The purpose of this study was to analyze the way in which multicultural studies and theory, two academic areas that traditionally have been at odds, both manifest a distinctly similar stance on the constructedness of identity in Western society and how it affects intercultural relations. Jacques Derrida’s The Other Heading: Reflections on Today’s Europe and Edwidge Danticat’s The Book of the Dead both influence the way being is perceived in society. The first is a political speech intended to open the minds of Europe’s political elite to what is perhaps the root of intercultural straggle in Europe. The second is a short story intended to shed light on the trials of a Haitian-American immigrant family as they come to terms with their homeland’s sociopolitical unrest and try to integrate into a new cultural environment. Together, these texts facilitate a protean examination of the rhetoric of the essential that permeates Western culture, and provide insight into a way of conceiving of being that is both dynamic and prismatic.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fiu.edu/oai:digitalcommons.fiu.edu:etd-3901 |
| Date | 24 March 2009 |
| Creators | Cunningham, Alexandra Szucs |
| Publisher | FIU Digital Commons |
| Source Sets | Florida International University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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