Arts of the Contact Zone by Mary Louise Pratt Essay

Arts of the Contact Zone by Mary Louise Pratt The Arts of the Contact Zone by Mary Louise Pratt opened up a whole new concept for our class. The new term â€Å"contact zone† appeared and Pratt defined it as social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today. The idea of the contact zone is intended in part to contrast with ideas of community that trigger much of the thinking about language, communication, and culture. According to Pratt, the two distinctive phenomenon of the contact zone are autoethnographic text and transculturation. One of†¦show more content†¦It would not be fair or effective to simply teach students from diverse backgrounds how to write in the language of power while ignoring their culture and the fact that there is a language of power. It is important for writing instructors to teach students from the dominant community why their language is considered legitimate and why the dialects or languages of other communities are not. In doing this, the instructor can break down the barrier of the imagined community. If the instructor does not address the issue of power in language, they run the risk of silencing their students who are not from the dominant culture and be responsible for the students that are from the dominant culture. First of all, the contact zone class can be applied mainly to the extent of developing one’s thoughts and ideas because of its foc us on ‘conversation’ or speech. A writing process is much more than just to put what a writer intends to say into words. In addition, Pratt pointed out the utopian quality and abstract idea of the speech community. However, it is also true that in some contexts like academic setting that kind of uniform idea of speech community has functioned well to give necessary order and stability for the development of the community. In a contact zone classroom, we are encouraged to turn ourselves to the outside world that is full ofShow MoreRelatedArts of the Contact Zone by Mary Louise Pratt999 Words   |  4 PagesThe â€Å"Arts of the Contact Zone†, an article written by Stanford professor Mary Louise Pratt, discusses many different ideas about culture and communication by utilizing what she calls the literate arts. Pratt explains many terms that she believes are beneficial in gaining a further understanding of a literary piece. Key terms such as, contact zone, autoethnography and transculturation are introduced in her essay. She describes contact zones as â€Å"social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grappleRead MoreEssay on Arts of the Contact Zone, Mary Louise Pratt1245 Words   |  5 PagesPittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During the conference Mary Louise Pratt a Stanford Professor delivered a keynote/lecture that revolutionized how people think about their social spaces. She introduced a re volutionary way to think about these social spaces, instead of calling them communities she started calling it the â€Å"contact zone†. According to Pratt a â€Å"contact zone is a place where cultures meet, clash, and grapple† (Pratt 487). While lecturing her fellow colleagues Pratt argues that our idea of community is stronglyRead MoreEssay on Arts of the Contact Zone by Mary Louise Pratt532 Words   |  3 PagesArts of the Contact Zone by Mary Louise Pratt In the Arts of the Contact Zone, Mary Louise Pratt has tried to explain the concepts of the â€Å"contact zone†, which she referred to as â€Å"the space of colonial encounters†. This social space that she speaks about is a stage where â€Å"disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination†. Pratt aims to highlight these relations between the colonizer and the colonized â€Å"in terms ofRead MoreMary Louise Pratt Edward Said Essay1151 Words   |  5 Pageshomeland. Great opening sentences. Mary Louise Pratt, Kenji Yoshino and Edward Said all present very good methods of maintaining ones national identity in their essays. In Mary Louise Pratts essay Arts of the Contact Zone she gives examples of people who are in a contact zone. Contact zones are where people are meeting other cultures, and they have to remember not to lose their own. (this was a run-on so I made it into two sente ces)One of the Arts of the contact zone that describes what has happenedRead MoreThe Literate Arts: What is the Purpose?1334 Words   |  6 PagesNicholas Crawford English 103 10 September 2014 The Literate Arts: What is the Purpose? As a student I have read several essays, all in different but connecting points of view that explore in depth the diverse ways of education, educating in the literate arts, learning, using the information, and applying it to life. In reading the controversial opinions expressed throughout these essays, the question, â€Å"What are the literate arts good for?† has crossed my mind more than a few times. Four authorsRead MoreArts of the Contact Zone Essay1167 Words   |  5 PagesMary Louise Pratt wrote the essay â€Å"Arts of the Contact Zone† with the purpose of explaining that society would benefit if people were exposed to and understood the concept of â€Å"contact zones†. She refers to contact zones as social spaces where cultures meet and clash with each other, usually with one culture being dominant over the other. A person living in a contact zone is exposed to two different cultures, two different languages, and as a result is presented with a struggle i n each culture toRead MoreCultural Concepts: Appiah’s Ideas and Mary Louise Pratts Analysis745 Words   |  3 Pagesinteractions lead to adoption of new values as well as acceptance of the significance of the beliefs of others. All I all his views are that people will always been known, treated and segregated based on their beliefs, values and norms in their culture (Pratt, 1991). The view of the culture of a particular people will always be esteemed as long it does not create conflicts or imperialism among different societal cultures. The importance of cultural identity is that it gives length to the culture enablingRead MoreContact Zone Essay1766 Words   |  8 Pages2014 The Contact Zone The Holocaust happened because two groups of people were grappling with each and one was stronger than the other. Wars typically occur because two cultures disagree and choose to settle it, and the strong culture prevails. African American and Caucasian people used to be exiled for getting married, because they were different. There are millions of different cultures in the world today and every day is an example of how they clash. An author, Mary Louise Pratt, wrote anRead MoreContact Zones Essay1325 Words   |  6 PagesThe reader is introduced to a term coined and repeated by Pratt throughout the piece, contact zones. She uses this term to refer to social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today (Pratt 584). Contact zones were not necessarily a positive interaction because these social interac tions usually came out of ignoranceRead MoreAnalysis of States by Edward Said1162 Words   |  5 Pageswith the effects of transculturation. Transculturation, as defined by ethnographers, is â€Å"to describe processes whereby members of a subordinate or marginal groups select and invent from materials transmitted by a dominant or metropolitan culture† (Pratt 491). In other words Palestinians have absorbed parts of the different cultures they are now part of due to the nakba, or catastrophe, which marks the exile of more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from what is known today as Israel. On November 30,