{"id":60,"date":"2026-05-06T20:02:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/?page_id=60"},"modified":"2026-05-06T20:02:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:02:29","slug":"arts-of-the-contact-zone","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/contents\/medievalism-communities\/arts-of-the-contact-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts of the Contact Zone"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6 style=\"text-align: right;\">by Carol L. Robinson<br \/>\nKent State University<\/h6>\n<h2 id=\"intro\"><strong>Understanding Contact Zones<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p id=\"part1\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/earlybritlit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pratt.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Arts of the Contact Zone<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(Mary Louise Pratt)\u00a0<em>This piece has political elements, but it is mainly about the relationships between language, communication, and culture.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>APA Citation<\/strong>: Pratt, M. (1991). Arts of the contact zone .\u00a0<i>Profession<\/i>,\u00a0<i>91<\/i>, 33-40.\u00a0\u201cArts of the Contact Zone\u201d by Mary Louise Pratt is about how clashes between groups, or communities, of people are shaped by language and cultural identities. Pratt first introduced her ideas in a keynote address to the annual conference of the Modern Language Association in 1991. She explained that she uses the term \u201ccontact zones\u201d \u201cto refer to social spaces where cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they lived out in many parts of the world today\u201d.\u00a0 Although the term was introduced within the context of linguistic and literary studies, it has since been appropriated into other studies, including:\u00a0feminist theory, critical race theory, postcolonial theory and in discussions of teaching and pedagogy.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><strong><em>A Sad Story:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Felipe Guam\u00e1n Poma de Ayala (Guam\u00e1n Poma) wrote a 1200 page letter (800 pages of written text and 400 pages of captioned drawings), an autoethnographic text that serves as a contact zone of transculturation between his people and the Spaniards. The letter is a blending of two cultures in terms of languages (Quechua and Spanish), beliefs, literacy vs. oralacy, capitalism, colonialism, and other clashes. Poma wrote this letter in 1613 and sent it from his home in what is now known as Peru to King Philip in Spain, who never got it.<\/h3>\n<h3><strong>Some Concepts to Consider:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>CONTACT ZONE(S):<\/strong>\u00a0 An area or means of communication that exists between two communities, a point of contact.<\/li>\n<li><strong>TRANSCULTURATION<\/strong>:\u00a0 A process in which a subordinated group assimilates (takes in; transforms) cultural materials from the dominate group.<\/li>\n<li><strong>COMMUNITY:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>A group of people who have been brought together for some reason. A community can be real or imagined (imagined: such as how we might dream a new neighborhood might be). A community can be held with a real or imagined space (imagined space: such as a virtual community in a video game).<\/li>\n<li><strong>AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC:<\/strong>\u00a0 A recorded item, made by a people about that people. Often, the item connects that people to another, dominate, people. For example, Poma\u2019s book-long letter is a recorded item (of both drawings and written text) about his people, particularly in terms of how his people (the Andeans\/Incas) see the Spaniards (the dominating people) seeing them: the Andeans see the Spaniards as seeing the Andeans as sub-human.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Some quotes to consider:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201c\u2026where cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today\u201d (1).<\/li>\n<li>\u201c\u2026a text in which people undertake to describe themselves in ways that engage with representations others have made of them\u201d (2).<\/li>\n<li>\u201c\u2026are representations that the so-defined others construct in response to or in dialogue with those texts\u201d (2).<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWhile subordinate peoples do not usually control what emanates from the dominant culture, they do determine to varying extents what gets absorbed into their own and what it gets used for. Transculturation, like autoethnography, is a phenomenon of the contact zone\u201d (2).<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe idea of the contact zone is intended in part to contrast with ideas of community that underlie much of the thinking about language, communication, and culture that gets done in the academy\u201d (4).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Consider also:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This was originally a speech, presented in 1991, to the Modern Language Association (the \u201celite\u201d of the literate).<\/li>\n<li>This speech is about language, literacy, and oralacy. This speech is about the domination of one culture over another.