Cultural Perspective in Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the lives of the authors James Baldwin, Edward Said, and Gloria Anzaldua. It attempts to find commonality between authors, noting that that none is a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant living in America, and none of them ever was. It shows how, despite the fact that Said is the only immigrant from foreign shores, all can be said to view their own native culture in relation to American culture, at least to some extent, and how each is a stranger to American mainstream culture in his or her own way. It also looks at how the common thread between them is being an outsider and an observer of the mainstream culture and how all three are eloquent in describing their disenfranchisement.

From the Paper:

"Said is a stranger of a different sort. Of the three writers, only he was not born in the U.S.A., but rather chose to come here as an adult. And Said's homeland is not a multicultural hodgepodge as is the United States; in fact, at this point it might fairly be said that his homeland doesn't exist, except in the hearts and minds of the various Muslims, Jews and Christians who at one time "in this generation or the last" might have called themselves Palestinians, referring both to a culture and to a set of national boundaries. Of the three, Said can most easily be seen as a stranger in a strange land, no matter where he is. This is a difference from the status of the late James Baldwin and Gloria Anzaldua. Both Baldwin and Anzaldua claim estrangement only from one native land."

More papers on Cultural Perspective in Literature:

• Analytical Essay # 87184 : "Feminist Identity in Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 41552 : "Vietnam in Literature"
• Essay # 83906 : "Women in Modern China "

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: