Seminar

American literature at the end of the 20th century.

1. General characteristics of multiculturalism in American literature.

Multicultural literature describes how people live in different parts of the world. In other words, we
can learn about their culture and beliefs. It also presents an accurate representation of the culture it
portrays and must be free from stereotypes, or beliefs about a particular group that are
oversimplified or based upon generalizations. Through these accurate representations, we can build
a clear understanding of the culture's heritage as it is portrayed in the text.
Multicultural literature features characters and themes from countries around the world. Writers in
this genre express their ideas and values through the characters featured in their work. By
examining these works in detail, you can learn how to understand them and broaden your
understanding.
Multiculturalism in literature is the attempt to show the ethnic diversity in the American experience.
It came to life in the twentieth century but especially sprang to prominence in the second half of the
twentieth century.

In the nineteenth century, American literature was primarily defined by white (primarily British)

writers attempting to forge an American identity that was white and Anglo-Saxon, based on

European culture but differing from it in being more democratic, more assertively masculine, and

more individualistic. In the latter half of the century, with concern about the "invasion" of

immigrant "hordes" from southern and eastern Europe, an aggressively white middle-brow literature

that celebrated colonialism and the American Revolution and associated American history with

white "purity" began to emerge, as did a nostalgic literature painting southern slavery with soft hues

as a benign institution.

In the twentieth century, multiculturalism began to gather steam and push back. Integral to

multicultural literature is the idea that people of other cultures be allowed to tell their own story in

their own voice, and this began to happen. After World War II, and especially from the 1960s

onward, an explosion of multicultural literature emerged, as African Americans, Native Americans,

Chinese Americans, Irish Americans, Indian Americans, and other demographics began to write of

their own experiences. Writers that come to mind include Native American Sherman Alexie and

Chinese American Amy Tan. Themes of multicultural literature often include the difficulties of

assimilating to the dominant culture, the harm caused by prejudice, and the conflicts between native

and dominant cultures. This writing is important, as it testifies to the many strands of Americanism

that are a rich part of our culture.

Characteristics of Quality Multicultural Literature 

1.Shows the characters as unique individuals

2.Portrays all people as being respected for being themselves not for their
outstanding abilities to gain approval
3.Shows the characters as physically diverse
4.Allows the reader to identify with the characters
5.Accurately portrays culture
6.Describes social issues and problems frankly and accurately
7.Has problems resolved without intervention from the dominate race or culture
8.Shows all characters as equal
9.Glorifies all people's achievements
10.Presents accurate events and information
11.Describes the setting authentically
12.Seeks to rectify historical distortions and omissions
13.Provides legitimate dialog
14.Void of all bias and stereotypes
15.Author accurately identifies with or is a member of the culture portrayed
16.Culture is portrayed multidimensionally
17.Appropriate detail of insider perspective is provided as a natural part of the piece

2. Aesthetic views and originality of Toni Morrison's creative method.

Few names in American letters command as much respect as Toni Morrison. The first black woman
to win a Nobel Prize, Morrison, rather remarkably for a writer of such prestige, didn’t publish her
first novel until she was thirty-nine. She wrote this novel – The Bluest Eye – by waking up at four
AM every day to write before her two children got up. Then it was off to work. Goodness me.

Morrison is best known for the Pulitzer-winning Beloved, the heartrending novel based on the true
story of an escaped slave who chose to kill her own two-year-old daughter rather than allow her to
be captured by vengeful slave hunters. It’s a remarkable book that led Margaret Atwood to
announce ‘Ms. Morrison’s versatility and technical and emotional range appear to know no
bounds.’

These accolades all suggest that when Morrison comments on fiction, creative writing, or method,
we had better be paying attention. Here, then, are five tips from Morrison that’ll make you a better
writer.
1. Cultivate rituals and establish routine

Many writers and artists talk about having a favorite place to work – Dylan Thomas wrote out of an
old bike shed on a cliff, Maya Angelou favored hotel rooms, and Roald Dahl had his famous garden
shed – but only Morrison has been explicit in suggesting these sacred spaces are vital for writers.
Rituals and routines, says Morrison, are of supreme importance for any writer looking to get work
done. As she says in her interview with The Paris Review,

I tell my students one of the most important things they need to know is when
they are their best, creatively. They need to ask themselves, what does the ideal
room look like? Is there music? Is there silence? Is there chaos outside or is
there serenity outside? What do I need in order to release my imagination?

Then there are the rituals: Morrison talks about how every morning, before she begins writing, she
makes coffee and drinks it while watching the sun rise. This, apparently, is like a threshold between
Toni Morrison the sleepy mother and Toni Morrison the serious writer – only after her ritual is
complete can she reliably settle into her work.

