Ever since the beginning of the human race, stories have been passed on from generation to generation , from country to country, from one side of the globe to the other. These figments of imagination contain evidence of the way that one culture sees the world. When culturally diverse authors like Elif Shafak, from Turkey, and Chimamanda Adichie, from Nigeria, spread their personal experiences in their society, foreigners can have a glimpse of what it is like to be part of different societies. The role of fiction in culture is to prevent people from having a single perspective about the world around them. Reading about universal values that they can connect to from cultures around the world will stop people from creating false biases that may …show more content…
A person halfway across the earth should be able to have access to narratives about societies otherwise foreign to them.While simple textbooks with straightforward facts about a certain region might divide people, Shafak believes that“ fiction connects”by giving readers a look at what it is like to be a part of that culture (5). It can often be difficult to explain what a society is like without having a first hand experience. This is what authors who are native to that certain area can explain in greater detail than any foreign textbook ever could.These storytellers have memories filled with emotion and personal experiences that keep readers from believing in a story that is only partially told. Fiction allows writers to share bits of their personal experiences and cultural beliefs and values through made-up characters and plots.Readers can understand the world better when they choose to read literature that is bursting with a diverse amount of first-hand cultural knowledge . People naturally like to surround themselves with ideas and people that resemble them and …show more content…
If people continue to view the earth from no other perspective than their own, it will be impossible for them to see abundance of similarities between their way of life and somebody else’s way of life on the other side of the globe. Chimamanda explains that the lack of broad minded people lead to there being “no possibility of a connection as human equals” ( 2)” . This can lead to friction between people millions of miles apart who have more in common than they think. Fiction can bridge this gap and inform readers in a way that all enjoy. Taking one fact they learned from an area and associating it as the only thing that this group of\people can be is a mistake often made by those who fail to read a cultural variety of fiction. They forget that all people share basic universal values which are apparent in that culture’s various tales. People get so caught up in these stereotypes that they start to consider their way of life as the only correct way. They forget that “the earth shall be left to no one” (Shafak 6); no race, culture, or belief empowers another.Fiction becomes a bandage that heals the wounds of cultural differences, helping people understand the hardships and prosperities of that society, leading to a better relationship between
In Thomas King's short story "Borders," a Blackfoot mother struggles with maintaining her cultural heritage under the pressure of two dominating nations. Storytelling is important, both for the mother and for the dominant White society. Stories are used to maintain and pass on cultural information and customs from one generation to another. Furthermore, stories can be used both positively and negatively. They can trap individuals into certain ways of thinking, but they can also act as catalysts that drive social change within society.
...templates for strong and weak western narratives of other places but lacks literary rigor. Even so, both are equally important for the education of young people in a larger, global setting with diverse experiences and cultures trying to understand one another. She draws attention to voice appropriation, authorial national ideological agendas, and the Americanized slant in representations of the non-west by westerners. The presence of Americanized interpretation and editing can cause a crooked depiction of the other, ultimately telling us more about ourselves than about them.
Everyone has a way to view the world around him or her, either through experience or religion. Nevertheless, all of those ways of viewing the world all ties down to culture, where it defines a person’s background, personality, and history/experiences. With each person’s having their own unique culture that only belongs to them, and no one else. Such as: a relationship between a mother and her daughter, the comparison between two sisters, and how one is considered as a human being while the other is marked as an unknown species.
Chimamanda Ngozi argues that our lives are filled with stories to hear but if we only hear single story about another person or country we risk critical misunderstanding.In 2009 the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie a very well known Nigerian author gave an amazing TED talk called “ The Danger of Single story.” in her speech she talks about how people only know one side of story and have a lot of misunderstanding about a person or country because they have only heard one story all their life. In the speech The Danger of Single story Chimamanda Ngozi used anecdote, pathos, and ethos to reach her goal of telling people that they should look a story from another perspective to see the other side of story.
The Ted Talk “The Danger of the Single Story” presented by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian author. The presentation outlines her experience with literature as a female from Nigeria throughout her life, and the influence a single story has. In her early childhood, Adichie solely read American and British children’s book as that was what was readily available to the population. As result, when she started to write her own books her stories only had white characters, who had entirely different experiences than she had had as a child growing up in Nigeria. Due to the power relations of Nigeria compared to that of Britain and the United States, children’s books from those countries are more accessible and available than children’s books written in Nigeria by Nigerian authors.
