abstract: There are few studies on parents' perspectives on multicultural literature. Most studies on Korean American children's literature have relied on the researchers' content analysis of the books, rather than readers' responses to them. To fill this gap, this study sought to understand the Korean/Korean American parents' perspectives on Korean American children's literature by examining their responses to seven picture books on Korean American children. Data were collected for this qualitative study by interviewing ten Koreans/Korean Americans, twice. The first interview focused on stories about their immigration to the U.S., involvement with their children's reading, and experiences reading books related to Korea or Koreans published in the U.S. The second interview focused on their responses to seven Korean American children's literature books. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed. The parents' responses, which were infused with their personal, social, and cultural marks, focused on five themes: (a) use of Korean names without specific cultural description, (b) misrepresentation of Korean/Korean American experiences, (c) undesirable illustrations, (d) criteria for good Korean American children's literature, and (e) use of Korean words in English books. The parents' stories about their involvement with their children's reading suggest that to promote multicultural literature, libraries or schools should offer lists of multicultural literature. The parents' responses showed concern about stereotypical images of Korea or Korean American in the U.S. media that often get transferred to stories about Korean Americans in Korean American children's literature. This study confirms the importance of editors and reviewers, who are knowledgeable about the Korean culture and Korean American experience. It also suggests that more books with varied images of Korean Americans, and more stories about Korean Americans children's authentic experiences are necessary in order to represent the complexity and divergence within Korean people and the Korean American culture. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2013

The purpose of this study is to depict and examine the perception of black Koreans in South Korean children’s literature. This study examines my research questions through four theoretical frameworks: “culture and identity”, “post-colonialism, nationalism and racism”, “blackness and black Koreans’ portrayal in Korean media” and “multiculturalism in Korea”. My study raises the question how multicultural literature can help or not promote a new perception of otherness in South Korea. The method used for this study is qualitative text analysis. The primary source of information is a close-reading of Won You Soon’s book “Please find Charlton Sunja Kim” and interviews with the author of this book. The findings show that there are still some stereotypes about black Koreans and blackness that prevail in South Korean society and can still be found in recent literary works.

Multicultural literature can sometimes act as a window, a mirror or a sliding glass door that introduces people to different worlds that are real or unreal, familiar, or strange. Through these windows, the reader gets an insight into the lives of others, inviting readers to reflect on their views and environment. The purpose of this study is to understand how teachers include and work with multicultural literature for grades 4-6 in the Swedish subject, and how they describe and use multicultural literature in their teaching to endorse tolerance and critical consciousness. The study is based on a mixed-method approach, using a quantitative survey and a qualitative interview for indepth knowledge. The theoretical framework in this study is based on the intercultural perspective that includes central concepts such as interculturality, the intercultural pedagogical perspective, intercultural learning and intercultural competence. In summary, the result shows that there is a deficit of knowledge in how teachers can use multicultural literature in their teaching but also how they can work with intercultural learning. Based on the results from both the survey and the interviews, there is a good understanding among the respondents regarding the beneficial effect of including multicultural literature and the multicultural perspective in teaching, especially when choosing children's literature. However, there is a certain insecurity and inexperience of how to work with multicultural literature or intercultural learning, which reflects the scarcity of multicultural literature to students. Mainly because of poor access of what is classified as good quality multicultural books, but also because it is time-consuming to find the right books and activities, and a lack of a deeper intercultural pedagogical competence in the respondents.

