Fields of Vision: Readings about Culture, Race, and Ethnicity

Appropriate for first-year courses in community colleges, university colleges, and universities, as well as courses dealing specifically with cross-cultural literature. With the growing diversity of the student population has come increasing interest in cross-cultural and multicultural studies, including the publication of readers for English composition and literature classes dealing with issues of race, ethnicity, and culture. Fields of Vision is a multicultural anthology of essays, stories, and poems. Approximately half of the pieces are written by Canadian authors; the remaining pieces are from U.S. and other international sources. Many of the diverse perspectives on offer in this anthology have only recently begun to be attended to by a world audience. More than anything else, the selections contained in Fields of Vision are intended to "open the universe a little more."

Table of Contents:
I. THE ROOTS OF IDENTITY. Derek Walcott, A Far Cry From Africa. Chinua Achebe, The Novelist as Teacher. Michelle Cliff, If I Could Write This in Fire, I Would Write This in Fire. Matt Cohen, Racial Memories. Jack Hodgins, The Leper's Squint. Bharati Mukherji, excerpts from Days and Nights in Calcutta. Adrienne Rich, Split at the Root: An Essay on Jewish Identity. Olive Senior, Colonial Girls School. Miriam Tlali, Metamorphosis. II. FINDING A VOICE: THE ISSUE OF LANGUAGE. Marlene Nourbese-Philip, Discourse on the Logic of Language. Clark Blaise, North. Dionne Brand, excerpt from No Language is Neutral. George Elliott Clarke, Blank Sonnet. Eva Hoffman, excerpt from Lost in Translation. Michael Ignatieff, excerpts from Blood and Belonging. Basil Johnston, One Generation From Extinction. III. MIGRANTS' TALES. Louise Bennett, Colonization in Reverse. Anthony Akerman, The Exile. Hanif Kureishi, We're Not Jews. Earl Lovelace, Joebell and America. E. A. Markham, Higuamota's Monserratian Lover. Rohinton Mistry, Lend Me Your Light. IV. RACE RELATIONS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE. Lucille Clifton, at the cemetary, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989. James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues. Cyril Dabydeen, Multiculturalism. Edwidge Danticat, Nineteen Thirty-Seven. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., What's in a Name? Some Meanings of Blackness. Colin Johnson, excerpt from Dr. Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World. Njablo Simakahle Ndebele, Death of a Son. Bapsi Sidwa, Ranna's Story. V. THE IDEA OF HOME: REAL AND IMAGINED. Thomas King, Coyote Goes to Toronto. Neil Bissoondath, There Are a Lot of Ways to Die. Austin Clarke, Leaving this Island Place. bell hooks, Homeplace. Jamaica Kincaid, My Mother. Pauline Melville, Eat Labba and Drink Creek Water. Ben Okri, Incidents at the Shrine. Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands.