MOHAMMED ALAIFAN
MS.PIWARSH
ENGLISH 110
February 10, 2014
Communities and contact zone
The art of the contact zone is a book written by Mary Pratt. Mary Pratt is a Spanish and Portuguese languages professor. It actually contains a deep literal and psychological meaning in it and is intended to be used especially in a classroom set up to teach about our diverse nature; cultural behavior, colonialism, slavery and power plays. Its effects are wide and large as it has been able to affect various communities by its writing, art work and literacy. The contact zones, according to the book are quite important areas as they are areas where a community is able to see the world in a foreign community perceptive. Contact zones as defined in the book, are areas where various communities meet and have an uneven exchange in culture and beliefs. Mary Pratt tries to explain how our cultural knowledge is misguided due to the fact that we missed a crucial part of our heritage and the heritage of other communities too. This is mainly due to the fact that most of it is hidden from us by those who are supposed to preserve and pass it to us. Accepting us involves appreciating our past that is our history and upholding it by making sure that the future generations receive the information as it is. Those charged with the preservation of our culture choose the parts of history to pass down and deliberately omit others as a means of defending the community from the subsequent humiliation and shame that is associated with our dark past (Pratt, page. 494). Staying within our cultural boundaries we are only able to hear and learn from only of the goods of our community. The truth is culture and religion has its ups and downs. More and different stories about our communities can be heard in the contact zones when the different communities that have lived closed together interacted though unevenly.
Mary Pratt emphasizes that it is now our sole responsibility to put the fragments of our rich history together, both the good and the bad. Through this, we are now able to define who we really are based on our history. A community is what they know about themselves and that is history. They say that he who does not know where he or she is from cannot know where he or she is going. This is true for a community that omits the very fundamental parts of its history to the extent of forgetting that it even existed. This is the most important aspects of the contact zones. Mary Pratt emphasizes the need of removing the over reliance on media to keep history who keep on filtering the truth for their undisclosed reasons. Our perception of the world is highly dependent on what the person knows about both himself and the community that they leave in (Pratt, page.493). It is only natural and obvious that how we perceived the world now with most parts of our important heritage hidden from us will be quite different from how we will perceive when we are given the whole truth about our past. Knowing that our past also had some difficulties remove the superiority complex that most of us suffer which is also a cause of a lot of conflict between neighbors.
The Greek house community in which I have been a member is an example of a utopian society. From the definition of a utopian society according to Mary Pratt is one which a single culture is practiced by the members of the whole community. This happens when several societies interact and have to live together as it is quite common with educational institutions, people from different cultures meet and interact. There are many students from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. In the Greek house community where I have belonged in throughout my studies, though each one of us has his language; all communication is done through English. One of the factors that make up a utopian society is a common language. A common language, in this case English, goes a long way to strengthen the society by bringing unity among its members (Pratt, pg.34). The classroom in this context can be considered as a contact zone. Contact zones, as coined by the author, are social areas where people of different cultures meet, brush shoulders and engages with each other usually in unequal measures (Pratt, page.487). There is a relationship between the contact areas as defined by the writer and other terminologies that are used in the text by Mary Pratt. For example, transculturation is the process by which two cultures exchange their cultures in a manner that the oppressed culture adopts most of the dominant culture in their way of life for obvious reasons. Transculturation is quite evident within the Greek house where I belong to.
The African students that leave within the Greek House can be found adopting the American student’s ways of dressing of big t-shirts and baggy jeans and accent, the Chinese can be seen walking in packs just as it is typical of the Africans. Bilingualism that is well articulated in the article by Pratt is when two communities meet in the contact areas, and the people who live there are now able to speak two languages. As it is of now, each student in the Greek house community is able to speak in two languages, that is their native languages and the adapted and so called English that is used in the Greek house community. In most cases, when these communities are not at war with each other, they collaborate. In the Greek house community, collaboration as defined by Pratt is quite evident. Students do their assignments together, belong to the same house teams and hold academic group discussions. This is obvious collaboration among the Greek house students. Developing a completely utopian community is a completely uphill task as each one of the members of the Greek house community has his or her cultural preservations that they are not willing to depart from. It takes a lot of compromising and persuasion to form a utopian society. Just to ensure the peaceful coexistence continues to prevail, the society cannot use force to change its members. It is only possible to form a partially utopian society because of the inequalities that already exist among the different communities in the world in terms of wealth, social background and political affiliation. Unsolicited oppositional discourse is quite common in the Greek house community. This further weakens the ability of a completely utopian society to exist. It is quite common for African international students to be referred to as children of dictators. This creates a notion that their parents have had to oppress others to bring them abroad. The American are not spared either by the unsolicited oppositional discourse as it is a common believe that for them to study abroad they must have been spoilt and cannot be contained in the American system. Mary Pratt points out other factors that hinder the existence of a utopian society a part from the unsolicited oppositional discourse throughout the article. The author is seen to demonstrate how the utopian society advocates for fraternity and equality, but the results end up being completely different in the form of rebellion, discrimination and hate.
The Greek house community is a utopian society as shown by the illustration above. Due to the various reasons and the past, it can only be a partial one. The classroom in the Greek house community is established as a contact zone. Various terms that appear predominantly within the article by Pratt can best describe the Greek house community. It can be described as a bilingual, a fraternity and liberal society.
The consequences of having a utopian society or rather a partial one for this matter are both good and bad. The utopian nature of the Greek house community strengthens the bond among international communities but when approached in a different way may cause more hatred than love that might be an issue to international peace. Students in the Greek house community are able to learn from each other’s culture though they seem to be limited by the language barrier. The use of a common language as a unifying factor is very important in creating a utopian society.