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To write cross-cultural or not to write cross-cultural, that is the
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From: J. W. Whitesel <warrenw>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 08:37:07 -0600
I admit to be being biased on the topic of whether one should be able to write outside one's own culture: I am Caucasian, and my middle grade novel, "Rebel: A Tibetan Odyssey" is set in Tibet in 1904. (I lived in Asia for 12 years though, and interviewed Tibetans living in exile there and in Hong Kong...are those mitigating factors?) I feel that the standard for writing outside your own culture should be one of high professionalism, extremely careful research...but not perfection. If the standard is to demand absolute perfection from an author who depicts a culture other than his or her own, then we'll lose a lot of literature...even great literature. For starters, out goes Julius Caesar. What about MacBeth? Being English, did Shakespeare have the
"Right" to write about Scotland?
And by the way, if we're going to hold a person to a standard of
"perfection" when writing about other cultures, we must certainly do the same when they write about their own. Oops! There goes Morte d' Arthur. Oh well, easy come, easy go.
I know, I know, Shakespeare was writing in different times, but the availability of information is still not perfect.
When I interviewed Tibetans (present day ones, obviously) about the niceties of life in turn of the century Tibet, they more than once answered me with blank stares and "I don't know. It sounds as if you know more about life in Tibet at that time than I do." I did my best to be accurate, spending a year researching and interviewing before even putting pen to paper for the first time on the topic. But I would not be startled to learn that someone with the right background and the inclination could comb through "Rebel" and find inaccuracies. I wanted to tell a good story and to by the way give sometimes narrow-minded, sometimes materialistic and almost always ethno?ntric American kids a window into a culture with a vastly different way of thinking and a different set of values. If my book strikes even a few kids that way, I will feel it succeeded, even if some adults are bothered by some of the details I included.
P.S. Are them fightin' words? I hope not.
Cheryl Aylward Whitesel
Received on Tue 30 Jan 2001 08:37:07 AM CST
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 08:37:07 -0600
I admit to be being biased on the topic of whether one should be able to write outside one's own culture: I am Caucasian, and my middle grade novel, "Rebel: A Tibetan Odyssey" is set in Tibet in 1904. (I lived in Asia for 12 years though, and interviewed Tibetans living in exile there and in Hong Kong...are those mitigating factors?) I feel that the standard for writing outside your own culture should be one of high professionalism, extremely careful research...but not perfection. If the standard is to demand absolute perfection from an author who depicts a culture other than his or her own, then we'll lose a lot of literature...even great literature. For starters, out goes Julius Caesar. What about MacBeth? Being English, did Shakespeare have the
"Right" to write about Scotland?
And by the way, if we're going to hold a person to a standard of
"perfection" when writing about other cultures, we must certainly do the same when they write about their own. Oops! There goes Morte d' Arthur. Oh well, easy come, easy go.
I know, I know, Shakespeare was writing in different times, but the availability of information is still not perfect.
When I interviewed Tibetans (present day ones, obviously) about the niceties of life in turn of the century Tibet, they more than once answered me with blank stares and "I don't know. It sounds as if you know more about life in Tibet at that time than I do." I did my best to be accurate, spending a year researching and interviewing before even putting pen to paper for the first time on the topic. But I would not be startled to learn that someone with the right background and the inclination could comb through "Rebel" and find inaccuracies. I wanted to tell a good story and to by the way give sometimes narrow-minded, sometimes materialistic and almost always ethno?ntric American kids a window into a culture with a vastly different way of thinking and a different set of values. If my book strikes even a few kids that way, I will feel it succeeded, even if some adults are bothered by some of the details I included.
P.S. Are them fightin' words? I hope not.
Cheryl Aylward Whitesel
Received on Tue 30 Jan 2001 08:37:07 AM CST