Rituals don’t have to be this involved; Morrison talks of a friend who needs to touch a particular
object on her desk before she begins typing, but rituals can also be as simple as writing with the
same pen, having a favorite ‘writing cushion,’ or engaging in some pre-writing meditation or prayer.
The intent isn’t to invoke magic (although go ahead) but to help cultivate a sustainable habit.
2. Write what you don’t know

You’ve probably heard the old writers’ adage, write what you know. Well, Morrison’s creative
writing students at Princeton were treated to some rather unexpected advice when she told them to
ignore that entirely. ‘First,’ she said, ‘because you don’t know anything, and second, because I don’t
want to hear about your true love and your mama and your papa and your friends.’ Wholly fair.

But moving past the fact that many of us have led rather humdrum lives, writing what
you don’t  know pulls you out of your own skull and engages your imagination rather than your
ability to analyze your own life. It encourages writers to empathize with their characters, which
results in deeper, warmer stories.

Morrison herself was surprised by the efficacy of her advice. Of the students who first heard it, she
says,

They were always out of the box when they were given license to imagine
something wholly outside their existence. I thought it was a good training for
them. Even if they ended up just writing an autobiography, at least they could
relate to themselves as strangers.

I love that final statement; learning to view yourself as a stranger is a remarkably tricky skill, and
fiction’s one of the few things that can teach such self-awareness. Conveniently, it also makes us
better writers.

3. Learn the difference between revision, fussing, and denial

British novelist Zadie Smith differentiates between writers who redraft endlessly and those
who, like her, agonize over the first draft but don’t revise or rewrite. Unlike Smith, Morrison falls
into the first of these categories – she confesses to revising paragraphs ‘six times, seven times,
thirteen times,’ but admits that ‘there’s a line between revision and fretting, just working it to
death.’

We’ve all been there – moving words around, prodding at the page, chewing your pencil to
splinters, desperately trying to make a chapter work – when perhaps we’re just fretting. If a section
is still not quite right after the fifteenth draft, chances are it’s time to scrap it and try again. Don’t
live in denial and agonize – as Morrison said, ‘With writing, you can always write and erase and do
it over.’

4. Write for your characters, not for an audience

Too often, writers approach their writing like businessmen. They want to know whether what
they’re producing is going to sell, whether there’s a readership for it, what the hot trends of the
moment are…

While these concerns are valid, worrying too much about the marketability of your text is likely to
adversely affect the writing itself. After all, if you’re forcibly bending your characters and plot to
better fit what you perceive as popular tastes, you’re not allowing them to develop organically.

Instead of looking to readerships and audiences for advice on writing, look to your own characters.
Try to write with the detachment and critical distance of a good reader – be passive and allow your
characters to surprise you.

5. Exercise restraint

When it comes to their masterworks, writers can understandably get overwhelmed and fall into the
trap of thinking that their text needs to be a Don DeLillo-esque epic that tackles every aspect of
modern life, leaving no stone unturned; plots must be branching and difficult to follow, themes must
be deep and complex, multiple schools of theory must be taken into account, etc.

Hold up there, Morrison says. For her, plots don’t need to be complex; indeed, for The Bluest
Eye and Jazz, she ‘put the whole plot on the first page.’ Morrison likens plot in a work of fiction to
the main melody in a jazz song; it’s there to riff off of, to hear the ‘echoes and shades and turns and
pivots’ that swell around it.

Taking the jazz analogy and running with it, Morrison describes the good writer, like a jazz
musician, as ‘someone who practices and practices and practices in order to able to invent and to
make his art look effortless and graceful.’ A huge part of both jazz and writing is respecting silence;
knowing when to play, sure, but also when not to play, when to let the actions of your characters
stand without comment or explanation. As Morrison says:

Some writers whom I admire say everything. I have been more impressed with myself when I can
say more with less instead of overdoing it, and making sure the reader knows every little detail. I’d
like to rely more heavily on the reader’s own emotions and intelligence.
3. Life and literary work of Philip Milton Roth.
Philip Roth, in full Philip Milton Roth, (born March 19, 1933, Newark, New Jersey, U.S.—died
May 22, 2018, New York, New York), American novelist and short-story writer whose works were
characterized by an acuteear for dialogue, a concern with Jewish middle-class life, and the painful
entanglements of sexual and familial love. In Roth’s later years his works were informed by an
increasingly naked preoccupation with mortality and with the failure of the aging body and mind.
Roth received an M.A. from the University of Chicago and taught there and elsewhere. He first
achieved fame with Goodbye, Columbus (1959; film 1969), whose title story candidly depicts the
boorish materialism of a wealthy Jewish suburban family. The collection earned a National Book
Award. Roth’s first novel, Letting Go (1962), was followed in 1967 by When She Was Good, but he
did not recapture the success of his first book until Portnoy’s Complaint(1969; film 1972),
an audacious satirical portrait of a contemporary Jewish male at odds with his domineering mother
and obsessed with sexual experience.
Several minor works, including The Breast (1972), My Life As a Man (1974), and The Professor of

