week 5. The Contemporary period!!!=)

As we have read since the beginning of the American literature, the USA is a diverse and multicultural country with hundreds of people that come from all over the world and with different roots, so the literary scene cannot be different. We can read now all kinds of genres that come from all kinds of people without regarding of gender, skin color, politic ideologies, etc which shows us how diverse American literature can be. It is extraordinary to see how we can gather in this current period most of the themes that were strong previously, for example: fiction, science, spy, detective stories, among others. However, there are also new things to talk about, like the fact that technology has helped to spread and to include more people in the literary world. There are reading clubs, events to find new poets and writers, festivals, and endless of activities that increase the development of the USA literature around the earth, and although we all know how American literature has grown during the last centuries, and that the use of technology has helped to that growing; there are also new things we might disregard about this contemporary phase in the USA literature, and that now we know because of this course like the points I will be developing in the following paragraphs.

At the outset, I did not know that in the women’s literature section of this period, we can find works by “Third Wave”. But what is “Third Wave”? This term is used by a feminist movement that usually refers to young women in their 20s and 30s who have grown up in an era of widely accepted social equality in the USA (VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. 2001. Outline of American Literature. US Department of State, page 136). Women have always struggled for their rights and now we can witness many movements that claim for women’s liberation and equality in the society. These third wave girls feel empowered to do everything what they have fought for in years. Nevertheless, everything in this world needs balance, and as third wave feminists claim for women’s liberation in all areas of life; there are some authors that do not agree to this revolution of the women’s beliefs. Some nonfictions writers have studied and written about this phenomenon of post-feminism. Writers such as Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels have written about how women are abandoning their children because of work and professional life. Caitlin Flanagan is also an anti-feminist who has written about how American women depend on underprivileged immigrant women for their childcare. Thus, we have here two different points of view in American writing about the same social issue. Clearly, women’s development and involving in the society will be always a tricky topic to discuss. 

To continue with the findings in this postmodernism period, now I kwon that multiculturalism and writers with different roots have enriched the American literature with their diverse points of view and experiences. People who are the children of immigrants have written different themes like: family topics, culture shock, and immigrant issues. Every ethnic group has its own style to write, for example: many Latin American writers with Mexican roots have tended to be romantic, nativist and left wing in their politics while Cuban American writers tend to be cosmopolitan, comics, and politically conservative (VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. 2001. Outline of American Literature. US Department of State, page 152). With this last description of different styles to write, we can really see how global authors contribute to the expansion and popularity of the USA literature, and in all these great authors we find people who are prominent figures in the postmodernism period such as “Don Delillo” whose parents are form Italy. He has written magnificent stories like “gravity’s rainbow” that stood for many readers at the top of postmodern writings in the USA.  Finally all these writers with roots that come from all over the world remain me Abigail’s question. She wrote in her post why have writers with different roots or nationalities been taken into account for the American literature if they are not Americans? And here is the answer. All of the above writers were born and grew up as Americans. The richness they bring to American literature stems variously from their heritages and their qualities of individual genius (Perkins, George and Barbara Perkins. 2002. The American Tradition in Literature. McGraw Hill. Page 1864) so that is why their writings have been taken into account as American writings.

Finally I would like to know why American multiculturalism in literature just mentions authors from México, Cuba and other countries that are not from Central America. Is it because no one from Central America has made contributions to the USA Literature or because they discriminate Central American authors???? =)