Changing the Game : A 21st-Century Perspective on the Use of the Supernatural in Multicultural Literatures

Abstract

In this thesis, I attempt to present a new more modern perspective on the purpose of the literary supernatural. The use of the supernatural in literature has always been construed as a means of emphasizing forces outside of the self, a concept stemming from a westernized interpretation. For a more modern, non-westernized perspective, I assert that the supernatural is used as a tool to indict the individuals and emphasize their responsibilities to society and themselves. This shift represents a change in social awareness in which the concept of the preternatural scapegoat is deconstructed and the possibility of social change rests solely in the hands of the individual. Furthermore, this shift within multicultural literatures in particular may also work as an activist technique for the minority group. These authors are suggesting that the only way that minority groups can be lifted in society is through their own individual powers and acknowledgement of their responsibility to their cultural community. The multicultural literatures utilizing this technique are therefore attempting to break from the established constraints that outside cultures have forced upon them. I will present a new interpretation of the purpose of the literary supernatural while also challenging the western colonial control over the genres within multicultural literatures.