This dissertation focuses on the function of human bodies in articulations of the nation in contemporary British multicultural fiction, more specifically in novels by Salman Rushdie, V. S. Naipaul, Hanif Kureishi, and Monica Ali. Combining the Andersonean claim that narrative fiction is an especially sensitive medium for imagining the nation with Daniel Punday‘s assertion that the human body is the basic organizing principle of narrative structure, this study examines the ways in which corporeal representations in novels negotiate dominant paradigms of the national imaginary. Each chapter focuses on a key text from which it opens up the discussion to the authors‘ oeuvre. The study establishes the palimpsest as a mode of representation and interpretation of cultural and national identities showcased in Rushdie‘s The Moor‘s Last Sigh. The fragmentation of narrative and human subjectivity via the trope of the palimpsest in this novel is central to conceptualizations of the nation in Rushdie‘s oeuvre as well as in the other texts in this study. Based on the make-up of Rushdie‘s palimpsests, the characters‘ bodies manifest not a mixture of different elements but a conglomerate of often mutually exclusive, yet intrinsically combined alternatives. For V. S. Naipaul, the function of corporeality is the negotiation of the national imaginary via representations of narrative space. In The Enigma of Arrival as in his other novels, Naipaul uses circuitous movement and palimpsestic layering of the kinetic space to complicate agency for his characters, to emphasize the illusory nature of narrative authority, and to call attention to the ambiguous operations of national and postcolonial discourse. Hanif Kureishi‘s The Body among his other novels shows a ground-breaking attitude toward the possibilities of narrativity in the age of transmutable corporeality. His characters‘ diminishing corporeal presence is the source of their agency and their increasingly complex cultural identifications. In Brick Lane, Monica Ali‘s keen attention to kinetic space creates unexpected ripples in the narration and the protagonist‘s cultural identification, which shift the meaning of the novel from an optimistic ethnic/gender emancipation narrative to claiming agency by resisting cultural affiliations. / English

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Secondary Education / Jacqueline D. Spears / BeEtta L. Stoney / An ethnographic content analysis was conducted to explore the African American cultural content contained in the text of picture books portraying African Americans published 2001 through 2005. The picture books were limited to beginning readers, stories in rhyme and poetry, historical fiction, fictional biography, and contemporary fiction portraying African Americans and set in the U.S. The books were categorized based on the genre to which they belong and classified as generic books or books with African American cultural content. The African American cultural content in the books in the study was compared to the cultural content contained in picture books in a survey conducted by Rudine Sims Bishop in 1982. Differences between the work of African Americans and non African Americans are discussed. A data collection instrument was constructed and used by several additional raters to test the reliability of the instrument. Each additional rater was given an operational definition for generic books and books with cultural content. The raters were each given one book to evaluate. The research revealed (1) that more than half of the picture books published during the period of this study were classified as generic, (2) in most cases, only the books written by African Americans contained cultural content and (3) more than half of the picture books with cultural content are classified as historical fiction. (4) Although it is possible for a non African American to write an authentic picture book with cultural content, such books are usually the result of in depth research. (5) During the period of this study, not all generic picture books were written by non African Americans; some African American authors choose to write generic books portraying African Americans with minimal content specific to African American culture.

Based on recent research concluding that fiction can increase empathy, this project examines how multicultural young adult literature may encourage empathy in Appalachian adolescents. Empathy encourages prosocial behaviors, but evidence suggests that young adults’ ability to empathize has declined in recent decades. In addition, Appalachia in particular is still a relatively homogenous region as it is majority white, protestant Christian, and heteronormative. Because of this, young adults in Appalachia may encounter few diverse perspectives in real life; multicultural young adult literature can provide diverse perspectives with which teenagers can empathize in a region where they might not have similar opportunities in reality. This thesis demonstrates how three multicultural young adult novels (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), Accidents of Nature (2006), and The Porcupine of Truth (2015)) can be used in a literature unit that encourages students to show emotional understanding despite personal differences.

No description available.

