Polyethnism in Literature: Culture, Identity, and Global Society

Introduction to Polyethnism

According to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, the word "polyethnic" means "inhabited by or consisting of people of many ethnic backgrounds." As our world becomes more and more a "global village," individuals within that global village — whether within their country or within their own local community — can take several approaches to living within a polyethnic society. Some writers dig down to their own ethnic roots and write from that ethnic experience, but in many cases, the integration into the larger society, their isolation from it, or the cultural clashes as two groups collide mean that in today's modern world, few people have only their own culture as an influence on them and their writing. As a result, we often see the influence of multiple cultures in contemporary literature.

Ethnic Influences in Literature

Ethnic influences can surface in literature in several ways. One writer might write purely from his or her ethnic background, while another might write about the experience of blending into the larger society. Some literature addresses events that occur when two differing cultures collide and what happens to people at those boundaries. The experiences of blending in or colliding with another culture are particularly likely to influence writers in countries where immigration has been encouraged, making cultural issues a prominent feature of writing in the United States — a country where people from all kinds of ethnic backgrounds live and work together.

Polyethnism in South Africa

A renaissance of the ethnic novel now galvanizes the continuing ethnic reformation of America. Even as America in turn transforms ethnic cultures, the emergence during the past twenty years of a new ethnic novel compels a reconsideration of what it means to be an American. Sam B. Girgus writes of this "renaissance of the ethnic novel" — works that require the reader to consider what it means to be "American." Books like Beloved, written from the viewpoint of African American slaves, and the works of Amy Tan, which tell stories of Chinese-Americans, have transcended cultural boundaries and are read by Americans from both the authors' subcultures and those who belong to the dominant culture in the United States.

The Cultural Mosaic of the United States

Another country profoundly affected by polyethnism is South Africa. Colonized by Great Britain and the Netherlands, the Europeans held all the political and social power and instituted strict policies designed to prevent native and other ethnic cultures from influencing European culture in any way. When this policy of apartheid crumbled, the interaction of cultures provided rich material for writers (Oliphant).

In the United States, writers have a rich mixture of cultures from which to draw. In many parts of the country, the most visible cultural distinctions are between White and Black Americans. However, the number of cultures represented in the United States in large numbers is staggering. There are the Native Americans — present long before any Europeans arrived, yet subjugated by them and still struggling to emerge from that subjugation. There are Jews from all over the world who, within that broad group, share cultural experiences that unify them to some degree, yet are also divided into subgroups depending on which larger culture they previously lived in. There are Chinese Americans who have been here for generations after coming to help build the railroads, and recent Chinese immigrants who have not yet been strongly shaped by the larger American culture. There are people from virtually every other Asian country, each with its own rich traditions. There are Hispanics who represent people from American territories, political refugees from Central America, Mexicans who came either for a new life or to work temporarily before returning home — and, indeed, immigrants from virtually every other nation on the planet.

Conclusion: We Are All Polyethnic

In many countries of the world today, and not just the United States, "polyethnic" means more than living in a culture where many cultures are represented. To some greater or lesser degree, it means that all the individuals in that culture have absorbed some aspect of the other cultures around them. In this global village, we are all polyethnic.