ABSTRACT
Literature, the literary canon in particular, has played an important role in language education in throughout history. In recent years, under the influence of transcultural literary studies, critical and cultural studies, social semiotics and communicative language teaching, a broader range of literary genres and more innovative methodologies of literature teaching have been employed and developed in second/foreign language education. For example, Kramsch (1993) argues for the use of literature as a pedagogical tool for exploration of various levels of meaning in language teaching. Lau (2002) applied literature in the primary language classroom in Hong Kong. Carroli (2008) explores the application of literature in Italian language class. A number of literary texts are examined by Wang and Hay (2011) for the purposes of intercultural education when
el r raduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia
teaching Chinese as a second language (CSL). To take a step further, Hay and Wang (2010) define a specific ‘genre’ – ‘migratory’ literature as a ‘third place’ (Kramsch, 1993, 1999; Liddicoat, Lo Bianco, & Crozet, 1999) for intercultural education in CSL. ‘Migratory’ literature embraces a wide range of literary texts, including those written by Chinese writers who have experience of living outside of China and by non-Chinese writers with experience of living inside China. By so doing, the authors argue for a corpus of literary texts as a ‘third place’ for intercultural exploration of dialogues between China and the West and provide a comparative perspective in viewing Chinese language and culture, in which meanings are negotiated amongst themselves and between insiders and outsiders. Rather than treating literature as a stable product of an epoch, the authors emphasize the status quo and consequences of their mobility across time and space. While following the basic principles proposed by the above-mentioned researchers, this paper focuses on a particular group of Chinese migrant writers who live in English-speaking countries, for the purpose of teaching Chinese language and culture to native English learners. It also adopts the term ‘overseas Chinese migrant/literature’ in contrast to Chinese internal migrant/literature resulting from China’s urbanization in recent decades.2
