Escaping the Cage: Identity, Multiculturalism and Writing
Bookworm
KCRW
4.5 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2005
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Russell Banks, Susan Sontag, Maya Angelou, Camille Paglia, Stephen Greenblatt, Tom Wolfe and David Mitchell
In the first of this 10-part series, Escaping the Cage: Identity, Multiculturalism and Writing, we sample the range of attitudes toward identity, identity politics and multiculturalism. Among the highlights: Angelou describes an emotional encounter with Tupac Shakur, Sontag rejects self-expression as a writing goal, and Paglia embraces multiculturalism while scolding academics for losing literature in a welter of special interests...
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation. |
| 0:08.0 | You are a human animal. You are a very special breed. Or you are the only animal. |
| 0:18.0 | Who can think, who can reason, who can read. |
| 0:22.6 | From KCRW, Santa Monica, I'm Michael Silverblatt and this is Bookworm. |
| 0:27.6 | Today we begin our special series, Escaping the Cage, Identity, Multiculturalism, and Writing, |
| 0:33.6 | a series drawn from Bookworm interviews old and new. |
| 0:36.6 | What is identity in literature? |
| 0:39.1 | How do writers create an identity? |
| 0:41.5 | Is identity politics a creative or destructive force? |
| 0:45.2 | What is the status of multiculturalism right now? |
| 0:48.5 | These are the questions I have asked the more than 25 writers |
| 0:51.6 | you'll be hearing in the coming weeks. |
| 0:54.0 | Today's show is an overview of the series, |
| 0:56.6 | and you'll hear Maya Angelou, Susan Sontag, |
| 0:59.7 | Russell Banks, and Camille Pahlia, among others. |
| 1:02.8 | In 1969, when Maya Angelou wrote, |
| 1:06.3 | I know why the caged bird sings, |
| 1:08.7 | she could not have known how wide the cage door would open, nor |
| 1:12.7 | could she have known the impact her voice would make on our culture. |
| 1:18.3 | Now I've seen you at book fairs and other events, literally look at young men |
| 1:31.2 | who are trying to jar you or rile you |
| 1:36.1 | and say... |
... |
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