Gloria Anzaldua

Explanation of Term: Transculturation is a term that ethnographers have used to describe what happens when members of a subordinated or marginalized group select or adopt materials which have been transmitted by a dominant culture. The process of tranculturation intersects with language and writing in that the “materials” adopted by a marginalized group might include a written or spoken language.Consequently, the dominant culture’s language, rhetorical strategies and writing conventions will begin to be discernable in the letters, narratives and official documents of the borrowing culture.It is also possible that these forms of writing may be used to critique or denounce the actions of the dominant culture that it originated from.The American slave autobiography is an example of a specific genre that is often transcultural as well as oppositional in nature.In the composition classroom students can analyze transcultural texts, paying close attention to the linguistic and stylistic...