Multiculturalism Contact Zones

I found these readings to be of interest and of importance due to the multicultural circumstances that represent our society. In particular, I would like to focus on Bizzell, her approach to this concept is a more, historical approach: “For example, the New England region from about 1600 to about 1800 might be defined as a contact zone in which different groups of Europeans and Native Americans were struggling for the power to say what had happened in their relations with each other” (483). Bizzell, then goes on to suggest that providing students with the opposing literary/ideological point of view from a said historical period of time provides a less canonized view of the work and a way to look at different rhetorical positions as they apply to the political context of the time period.

I use a similar context in my classroom, and as Bizzzell suggests, then apply these theories to writing. For example, for an AP Literature course that I teach, I take the historical approach and look at colonialism. For this approach I ask the students to read Heart of Darkness, Things Fall Apart and Poisonwood Bible. These texts all have a different perspective in regards to the history of the colonization of Africa. After the students do a close reading of each book, while writing responses to the texts in their reading journals, I ask them to write compare and contrast essays in regards to colonialism, obviously constructing their own opinions and beliefs about the situation. Perhaps Bizzell would consider this to be an example of a “contact zone”.

Another point that stood out to me is her idea that “[u]nder the new paradigm, there would be no need for two separate courses. The abilities needed both to enter literary studies and to refine one’s own writing would be the skills of analyzing imitating rhetorical arts of the contact zone” (485). This point stood out to me because Bizwell is making the claim that literature and composition do not need to be separate entities, as they intend to seem when one looks at a course catalogue for college level English courses. I my mind, the two are interchangeable and should be looked at in this regard when it comes to teaching composition. Writing, after all, in the academic context, is an analysis of said study materials, where students then form, express and defend their own position on the subject at hand. At least, in my humble opinion.