil servants and
they want to have more money.
Little by little, he enters the spiral of corruption,
seduced by his new wealthy lifestyle. He gets
more and more caught in the rules of corruption
and falls into a spiral of compromises from
which he cannot get untangled.
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Corruption :
What do we learn ?
• The historical and geographical context
• The classes and their relations
• The life of civil servants
• The working of a bureaucracy
• The communication approaches in the society
described
• The symbols, behavior associated with status (tie)
• Relationship between husband and wife
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How to use literary texts in the
English classroom
•
Ask students to identify the issues addressed
•
Ask them to identify vocabulary used
•
Use to initiate debates, ask students to
compare the way the issue is addressed here
•
Look for the values implicit in the text *
•
For ex.: does the text appeal to reason, to
scientific knowledge, to emotions, to past
beliefs, to traditions
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Conclusion : Studying literary work
in the language classroom
•
Makes students more aware of belonging to the
human civilization as a whole: bridge between
cultures
•
Makes students more aware of issues important in
a specific culture and society
•
Enables students to discuss the issues important in
that culture (use of voc., ref.)
•
Helps students become critical about their own
values and other values
•
Helps students to learn other cultures, in particular
the culture of the language they study, and
compare with their own.
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