<\/li>\n<li>It is about the elitism, exploitation, and marginalization. It is about class (upper, middle, lower), race, gender, ethnicity, nationality,\u2026.<\/li>\n<li>It is about knowledge: knowledge is power\u2013if you know something, you have power.<\/li>\n<li>For example, if you know how to speak a particular language, then you have power over those who do not.<\/li>\n<li>(There are exceptions: for example, the Spaniards had better knowledge of weapons technology than the Andeans, a knowledge more powerful than their knowledge of their native language.)<\/li>\n<li>If you speak, read, and write in a language well, however, then you have power over those who do not (speak, read and write well): you can manipulate them.\u00a0<strong><em>So, what do YOU think?<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u201cMany of those who govern us display, openly, their interest in a quiescent, ignorant, manipulable electorate. Even as an ideal, the concept of an enlightened citizenry seems to have disappeared from the national imagination\u201d (5).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2 id=\"available\"><strong>Readily Available Materials<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>You should be able to access each of these by simply clicking on the link. If you have trouble accessing any of the below links, search for it after logging into KSU Libraries (see instructions, below). If you continue to have trouble accessing any of the below links, please email me (<a href=\"mailto:clrobins@kent.edu\">clrobins@kent.edu<\/a>) right away!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Books<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/denzin.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Denzin, Norman K<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<em>Performance Autoethnography: Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Culture<\/em>. 2nd ed. New York and London, Routledge, 2018.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/diversi-moreira.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Diversi, Marcelo. and Claudio Moreira<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<em>Betweener Autoethnographies: A Path Towards Social Justice<\/em>. New York and London, Routledge, 2018.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Articles on Autoethnography and Identity<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/crean.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Crean, Margaret<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cAffective Formations of Class Consciousness: Care Consciousness.\u201d\u00a0<em>The Sociological Review<\/em>, vol. 66, no. 6, 2018, pp. 1177-93.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/cunningham-carmichael.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cunningham, Natalie, and Teresa Carmichael<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cFinding My Intuitive Researcher\u2019s Voice through Reflexivity: An Autoethnographic Study.\u201d\u00a0<em>The Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods<\/em>, vol. 16, no. 2, 2018, pp. 56-66.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/fletcher.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fletcher, Megan Alyssa<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cWe to Me: An Autoethnographic Discovery of Self, in and out of Domestic Abuse.\u201d\u00a0<em>Women\u2019s Studies in Communication<\/em>, vol. 41, no. 1, 2018, pp. 42-59.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/golding-foley.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Golding, Barry, and Annette Foley<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cConstructing Narratives in Later Life: Autoethnography beyond the Academy.\u201d\u00a0<i>Australian Journal of Adult Learning<\/i>, vol. 57, no. 3, Nov. 2017, pp. 384-400.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/goodson.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Goodson, Lori<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cRevealing Our Superpowers: An Autoethnography on Childhood Abuse and How It Shapes Educators.\u201d\u00a0<em>Educational Considerations<\/em>, vol. 44, no. 2, 2019, pp. 1-8.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/neil.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Neil, Joanna<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cCreating Spaces for Reflection with Digital Autoethnography: Students as Researchers into Their Own Practices.\u201d\u00a0<em>iJADE<\/em>, vol. 38, no. 4, 2019, pp. 823-831.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/presley-presswood.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Presley, Rachel E., and Alane L. Presswood<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cPink, Brown, and Read All Over: Representation at the 2017 Women\u2019s March on Washington.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<em>Cultural Studies\u2190\u2192Critical Methodologies<\/em>, vol. 18, no. 1, 2018, pp. 61-71.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/stern.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stern, Danielle M<\/a><\/strong>. \u201c\u2018He Won\u2019t Hurt Us Anymore\u2019: A Feminist Performance of Healing for Children Who Witness Domestic Violence.\u201d\u00a0<em>Women\u2019s Studies in Communication<\/em>, vol. 37, 2014, pp. 360-78.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Articles on Autoethnography and Protest<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/au.