Abstract This thesis offers the first detailed critical account of the Greek-Australian writer, Alex Doucas (1900-1962) who came to Australia in 1927 as a migrant from Asia Minor. It attempts to place his work in the perspectives of Greek and Australian literatures and to evaluate his position both as a migrant and as a writer. The Asia Minor Catastrophe and the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey in 1923, as well as the Great Depression he faced in Australia along with many other Australians had a profound effect on his social outlook. Considered one of the pioneers of Greek-Australian Literature, Doucas played an important role in the development of Greek community life in Australia during the pre- and post-World War II periods. His work consists of two published novels (one posthumously) and a significant body of published and unpublished, stories, poems, translations and essays. Out of print for some decades, it remains largely unknown to the general public or even to academic circles in Greece and in Australia. It was, however, a landmark of Greek-Australian Literature and continues to have more than historical interest in its treatment of migration, exile and displacement, and in its use of intercultural perspectives to forge a positive vision for humanity. Although forced into ill-paid manual labour for much of his life after his arrival in Australia, Alex Doucas tried to develop links and relationships with Australian intellectual circles and to become involved in Australian life in the broadest way. At the same time, he never lost contact with social, political and literary developments in Greece. Alex Doucas maintained close relations with both the Greek and Australian literary traditions. As a writer he belongs to the Greek generation of the 1930s and its literary traditions. In his work, he dealt with events which took place in Anatolia before the Asia Minor Catastrophe as well as with the impact the catastrophe had on Greek society. He is one of the first writers of his generation who turned his attention to the “other side of the coin” and investigated the impact of the Catastrophe on the Turkish people. This perspective was adopted mainly due to the openness that he found in Australia, an openness that led to Multiculturalism. Alex Doucas was a multiculturalist before his time. His work is a fine example of the Australian version of Multiculturalism. Through his brother Stratis Doucas (also a writer) and others, he kept himself informed on all sorts of changes and developments in his native country, Greece, especially as it was shaped after the Asia Minor Catastrophe. At the same time, he tried to understand the Australian way of life, its culture and its literary traditions. His bi-cultural position gave him a powerful perspective. He attempted to understand the Australian way of life through his Greekness and to find answers for problematic events that happened in Greece through his Australian experience. Across the entire span of Doucas’s work, it is clear that his political philosophy and his belief in the goals of socialism played a crucial role in his consciousness of himself as a writer whose role was to provide the artistic equivalent of the philosophical basis of Marxism, best expressed in the Theses on Feuerbach (1845) by Marx, in his famous dictum, "Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it". In other words, it was never enough for Doucas simply to describe in social realist terms the conditions of life and the aspirations of human beings. His aim was to show how these conditions might be changed for the better, not only for the individual, but for the community as a whole. Equally, he wished to show how people’s aspirations, particularly those of an immigrant community familiar with exile, suffering and loss, might be more fully realised.

Abstract This thesis offers the first detailed critical account of the Greek-Australian writer, Alex Doucas (1900-1962) who came to Australia in 1927 as a migrant from Asia Minor. It attempts to place his work in the perspectives of Greek and Australian literatures and to evaluate his position both as a migrant and as a writer. The Asia Minor Catastrophe and the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey in 1923, as well as the Great Depression he faced in Australia along with many other Australians had a profound effect on his social outlook. Considered one of the pioneers of Greek-Australian Literature, Doucas played an important role in the development of Greek community life in Australia during the pre- and post-World War II periods. His work consists of two published novels (one posthumously) and a significant body of published and unpublished, stories, poems, translations and essays. Out of print for some decades, it remains largely unknown to the general public or even to academic circles in Greece and in Australia. It was, however, a landmark of Greek-Australian Literature and continues to have more than historical interest in its treatment of migration, exile and displacement, and in its use of intercultural perspectives to forge a positive vision for humanity. Although forced into ill-paid manual labour for much of his life after his arrival in Australia, Alex Doucas tried to develop links and relationships with Australian intellectual circles and to become involved in Australian life in the broadest way. At the same time, he never lost contact with social, political and literary developments in Greece. Alex Doucas maintained close relations with both the Greek and Australian literary traditions. As a writer he belongs to the Greek generation of the 1930s and its literary traditions. In his work, he dealt with events which took place in Anatolia before the Asia Minor Catastrophe as well as with the impact the catastrophe had on Greek society. He is one of the first writers of his generation who turned his attention to the “other side of the coin” and investigated the impact of the Catastrophe on the Turkish people. This perspective was adopted mainly due to the openness that he found in Australia, an openness that led to Multiculturalism. Alex Doucas was a multiculturalist before his time. His work is a fine example of the Australian version of Multiculturalism. Through his brother Stratis Doucas (also a writer) and others, he kept himself informed on all sorts of changes and developments in his native country, Greece, especially as it was shaped after the Asia Minor Catastrophe. At the same time, he tried to understand the Australian way of life, its culture and its literary traditions. His bi-cultural position gave him a powerful perspective. He attempted to understand the Australian way of life through his Greekness and to find answers for problematic events that happened in Greece through his Australian experience. Across the entire span of Doucas’s work, it is clear that his political philosophy and his belief in the goals of socialism played a crucial role in his consciousness of himself as a writer whose role was to provide the artistic equivalent of the philosophical basis of Marxism, best expressed in the Theses on Feuerbach (1845) by Marx, in his famous dictum, "Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it". In other words, it was never enough for Doucas simply to describe in social realist terms the conditions of life and the aspirations of human beings. His aim was to show how these conditions might be changed for the better, not only for the individual, but for the community as a whole. Equally, he wished to show how people’s aspirations, particularly those of an immigrant community familiar with exile, suffering and loss, might be more fully realised.

