Representation of the Intricate Consciousness of Minority Groups as Manifested in Contemporary Literature, with particular reference to gender, class and language

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We focused on the choice of language and literary activities of the poets and novelists belonging to minority groups in multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual societies. Special attention was paid to the presupposed multifarious factors which would affect their literary activities, such as gender, class, and awareness in language use and ethnic identity. The results of individual researchers in our team are summarized as follows:1)The process in which the shift or reformation of self-identity of female Turkish writers after their resettlement in Germany became crystallized in their literary works was closely examined. Inquiry was also made as to how the redefinition of their role as women had been reflected in their literary representations.2)The literary works by female Puerto Rican writers, the themes of which centered on female-related issues was investigated. In the course of this study due consideration was paid as well to the principles of sexual discrimination inseparably … More related to their nationalist ideals.3)Christian literature and Islam literature in the Indian Subcontinent have been regarded as and remained to be "the literature of minority" respectively, totally overshadowed under the dominance and supremacy of Hindu literature, the literature par excellence in India. The present research showed how these two literary traditions derived from religions of foreign origin had established and developed their own identity in the Indian soil, making a maximal concession to the indigenous poetics and literary conventions firmly rooted and nurtured in Hindu religious tradition.4)Lackova, a female writer of Romany descent, was properly focused from the standpoint of her own identity as a female belonging to an ethnic minority and its impact on her literary activities.5)The present study proved that the salient features of the mentality of the German minority mainly settled in the particular province in Romania called Transylvanian Saxony ("Siebenburger Sachsen" in German) had been formed and developed under the strong influence of the circumstances of the period as well as their own historical background.6)Ethnic discord observed within the German-speaking minority in Bukovina province under Romanian occupation was taken up for discussion. The present research shed light up on the details of this discord between the group of German descent persisting in their genealogical identity and the group of Jewish descent stressing their cultural and linguistic identity. Less