Adresser + Message + Receiver / Context =

Contemporary writers deal with current world wide concern issues. In the midst of globalization multicultural influence falls upon writers, their readers and in fact every single human being that has access to the everyday more easily available free information found in the internet , or anyone in contact with someone who does. An issue such as identity in a climate of cultural alienation continues to be relevant and has been discussed by authors of the former and present century in their literary works.

In the literary works assigned for discussion in the last session of our seminar, aspects of the immediate culture and physical context the authors belong to are highlighted, which is consistent with what seems to be a trend in the Caribbean writers. However, Anthony Kellman's poem Bajan and Kendel Hippolyte's a caribbean exorcism poem, do not portray the spoken language variety's sonorant quality as those of many of their fellow writers do. In this sense, Grace Nichols experiences a dilemma that she puts into print in her essay The Battle with Language. Acknowledging the multicultural influence of the culture she feels part of, the Caribbean, she is driven to use Creole over standard English, or rather a combination of both. However, there are times when she as a poet had preferred to use the standard English; that was the case when the poem had an intended audience with which she would communicate more effectively by using standard English. Parochial aspects that either considered Creole as being of lower social status or which assign value to it based on political and national identity implications utterly influenced the language choices made in her literary works.

The idea of granting the audience its significant importance in the achievement of effective communication is also considered in Mary Lee's My Two Dads. This short story gives a narrative account of how a child became aware of the existing differences between the North American culture she had been exposed to all of her life and that from the country which her parents had come from, Korea. What she found curious about her father in particular was that he behaved differently in Korea and was able to easily get by in a context that was so different from the one she knew. The man not only spoke the language fluently, but also managed to communicate proficiently by embracing their customs and traditions and acting accordingly. Even though she had learned the rudiments of the language, she noticed that there was more to effective communication than just the acquisition of a few functional utterances. In agreement with this thought, I will point out that her father was not only bi-lingual, but actually bi-cultural. As the work's title explains, two dads, practically two different persons communicated differently to meet the ways of the addressees to utterly enable a better understanding of the intended message.

Contemporary issues in different literary forms

The poem “Third World Views (for Grenada)” written by Jean Binta Breeze in 1988 collects feelings regarding 1980’s invasion led by USA and other countries to Grenada. The voice in the poem states his/her rejection to war. The author plays with deictic referents (I - they), relating the use of “I” with nature and the use of “they” with war. Lots of metaphorical expressions to represent the sadness and suffering of the local (I) by comparing these feelings to nature. This poem, unlike “Language” by Marc Mathews, is written with Standard English. The reference to the Caribbean is not given by the way language is used but rather by the images presented in the poem.

But Do Caribbean writers MUST use Caribbean English? Or standard English? There is not any written rule to these questions but, to this respect, Grace Nichols in her essay “The Battle with Language” criticizes the problem with stereotypes. She presents, in this essay and through her poems in general, an opposition towards caging people because of their ethnicity, gender, social class, etc. Actually, she says that people who belong to a group do have the right to be creative and produce different things. Being black or being a woman, for instance, does not have to limit a person’s production. Nichols, being both black and woman, pronounces against the victimization of minorities.

The short story: “My two dads” by Mary Lee deals with culture and ethnicity. The narrator of this story experienced a different world and a different father when she travels to Korea (her parents’ country of origin). She being American and discovering this new world recognizes the cultural diversity, so common in this globalized era.

Finally, we closed our session with a couple of poems by Caribbean writers: Anthony Kellman and Kendel Hippolyte (“Bajan” and “a Caribbean exorcism poem” respectively). The former dealing with the paradoxes of an island (Barbados) reflected in the beauty of its nature; and the latter poem expresses, through a veil of religiosity, certain rejection to stereotypes and it states the importance of accepting and recognizing the existence and coexistence of good and evil.

Feelings and Literature.

The material about Poetry by Bright discussed in class last Monday was just an example of the way poetry can be used in an EFL classroom. However, every teacher or professor must be aware about the purpose, the objectives and the type of material he/she is going to work on with the students. Not only to select a text because "I like it" but to consider it appropriate for the students and the goal courses. At this point, it is important to establish a clear difference between teaching literature and teaching language through literature. The Bright's material was focused on teaching language by using poetry as a resource to work on areas such as vocabulary, grammar neglecting culture and other important literary elements involved in the poem. When teaching literature, not only the language and the poem itself are the focused of attention but also another elements that are close related to literature such as culture, personal experiences, literary terms (rhythm, rhyme, literary devices, speaker, tone, setting and so on), and the reader response of the audience. It means, how readers react when they read a poem; what they feel inside; what the poem transmits us in its verses; what is the real purpose of the poem; what it is the message portrayed; how the audience interpret the text.
Feelings are part of literature and we cannot deny their existence when reading a piece of literary text and producing it. Literature is art and art is part of the human creation. Thus, feelings, emotions and creativity are the main ingredients when writing something no matter if it is a poem, an essay, a short story, whatever.
In fact, in the poetry writing exercise done in class, our experiences in life, the sensations, feelings, thoughts and emotions experienced once, guided us on writing a short poem. It was not an easy task because this is one of the most terrible fears human being has: to face his/her own feelings, the inner part of us that it is our pure human existence. However, I enjoyed the activity a lot because our creativity was the power that pushed us to build something by our own.

Poetry for pleasure?

In my opinion, poetry can be for pleasure depending on the purpose of the class. I agree with Prof. María T. Fernández that says that when bringing a poem to class there should be objectives+pleasure. Teachers have to keep in mind the objectives they want their students to achieve. Poetry cannot be only just for asking and answering simple questions. What about going through language? What about the culture within every literay text? Carter & Long (1991) claim that there are three reasons for the teaching of literature these are: the language model, the cultural model and the personal growth. These main reasons allow students to achieve culture and idiology from an English speaking country. Students can go deep on the language; they can study how language has changed over the years. And of course, while knowing or going through the language and culture, students grow in a second language. We, as teachers, when bringing a poem to class have to take into account the objectives, then poetry would be for pleasure.