Remarks

Remarks by Ambassador Patricia A. Butenis for the book launch of American Voices: An American Literature Reader

Words and Pages, Gulshan, Dhaka

December 9, 2006

Dr. Niaz Zaman; Ms Nima Rahman, Managing Director of Words 'n Pages;  Mr. Mohiuddin Ahmed; Professor Shawkat Hussain; Professor Kabir Chowdhury; fellow readers: Assalamu Aleikum, and good evening.  I am delighted to be here at the launching of American Voices a two volume reader of American Literature.

First let me congratulate Dr. Zaman for compiling this collection.  It is no small feat to put together an anthology like this one.  I’ve heard that negotiating the copyright permissions was one of the most time consuming tasks in putting together this anthology – but that’s an important task.  If we are teaching students to respect the rule of law – it sends the wrong message to then use pirated copies of textbooks.  Some professors may use the argument that textbooks aren’t available here, but this book takes that argument away.

I hope that the availability of this volume will encourage the teaching of American literature at universities around Bangladesh.  I know that there are historical ties between Great Britain and Bangladesh which have influenced the curriculum at universities here.  I hope the British High Commissioner does not hear this but the United States is also a former colony and we also teach important works of British literature, but English language literature includes a much broader range of work than just those written by British authors and American literature is an important section of English literature. 

It may at times be said that the United States is a new country with a short history, but this collection traces American literature back several centuries, long before the founding of the United States.  As Zaman points out in the introduction, the earliest writing samples included in this anthology were written by visitors or immigrants to the “new world” – at first from Europe, but already by the eighteenth century, Phillis Wheatley was the first African-American author to be published in America – and this collection includes a sample of her writing.  The final section of the second volume is titled “A Multicultural America” and includes pieces by authors born in Latin America and Asia, such as Bharati Mukherjee – in addition to those with roots in Europe or Africa, but America has always been multicultural – as even the earliest writings in this anthology show.

We Americans are blessed with an incredibly rich literature, which can make it very challenging to define the “cannon” – the core works.  Any collection will need to be subjective and will reflect the interests and perspective of the editor.  This is a collection that includes both poetry and drama, as well as prose.  In putting together this collection,  Dr. Zaman has adopted a unique perspective that no American editor would have taken.  She has included The Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech from the 1963 March on Washington, and other works that, as an American, I might not consider literature, but they are deeply ingrained in the American psyche and most Americans can recite portions of all by heart.  Whether or not they were written as “literature” – these works are vital American voices from the last three centuries that are still echoed in our words today.   

Thank you.

Note:  A Bangla translation of this article is also available from the American Center.  If you are interested in the translation, please call the American Center Press Section (Tel: 88371500-4, Fax: 9881677; e-mail: DhakaPA@state.gov; Website: dhaka.usembassy.gov