Changing the Game: A 21st-Century Perspective on the Use of the Supernatural in Multicultural Literatures

ECU Author/Contributor (non-ECU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)

Jewel Williams (Creator)

Institution

East Carolina University (ECU )

Web Site: http://www.ecu.edu/lib/

Advisor

Richard Taylor

Abstract: In this thesis I attempt to present a new more modern perspective on the purpose of the literary supernatural. The use of the supernatural in literature has always been construed as a means of emphasizing forces outside of the self a concept stemming from a westernized interpretation. For a more modern non-westernized perspective I assert that the supernatural is used as a tool to indict the individuals and emphasize their responsibilities to society and themselves. This shift represents a change in social awareness in which the concept of the preternatural scapegoat is deconstructed and the possibility of social change rests solely in the hands of the individual. Furthermore this shift within multicultural literatures in particular may also work as an activist technique for the minority group. These authors are suggesting that the only way that minority groups can be lifted in society is through their own individual powers and acknowledgement of their responsibility to their cultural community. The multicultural literatures utilizing this technique are therefore attempting to break from the established constraints that outside cultures have forced upon them. I will present a new interpretation of the purpose of the literary supernatural while also challenging the western colonial control over the genres within multicultural literatures. 

Additional Information

Publication

Thesis

Date: 2013

Keywords

Ethnic studies, Literature, djinn, furies, Literary Supernatural, Multicultural Literature, Naguib Mahfouz, Salman Rushdie

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