Desire (1977), were followed by one of Roth’s most important novels, The Ghost Writer (1979),

which introduced an aspiring young writer named Nathan Zuckerman, who is Roth’s alter ego. Two

later novels, Zuckerman Unbound (1981) and The Anatomy Lesson (1983), trace his writer-

protagonist’s subsequent life and career and constitute the Zuckerman trilogy. These three works

were republished together with the novella The Prague Orgy (film 2019) under the title Zuckerman

Bound(1985). After a fourth Zuckerman novel, The Counterlife (1993), Roth released Sabbath’s

Theater (1995), about the aging and lascivious Mickey Sabbath, a former puppeteer; it won the

National Book Award.For his next work, American Pastoral (1997; film 2016), Roth was awarded

a Pulitzer Prize. The novel, about a middle-class couple whose daughter becomes a terrorist, is the

first entry in the American Trilogy series, all three books of which are narrated by Zuckerman. The

later installments are I Married a Communist (1998) and The Human Stain (2000; film 2003).

In The Dying Animal (2001; filmed as Elegy, 2008), an aging literary professor reflects on a life of

emotional isolation. The Plot Against America (2004; TV miniseries 2020) tells a counterhistorical

story of fascism in the United States during World War II.With Everyman (2006), a novel that

explores illness and death, Roth became the first three-time winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for

Fiction, which he had won previously for Operation Shylock (1993) and The Human

Stain. Everyman also marked the start of a period during which Roth produced relatively brief

novels, all focused on issues of mortality. Exit Ghost (2007) revisits Zuckerman, who has been

reawoken to life’s possibilities after more than a decade of self-imposed exile in the Berkshire

Mountains. Indignation(2008; film 2016) is narrated from the afterlife by a man who died at age

19. The Humbling (2009; film 2014) revisits Everyman’s mortality-obsessed terrain, this time

through the lens of an aging actor who, realizing that he has lost his talent, finds himself unable to

work. A polio epidemic is at the centre of Nemesis (2010), set in Newark, New Jersey, in 1944. In

2011 Roth won the Man Booker International Prize. The following year he announced that he had

retired from writing.

4. Don DeLillo’s postmodern method. White Noise as satire on the society of consumption.

White noise

Analysis
White Noise explores several themes that emerged during the mid-to-late twentieth century, e.g.,
rampant consumerism, media saturation, novelty academic intellectualism, underground
conspiracies, the disintegration and reintegration of the family, human-made disasters, and the
potentially regenerative nature of violence. The novel's style is characterized by a heterogeneity that
utilizes "montages of tones, styles, and voices that have the effect of yoking together terror and wild
humor as the essential tone of contemporary America".
Academia
The novel is an example of academic satire, where the shortcomings of academia are ridiculed
through irony or sarcasm.
Consumer culture
Ecocritic Cynthia Deitering has described the novel as central to the rise of "toxic consciousness" in
American fiction in the 1980s, arguing that the novel "offers insight into a culture's shifting relation
to nature and to the environment at a time when the imminence of ecological collapse was, and is,
part of the public mind and of individual imagination".[10]
DeLillo critiques modern consumption by connecting identity to shopping in White Noise. In a 1993
interview, DeLillo states that there is a "consume or die" mentality in America, which is reflected in
the novel. Characters in the novel try to avoid death through shopping. For example, Jack goes on a
shopping spree where he is described as feeling more powerful with each purchase: "I traded money
for goods. The more money I spent, the less important it seemed. I was bigger than these sums." On
the topic of consumerism, DeLillo himself states that "through products and advertising people
attain an impersonal identity."In other words, because shoppers all buy the same products, they can't
be unique.
Through the theme of technology, DeLillo demonstrates the effect media has on human behavior.
Critic John Frow connects the theme of technology to the greater postmodern theoretical issues the
book addresses.[19] He suggests that a second televised narrative is embedded within the narrative
of the novel's plot through constant references to television's interjections.[19] The world of White
Noise so saturated by television shows and other media messages that "it becomes increasingly
difficult to separate primary actions from imitations of actions."[19] Thoughts and actions are
replaced by programmed responses, which have been learned.[20]

