Self-Expression and World-Expression: Critical Multicultural Literacy in Maxine Hong Kingston and Sandra Cisneros

Because traditional definitions of literacy cannot fully convey marginal experiences, new conceptions are being produced and embraced as neces- sary modes of self-expression. Scholars of literacy studies have theorized multicultural forms of literacy as "situated literacies" and "multiliteracies," hybrid and non- hierarchical models that take into account social categories of race, class, gender, and language while offering linguistic and cultural proficiencies in different environments.3 This paradigm involves alternative and multiple forms of cultural interpretation and encourages what Juan Guerra calls "transcultural repositioning."