Exploring Diversity in

Literature for 9-12

Annie & Bailey
Class question:
Who are the three
most influential
authors from your
9-12th grade
English classes?
Common Curriculum
Edgar Allan Poe
Richard Connell
Frank R. Stockton
Guy de Maupassant
Herman Hesse
William Golding
John Steinbeck
Ray Bradbury
Kurt Vonnegut
William Shakespeare
Mark Twain
Homer
Sophocles
Arthur Miller
F. Scott Fitzgerald
George Orwell
J. R. R. Tolkein
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Charles Dickens
Not representative of multicultural authors

Underrepresented
Female (4/25)
LGBTQ (1/25)
African-American (0/25)
Asian-American (0/25)
Latin/Hispanic-American (0/25)
Native-American (0/25)
Heterosexual white male
(20/25)
 Why is diversity
important?
A multiple acculturation conception of
U.S. society and culture leads to a
perspective that views ethnic events,
literature, music, and art as integral
parts of the common, shared U.S.
culture. Thus, to teach American
literature without including significant
writers of color gives a partial and
incomplete view of U.S. literature,
culture, and society.
-Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives
Reading more diverse literature
has the power to convey the
universality of human experience
and show that we really have more
in common with one another than
expected.
All forms of art and culture-visual
arts, music, performance- need to
reflect the increasingly diverse
society in which they exist or risk
irrelevance.
-Washington Post
 Problems with Current Methods of Integrating
Multicultural Content:
Heroes, cultural components, African American History Month
holidays, and other discrete
elements related to ethnic Cinco de Mayo
groups are added to the
Ethnic Food Studies
curriculum only on special days,
occasions, and celebrations. Ethnic Literature with Little Background
-Multicultural Education: Issues
and Perspectives
Using the Transformation Approach to Reform Curriculum

This multicultural curriculum reform approach changes the basic goals,

structure, and nature of the curriculum to enable students to view concepts,
events, issues, problems, and themes from the perspectives of diverse
cultural, ethnic, and racial groups
Teachers must examine how U.S. ethnic groups have greatly influenced and
enriched the nations artistic and literary traditions
Writers of color have not only significantly influenced the development of
American literature, but have also provided unique and revealing
perspectives on U.S. society and culture.
To teach American literature without including significant writers of color
gives a partial and imcomplete view of U.S. literature, culture, and society
African-American
W. E. B. Du Bois Toni Morrison Frederick Douglass
The Souls of Black Folk Beloved My Bondage and My Freedom
An American civil rights activist, Toni Morrison is an American An African-American social
leader, Pan-Africanist, novelist, editor, and Professor reformer, abolitionist, orator,
sociologist, educator, historian, Emeritus at Princeton University. writer, and statesman. After
writer, editor, poet, and scholar. Known for epic themes, vivid escaping from slavery in Maryland,
dialogue, and richly detailed he became a national leader of the
characters. abolitionist movement.
 Asian-American
Carlos Bulosan
America is in the Heart
Filipino immigrant author,
blacklisted for his socialist
writings and activity in the 1940s
Pacific coast labor movement.
Maxine Hong Kingston
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a
Girlhood Among Ghosts
American author and Professor
Emerita at UC-Berkeley, whose
works reflect the experiences of
Chinese immigrants in America.
Amy Tan
The Joy Luck Club
American author with a Doctorate
in Linguistics from UC-Berkeley,
whose notable works explore the
relationships between Chinese
mothers and daughters.
Latin/Hispanic - American
Victor Martinez
Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida
A Peruvian writer, politician,
journalist, essayist, college
professor, and recipient of the
2010 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
Aristotle and Dante Discover
The Secrets of the Universe
Work experiments with literary
An award-winning American
poet, novelist and writer of
children's books and young
adult fiction.
Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street
forms and investigates
emerging subject positions,
which Cisneros herself
attributes to growing up in a
context of cultural hybridity
and economic inequality
 LGBTQ
Virginia Woolf Alice Walker Oscar Wilde
A Room of Ones Own The Color Purple The Picture of Dorian Gray

English writer and one of the American novelist, short story Irish playwright, novelist,
foremost modernists in the 20th writer, poet, Civil Rights activist, essayist, and poet. The most
century. Her works are described as National Book Award winner, and popular playwright and
inventive, experimental, and lyrical. Pulitzer Prize winner. personalities in 1890s London.
 Native- American
N. Scott Momoday Louise Erdrich Sherman Alexie
House Made of Dawn The Absolutely True Diary of a
Love Medicine
Part-time Indian
Kiowan descendent author whose
Ojibwe writer of novels, short
works have been awarded a Pulitzer American poet, writer, and
stories, poetry, and childrens
Prize and National Medal of Arts for filmmaker, much of whose works
books featuring Native American
celebrating and preserving Native draw upon his ancestry from
characters and settings.
American oral art and tradition. several Native American tribes.
 Women
Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
An American poet, memoirist,
and civil rights activist, Angelou
published seven autobiographies,
three books of essays, several
books of poetry, and was
credited with a list of plays,
movies, and television shows
spanning over 50 years.
J.K. Rowling Jane Austen
Harry Potter Series Pride and Prejudice
A British novelist, screenwriter Jane Austen was an English
and film producer best known as novelist known principally for her
the author of the Harry Potter five major novels which interpret,
fantasy series. The books have critique and comment upon the life
gained worldwide attention, won of the British landed gentry at the
multiple awards, and sold more end of the 18th century.
than 400 million copies.
 To Be Honest, Just 14 percent of books published
in 2014 were by or about people of

Heres How color.

Difficult It Was
White authors reign in book
reviews, bestseller lists, literary
awards, and Amazon.com
recommendations.
Just three out of the 124 authors
who appeared on the New York
Times bestsellers list in 2012 were
people of color.
Lack of access to e-books for works
published in other countries.
-Washington Post