Complexity of Representation in Literature

Question: What makes the artistic/literary representation of people (or places and cultures) – and their various social identities – so complex?

My post:

Individual identity relates to other social groups and their identity as some points of the two could be the same or similar. For example, if person A is a young American then that person can either fit into a group of young people or into a group of Americans. Person A can relate to the groups he/she belongs to it because of their identity, they can fit in. Texts are important to represent groups as this can build a foundational background for the group. The texts can make the people in the group feel important and as if they matter as the text shows awareness of the group and that they exist. However, texts can never fully represent groups of people (or individuals) as those people can belong to an entirely different group and the readers may never get the full picture. The texts may also depend on the different authors and their take on the group. The author may feel like they wrote and included everything about the group whereas the readers all have different opinions on how accurate the representation was. For example, Crazy Rich Asians caused a very mixed review. The two main groups represented in the movie were Asian-Americans and Singaporeans. The Asian-Americans felt as if the movie was very well done, that the main character portrayed their own feelings whereas the Singaporeans may have thought that Singapore was portrayed as only being flashy and rich and that the people living there weren’t all from Chinese backgrounds. The director may have thought that the movie was a first step towards a big change in Hollywood where all cast was all Asians. A text can never truly represent a group of people accurately as there are too many different opinions that sprout from the piece. Our own identities play a role in understanding and responding to texts as we can choose to be apart of a group and say whether something is accurate or not due to us having a right to speak out. We can relate to a piece and feel as we are being represented due to our individual backgrounds and from our experiences that shaped who we are. We react and grow opinions from what we know and use that information to critic or agree with the text we are reading/watching. Our own narratives shouldn’t be owned, but shared. If we have a person that we trust enough to be able to share our story (as in giving consent and a green light to proceed), then they should be able to do so. They should be in close contact as to not give any false information when trying to make a biography or simply just to tell somebody your story. The complexity of literature and representation of identities is great as there are guidelines to “should”s and “should not”s but there exceptions to those which make the topic hard to understand. Who can and can’t write about certain groups of people? Who can represent correctly and to what extent? Issues may arise from incorrect representation which readers can bring up into outrage if they feel really strongly about what they feel they are being misrepresented about. An autobiography is someone telling their own story. This text of theirs shows only their experiences and their identity which may or may not cause disagreements with the larger group. If for example, a Chinese-American girl is trying hard to recall her Chinese culture and what her mother taught her when she was very little may cause some inaccuracy in how she represented Chinese people and their culture. Chinese readers may think “That’s not actually how we do certain traditions!” as the girl’s American side may have played a part, or she doesn’t remember the culture that well or her family hasn’t taught her much about that culture. This is her story and her own experience which may end up in people criticise her for being also American or other issues in result to her story. When decided if someone should or shouldn’t do something in literature, it is never black or white. It is an infinite spectrum which is what makes this topic so complex, one can never count and find every single shade on the spectrum.

Comments from other classmates about my post:

Another classmate wrote on the same question that “Due to this fact I find it best for writers to make sure the character they right are most representative of what they need to drive the plot. Although this may not meet the requirements to suit the full culture, as the success of the book is driven due to the focus on it being well written rather than exclusive it will drive novelist to publish more works and in the end create a wider diversity of characters for people to relate to.”.

I don’t fully agree.

I think that writers should be more carefully when writing about certain cultures as not to cause negative controversy and outrage for a wrong comment made. However, no matter what writers will write there will always be a group of people who will never be satisfied with what the author wrote. Writers can’t just say whatever they want about identities (for example, racist or homophobic comments) for the purpose of the plot and the story. Then again, you can’t satisfy everyone who reads your book.