Our Time Essay

In Mary Louise Pratts essay, Arts of the Contact Zone, we atomic number 18 introduced to the idea of clear up zones, autoethnography, and new delegacys of looking at common ideas. I wanted to look some examples of what she was really talking about. After reading John Edgar Widemans Our fourth dimension we can see that Pratts ideas and terms argon accurate beca habituate they can be applied to this reading as surface as others. Our Time is an autoethnography because it uses diffeerent points of chance, not however oneself, to give information about someones upbringing and cultural growth. In Pratts essay, she often referred to the term autoethnography.These emerge from involvement zones. Autoethnographies are used as a method to oppose the views of oneself that e genuinelyone else sees. For example, if there are pack in your neighborhood that get under ones skin a label on your home and family, you might go linchpin end and sort out them how your life actually is. Mary Louise Pratt goes on to tell us that a contact zone is a place where people from different cultures and communities enter together. Here, these different people share ideas and interact with each other. It is almost a type of hybridization. Multiple cultures or societies come together, and mash. They can join together, or exchange some treasures, or be overrun by one another. Within these contact zones, people are open to see the way others see them and interpret them. From there, they would be able to see themselves through different eyes, and from a different perspective. In relation, autoethnographic texts are texts in which people undertake to describe themselves in ways that engage with representations others have made of them (Pratt 487). They are not texts written toBolduc 2explain how the writer sees themselves, barely how they are seen by others. This is to maximize the credibility, and that there isnt too much bias. Writers put together these texts from others understa ndings and viewpoints of them, as well as interpretation of others. Similarly, Pratt also refers to the term transculturation oftentimes in her essay. The definition of transculturation is when values or ways of life and habits from the dominant culture are passed d give birth to smaller subordinate cultures. From there, those cultures choose what materials they would like to use as well as trying topersuade the dominant culture to use some of their ideas.In Pratts essay, she uses Guaman Pomas New Chronicle to back up her claims. She refers to the reading as an autoethnographic text. This text involves a selective collaboration with appropriation of idioms of the metropolis or the conqueror (Pratt 488). In the New Chronicle, Pomas floor is written in two languages, Spanish and Quechua which is an Incan language. Spanish is considered the dominant language, or culture, whereas the Incan language is considered to be the subordinate language and culture. Poma writes his story from th e Incan point of view where he attempts to rewrite history through their eyes rather than the Spanish. Transculturation is represented because he uses the main ideas from the dominant culture, such as whirl and Eve, and then in turn incorporates the Incan culture while pushing some of their ideas back on the dominant culture. This is where you see two cultures interact, and form very different cultures from their original state, but more similar to each other. On the equivalent note, Poma writes the story based on representation others have made of them, and by incorporating both cultures, the story can be considered an autoethnographic text. Similarly, Widemans text can also be considered an autoethnographic text.We see both of these terms represented in Widemans Our Time, as well as the ideas from Pomas story. Wideman does a great job of incorporating different idioms to representBolduc 3himself, as well as his brother Robby, in order to paint an accurate picture of the conjunc tion and culture in which they are each a part of. For example, in the preface, the terms ghetto and gangster are used to describe their black community of Homewood which can be referred to as indigenous idioms. Indigenous idioms are the common way of speaking within ones own community. A quick example of this would be how some stated refer to soda as soda, or pop, or coke, while they are all referring to the same thing. In the text, the community of Homewood is considered to be the subordinate culture. This culture stems from the dominant culture of Pittsburgh showing how the story can be considered an autoethnographic text. This is because Wideman is using the autoethnography to sort of push back against the typical Pittsburghculture, and show people how it actually is. John and Robbys family moved from the dominant culture to Homewood. With them they brought ideas from both communities together creating a contact zone. Due to them growing up in a white community, Robby became in trigued with the black community from a very young age. This is because he grew up surrounded by whites who would never tell him about it. As he says in the text, I decided Id find out what it was all about.Didnt care if it killed me, I was divergence to find out (Wideman 678). This helps us see why Robby immersed himself in the culture of Homewood, while also getting in touch with Robbys voice in the text. Because of Robbys fascination, he gets sucked win a path of crime, which eventually becomes to jail. On the other hand, Wideman finds himself more immersed in the dominant culture. He goes through a serial of very fortunate events, leading him to becoming a masteryful, established writer. Both brothers grow up in similar communities but found themselves going down very separate paths, showing the diversity within the contact zone. Widemans stopping point in this story is to try and figure out why Robby and himself morose out so differently. Therefore, he wants to go throug h specific events in order to figure this out. HeBolduc 4writes Our Time in a way that most readers are not used to. Instead of writing a basic story of his brothers life, he sooner incorporates himself into it, as well as his thought processes throughout. Because he writes his story based on his brother, parts