Abstract This thesis offers the first detailed critical account of the Greek-Australian writer, Alex Doucas (1900-1962) who came to Australia in 1927 as a migrant from Asia Minor. It attempts to place his work in the perspectives of Greek and Australian literatures and to evaluate his position both as a migrant and as a writer. The Asia Minor Catastrophe and the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey in 1923, as well as the Great Depression he faced in Australia along with many other Australians had a profound effect on his social outlook. Considered one of the pioneers of Greek-Australian Literature, Doucas played an important role in the development of Greek community life in Australia during the pre- and post-World War II periods. His work consists of two published novels (one posthumously) and a significant body of published and unpublished, stories, poems, translations and essays. Out of print for some decades, it remains largely unknown to the general public or even to academic circles in Greece and in Australia. It was, however, a landmark of Greek-Australian Literature and continues to have more than historical interest in its treatment of migration, exile and displacement, and in its use of intercultural perspectives to forge a positive vision for humanity. Although forced into ill-paid manual labour for much of his life after his arrival in Australia, Alex Doucas tried to develop links and relationships with Australian intellectual circles and to become involved in Australian life in the broadest way. At the same time, he never lost contact with social, political and literary developments in Greece. Alex Doucas maintained close relations with both the Greek and Australian literary traditions. As a writer he belongs to the Greek generation of the 1930s and its literary traditions. In his work, he dealt with events which took place in Anatolia before the Asia Minor Catastrophe as well as with the impact the catastrophe had on Greek society. He is one of the first writers of his generation who turned his attention to the “other side of the coin” and investigated the impact of the Catastrophe on the Turkish people. This perspective was adopted mainly due to the openness that he found in Australia, an openness that led to Multiculturalism. Alex Doucas was a multiculturalist before his time. His work is a fine example of the Australian version of Multiculturalism. Through his brother Stratis Doucas (also a writer) and others, he kept himself informed on all sorts of changes and developments in his native country, Greece, especially as it was shaped after the Asia Minor Catastrophe. At the same time, he tried to understand the Australian way of life, its culture and its literary traditions. His bi-cultural position gave him a powerful perspective. He attempted to understand the Australian way of life through his Greekness and to find answers for problematic events that happened in Greece through his Australian experience. Across the entire span of Doucas’s work, it is clear that his political philosophy and his belief in the goals of socialism played a crucial role in his consciousness of himself as a writer whose role was to provide the artistic equivalent of the philosophical basis of Marxism, best expressed in the Theses on Feuerbach (1845) by Marx, in his famous dictum, "Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it". In other words, it was never enough for Doucas simply to describe in social realist terms the conditions of life and the aspirations of human beings. His aim was to show how these conditions might be changed for the better, not only for the individual, but for the community as a whole. Equally, he wished to show how people’s aspirations, particularly those of an immigrant community familiar with exile, suffering and loss, might be more fully realised.