Bridges: Teacher's Guide for Literature Across Cultures

An anthology of world literature with the intention of opening up the eyes of the American public to other cultures that have a rich literary history. The rewards of this book have been long overdue with the unexpected success of The Kite Runner.

• Binding: Paperback
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill (1994)
• ISBN-10: 0070442177
• Description: An introduction to acquiring skills in the critical reading, writing, interpreting, and understanding of world literature including fiction, poetry, and drama. A Companion Guide to Literature Across Cultures.
• Link: amazon.com

Excerpt from Bridges

Caste and Class

There has been no other time in American history when individuals perceive themselves as members of coalitions whether the ties be ethnic, religious, racial, economic, sexual, physical (for example, "the handicapped" or "physically challenged"), and so on. There are many reasons for this surge in identification with special groups: the tendency for organized action to have more political effect than individual argument; an awareness fo the subtleties of oppression that were once taken for granted and accepted; the mass media which transgress the division class and caste and tries to bring awareness of them all—indiscriminately and democratically—into the living rooms of 99% of all Americans. The range of literature in this segment of the text must therefore be broad enough to include works that deal with division along distinctive lines of caste and class while at the same time be generalized so that students from a range of backgrounds may be able to relate to them, and, finally, be of enough complexity so that moral and ethical issues which the works address are not easily judges.

Excerpt scan