Abstract
The Languages, Literacy and Communication learning area of Curriculum 2005 endorses “intercultural understanding, access to different world views and a critical understanding of the concept of culture” (National Department of Education, 2001:44). Although this curriculum is learner-centred and tries to create a better balance in the previously asymmetrical relationship between teacher and student, it does place great demands on the educator to avoid reinforcing cultural and multipolitical ideals which are not concomitant with the principles of a multicultural democracy. Since learners are expected to respond to the aesthetic, affective, cultural and social values in texts, the educator has to act responsibly in choosing texts which promote the values inherent in Curriculum 2005. Implicit in the curriculum statement is a commitment to critical pedagogy in the literature classroom with the general aim of promoting societal transformation. As the cultural assumptions underlying particular texts are often not known or shared by all learners, it is important for the educator to facilitate an examination of these assumptions in order to promote cultural understanding and values such as religious tolerance. This article will therefore investigate the development of cultural and critical literacies in the South African literature classroom with particular focus on So Long a Letter by the postcolonial African Muslim woman writer, Mariama Ba.
Highlights
In its emphasis on the enriching effects of texts in relation to knowledge, aesthetics, relationships and emotions, the Languages, Literacy and Communication Learning Area of the draft revised National Curriculum Statement endorses a vital aspect of Curriculum 2005
The guidelines contained in teacher support material for the senior phase of the learning area for Arts and Culture by the National Department of Education (DOE, 2000:8-12) foster the recognition and implementation of the human rights embodied in the South African constitution
A criticism of religious practice in Senegal, the limitations imposed on free expression and the impact of a foreign language are some of the factors which play a strong role in this representation of the life of an African Muslim woman in the postcolonial context of So Long a Letter
Summary
In its emphasis on the enriching effects of texts in relation to knowledge, aesthetics, relationships and emotions, the Languages, Literacy and Communication Learning Area of the draft revised National Curriculum Statement endorses a vital aspect of Curriculum 2005. Hinchey (1998:111) states that educators interested in fostering reflective practice face the central challenge of finding ways to move learners to identify and articulate common, culturally endorsed assumptions and she stresses that literature can be a powerful tool to prompt this type of critical questioning She adds (Hinchey, 1998:117) that there are many works which can expose unconscious assumptions we want examined but it takes some familiarity with literature and some experimentation to find texts useful in our classrooms. As these assumptions are often articulated within a particular type of representation, critical and cultural literacy skills are vital in the South African classroom, especially in the study of postcolonial fiction which is often characterized by complex subjectivities and hybrid identities. As So Long a Letter by African Muslim writer Mariama Ba is taught in English and French departments at some South African universities as well as other educational sites, an examination of the cultural assumptions underlying the text is revelatory of the way in which writers speak to their own cultures as well as the ways in which learners’ perceptions may be shaped by a particular type of representation
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