Childhood
DeLillo also portrays the children as being smarter and more mature than the adults in the White
Noise. In a 1985 book review of the novel by Jayne Anne Phillips from The New York Times,
Phillips says "Children, in the America of White Noise, are in general, more competent, more
watchful, more in sync than their parents". These children have the composure normally expected
of an adult, yet the parents have a constant sense of self-doubt that makes them appear immature
and paranoid. A scholar from University of Washington, Tom Leclaire, adds to the argument by
saying that children are the center of knowledge: "Gladney's children are making his family a center
of learning".[27] However, Joshua Little, of Georgia State University, provides a different point of
view that "the possibility of transcendence through the innocence of children is hinted at in the
novel".[28] According to Little, in the context of the turn of the century, knowledge is connected to
having a higher social standing. Adina Baya, a specialist in media communication, supports this
idea as she points out that children during the 1980s had greater access to mass media and
marketing than before.[29]
Religion
DeLillo interprets religion in White Noise unconventionally, most notably drawing comparisons
between the Jack's local supermarket and a religious institution on several occasions. Critic Karen
Weekes argues that religion in White Noise has "lost its quality" and that it is a "devaluation" of
traditional belief in a superhuman power.[6] According to critic Tim Engles, DeLillo
portrays protagonist Jack Gladney as "formulating his own prayers and seeking no solace from
higher authority".[30] In addition, in the places the reader would expect to see religion, it is absent.
Novelist and critic Joshua Ferris points out that "in a town like Blacksmith, the small mid-western
university town of White Noise, the rites and rituals of traditional religion, such as church, bible
study, and signs for Jesus, are expected".[31] However, God is largely absent in this suburb. He
adds "the absence of religion is obvious, and places the novel in an entirely non-spiritual, post-
Christian world. In White Noise, not even Catholic nuns believe in God."[31] However, Professor
Majeed Jadwe countered with, "White Noise begins and ends with a ritual. The first is the convoy of
station wagons arriving for the new school year, which Jack describes as an event which he has not
missed in 21 years. It ends with the public ritual of self-hood perfection."[32] Professor Jadwe
implies that although religion is not presented in the book, the concept of ritual is still present. The
society portrayed in White Noise utilizes ritual in other areas such as Jack never missing the
convoy. The world of White Noise is still obsessed with ritual despite the absence of religion.
Associate Director of Language and Writing, Christopher S. Glover, agreed by stating, "Just after
the nun tells Jack that there exists nothing worth believing in and that anyone who does believe in
something is a fool, DeLillo dangles this event in front of us, daring us to believe in something—
anything—by using religious buzzwords such as 'mystical', 'exalted', and 'profound' but countering
those words with others like 'lame-brained'."[33] In his interview with the Paris Review's Adam
Begley, Don DeLillo stated the religious aspect employed in White Noise by stating that the
paranoia of the characters operates as a form of religious awe. He added that "[religion] is
something old, a leftover from some forgotten part of the soul. And the intelligence agencies that
create and service this paranoia are not interesting to me as spy handlers or masters of espionage.
They represent old mysteries and fascinations, ineffable things. Central intelligence. They're like
churches that hold the final secrets."[34] Don DeLillo claims "Religion has not been a major
element in my work, and for some years now I think the true American religion has been 'the
American People.'"

5. Poetics of Charles Michael Palahniuk’s novels: minimalism, characters marginalization,

irony, black humor.
Charles Michael Palahniuk (/ˈpɔːlənɪk/;[1] born February 21, 1962) is an American freelance
journalist and novelist who describes his work as transgressional fiction. He is the author of the
award-winning novel Fight Club, which also was made into a film of the same name, starring Brad
Pitt and Edward Norton.
Novels:
-Fight Club
-Invisible Monsters, Survivor, and Choke
A revised version of Invisible Monsters, as well as his fourth novel, Survivor, were published in
1999. A few years later Palahniuk managed to make his first New York Times bestseller, the
novel Choke, which later was made into a movie.
-Lullaby
The year 1999 brought a series of great personal tragedies to Palahniuk's life. At that time, his
father, Fred Palahniuk, had started dating a woman named Donna Fontaine, whom he had met
through a personal ad under the title "Kismet".Her former boyfriend, Dale Shackelford, had
previously been imprisoned for sexual abuse, and had vowed to kill Fontaine as soon as he was
released from prison. Palahniuk believes that, using a personal ad, Fontaine was looking for "the
biggest man she could find" to protect her from Shackelford, and Palahniuk's father qualified.After
his release, Shackelford followed Fontaine and the senior Palahniuk to Fontaine's home
in Kendrick, Idaho, after they had gone out for a date. Shackelford then shot them both and dragged
their bodies into Fontaine's cabin home, which he then set afire. In the spring of 2001, Shackelford
was found guilty for two counts of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. In the wake of
these events, Palahniuk began working on the novel Lullaby. He has stated that he wrote the novel
to help him cope with having participated in the decision to have Shackelford receive the death
sentence.
-"Guts" and Haunted