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Au, Anson<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cReconceptualizing Social Movements and Power: Towards a Social Ecological Approach.\u201d\u00a0<em>The Sociological Quarterly<\/em>, vol. 58, no. 3, 2017, pp. 519-545.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/carr.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carr, Darius<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cBlack Lives Matter: An Autoethnographic Account of the Ferguson, Missouri, Civil Unrest of 2014.\u201d\u00a0<em>Journal for the Study of Peace and Conflict<\/em>, 2016, pp. 6-20.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/carter-kruzic.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carter, Angie, and Ahna Kruzic<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cCentering the Commons, Creating Space for the Collective: Ecofeminist #NoDAPL Praxis in Iowa.\u201d\u00a0<em>Journal of Social Justice<\/em>, vol. 7, 2017, pp. 1-22.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/gale-wyatt.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gale, Ken, and Jonathan Wyatt<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cAutoethnography and Activism: Movement, Intensity, and Potential.\u201d\u00a0<em>Qualitative Inquiry<\/em>, Special Issue: Auto-Ethnography and Activism, vol. 25, no. 6, 2018, pp. 566-8.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/harris-jones.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Harris, Anne, and Stacy Holman Jones<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cActivist Affect.\u201d\u00a0<em>Qualitative Inquiry<\/em>, Special Issue: Auto-Ethnography and Activism, vol. 25, no. 6, 2018, pp. 563-5.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/rosario.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rosario, Melissa<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cIntimate Publics: Autoethnographic Meditations on the Micropolitics of Resistance.\u201d Anthropology and Humanism, vol. 39, no. 1, 2014, pp. 36-54.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cyberspacerobinson.org\/courses\/cw2\/cw2materials\/presley-presswood.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Presley, Rachel E., and Alane L. Presswood<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cPink, Brown, and Read All Over: Representation at the 2017 Women\u2019s March on Washington.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<em>Cultural Studies\u2190\u2192Critical Methodologies<\/em>, vol. 18, no. 1, 2018, pp. 61-71.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2 id=\"library\"><strong>Find It in Your University Library<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Transforming power through cultural humility in the intercultural contact zone of art therapy. By: Kapitan, Lynn.\u00a0<em>Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association<\/em>, Vol. 40, Issue 2, 2023, pp. 61-67.<\/li>\n<li>Issues of mutuality and sharing in the transnational spaces of heritage\u2014contesting diaspora and homeland experiences in Palestine. By: Hammami, Feras. I<em>nternational Journal of Heritage Studies<\/em>, Vol. 22, Issue 6, June 2016, pp. 446-465.<\/li>\n<li>On cleaning: Student activism in the corporate and imperial university. By: Carey, Kristi. Open Library of Humanities, Vol. 2, Issue 2, 2016, pp. 1-30.<\/li>\n<li>Cultural studies, composition, and pedagogy. By: Mullen, Mark.\u00a0<em>CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture<\/em>, Vol. 7, No. 3, Sep 2005, pp. 19-27.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cGovernment of da peeps, for da peeps, and by da peeps\u201d: Revisiting the contact zone. By: Maxson, Jeffrey.<em>\u00a0Journal of Basic Writing<\/em>, Vol. 24, Issue 1, Spring 2005, pp. 24-47.<\/li>\n<li>Community or contact zone?: Deconstructing an honors classroom. By: Dallas, Phyllis Surrency and Mary Marwitz.\u00a0<em>Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture<\/em>, Vol. 3, Issue 3, Fall 2003, pp. 435-439.<\/li>\n<li>Everyday curators: Collecting as literate activity. By: Rohan, Liz.\u00a0<em>Composition Studies<\/em>, Vol. 38, Issue 1, Spring 2010, pp. 53-68.<\/li>\n<li>Teaching authorship, gender and identity through Grrrl Zines production. By: Gabai, Sara.\u00a0<em>Journal of International Women\u2019s Studies<\/em>, Vol. 18, Issue 1, Nov 2016, pp. 20-32.<\/li>\n<li>A place pedagogy for \u201cglobal contemporaneity\u201d. By: Somerville, Margaret J. Educational Philosophy &amp; Theory, Vol. 42, Issue 3, April 2010, pp. 326-344.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Carol L. Robinson Kent State University Understanding Contact Zones Arts of the Contact Zone\u00a0(Mary Louise Pratt)\u00a0This piece has political elements, but it is mainly about the relationships between language, communication, and culture. APA Citation: Pratt, M. (1991). Arts of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/contents\/medievalism-communities\/arts-of-the-contact-zone\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":58,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-60","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62,"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/60\/revisions\/62"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/58"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unicorn-castle.org\/medievalisms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}