When literary representation is lacking in publishing, it is also lacking in material for teaching and learning. Faculty and librarians understand how much representation matters, but finding the resources they need to share diverse content with learners can be a challenge.

Representation in literature is important to give voice to unique, diverse perspectives across cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, sexualities, genders, abilities, and more. Access to diverse primary sources gives learners the opportunity to better understand the experiences and issues of marginalized and underrepresented social groups and challenge stereotypes commonly associated with minorities.

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    Sharing Diverse Literary Perspectives

    Gale provides comprehensive access to resources that span a range of diverse voices, including minority groups, and directly address diversity, equity, and inclusion topics. From primary sources to literary criticism to literary biographies, Gale Literature Resource Center supports the study of diverse authors, interdisciplinary approaches, and the continued development of critical-thinking skills considering both represented and underrepresented perspectives.

    Faculty and librarians can empower students to pursue research pathways and better understand diverse experiences with Gale Literature Resource Center. Give researchers access to diverse voices that vary in race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, culture, socioeconomic status, and other social identities. Encourage learners to challenge and dismantle stereotypes of and discrimination against underrepresented groups by studying diverse literature. Gale Literature Resource Center includes literary criticism, primary sources, and biographies featuring queer authors, Black women, Latinx writers, and more, spotlighting the perspectives of diverse characters.
     

    Understanding Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

    Gale Literature Resource Center provides content supporting research on diversity and intersectionality in literature, including primary literary sources, literary criticisms, and multimedia resources. Enable learners to explore themes of diversity and intersectionality, from voices advocating for LGBTQ rights to Black feminism to antidiscrimination for people with disabilities. Making diversity, equity, and inclusion topics a focus in the classroom helps students understand the importance of literary representation and reflect on how themes of inclusivity have evolved in literature and society over time.

Gale Literature Resource Center Highlights

In Gale Literature Resource Center, researchers can find up-to-date, full-text literary criticism; biographical information; overviews; original works of literature; and reviews on more than 160,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods, and from around the world.

  • The database includes more than 2,100,000 full-text articles, critical essays, and reviews from over 450 scholarly journals and literary magazines.
  • Daily content updates provide researchers with the most-current critical approaches and interpretations of authors and works, book reviews, and more.
  • Coverage of a diverse range of writers with a broad array of disciplines, time periods, and backgrounds from around the world delivers a full picture of representation in literature.
  • Primary works in a variety of genres—from science fiction writers, essayists, poets, and others—support close reading and the gathering of textual evidence to provide ample opportunity for reader-response activities.
  • Materials support interdisciplinary approaches to the humanities, information literacy, and the development of critical-thinking skills.
  • Current and comprehensive literature criticism, biographical information, reviews, and references promote deeper literary understanding.

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Featured Resources: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Gale Literature Resource Center includes thousands of primary sources and articles analyzing themes around diversity, equity, and inclusion, such as the following:

  • “A Black Feminist Statement” from The Manifesto in Literature (Vol. 3: Activism, Unrest, and the Neo-Avant-Garde)
  • “Diversity Is Not Justice: Working toward Radical Transformation and Racial Equity in the Discipline” from Composition Studies (Vol. 49, Issue 2)
  • “Indigenous Perspectives on Difference: A Case for Inclusion” from Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies (Vol. 11, Issue 3)
  • “It’s All in the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race and Nation” from Women and Language (Vol. 23, Issue 2)
  • “Renewing Commitments to Minoritized Writers” from Composition Studies (Vol. 50, Issue 1)
  • “Literacy, Literature, and Diversity” from Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (Vol. 48, Issue 4)
  • “Say Her Name: How the Fight for Racial Justice Can Be More Inclusive of Black Women” from All Things Considered
  • “Telling Better Stories: Writing Diverse YA Fantasy” from Booklist (Vol. 112, Issue 11)
  • “The Whole Picture: How Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Auditing Tools Help Build Stronger Collections” from Library Journal (Vol. 147, Issue 6)
  • “The Diversity Gap: Where Good Intentions Meet True Cultural Change” from Booklist (Vol. 118, Issue 3)
  • “Untangling Race and Disability in Discourses of Intersectionality” from Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies (Vol. 4, Issue 2)
  • “‘Where Life Is Precious’: Intersectional Feminism in the Time of COVID-19” from Feminist Studies (Vol. 46, Issue 3)

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Resource Spotlight:

“Literacy, Literature, and Diversity” from Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy" (Vol. 48, Issue 4)

“As an educator, my primary objective is to teach from a multicultural perspective. For me, this means encouraging transformation, critical thinking, and social change. I believe it is important to include literature in the classroom that is representative of a variety of cultural and ethnic groups. Bishop (1992) maintained that students who do not see their culture reflected in the literature they read may believe that they have no value and little or no importance in society and in school. As a result, students may become uninterested in school, and their grades may suffer (Spears-Bunton, 1990). According to Spears-Bunton, African American students may be reading at low levels because of what she called ‘a cultural mismatch’ between the students and the books they read (p. 567). Likewise, Menchaca (2000) maintained that Hispanic children will do better in school if they are provided with a culturally relevant curriculum. Anaya (as cited in Margerison, 1995) echoed this sentiment when he claimed that ‘part of the cause for our alarming dropout statistics is this narrow, circumscribed curriculum in language and literature’ (p. 259). Thus, multicultural literature can play an important part in saving the lives of students by validating their existence. In addition to having multicultural literature, I believe it is equally important that students learn to analyze literature critically; question themselves to find out what they believe about race, class, and gender differences; and read literature closely to discern the meanings given to difference in our society (Hade, 1997). I view helping students understand issues of identity (i.e., race, class, and gender) as a construct in the fight against social injustice. It is my goal to help students realize the importance of confronting and speaking out against social ills. Above all, I want my students to know that I am teaching multicultural literature because I believe it will help us become, as Banks (1993) suggested, ‘knowledgeable, caring and active citizens in a deeply troubled and ethnically polarized nation and world’ (p. 23).”

 

Reference
Hinton, KaaVonia, and Theodorea Berry. “Literacy, Literature, and Diversity.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 48, no. 4 (2004): 284+. Gale Literature Resource Center, accessed September 30, 2022.