Reading Across Cultures Without Stereotyping

Treat each book from another culture as one voice, not a representative of an entire people.

Reading books from many cultures broadens understanding, but it carries a risk: treating one book as the definitive account of a whole country, religion, or ethnic group. No single novel represents everyone, just as no single book represents everyone in your own community. The Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has spoken about 'the danger of a single story,' the way one repeated narrative about a place can flatten it into a stereotype.

A practical response is to read multiple voices from the same culture: writers of different generations, genders, regions, and genres. Consider an original scenario: a student reads one novel about poverty in a rural village and concludes that the entire country is poor and rural. After reading a satirical urban novel, a love story, and a contemporary essay collection by writers from the same country, her picture becomes richer and more accurate. Also seek out writers telling their own stories, not only outsiders describing them.

• 1One book is one voice, not a whole culture.
• 2Read multiple voices from the same place.
• 3Seek writers telling their own stories.