Writing style and themes

The narratives of Palahniuk's books often are structured in medias res, starting at the temporal end,
with the protagonist recounting the events that led up to the point at which the book
begins. Lullaby used a variation of this, alternating between the normal, linear narrative and the
temporal end, after every few chapters. Exceptions to this narrative form, however, include the
more linear Choke and Diary. Often a major plot twist exists that is revealed near the end of the
book, which relates in some way to this temporal end (what Palahniuk refers to as "the hidden
gun").His more linear works also include similar plot twists.
Palahniuk says that his writing style has been influenced by authors such as the minimalist Tom
Spanbauer (whose weekly workshop Palahniuk attended in Portland from 1991 to 1996),[36] Amy
Hempel, Mark Richard, Denis Johnson, Thom Jones, Bret Easton Ellis and philosophers Michel
Foucault and Albert Camus.In what the author refers to as a minimalistic approach, his writings
include a limited vocabulary and short sentences to mimic the way that an average person telling a
story would speak. In an interview, he said that he "prefers to write in verbs instead of adjectives."
Repetitions of certain lines or phrases in the story narrative (what Palahniuk refers to as "choruses")
are one of the most common characteristics of his writing style, being dispersed within most
chapters of his novels.Palahniuk has said that there also are some choruses between novels, noting
that the color cornflower blue and the city of Missoula, Montana appear in many of his novels. The
characters in Palahniuk's stories often break into philosophical asides (either by the narrator to the
reader, or spoken to the narrator through dialogue), offering numerous odd theories and opinions,
often misanthropic or darkly absurdist in nature, on complex issues such as death, morality,
childhood, parenthood, sexuality, and a deity. Other concepts borrowed from Spanbauer include the
avoidance of "received text" (clichéd phrases or wording) and use of "burnt tongue" (intentionally
odd wording).
Palahniuk's rewriting process is also its own style. In an interview with Jason Tanamor, he said, "It’s
pathetic how much I rewrite. I’ll rework every scene a hundred times before my agent sees it. Then
rework it a dozen times before my editor sees it. Then rework it all - almost beyond recognition -
before it goes to the copy editor. My first draft is almost a bare-bones outline, fleshed out with every
subsequent pass through. I’ll “test” the scenes in workshop and with friends, then revise them based
on audience reaction and feedback. The only time a book is “done” is when the type is set. By then
I'm in love with a new idea, so the old one is officially finished."
When not writing fiction, Palahniuk tends to write short non-fiction works. Working as a freelance
journalist, he writes essays and reports on a variety of subjects. He sometimes participates in the
events about which he writes, which are heavy in field research. He also has written interviews with
celebrities, namely, Juliette Lewis and Marilyn Manson. These works appear in various magazines
and newspapers, such as the Los Angeles Times and Gear magazine. Some of these writings have
shown up in his book, Stranger than Fiction: True Stories. Palahniuk also includes some non-
fiction factoids within his fictional works and according to the author, these are included to further
immerse the reader in his work.
Themes
Palahniuk's books prior to Lullaby have distinct similarities. The characters are people who have
been marginalized in one way or another by society, and often react with self-destructive
aggressiveness. He labels these stories as transgressional fiction. Beginning with Lullaby, the style
of his novels changed to mostly satirical horror stories.
Palahniuk's writing often contains anti-consumerist themes. Writing about Fight Club, Paul Kennett
argues that because the Narrator's fights with Tyler Durden are fights with himself, and because he
fights himself in front of his boss at the hotel, the Narrator is using the fights as a way of asserting
himself as his own boss. These fights are a representation of the struggle of the proletarian at the
hands of a higher capitalist power; by asserting himself as capable of having the same power he
thus becomes his own master. Later when fight club is formed, the participants are all dressed and
groomed similarly, allowing them to symbolically fight themselves at the club and gain the same
power.[40] In an interview with HuffPost, Palahniuk says that "the central message of Fight
Club was always about the empowerment of the individual through small, escalating challenges."
Reception and criticism[edit]
The content of Palahniuk's works has been described as nihilistic.Palahniuk has rejected this label,
stating that he is a romantic, and that his works are mistakenly seen as nihilistic because they
express ideas that others do not believe in.