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Contact Zone Essay

In: English and Literature

Submitted By carolineekel
Words 1773
Pages 8
Caroline Kelly

Professor Ober

First Year Writing

29 September 2014

The Contact Zone

The Holocaust happened because two groups of people were grappling with each and one was stronger than the other. Wars typically occur because two cultures disagree and choose to settle it, and the strong culture prevails. African American and Caucasian people used to be exiled for getting married, because they were different. There are millions of different cultures in the world today and every day is an example of how they clash. An author, Mary Louise Pratt, wrote an essay referring to these conflicts. Her essay made it possible to further examine these struggles. In works such as The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and “Family Stories From the Trail of Tears” Pratt’s essay makes it possible to deeply examine the clashing culture and gain insight into how it impacted the world today. Mary Louise Pratt’s essay is called “Arts of the Contact Zone”. She defines a contact zone as a space where two cultures wrestle with each other’s ideas and beliefs. She goes on to discuss how these contact zones have come to help shape society, and how the aftermath is world changing. Her essay provides an excellent analysis of what happens when two distinct cultures come into contact, and most importantly, how that affects others. She also examines the two phenomena that occur as a result of the Contact Zone. One sensation, authoethnography, gives the reader first hand insight into cultures. The other, transculturation, shows what happens after the contact zone. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao takes on an entirely new meaning with the help of Pratt’s tools of analysis. There are two distinct cultures, that of the Dominican Republic, and a less conventional science fiction culture. These two largely different cultures clash throughout the novel as Diaz does his best to

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