Insider/Outsider Debate

This week in TE 448 our class will be discussing the "insider/outsider" debate when it comes to who is best qualified to write multicultural literature. In order to gain knowledge on this topic and be able to make a stand, I have read some articles on this issue.

These articles make many claims about who the author's of multicultural literature should be, and make it difficult to make a clear stand either way. First it is important to come up with a definition of what multicultural literature is. According to the Cai article, muticultural lit. is literature that covers all different cultures, focuses on people of color, or even that all literature is multicultural in nature. I see multicultural lit. as literature that represents a variety of different cultural groups. The question is who is most qualified to write this literature? I agree with the claims that Sims Bishop makes, that in order to accurately write about a culture you have to have personal and intimate experiences within the culture, but I would not argue with Harris either on the fact that an expert in literature could also write about multicultural lit. if enough research has been done on the subject to represent it accurately. However, though the expert may have done enough research to know the culture well, I do not feel that they would share the same intimate experiences necessary to write a book that someone from the culture could personally relate to in an influential way. Experts may be able to write books that would be beneficial in informing other "outsiders" about the culture, but the books may not reach out to members of the culture they are representing.

When it comes to the "insider/outsider" debate, I would say that "insiders" would be the best authors of multicultural literature because of the their personal experiences growing up a member of the group they are representing, however it is still possible for "outside" experts to compose books that would bring awareness to others about different cultures.