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SELF-IDENTITY IN THE CONTEXT OF CROSS-CULTURAL RELATIONS IN
CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE
Tetyana Myronenko, Lesia Dobrovolska,
Mykolaiv V.O. Sukhomlynsky National University, Ukraine
Key words:
spiritual and moral values, self-identity, multiculturalism, cognitive aspect,
globalization, contemporary American literature.
Self-awareness or self-identity is very
important for any society as it determines its
capacity to grow and draw up directions for
mutual understanding of different groups and
individuals. In the era of globalization, when
human-beings have opened cross-border links
and are becoming more intertwined with each
other around the world, process of building
self-identity in the multicultural world takes
place on many levels: individual, community,
country, and the world. Self-identity, self-
concept of an individual through the dialogue
among cultures is a dynamic social process. It
is a potential that individuals can build within
themselves as a result of developing
interpersonal relations in society and striving
consistency.
American Literature from cognitive
viewpoint promotes the study of intercultural
and multicultural relations within a particular
society and is aimed at solving cross-cultural
problems. We will use it as a means in this
research on shifting self-identity processes
towards a successful dialogue among different
cultures.
Cognitive Literature is a relatively
new discipline in Ukraine. It exists not only to
study literary works but more importantly to
teach to understand the world and other
cultures and to help form an independent
creative person, tolerant and open to new
ideas in the era of globalization. Formation of
a new generation with a critical-creative
comprehension, which is the highest level of
thinking that, involves “reading beyond the
lines “should be a major goal at teaching
American literature.
Ukraine as well as the United States of
America, is a multicultural country: 103
ethnic groups and nationalities live there. That
is why America, a country created by
immigrants, who managed to preserve their
national cultures becoming at the same time a
part of a “melting pot”, could serve as a great
example for Ukraine in the process of
building self-identity.
A great number of American writer
generations were successful in finding and
preserving their ethnic identity and self-
identity in their works. Today, when Ukraine
is in the process of building its own self-
identity and integration into the world global
culture,
studying
American
Literature,
especially contemporary, as an integral part of
American studies at Ukrainian Universities is
crucial for this process. It will help a young
generation to form their own self-identity as a
personality and at the same time to identify
themselves as a nation with critical thinking
as well as facilitate a dialogue with other
nations during the process of integration.
Teaching
values
through
contemporary
American Literature at any country helps to
get acquainted more close with the culture
and create a positive image.
The object of Cognitive Literature is
aimed at solving cross-cultural problems and
promotes the study of intercultural relations
through
cross-national
boundaries
and
multicultural relations within a particular
society. Under these circumstances studying
American Literature as an integral part of
American
Studies
at
the
Ukrainian
Universities is crucial for this process.
American Literature in the 80s-90s of
the twentieth century is represented by
different literary theories like postcolonial,
gender, queer, including the ”literature of
blankness” and by the writers of different
ethnic groups who contributed a lot of to
American
Literature.
Unfortunately,
in
Ukraine there is some lack of information
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about the writers of this period and their
works. Our main goal is to introduce this rich
spectrum of literary works to the Ukrainian
students, future generation which will
continue to promote the dialogue among
cultures.
We
consider
that
Cognitive
Literature, which is aimed at exploring
images, ideas, genres, movements, literary
theories, and criticism, would work well as an
instrument in examining the plural character
of the given period of American Literature.
The problem of identification and self-
identification in American Literature is
inseparable from the problem of cultural
diversity and multiculturalism. American
writers of the 80s-90s of the last century raise
these questions in their novels and short
stories. To prove it the list of writers may be
endless: Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison,
Bobbie Ann Mason, Anne Tyler, Amy Tan,
Jonathan Safran Foer and a lot of other
prominent writers.
The problem of self-identity is
complex and it is well shown in Joyce Carol
Oates novel “We were the Mulvaneys” where
she depicts a family and within this one union
individuals who try to find themselves in their
own way. In the novel it is a small world
limited by a family, a small town and a
community. The novel tells about a well-to-do
farmer Mike, his wife Corinne and their
children Mike Jr., Patric, Marianne and Judd.
Joyce Carol Oates shows how difficult it may
be to find yourself even within one family
without saying about the global world but
while
reading
the
novel
the
reader
understands and realizes that every human
being should aim at it.
The characters are in the development
along the whole novel, they try to live in
harmony with themselves and the world
around them that makes them identify
themselves and answer the question what I
am. In her short story “Where Are You
Going, Where Have You Been?” the central
character, Connie, is an American girl, in her
adolescent life. She occurs in a situation in
which she must make a moral choice and the
choice she makes shows her strong identity as
an individual with responsibility before the
others. Hermann Severin points out that Joyce
Carol Oates novels and short stories: “… deal
with basic problems of self-definition, with
man‟s struggle for a stable identity, his
longing for values and aims which transcend
the banality of his life, his quest for
wholeness and consonance with the world;
themes which are of critical importance”[7].
African
American
literature
has
become a major component and one of the
main streams of the literary process in the
USA. The African American writers focused
on existential themes, which are of great
importance and can give an answer to the
question of identity of the whole ethnic group
and self-identity of a one person. The literary
works of Toni Morrison, Ishmael Reed,
Gloria Alexs D.
Pate have received a huge
level op popularity, attention of literary critics
and scholarly investigation. Their works are
included in the syllabus of the universities.
Undoubtedly, a Nobel Prize winner
Toni Morrison is the most distinguished and
recognizable among all contemporary African
American writers. She managed to move
away from overwhelming and dominant
context that was white history and moved into
another culture of black people. Richard Gray
says “Her work can, in fact, be seen as an
attempt to write several concentric histories of
the American experience from a distinctively
African American perspective”[2].
According to Samuel Coale “Toni
Morrison almost single-handedly brought
African-American literature from its marginal
position into the main stream, a process that
culminated in the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved.
Hers is a world that emerges from the
anecdotes, superstitions, and folktales of the
black oral tradition, an enchanted world in
which ghosts and omens are real, and the
metaphorical
becomes
the
disturbingly
literal”[1].
Toni Morrison‟s one of the best novels
“Beloved” concentrates on the memories of
American black history. One of the themes of
the novel is a human being, what is a free
human being and his past and roots because if
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you know your past you can answer the
questions concerning your present, future and
the identity of your culture can be found.
Comparing the issues of identity and
self-identity of the presented novels we can
see how different the culture of each
nationality is but human and moral subject
does not depend on the nationality it deals
with the virtues common to everydiv.
Correspondingly the study of literary
works in a cognitive way where students get
acquainted with something not familiar to
them, helps to educate a person tolerant to the
representatives of another culture, it helps to
develop ability to listen, understand, conduct
a
dialogue,
and
come
from
global
confrontation to global integration because
any society cannot exist without agreement.
From
a
philological
standpoint
Cognitive Literature, and American Literature
as an integral part of American Studies,
appeals to the interest of the English language
as a national culture and ways of translation
of linguistic phenomena that helps to apply
the skills of literary analysis.
The process of cross-cultural relations
must be aimed at building a dialogue among
cultures and the comparison of different
literatures helps to realize contracts – that is
the experience from another view point and
from pedagogical standpoint it encourages to
understand one‟s own culture differently in
the light of the new ones encounter. During
the lessons of American Literature the
students should explore and share the ideas of
identity and be taught to compare them.
Nevertheless it is still a challenge for
Ukrainian students to find a contemporary
American novel to read and analyze it from
philological and pedagogical points of view.
Summarizing the issues
of the
discussed problem we must say that the era of
globalization which has long started in
American Literature has a positive impulse on
the development of literature and on the
whole literary community when we to teach it
from cognitive view point.
The words of Martin Luther King “We
are caught in an inescapable network of
mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all
indirectly” still have a great significance for
everyone
and
multicultural
American
Literature as a part of American studies helps
to build bridges between different ethnic
groups and nations.
References
1.Coale, R.(2001).
In Search of new Definition and Designs: American Literature in the
1980-90‟s
.
2.Gray, R. (2005).
A history of American literature.
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
3.Loeb, M. (2002).
Literary Marriages: a study of intertextuality in a series of short
stories by
Joyce Carol Oates
. New York.
4.King, M.L. (1964). “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in
Why We Can‟t Wait.
New York:
Mentor.
5.Morrison, T. (1998).
Beloved
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
6.Oates, J.C. (1997).
We were the Mulvaneys
. Plume.
7.Severin, H. (1986).
The Image of the Intellectual in the Short Stories of Joyce Carol
Oates
. New York: Lang.
Мироненко Т., Добровольская Л. Ҳозирги америка адабиѐтидаги маданиятлараро
муносабатлар контекстида шахснинг ўз-ўзини идентентификациялаш муаммоси.
Мақола муаллифлари ҳозирги америка адабиѐтидаги маданиятлараро муносабатлар
контекстида шахснинг ўз-ўзини идентентификациялаш муаммосининг
ахлоқий ва маънавий
нуқтаи назардан таҳлилини амалга оширишган. Муаллифларнинг таъкидлашича, ҳозирги
америка адабиѐтида шахснинг ўз-ўзини идентификациялаш муаммоси маданий ранг-
баранглик ва мультимаданийлик масаласи билан чамбарчас боғлиқдир. Шу мақсадда
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мақолада ҳозирги Америка таниқли ѐзувчилари - Жойс Керол ва Тони Моррисонларнинг
бадиий асарлари таҳлил қилинган.
Мироненко Т., Добровольская Л. Проблема самоидентификации в контексте
межкультурных отношений в современной американской литературе.
Авторы статьи
анализируют проблему самоидентификации, исходя из моральной и духовной точки зрения в
контексте межкультурных отношений в современной американской литературе. Авторы
утверждают, что проблема самоидентификации личности в современной американской
литературе неотделима от проблемы культурного разнообразия и мультикультурализма. С
этой целью в статье проанализированы художественные произведения известных
современных американських писателей - Джойс Керол Оутс и Тони Моррисон.
