"Arts of the Contact Zone" by Mary Louise Pratt, states the art of conversation and communication between varying cultures depends on understanding. They have to be sympathetic to their dominance

In conclusion, Sherrill’s writing of his experience in the Civil War is proven to be from the “contact zone.” He uses many of Pratt’s claims that she designated has to be in a writing from the “contact zone.” This writing is autoethnographic and transcultural, it has the main merits that make up a writing in the “contact zone.” Also, his writing uses imaginary dialogue and vernacular expression to show the reader what really happened to him at the time of the writing. He shows the reader what it is actually like living during the war and being a participant. His words with live on forever: they speak of his experience and come form his heart. To live and experience what Sherrill has is hard enough, but living in his shoes and thinking about what happened to him everyday makes it even harder. Sherrill knows that he can’t keep quiet, because he lives it: “Some people say it is time to stop talking about that war. Now, that would be a hard thing for those who lived in those days to do: stop talking about the war” (3).

over one another and the perspective that one sees the other from its own. In the text, Pratt describes Guaman Poma's New Chronicle written in 1612. The New Chronicle sat and gathered dust in a library for over 300 years, so nobody knew or cared about Poma or his people. Pratt began to use the term "contact zones" to refer to "the space of colonial encounters," as when Columbus landed in America. Within the writing, Pratt defines "contact zones" as "social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today” (607). She leads us to understand that each culture, and its literary expression, needs to be understood within the context of the “contact zone.” It is also important to realize that, due to the "highly asymmetrical relations" (one culture being much stronger than the other), the dominant culture's perspectives, values, rules, and ways of expression seem normal and natural (607). Realizing the definition of a “contact zone”, you now have to know what the historical document is about.

Continuing to strengthen his “contact zone” writing, Sherrill embarks to use many vernacular expressions. This is the language and dialect that is native to the time and culture of the Civil War. He uses terms and words that express his situation that we never would use. First of all, we never will experience what he experienced because our nation will not go into another Civil War. Second, he uses war terms and states war situations that would not be said today. Lastly, the way he organizes and states what he is saying is also different, yet comprehensive, to how we would speak and write today. For example, he writes, “There can be but little doubt that his execution was a ‘sop’ to the passions of the ‘many headed’” (5). This example sh

Some topics in this essay:
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