Her real life examples serve as a personal opinion as to why a single story can be dangerous. Adichie’s use of stylistic evidence like describing, “My characters had blue eyes…” makes the audience realize how she would write out the characters all because of all stories she has read or been told. Her persuasive style has helped a majority understand how the danger of a single story can immensely affect the way many think and or feel about other races or
The word danger probably makes you want to turn away and stop doing whatever it is that you are doing. Well, what do you do when you see the words, “The Danger of a Single Story?” These words had me nervous about what I was going to be watching. However, there was a lot of information that was explained throughout this 20-minute TED talk from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This paper will explore compelling ideas she mentioned that relate to things I have experienced when I went to another culture, the risks of telling a single story narrative in intercultural interactions, ways to protect myself from single story misconceptions, and how I was able to see how a single story might affect the way I communicate with others in different cultures.
As an ignorant Western society, we use single stories as a way to educate others on cultures that we don’t even know about. They are the false pictures we have of foreign cultures that our societies
Literature has had a major impact on society, and, also our history. Literature has reformed and shaped civilizations, changed political systems, and has exposed injustices (3). Our literature has changed and developed as we have, keeping up with our society. “...literature is crucial for the advancement of society (3).” With literary works, we can convince others to view things a certain way, share our opinions, and more. Literature is greatly intertwined with our society and everyday lives, and they would not be the same without it. Literature plays an irreplaceable role in our
Greenblatt argues that it is crucial “to have culture for in-depth reading” (Greenblatt 115.) In other words, it is important to have background knowledge of all characters so we are able to understand why they do things the way they do. In addition, he believes that if one analyzes literature, it may enhance our understanding because it demonstrates the relationship between literature and culture and culture “deepens pleasure” for the reader (Greenblatt 110.) Many of Greenblatt’s arguments are proven to be correct in The
People today would never know what happened in the past if not for fiction. Fiction allows people to understand and relate to what happened before their days. Different fictional elements allow people to experience the emotions of a past event in a variety of ways, to make them feel like they too experienced the event. Fiction can reflect reality by expressing a common theme through descriptive elements, dialogue, and relating past events to the current time. Fiction can reflect reality by relating past events to present time.
Since the beginning of times, prejudices and beliefs have occurred against a backdrop of a limited point of view. It has caused wars and hate between cultures, all together misunderstandings. We hear one thing or one perspective of a phenomenon and suddenly we have the same impression without any further consideration of the case. In 2009, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a TED talk called “The danger of a single story”, where she discusses the term single story that covers the development of these misunderstandings, the major consequences of it and how important it is to be aware of it.
We read about characters confronting life experiences in some way like our own and sometimes find ourselves caught up with the struggles of a character. Each reader gets a new and unique event and the words speak to us now, telling us the truths about human life which are relevant to all times. Literature enriches us by putting words to feelings.
Studying of cultural literature will promote anyone to develop an open-minded. Learning about other cultures and their development, which would be impossible to understand by merely reading the pieces of work, will allow the individual to see and appreciate new things in all regards. In that process, it will be easy to understand how unique behaviors are around the world and relate easier to them. It is clear that everyone has experienced some of the same events that changed how things were perceived at the time and compare the outcomes to how they are now. Literature can present a more humanized version of what we already know, which is essential for all beings in some point throughout their education. Noting differences will also illustrate similarities like certain events that shaped literature. When one is knowledgeable about the reasons behind why certain pieces of literature were created, it opens the door to studying the very development that occurred over time. It then becomes clear to see thoughts mature as time progresses like in instances of women’s role in society and how they have changed. Cultural literature can not only explain such things in a deeper connection than history can afford, but can clarify the very same topic and it...
Literary Responses to culture shock gave us “mainstream” or “highbrow” stories that focused on the chaotic events of our time, with characters that intertwined with it. Also came the style of “commercial” or “lowbrow” fiction, which focused more on events and the plots instead of the characters