A Work of Critical Fiction

            *Trigger Warning: The short story linked in this post contains references of physical violence, rape, and torture.

Throughout her chapter entitled Narratives of Struggle, Bell Hooks explains the meaning and importance of critical fiction. From what I understand, critical fictions are unconventional, fictional works that entice the reader to use their imagination while they also demand that the reader empathize with and think critically about the experiences of an oppressed people. These works tend to challenge ways of writing and ideas that are consistent with the dominant (white, hetero, male, middle class, etc.) society.

            One literary work that I believe fits into the category of critical fiction is “Krik? Krak!”, a collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors, Edwidge Danticat. It has been nearly a year since I’ve read this work and I have no time to reread it at the moment, so I will focus on one particular story in this book that I think does a good job of covering a lot of the main themes and of representing critical fiction. This short story is entitled, Epilogue: Women Like Us.

            “Krik? Krak!” is a collection of stories about the lives of different Haitians. The short story, Woman Like Us, is a narrative in second-person point-of-view that talks about a woman’s experiences of growing up and the expectations placed upon her. It talks a lot about how she was expected to be able to cook, clean and braid her hair well. She was expected not to speak, embrace her sexuality, or write. The end of the story demonstrates her resistance to these expectations when it says that she wrote down and memorized her female ancestors’ names, so they would continue to live on. This short story is broadly about gender norms and the expectations that women can only do certain things and act a certain way, specifically looking at Haitian culture.

            I believe that Women Like Us. is a strong example of critical fiction. It is a vibrant fictional story that is written in a way that allows readers to use their imagination to create a picture of what Danticat is explaining. This short story encourages readers to think critically about society’s expectations of women. Danticat challenges the dominant culture by writing about a strong female character – who comes from a long line of strong women – who resists the expectations placed on her. It encourages readers to build empathy for women. At one point in Bell Hooks’ chapter, she mentions that “… revolutionary critical fictions prophetically construct and name the transformed future” (page 60), which Danticat does at the end of this short story when she shows the main character’s mother telling her to write down and memorize the names of the strong women who have come before her; as readers, we can assume that the main character will continue this tradition in the future if she ever has children.

            I would love to use this short story in my own classroom for several reasons. First, it is by one of my favorite authors and I love it. More importantly, though, it would prompt students to build empathy, make connections across different works and cultures, and learn by example how to resist the dominant culture and society. This would also be a convenient text to use because it is quite short and fairly accessible, yet well written. I would use this piece to facilitate conversations about gender (obviously), but also about the intersectionality between the main character’s gender identity and racial and ethnical identities. This work would fit well under units on fiction, short stories, or imagery. I’m sure there are plenty of other units I could fit this piece into, but those are just a few ideas.

            As I think about using critical fiction texts in my classroom, I am becoming excited. This graduate program has encouraged us to think about how to diversify the texts we use in our classrooms, but I have found it difficult to think about texts that broaden students views outside of the views found in texts by old white men without choosing texts just because they are written by people outside of the dominant culture. I feel as if this chapter by Bell Hooks, as well as a couple of other texts, has given me a new way to think about how to choose texts. Specifically, I now will be more focused on choosing texts that purposely resist the dominant culture.

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