Does multiculturalism ‘work’? Does multiculturalism policy create social cohesion, or undermine it? Multiculturalism was introduced in Canada in the 1970s and widely adopted internationally, but more recently has been hotly debated, amid new concerns about social, cultural, and political impacts of immigration. Advocates praise multiculturalism for its emphasis on special recognition for cultural minorities as facilitating their social integration, while opponents charge that multiculturalism threatens social cohesion by encouraging social isolation.
"At a time when popularizers of cultural literacy are prescribing a cultural canon for the purposes of prying open the `closed minds' of American youth . . . Literacy provides an articulate and courageous response." Harvard Educational Review "[This] book directs our attention to literacy in its broadest sense so that we can better evaluate the shortcomings of our work as educators at all levels of learning." Contemporary Sociology "Every chapter . . . asks teachers to think again about how they teach, what they want for their pupils and how to get on with it." The Times Educational Supplement
This novel and important book brings together insights from cultural studies and critical discourse analysis to examine the fruitful links between the two. Cultural Studies and Discourse Analysis shows that critical discourse analysis is able to provide the analytic context, skills and tools by which we can study how language constructs, constitutes and shapes the social world and demonstrates in detail how the methodological approach of critical discourse analysis can enhance cultural studies. In a richly argued discussion, the authors show how marrying the methodology of critical discourse analysis with cultural studies enlarges our understanding of gender and ethnicity.
Columbus, Shakespeare, and the Interpretation of the New World explores a range of images and texts that shed light on the complexity of the European reception and interpretation of the New World. Jonathan Hart examines Columbus's first representation of the natives and the New World, the representation of him in subsequent ages, the portrayal of America in sexual terms, the cultural intricacies brought into play by a variety of translators and mediators, the tensions between the aesthetic and colonial in Shakespeare's The Tempest, and a discussion of cultural and voice appropriation that examines the colonial in the postcolonial. Synopsis: The hermeneutical interpretation of the "discovery" or "conquest" of the New World by the Europeans began the moment Columbus started writing his accounts of his travels and continued through the writing of Shakespeare's The Tempest and to the present day. Hart (Canadian studies and history, Princeton U.), focusing primarily on European narratives, explores how the colonial project was interpreted and contested, with areas of tension hinging on Columbus' representation of the encounter, the figure of Columbus himself, the gendering of America, and in written works of literature.
The cultural resilience of fairy tales is incontestable. Surviving over the centuries and thriving in a variety of media, fairy tales continue to enrich our imaginations and shape our lives. This Norton Critical Edition of The Classic Fairy Tales examines the genre, its cultural implications--and its critical history.