of this reading can be considered ethnography. Ethnography can be defined as a text that is based on someone other than the writer, just as Wideman writes about Robby. Widemans goal is persuade us to find value is his project. Readers also mix his ideas with theirs, in which they develop their own ideas based on Widmans story, as well as give feedback. This gives a sense of transculturation, because just listening to Widemans points al broken us to adopt some of his culture. Wideman explains to us the different ways he thought about starting the story as well as certain habits he must scourge in order to make his project successful. He ends up starting off with a story expl aining the death of his brothers friend, Garth who died of a disease because he did not receive proper treatment, due to being black. This can be considered a contact zonebecause the dominant culture represents themselves as the superiors in this situation, showing the diversity of the contact zone. Not only does this paint a picture of the world they live in, but also gives us some back round on reasons why Robby ended up living a life of crime that eventually lead him to jail. Garths death shook Robby and his community. They knew he had been treated unfairly and because of that they had hatred towards the dominant culture.This could be a reason why Robby chose to rebel against it, and dive into the Homewood community and culture which showed him the life of crime. Garths death is one of the many instances in which we see the community that the brothers lived and grew up in. Wideman writes this section using Robbys point of view as a way to try and understand why Robby ended up lik e he did, which is an example of ethnography. For instance, Wideman shows Robbys point of view when he describes Garth. Explaining that he looked bad. Real Bad. Inchabod Crane anyway, but now heBolduc 5was a skeleton (Wideman 658). Here, Robby is providing us with a description of what Garth looks like, but Wideman is writing it, qualification it ethnography since it is not from Garths person. Along with that, Wideman shares with us another moment in time which he considered starting the story from. His other way was with the daylight Robby was born. Robbys birthday was surrounded by times of death and sadness. It was almost as if it was completely overshadowed by it, almost as if there was a low gloomy storm cloud above it. Wideman shows us the effect it had on his brother by saying that Robby cried a lot on his birthdays (Wideman 684). This instance could have a lot to do with the way Robby ended up in jail. He was never truly celebrated on his special day instead it contained t ears and depression. Wideman uses this as an example of the factors that lead to his life of crime. He uses his own view of Robby to portray autoethnography. He writes it so that we see the way others view Robby in this situation, as well as they way Robby feels viewed, and then puts it into his words. I wondered why he switches points of view mid story. But then I realized that the full-length reason he included Robby in his story was to counter ideas about Robby, whether they be his own, or other people in town. By switching to Robbys voice, it gives a different insight. One that Is from Robby, and this helps strengthen theautoethnographic element by opposing whatever claims and judgments that Wideman or even the reader may have, and shows us how things actually are.throughout the story we see examples of what we can call Indigenous texts, where Wideman is trying to connect to what Robby is saying. In order to connect with Robby in the way that he wants, Wideman realizes that he has to overcome some of his habits. The biggest habit he had to overcome was listening to himself listen to him (Wideman 672). He had the tendency to hear Robby in his words rather than really listen to Robbys point of view, which is important in order to create and autoethnographic text. Therefore, when putting material togetherBolduc 6he had to focus on breaking this habit. He had to see Robby through Robbys eyes in order to make his project successful, which he did. Another habit Wideman had to overcome was to avoid having his story sound poetical and fictional. He wanted us to truly hear Robbys voice and get an accurate idea of his community, and to do that he had to drop some of the lovingness words and phases so it didnt overshadow the true point of his project. A third habit he had to overcome was the feeling of guilt about success and luck he has received throughout his life. He questions multiple times in the text why they turned out so differently. He feels unrighteous that his brother ended up in jail and he turned into such a successful writer. In conclusion, Wideman shows his side of the story along with his brothers, creating a piece of writing that differs from what we may consider to be usual, or conventional writing. Wideman steps out of the norm by describing his process of writing throughout the story. By doing this, along with providing different perspectives, he was able to create an autoethnographic text while also incorporating ethnography. Also, by giving us a glimpse of different cultures and communities that they grew up in, Wideman was able to create transculturation as well as show us the contact zones that come up within the story.All of these ideas lead back to Pratts ideas of contact zones, as well as Guaman Pomas New Chronicle, providing us with instances to portray Pratts significance as well as Widemans. Widemans goal was to show us the ways in which he and his brother turned out so differently, and I think he succeeded. He was able to master Pratts idea of contact zonesand show us his personal experience of the diversity within them. Also, he was able to help us understand the ambit behind Robbys life of crime and accurately show why they ended up on different paths. This is what made Widemans project successful.Bolduc 7Works CitedWideman, John. Our Time. Ways of reading. 9th ed. Editor David Bartholomae & Anthony Petrosky. Boston Bedford/St. Martin, 2011. 655-694. PrintPratt, Mary. Arts of the Contact Zone. Ways of reading. 9th ed. Editor David Bartholomae & Anthony Petrosky. Boston Bedford/St. Martin, 2011. 655-694. Print