Literature Evolving: How Multicultural Movements Created a New Genre of Literature

Author

Stone Mims

Date of Award

2019

First Advisor

Wesley Brown

Abstract

The world, right now, is more culturally diverse and literature than it ever has been in the past. Not only are we seeing periods of mass migration and emigration, but also great leaps and bounds in technology-technology that allows an individual in say, Connecticut to have a conversation with another individual in China. Of course, we are also a world that's still coming to terms with many of the horrors of the past such as colonization and forced assimilation. With all of this being said, many of the boundaries and lines of nationalism seem to have become more and more arbitrary with each passing days as more migrants and refugees bring new experiences into what were once culturally homogeneous spaces. Of course, this affects the human condition from a sociological standpoint, but what may be more interesting is its effect on the arts--most notably, literature. In many ways, we've assigned "nationality" to novels, poems, and short stories based on the spaces and times in which they were written in. But in a world in which we're discovering the ways in which those lines are blurred or insufficient, what happens to genres like "The American Novel" or the "The Russian Poem"? Do the genres break down and become insufficient? Or do we gain a new genre of literature that takes into account a world that seems to be rapidly changing? My thesis, "Literature Evolving: How Multicultural Movements Created a New Genre of Literature", will explore the possibility of a new awakening genre that I've taken to calling "Cosmopolitan Literature" through an analysis of a poem, a novel, and to finish, a short story I've written in the "Cosmopolitan" style.

Recommended Citation

Mims, Stone, "Literature Evolving: How Multicultural Movements Created a New Genre of Literature" (2019). Senior Theses. 1356.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/sr-theses/1356