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Reading Willa Cather's My Ántonia from an Intersectional Perspective

Istrefaj, Kaltrina LU (2018) ÄENC51 20182
Educational Sciences
English Studies
Abstract
Considering the fact that many people are oppressed because of their gender and race, whilst others are privileged because of theirs, we should reflect on the concept of intersectionality. This paper aims at reading Willa Cather’s My Ántonia from an intersectional perspective with the purpose of opening up for certain themes. In addition, it also sought to explore how reading the novel from an intersectional perspective could be a way of practicing critical literacy. The gap found is that despite there being many studies that use intersectionality as an analytic tool, there are few studies on how to implement the theory in the classroom. Reading My Ántonia from an intersectional perspective would, therefore, be a way of filling that gap.... (More)
Considering the fact that many people are oppressed because of their gender and race, whilst others are privileged because of theirs, we should reflect on the concept of intersectionality. This paper aims at reading Willa Cather’s My Ántonia from an intersectional perspective with the purpose of opening up for certain themes. In addition, it also sought to explore how reading the novel from an intersectional perspective could be a way of practicing critical literacy. The gap found is that despite there being many studies that use intersectionality as an analytic tool, there are few studies on how to implement the theory in the classroom. Reading My Ántonia from an intersectional perspective would, therefore, be a way of filling that gap. The method used for this study has been a qualitative content analysis to explore themes of gender, race, class and disability, and their interaction in relation to three characters analyzed in the novel. The analysis was divided into two parts in which the first part analyzed the three characters showing how different parts of their identity, such as their race and gender, interacted to create oppression and privilege. The second part of the analysis was to investigate how critical literacy could be brought into practice when reading the novel. The findings of the study were the following: The analysis of the characters through an intersectional perspective resulted in showing how privilege and oppression was represented in the novel, and as such opened up for themes such as racism and gender inequality. Through these themes, which emerged by approaching the novel from an intersectional perspective, possibilities for practicing critical literacy were shown. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Istrefaj, Kaltrina LU
supervisor
organization
course
ÄENC51 20182
year
type
L3 - Miscellaneous, Projetcs etc.
subject
keywords
My Ántonia, intersectional perspective, reading, critical literacy
language
English
id
8972011
date added to LUP
2019-03-06 10:04:47
date last changed
2019-03-06 10:04:47
@misc{8972011,
  abstract     = {{Considering the fact that many people are oppressed because of their gender and race, whilst others are privileged because of theirs, we should reflect on the concept of intersectionality. This paper aims at reading Willa Cather’s My Ántonia from an intersectional perspective with the purpose of opening up for certain themes. In addition, it also sought to explore how reading the novel from an intersectional perspective could be a way of practicing critical literacy. The gap found is that despite there being many studies that use intersectionality as an analytic tool, there are few studies on how to implement the theory in the classroom. Reading My Ántonia from an intersectional perspective would, therefore, be a way of filling that gap. The method used for this study has been a qualitative content analysis to explore themes of gender, race, class and disability, and their interaction in relation to three characters analyzed in the novel. The analysis was divided into two parts in which the first part analyzed the three characters showing how different parts of their identity, such as their race and gender, interacted to create oppression and privilege. The second part of the analysis was to investigate how critical literacy could be brought into practice when reading the novel. The findings of the study were the following: The analysis of the characters through an intersectional perspective resulted in showing how privilege and oppression was represented in the novel, and as such opened up for themes such as racism and gender inequality. Through these themes, which emerged by approaching the novel from an intersectional perspective, possibilities for practicing critical literacy were shown.}},
  author       = {{Istrefaj, Kaltrina}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Reading Willa Cather's My Ántonia from an Intersectional Perspective}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}