Arts of the Contact Zone Analysis

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Arts of the Contact Zone Analysis
Mary Louise Pratt in her piece “Arts of the Contact Zone” discusses the dynamics of contact zone which she defines as areas where at least two cultures meet, clash and wrestle with each other while mapping her context to the aspects such as colonialism and slavery. In this masterpiece, the author astoundingly employs the elements of persuasion which include pathos, ethos, and logos to send her message to her audience. Regarding the use of ethos, the author relies on her mastery of the topic of literacy which is augmented by her knowledge of various cultures. Essentially, Louise is a Spanish and Portuguese Languages and their Literature professor, therefore, she is well versed in the topic of contact zones (Pratt 518). Second, the author uses the element of pathos to persuade the audience by appealing to their emotions. For instance, the author in her bid to connect the audience with the topic of the day, she openly states her objective which is to speak as a parent and not as a literacy expert (Pratt 518). Last, Louise correctly uses logos throughout her text as evidenced by the use of factual information to support her opinions. For example, the author uses the dates and history of Guaman Poma in her literary work, therefore, aptly voicing her opinion that multicultural learning in schools is not substantial enough.
In her text, Louise is targeting various groupings of the societies. However, academicians and students take the largest share of the audience because the author’s message is centered on changing or instituting reforms on the current strategies of teaching multicultural literacy.

Louise is campaigning for the abolishment of the traditional approach and pitches the use of contact zones. In this text, the author capitalizes on evidence, tone, and emotion to create an appealing masterpiece targeted at the academicians. Notably, the tone is authoritative which gives her work enough weight to convince the scholars. In the use of evidence, Louise uses factual information which includes historical data on the genesis of literacy. Last, she uses her son’s story to trigger constructive emotions which help to build her write-up (Pratt 517). The author just like an actor understands that space is essential. One can create a mental image of the narrator moving about the stage as she delivers her speech. Last, this reading just like the previous ones triggers an intense mental discourse in a reader regarding the issue of using multicultural approaches in teaching literacy.

Work Cited
Pratt, Mary Louise. “Arts of the Contact Zone.” Profession (1999): 517-534.